BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES ON SOME OF OUR INSTRUCTORS
Namita Aghi has a degree in Indian Classical Dance and has won National awards in India for her dancing. Namita gave her first solo dance performance when she was four years old on a district level and started teaching in her own school when she was a student. Namita moved to the United States and has been teaching dance workshops since 2003. Her dance groups have performed throughout Massachusetts. She enjoys working both with children and adults, teaching them basic and advanced levels of Bollywood dancing.
Katie Alexander has 25 years of experience with many forms of dance, specializing in tap and ballroom. In 2009, she formed KSA Dance, through which she has taught group and private lessons to local adults and teens for the last three years. Katie has also assisted in teaching swing and Latin dance lessons at locations around the Boston area including Boston Center for Adult Education, Arlington Community Education, Harvard Medical School and MIT. When not teaching, she can frequently be seen dancing with various community theater groups across eastern Massachusetts.
Bernadette Baird holds a Music degree from Southeastern MA University (now UMASS Dartmouth). She studied Voice under the late Jacqueline Cobert and has sung in various choirs throughout her life. Shortly after her daughter was born in 2002, she attended Kindermusik classes in Chelmsford, as well as joining the Chelmsford Mothers’ Club and the Chelmsford Community Playroom. She was inspired by Maureen Foley’s musical story times at the Chelmsford Library, and credits her success to Chelmsford’s wonderful community of families. Her dream of a musical career was fulfilled with the start of Bright Day Music, and Bernadette now teaches Kindermusik to more than 100 students in the Greater Chelmsford area. Bernadette’s love of music and children is present in all of her classes and musical programs, and she is happiest when she is dancing and singing with all of her friends, young and old. Bernadette enjoys world music, cooking, yoga, and long walks in the great outdoors with her family.
Maureen J. Baker has been painting for over 17 years. She has studied with national and international artists. Learning many different styles and techniques has influenced her work and helped her to create a relaxed style of realism. Maureen paints mostly in acrylics and oils, occasionally in watercolors. Her work has been recognized for awards in professional categories both locally and regionally. She teaches in her studio and local venues in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and seminars throughout New England. Maureen teaches regularly at a regional convention in Rhode Island. In 2008 she taught at a national convention in Ohio.
Alma Bella Solis was the artist, shop designer, and calligrapher during her time at the New England Quilt Museum. She founded the Art Gallery of Kingwood in north of Houston, Texas in 2003, a fine arts gallery showcasing the works of thirty-one national artists for CA, FL, MA, MI, NM, SD, TX. It was also an art school for children and adults with six art instructors including herself. The gallery fine arts pieces were featured for three weeks upon request by UPN/Fox 26 News. She produces her art pieces in realism in all medium except lacking mastery in watercolor. She absolutely admires and learned from the great master artists of our time: Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, and Rembrandt.
Kay Benaroch started to get interested in cooking while watching PBS and Julia Child in the late 1960s. She experimented with multiple types of cooking on her own before enrolling in recreational and then professional classes at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts in Cambridge, MA. After graduating from the Cambridge School she worked briefly as a prep cook where she created original dessert recipes for a bistro in Acton, MA. and for a culinary PR firm where she practiced translating recipes from restaurant cooks into versions suitable for the home cook. Her cooking experience includes both baking and savory dishes from multiple cultures including French, Italian, Greek, Indian and Thai. By constantly experimenting with new dishes, spices and techniques she is continuing to fuel her passion for finding and sharing new flavors with other people.
Adrien Bisson learned to develop black and white film and prints while in high school and began going on news assignments for the local papers before he really knew what he was doing. Then came Berklee College of Music, where his artistic natures turned to arranging and playing the trumpet, eventually earning a degree in trumpet performance. After a long career as a software engineer, he has resumed pursuing his love for art and creating images. Today, he works as a freelance portrait and editorial photographer in the Greater Boston area and works out of his studio at Western Avenue Studios in Lowell.
