Board of Directors
East Bay Montessori is a non-profit entity, tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. In keeping with that status and with the best practices recognized by the National Association of Independent Schools and the California Association of Independent Schools, it is governed by a Board of Directors who volunteer their time to the school. Board members are the parents of current students, parents of alumni, and professionals in the community who are dedicated to Montessori education.
The Board of Directors has three principal duties: (1) it selects, evaluates, and supports the Head of School, to whom it delegates authority to manage the school; (2) it develops broad institutional policies that guide the Head in running the school; and (3) it is accountable for the financial well-being of the school.
The Board of Directors acts only as a whole; its individual members have no authority to act unless they have been authorized to do so by the Board as a whole. The day-to-day operations of the school are the responsibility of the Head of School; as such, the Board does not respond to questions about such matters nor can it respond to anonymous communications.
The 2024 - 2025 Board of Directors
Anne Marie Richard
Chair
Anne Marie is a lifelong learner and educator who brings a creative spirit and constructive approach to her work and community service, and a deep commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. She completed her doctorate in Education at UC Berkeley, and her professional background includes 25+ years of experience in leadership and management, program design, research, teaching, and advocacy for underrepresented communities in a range of settings including higher education, public agencies, and non-profit organizations. Anne Marie’s initial connection to MFS was fleeting - her son attended MFS for the two middle school years - but its lasting impact on her son’s confidence and abilities was such that when the opportunity arose to serve on the board, she was delighted to join. When not working, Anne Marie usually can be found hiking a trail, riding her bicycle, enjoying family and friends, or curled up on the couch with a good book.
Gabriel Marshank
Treasurer
Gabriel Marshank joined the board of East Bay Montessori a full 40 years after he entered the school’s inaugural class as a student – and son of the founder, Jane Wechsler. A lifelong Montessorian, he considers the intellectual curiosity sparked at the school to have been the formative experience in his life. It led him to study at Yale University, and then pursue a career in investment research first in New York City and then in London. His three daughters were born in the UK and transitioned seamlessly from their Montessori school there back to EBM in 2018. One can still be found roaming around the Upper Elementary classroom.
Alexandra Accornero
Secretary
Alexandra is a Bay Area native and parent of two EBM Lower Elementary students. Professionally, Alexandra has been implementing Enterprise software for 20 years; she currently works for a Bay Area software company where she leads large-scale implementations at Fortune 500 companies.
Alexandra is originally from Oakland where she started out as a young Montessorian. She attended Bay Area schools through high school at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, and then moved to the East Coast for her college years at Johns Hopkins, where she earned her Computer Science degree. After living in a few more U.S. cities, Alexandra was ready to return to the Bay Area, which is truly home, where she met her husband Justin, who is also native to the Bay Area.
Alexandra is passionate about Montessori education. She set up Montessori in the home for Otis and Penelope starting in the infant years, then enrolled them in a Montessori toddler program starting at 18 months old. She lives down the street from East Bay Montessori and started visiting the Open House events when the children were two; Alissa observed that she was “quite the planner”, which is true, but even more, Alexandra strongly believes that Montessori education is one of the best ways to help children develop confidence, independence, a sense of purpose, focus, help them find their passion and
ultimately contribute to peace.
Asha Weber
Member at Large
Asha is a dedicated educator and Bay Area native with over a decade of experience in teaching, program development, and school leadership in both public and independent schools. She attended Johnson C. Smith University, a historically black university, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Computer Science. Asha also holds a Master of Science in Educational Leadership and Technology from Cal State East Bay. In her current role as Community School Director in the West Contra Costa Unified School District, she leads a multidisciplinary team focused on strengthening school climate and culture. Asha is known for her ability to create engaging learning experiences in the classroom and support students with diverse needs. She is a proud parent of two students at the school—Lucas in Lower Elementary and Michael in Kindergarten. Outside of work, Asha enjoys gardening, playing the ukulele, and spending time with her family. She is also actively involved in church leadership as a deacon, where she focuses on community engagement.
Erik Housh
Member at Large
Erik Housh is a co-founder and Managing Partner of MRE Commercial Real Estate. Erik’s broad-based skill set spans all asset types, with great expertise in sales, leasing, development entitlements and property management, as well as asset and project Management.
Erik is a lifelong resident of the East Bay, where he and his wife raised their two children. His passions include coaching, backpacking, fishing, photography, writing, vegetable gardening and above all, being a dad and a newly minted grandad. Erik is a founding board member and director of Oakland Field of Dreams, the non-profit foundation that built and maintains Rickey Henderson Field, home field of the Oakland Tech Baseball Team. He served for 12 years as a board member of Noll/Soll (North Oakland South Oakland Little League) and has been the President of the Board of Directors for MRE Commercial Real Estate for the past 32 years.
In addition to his coaching activities at Oakland Tech High School, Erik spent significant time tutoring and mentoring young men, and he has coached youth baseball teams in Noll/Soll, American Legion and at Oakland Tech for the past 30 years.
Alissa Stolz
Head of School & Ex-Officio Board Member
Alissa is a multi-credentialed Montessori practitioner, teacher trainer, field consultant, Montessori Coach, and international knowledge presenter with a specialty in adolescent developmental frameworks and education. In a variety of capacities, teaching has been her lifelong work. Guiding learners both young and not-so-young towards self-discovery and autonomy and the belief that this work is essential to the fullest development of the human inspires her each day.
A Bay Area native who moved ‘back home’ in 2009 to launch the EBM middle school, she remembers from childhood where the Cheeseboard used to be. Down time might find her playing cards or board games somewhat raucously at home with friends and her family: a sweetheart of 30 years, two East Bay Montessori alums (Middle School, '13 and '15), and a collection of animals who have strayed in the back gate and decided to stay.
Dylan McCrystal
Site Director & Ex-Officio Board Member
Dylan's first visit to a Montessori classroom was in 2015, when he observed the KB and LE classrooms at EBM. The experience was transformative: witnessing the delight, curiosity, independence, and courtesy of these children, encouraged to discover and explore for themselves, inspired him to move to the Bay Area and begin working at EBM.
Dylan spent the next 5 years at EBM teaching in first the Lower Elementary and then the Upper Elementary classroom (with a short stint as a PE teacher in between), before leaving to help run a local independent bookshop, Spectator Books, in Oakland. Dylan is delighted beyond words to be back at EBM in a new role, as Site Director at the El Cerrito Campus.
Dylan believes that a Montessori education provides the opportunity and occasion for children to discover for themselves how they learn best, to solve conflicts with empathy and understanding, to desire purposeful work, to encounter obstacles with a positive and determined attitude, to create order in their spaces and peace in their groups, and to learn as much as they can about their world, to preserve what is good and improve what is not. For these reasons and more, Dylan is proud and grateful to work at EBM, whether in the classroom or in the office.