Staff
Megan
Executive Director
Megan Wilson has been working with preschool children for over 15 years and has been at Tree House Hollow since 2007. She has a California Early Childhood Education Program Director Permit and has attained more than 30 units in Early Childhood Education. She holds a BA degree in Environmental Studies with a focus in Outdoor Leadership, and a minor in Early Childhood Education from Sonoma State University. She was also a certified wilderness first responder for six years. Megan has a large theatre and gardening background and deep interests in education, the environment, sustainability, and helping young people become good stewards of our planet. One of her greatest joys is helping children learn to identify plant and animal species and marvel at them. She co-created and led our Adventure Day Program at Creekside- bringing students off campus to climb, wade, and immerse in nature. She left her Creekside Director position at the end of the school year in 2017 to have her son, and returned in November 2017 to take over the Executive Director position- overseeing both campuses. She has since also welcomed a daughter into her family in May 2019. Megan is passionate about Tree House Hollow and early learning, and continues to guide the vision for our school.
Clare
Creekside Program Director
Clare Burns grew up on a small farm in Africa where she spent an idyllic childhood climbing trees, digging in the dirt, and helping her grandmother collect eggs. She moved to San Francisco when she was in her early twenties and opened a small family childcare. Her teaching journey began when she enrolled her oldest son in a parent co-op preschool. She moved to Petaluma when her second son was born and found another parent co-op where she taught for 4 years, eventually becoming the site supervisor. Clare has also taught at Mark West Community Preschool where she learned in depth about the Reggio Emelia Approach and nature-based education. Most recently she was a multi-site supervisor for Community Action Marin- Head Start. Clare considers herself a lifelong learner; she holds a Site Supervisor permit form the CA Department of Education and has nearly 50 Early Childhood Education units. She has been working in the field of ECE for over 25 years and is committed to building inclusive learning environments that welcome diverse perspectives and promote respect for all. She is passionate about creating wonder-filled classroom spaces that foster creative exploration and provide opportunities for children to experiment, theorize and form relationships. She loves that each child brings their own passions and ideas, resulting in an ever-evolving curriculum.
Satyra
Redwood Program Site Supervisor
Satyra Gentry has been working with young children in preschools for five years. She attended Santa Rosa Junior College where she received her Teachers Certificate and specialized in care for children under three. A passion for alternative education and holistic care for children led her to many styles of school. Satyra feels that Tree House Hollow represents her personal values and passions for nature, art and community. Outside of school she spends most of her time outdoors- hiking and backpacking. She is a California Pomo and works to connect deeply with her ancestral land in Sonoma County, and carry on and teach traditional Pomo skills and values. Her favorite part of teaching is guiding children to become connected with the world around them, and she hopes to nurture a new generation of nature stewards.
Maricela
Creekside Bilingual Teacher
Maricela Rodriguez was born in Michoacán Mexico. She came to the United States with her family (her four children and her husband) 12 years ago. She has an Associate Teachers Certificate from Santa Rosa Junior College and has more than 7 years of experience working with elementary school aged children in her country. She has worked at Tree House Hollow since 2009. Her four children have attended Twin Hills School District and her youngest daughter luckily also had the opportunity to attend Tree House Hollow Preschool. Maricela loves to share her heritage through teaching curriculum that is both bilingual and bicultural and teach Spanish to the children in their daily interaction. She exudes warmth and humor and believes a curriculum is the most meaningful when it arises from the true interests of the children. She loves cooking with the children, writing story plays, practicing positive discipline techniques, and playing cooperative games that reinforce children’s self-esteem, teamwork, and self-managing skills.
Maya
Creekside and Adventure Program Teacher
Maya Thompson has been studying early childhood development since high school, and is currently working on her Master's Degree at Sonoma State University- focusing on the many benefits of children's play. Her passions include children's inquiry-based learning (asking questions fosters creativity), helping children develop their individual self-care skills, and the educational power of play in the classroom. While Maya has observed and volunteered all over the west coast and taught at summer camps for young children, this is the start of her work in a preschool classroom, and she looks forward to helping the children blossom and grow in Tree House Hollow's little outdoor sanctuary. When she's not studying or teaching, her free time is spent cartooning, singing in the SSU choir, and spending time with her fiancée and her cat.