Joseph M. Carreiro, Jr. is a 1992 graduate of the University of Massachusetts Boston, and obtained his law degree (J.D.) from Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire in 1996. In the past he has maintained a solo law practice and has been an associate in other law practices. Joe left the practice of law in 2008 to pursue new opportunities, including forming his consulting company, Nakata Consulting, which provides professional planning and consulting, and advocacy services. In forming Nakata Consulting, his mission was to serve, by offering solutions, through implementing strategies to help seniors, families and small business people problem-solve.
Dr. Gerard Cassista is a practicing chiropractor and has been in practice for over 25 years. He is a former instructor of radiation physics at Palmer College. Dr. Cassista runs a leading-edge chiropractic office, which takes spinal reconstruction to new levels. He is a keynote speaker throughout the country on a number of health related topics.
Janet Cullinane, a resident of Chelmsford for over 25 years, has a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Mathematics from UMass/Boston and a Certificate in Nutrition from UMass/Lowell. She has devoted many volunteer hours in the Chelmsford School System particularly at the elementary level. She has chaperoned for the Chelmsford Community Education’s Ski Program since 1995, has taught the Home Alone class since 1996, and has coached for the Chelmsford Girls’ Softball League since 1990 – the last 15 years coaching high school level girls.
James Czerlonka is a graduate of Bentley School of Accounting and Finance (now Bentley College) and has earned an Associate of Science degree in Information Systems from the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. He has held several administrative and management positions including more than a dozen years as co-owner of a printing business formerly located in Lowell. He was also registered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a practicing public accountant. Mr. Czerlonka designed and has taught the Bookkeeping for the Small Business course at Chelmsford Community Education since 1984. Beginning in the fall 2005, he also teaches an additional course entitled QuickBooks – Computer Accounting for the Small Business, a hands-on course using the very popular QuickBooks computer software.
Barbara Danowski was born in Poland and spent eight years in Vienna, Austria attending middle school and high school. Barbara has taken several literature classes at Queens College in New York. She has an associate’s degree in teaching pre-kindergarten. Barbara has experience tutoring college students for their German classes and also tutored private lessons at the German Institute in New York City. She came to the United States at nineteen years of age.
Regine Detremmerie-Carr is a native of Belgium, She is an experienced registered yoga teacher 500, and a registered prenatal yoga teacher, teaching for over two decades in Europe and the United States. She is a certified energy (Pranic) healer, studied with Grand Master Choa Kok Sui. Her love for movement is life-long. The yoga she facilitates has the potential to discover patterns, challenges, and energy blockages on the musculoskeletal, physiological, emotional, and mental levels, and move the energy, awakening new ways of being. During her recovery from breast cancer, she discovered the healing power of Dru yoga, went on to complete the four-year teacher training for this in Wales, and became a certified Dru yoga teacher. Regine is the founder of Great Brook Yoga, and can be reached at 978-256-8169.
Patrick Flaherty was born in Montreal to Irish-speaking parents and raised in Boston. He is a member and a Director of Cumman na Gaeilge in Boston, the Irish Language Society of Boston, and teaches basic Irish Gaelic classes in the Greater Boston area. His family roots are in the West of Ireland and he is a frequent visitor there. He is a graduate of Lowell Technological Institute and maintains an engineering office in Chelmsford.
Joseph Frantiska has been an American Heart Association certified CPR instructor for over eight years. He has also been a Massachusetts certified emergency medical technician for over twenty years. He holds a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Beverly A. Giarrusso has a dancing background and is a trained exercise coach. Her focus is to help students achieve fitness through exercise and dance.
Linda Hair-Sullivan has devoted her career to teaching, counseling and facilitating personal growth. Her positions include working as an educator and counselor in a public school setting for 35 years; employment as a Licensed Certified Social Worker at New England Memorial Hospital, Stoneham, MA; serving as a Kripalu Yoga instructor for 16 years and practicing as a Certified Hypnotherapist, trained through Winchester Hospital, Winchester, MA. Linda’s greatest pleasure is helping her students/clients become aware of and make connections in the mind/body realm. She strives to elicit the “a-ha” moment in learning that signals a breakthrough in personal awareness and lays the groundwork for future growth.
