Karen has been teaching dance, gymnastics, theater arts and early childhood movement for over 40 years. She has been an award-winning Choreographer The Central Jersey Dance Company for the past 36 years and has dedicated her life to working with and bringing movement to children.

Karen worked at the Sundance School for 30 years and, while there, created the “mat room” physical education program and co-created their “stage” program. For the past eight summers, Karen has been working at the Sundance theater camp, another program that she co-created and directed to success.

Karen is very excited to be part of the TOA family! She is looking forward to a fun creative year and, among her inventive programs, will be directing and choreographing two shows in the winter and spring!

Maureen is very excited to be part of The Orchard Academy family. She encourages a love of art in young learners and provides a natural forum for expressing creativity in a cross-curricular fashion. Her educational philosophy and innate warmth make her a perfect fit for the TOA@MTS program.

Maureen has been enhancing the minds of young children for over thirty years. As a previous member of the Sundance School, there is nothing Maureen didn't do! In addition to being a classroom teacher and Science and Art Specialist, she worked on stage set design and hallway displays.

Infusing literature into the art curriculum and integrating Math and Science concepts into STEAM adventures for the children has been a great success that she has culminated over the years. Patient, kind and so much fun, Maureen sees the best in every child and encourages each individual to try new things to grow, explore, and experience. Maureen lives in Fanwood. She has one daughter Amie, who lives in Maine and runs a Yoga studio with her fiance and adorable granddog, Harry. Maureen loves the outdoors and exploring local parks and trails on the weekends. She is looking forward to bring her love of the outdoors into the classroom.

Kerri Lezinski is passionate about teaching and learning through the arts! After graduating New York University with a B.S. in Educational Theatre and a certification to teach theatre in the state of NY (K-12), she combined her performing arts training with her educational credentials to co-create a company called Dance.Laugh.Learn. The program brings music, movement and drama classes to early childhood centers, elementary schools, afterschool programs and summer camps across NY, NJ, SC and AK. Kerri is excited to bring the Dance.Laugh.Learn. YoBa curriculum to The Orchard Academy. YoBa uses music, narrative play, creative movement, and props to explore the world of yoga in a fun and age-appropriate way! In addition to studying educational theatre, Kerri also holds an A.A. in Early Childhood Education and her Prekindergarten Associate License. She is a graduate of the Teaching Artists Training Institute (TATI) at Marquis Studios and is certified to teach Kids Yoga through Aura Wellness Center. When she is not teaching, Kerri loves spending time with her husband Marc, their children Logan and Taylor, and dog Bailey. She loves being a TOA parent too!

Mr. Ray (Ray Andersen) has been writing and performing under this name since 1994, but that is only part of the story. In 1994, Ray was asked to come in and perform at a preschool. In no time, he became known as "Mr. Ray," holding an eye-catching, colorfully-stickered guitar. The kids (and Ray) were quickly hooked. Singing about friendship, dinosaurs and rainbows never sounded so cool before… He grew up in West Orange, New Jersey in the home that legendary songwriters Carole King and Gerry Goffin lived and where most of the "Tapestry" album was written. Ray's love of music was apparent at an early age when he was introduced to The Beatles. Eventually the bug of songwriting hit him hard. Along the way, he went on to the famed American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC, which further emboldened his love of the arts. Mr. Ray has been a fixture of the local NJ kids’ music scene for years and we’re so excited that our kids get to experience Mr. Ray’s love and passion for music here at TOA.

More about Peter coming soon!

After over eight years as a Classroom Educator, Math & Literacy Specialist, and Curriculum Coordinator at The Orchard Academy, Alison is looking forward to supporting our amazing teachers with inventiveness and experience. As the Assistant Director, Alison is motivated and energized to work closely with the staff as a resource to infuse creativity and uniqueness of lessons and to capitalize on teachable moments.

While focusing her field study on developmental psychology and working as a full-time assistant manager in retail sales, Alison graduated from Rutgers University in 2004 with a BA degree in Psychology.

Following graduation, she began working at The Sundance School for over 10 years as a preschool Group Leader where she maintained a strong parent/teacher partnership in order to develop and implement educational strategies tailored towards individual students’ needs. Creating a productive, hands-on, age-appropriate, play-based learning environment for young children and introducing them to a group environment is of Alison’s utmost significance, all while aiding in their comfort and safety as part of a community.

While still a student, she enjoyed working as a summer counselor for both Rutgers Boys Soccer Camp and Edison Township Recreational Soccer Camp. More recently, Alison succeeded as an assistant varsity and head junior varsity/freshman girls volleyball coach for the Edison Township Board of Education.

She loves to travel internationally and enjoy everything including the mountains, the lakes, and the shores of the northeast with friends and family. Alison resides in Metuchen with her husband of 15 years, Patrick, who has 25+ years as an AP English teacher and is a three-season varsity coach.

Sally has been an educator/childcare provider for over 30 years. She graduated from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL with a Bachelors in Education. She worked in the infant toddler room at Summit Childcare; taught first grade at Holy Cross School in Harrison, NJ; taught in a bilingual Title 1 preschool in New Brunswick; and then left the classroom when she had her first child. Sally went on to be an in-home child care provider, where she has cared for the children of a pediatrician for 8 years, a Camp Harmony Director, & a Monmouth University professor of Education.

During the summers, Sally worked at the sleep away camp in the Adirondacks that she attended as a child, as a camp counselor and then was promoted to Unit leader. It was there that she met her husband (of Camp Harmony fame) "Pete Pioneer." She is very excited to be a part of the amazing staff at The Orchard Academy at Mountain Top School.

Jen Wojie has been an early childhood educator for 16 years, in almost every capacity. She taught pre-K at a campus lab school after college. After moving back to CA (where she is from) she began a Master’s Degree program in early childhood education and worked with one of her professors to open a preschool in the East Bay, where she was the program director and taught 2-5 year olds over the next five years.

Jen and her husband moved to Warren after a short but exciting period overseas. She became the Executive Director of a state-funded program in Passaic, NJ, with 25 classrooms in four locations serving the pre-K population. She taught Preschool-3rd grade certification classes at Montclair State University for 2 years during this time. Later she served as a Regional Director for Catapult Learning, supervising, providing support and writing curriculum for preschool and wrap-around programs in several cities. When her second child was a toddler she took a break from work to focus on and enjoy her own children, who are now 8, 7 and 5 years old.

Time has flown by and she is so excited to be a part of a program as innovative and enriching as The Orchard Academy!