Lisa
Redwood Bilingual Teacher
Lisa Rose has been working with children for most of her life. As a child, she planned a career as a children’s librarian. As a teenager, she was a nanny in Switzerland. Her love of literature led to a BA from a Great Books program. As a young person, she held preschool positions at two NAEYC-accredited schools in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Right now she’s finishing her child care certificate at SRJC, after a long career in massage therapy. Lisa is especially enthusiastic about arts and crafts projects, puppets, and anything that kids are excited to build. She is passionate about inclusive curriculum, and enjoys speaking English and Spanish with her groups. She’s always been involved in cooperative, community-based education. She has studied Montessori concepts in depth, and assisted in a home-based Montessori preschool. Recently she lived at a biodynamic farm, where kids from Bay Area Waldorf schools came for farm days. You will find her hanging out with young beings outside whenever possible!
Ruth
Admin Support
Ruth Wilson helps Megan with a variety of support tasks, from the mundane to the magical. She is also mother to Megan and grandmother to Reid and Serena Bee, which is the most fun ever! She has worked as a part of the catalog production and toy invention team at HearthSong, as a floral designer, technical and creative writer, and office manager. She loves to garden, sew, and bake cakes. Ruth enjoys her occasional visits to the campuses where she sees so many smiling faces.
Franny
Founder, Former Director, Volunteer and Substitute Teacher
At the young age of 19 Franny began teaching preschool at the request of her child development teacher and discovered it as her life's work. After receiving her BA and Teaching Credential, with an emphasis in Early Childhood Education from Sonoma State University, Tree House Hollow opened in 1981 as a large family child care home in Sebastopol. Franny continued her education and taught child development classes at Santa Rosa Junior College, Merritt and Alameda Colleges in the East Bay before moving the program to the Apple Blossom Campus in 2007. Franny believes creating a community of families is an important aspect of your preschool experience. Since retiring 6 years ago she volunteers once a week when not traveling and enjoys gardening, cooking and singing with the children. Franny teaches Positive Discipline Parenting Classes and continues to have family meetings with her 38 and 32 year old daughters, Maggie and Zoe, their partners, Jamie and Dylan and her husband Glenn.
Louie
Substitute Teacher
Louie Ferrera is a recently retired 20 year veteran of the elementary school classroom. Thirteen of those years were spent teaching first and second grades at Apple Blossom School. Louie and his wife Carol are the proud parents of twins who were students at Tree House Hollow ten years ago! Their family helped move THH from Franny’s house onto the Apple Blossom campus, so, for Louie, it is particularly exciting to be back. One of Louie’s great passions is music. He is an accomplished guitarist and songwriter and has released two cds of original songs. Of course he loves sharing the gift of music with children. Singing had always been an important part of the day during his tenure in the classroom. Look for Louie with a guitar slung over his shoulder heading towards school!
Reni
Substitute Teacher
Reni de la Fuente is a Sebastopol native and has worked with children of all ages. She most recently was a teacher at our Redwood Campus in 2019, before going back to school full time at SSU to pursue a BA in Child Development and obtain her teaching credential. Reni has studied Early Childhood Development since 2014 at the SRJC, where she has acquired her 31 Child Development units and Associate Degree. Reni is half Peruvian, is semi-bilingual and is excited to incorporate Spanish into her lesson plans at Tree House Hollow. Reni is very family oriented, and her close ties to her family, both here and in Peru, are a very important part of her life. Starting from a young age, she has always known that her strong love of children would lead her into a career where she could work with them in some way. In her free-time, she enjoys being one with nature, gardening, hiking, swimming, kayaking, and taking walks on the beach. She also enjoys cooking and experimenting with new foods, getting messy outside, making art, and spending time with her dog, Rosie.