Dale Koethe is from Durham, North Carolina and has a BS in Zoology from UNC and a MS in Entomology from NCSU. Since the birth of her first child, she has been involved with various needlecrafts, including quilting, cross-stitch, smocking and knitting. She currently sells hand-smocked doll dresses.
Gopika Luthra is a self-taught artist with a passion for real flowers and leaves. All her creations are an effort to preserve their beauty. For the last 10+ years Gopika has been creating paintings and other things using pressed real flowers, acrylics, water colors and other mixed media items that can include anything right threads, foil to pistachio shells. All of her creations are touched by Mother Nature in a special way. Gopika is a board member of the Chelmsford Art Society. A few of her achievements include: second prize in “Lowell Art Walk 2007,” first prize award in mixed media in the Fourth of July art show 2007, and an honorable mention award in mixed media category in the Fourth of July art show 2008.
Marie Marchand has been teaching yoga for more than six years with the intention of creating space for students to dive deep, unfold, awaken, heal and blossom. She is a certified professional level Kripalu Yoga teacher, and also holds certifications in Chakra Yoga and Pre-Natal Yoga. She has studied with Barbara Benegh, Patricia Walden and Gary Krafstow. She is a member of the Massachusetts Yoga Network and the Kripalu Yoga Teachers Association. Marie brings gentleness and warmth to her classes, filling them with soul-stirring music and poetry, yoga philosophy and meditation.
Chris Massood is a third-degree Black Belt in Kenpo Ju Jitsu. He has been training in the martial arts for over 20 years. He has had the privilege of teaching thousands of students of all ages. Mr. Massood has been very fortunate to train with world class martial artists and he continues to train and improve along with his students.
Lesley Mathews has studied the martial arts for over twelve years and teaches both Tai Chi and Kempo Karate. She holds the rank of “Sandan” 3rd degree black belt in Hawaiian Shaolin Kempo Karate.
Gwen Meins has been a chess club instructor for over 20 years, and has worked with players ages 5 to 18. While teaching in Andover, the chess team she advised won the Massachusetts Junior High State Championship twice. Gwen is a former United States Amateur Women’s Chess Champion. She has a B.A. in Child Development and a M.Ed. in Special Education.
Kim Meninger Is a certified career coach and founder of Great Heights Coaching. Prior to coaching, Kim worked for two years in alliance management at Monster Worldwide and nine years in partner management at EMC Corporation. She holds a BA in Psychology and an MBA from Boston College.
Jenny Lynn Metevia, M.Ed. is a Spiritual Teacher, Clairvoyant Medium, and Past Life Regression Specialist. Born with the second sight, Jenny has been a professional Spiritual Teacher for many years and has assisted hundreds of clients across the U.S., in Europe and South America. She trained intensively with Dr. Brian Weiss, author of Many Lives, Many Masters in past life regression therapy. Jenny attended private seminaries with renowned psychic, Sylvia Browne on psychic development, healing and past lives and received hypnosis training with Sylvia Browne’s Society of Novus Spiritus. Holding a Master’s degree in Education, Jenny continues her mission to help others, through teaching, healing and providing private consultations, and connecting people with lost loved ones. Jenny also is a regular guest on WBZ News Radio’s Jordan Rich Show. You are invited to call 774-276-0442 for further information.
Robert Moll, a graduate of UCLA and the Art Center School of Los Angeles, is a professional photographer – now retired – who worked more than 25 years in New York in advertising and catalog photography, and some 15 years in Concord, Massachusetts in photography for direct mail and general advertising. He has been teaching at Chelmsford Community Education for more than 12 years, and he is a member of the faculty at DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Garden in Lincoln, where he teaches a master class in Creative Photography. He is currently at work on a photographic chronicle of historic Monhegan Island, Maine.
Charles Morris is the incoming Commander of the Merrimac Sail and Power Squadron of the United States Power Squadrons. He is ranked as an Advanced Pilot and has taught basic boating courses for the last three years. Charles is an avid boater experienced with both power and sail boats on both inland (Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire) and ocean (Casco Bay, Maine) waters.
Kathryn Nordhougen: Katy's been dancing for over 35 years, and teaches ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, and modern dance to children and adults. She performed with Donna Miceli's Youth Dance Company throughout her teens, and graduated from Roger Williams University with a Bachelor's degree in English, with minors in dance and philosophy. Currently certified by AFAA and Zumba Corporation, Katy teaches Zumba, Group Exercise and Pilates classes at gyms, schools, senior centers, and dance studios in the area.
Robin Pawlowski has been practicing yoga for six years, teaching for three. She is a registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance and is certified in Prenatal Yoga. She is working towards Senior Yoga certification. She has also studied with Cora Wen. Her intention is to create a class of gentle yoga and complete relaxation through movement and breath.
Annette S. Presseau holds a Computer Science Degree at Dean College in Franklin, MA and has a passion for teaching computer classes. She has been working in the computer field for over 20 years; the last position was as an information technology manager. But for the past few years she has been teaching computers at the Billerica Senior Center which she enjoys immensely. She has extensive knowledge of computers and her focus is to help people to know how to use computers. Annette enjoys educating her students and helping them to not be afraid of computers. Annette is involved with the Billerica Garden Club as treasurer, The Friends of the Council on Aging in Billerica as recording secretary and also helps to coordinate the Billerica Health & Wellness Fair. She currently has her own computer consulting business. When she is not working on her business she loves gardening, crafts like xstitch, sewing, knitting and oil painting and taking care of her mother who is 98.
Therese Quinn has been sewing for the past 35 years, and has taught adult education for the past 16 years. She is experienced in making girl officer, crossing guard, and cheerleading uniforms. Also she has experience in making and altering bridal gowns and wedding party dresses. Along with those, she makes custom drapes, English smocked dresses, and children’s clothing from christening dresses up to prom dresses.
Kathy Randlett has studied the human energy system for over 7 years. She is a Reiki practitioner, integrated energy master instructor, and Level 2 EFT Practitioner. She created a class for teens to help them overcome being overwhelmed and assist them to find their passion in life and pursue that passion. Currently, she owns her own coaching business that helps individuals and businesses overcome long held limiting beliefs that are stopping them from achieving their goals.
Katrina Rotondi has been dancing for several years with experience in jazz, tap, ballet, modern, hip hop, lyrical, and line dancing. She graduated in 2001 from Franklin Pierce College with a bachelor’s degree in theater arts (concentration in dance) and also with a business minor. After graduating college she is now teaching dance full time at Karrie Stang’s Gotta Dance Studio and also at senior centers, preschools, after school, and town recreational programs. Katrina also dances in a dance company which recently performed for the Boston Celtics and the Concord Players.
Renee W. Senes is a financial consultant with Investors Capital Corporation and an independent investment advisor representative affiliated with Investors Capital Corporation Advisory. For several years, Renee has provided fee-based investment and asset management, insurance, financial consulting, college and retirement planning for individuals and small businesses from her home office in Harvard. A focal aspect of her practice is working with people in all stages of the divorce process to ensure that they have sufficient income and assets to sustain and support them throughout their lives. A former teacher, Renee enjoys educating her clients and encouraging them, especially women, to be active participants in their financial futures.
Norman Shaw grew up in Chelmsford Massachusetts, and has had a life long interest in the spiritual matters and is a Reiki Master, a Karuna Reiki Master and a Shamballa Master. He has attuned numerous practitioners and enjoys helping people on the spiritual path.
Christina Silk is a Chelmsford artist with a passion for cake decorating. Chris was educated in an evening class for cake decorating years ago and more recently received four certificates of completion for Wilton Method Cake Decorating. She has a goal - to help others become as passionate about this form of art as she is and to ensure that her students have a great time on their night out!
Liz Stewart is a jewelry designer, instructor, and owner of Lush Beads in Lowell, Massachusetts. She has been a beader since 2000, when her friend got her addicted to the craft of jewelry-making. After a tech industry layoff in 2002, she ventured into the beading world full-time and hasn’t looked back. She shares her love of beads and beading by teaching it to others.
Marcia Sullivan, a Certified Financial Planner™ Licensee, has been working in the financial planning industry since 1993. She began her career as a retirement planning specialist working for the Horizon Group. She joined College Funding Advisors in 1998 after using their services to make a college education for her two children affordable. She has been happily presenting seminars and helping families navigate the financial aid system ever since. Marcia is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music with a degree in classical guitar. (And yes, she does still find time to play.) She completed her studies with the College for Financial Planning in September of 1998 and received her Certified Financial Planner™ designation the same year. She is also a member of the Financial Planning Association. When not meeting with clients or presenting seminars, Marcia can be found hiking with her dogs, riding her horse, or making decadently delicious chocolates for friends and family.
Steve Sullivan has been a computer programmer since 1974. Over the years, he has worked on payroll, budget, general ledger, inventory replenishment, file transfer monitoring, and on-line survey applications for Wang Laboratories, Powersoft, and Sybase. He currently programs desktop and web-based loss prevention systems for DataVantage in Westboro. As a programmer, he spends most of his time turning out well formatted code. However, after the code has been written, the documentation needs to be written. That’s where the word processing comes in. He has been using a word processor for about twenty years and first started using Microsoft Word with version 1.0. Steve has been teaching Microsoft Word for Windows at Chelmsford Community Education since 2002.
Jennifer Sweet has been teaching for the past twelve years at the secondary level. This will be her fourth year with us teaching SAT Verbal Preparation. She has earned a bachelor’s in English and a master’s in Education. When she is not teaching, she enjoys being home with her three children.
Rosalyn Tavanis obtained her degree in Interior Design from Newbury College, Boston, Massachusetts. Since then, she’s been busy running her business, Inspired Interiors, from her studio in Chelmsford. Rosalyn specializes in room re-dos, staging homes for sale, and complete re-designs.
Susan Tordella, M.A., is a workshop leader, coach and author who has studied and practiced Adlerian psychology for more than 20 years. Susan credits living with four teenagers for 13 years as the best teacher of how to manage people, emotions and events. A former journalist and director of a private non-profit, Susan received multiple awards for excellence in both fields. Susan has taught scores of people the Adlerian approach to manage families, business and life. Susan is the author of Raising Able: How Chores Cultivate Capable Young People.
Joan Turner has been teaching calligraphy, drawing, and other art-related courses for over 20 years. She is the owner of Joan’s Art Gallery in Bradford, Massachusetts. Joan attended Middlesex Community College and the University of Lowell.
Linda Walsh has been scrapbooking for 20 years now and has now incorporated stamping into her projects for over three years. Most projects emphasize the use of stamps and punches with unique techniques for creating cards, scrapbook pages, and gift-giving items. Linda is constantly researching new stamping techniques which keeps her classes fresh and fun for all levels of stampers. She also has become a supervisor through the Stampin’ Up! family in which she mentors other aspiring crafters.
John Wren is a technology specialist at the Graduate School of Education (University of Massachusetts – Lowell), where he instructs preservice teachers, faculty and K-12 teachers on the uses of new technology in education environments. Prior to that, he worked for nearly 20 years in the commercial imaging division of Eastman Kodak. Photography has been a lifelong interest, and John went digital nearly a decade ago. He also operates a photography studio in Lowell, and is a member of The National Association of Photoshop Professionals and The International VR Photography Association.