Our Dedicated Staff
Our Administrative Team
Amber Wilke
Director
Amber grew up in the mountains, so she liked to hike and play in the woods, climb trees, and swim in creeks. She started dance lessons at 3 (ballet was the favorite), and liked to swim at the pool every day of the summer. She played softball and volleyball and loved reading science fiction novels. Amber went on to become a teacher and went to graduate school at Hopkins here in Baltimore. After staying home with her two kids, Ava and Russell, and volunteering at FELP and in the community, she returned to teach our twos and threes at FELP! Now she loves to read, travel, and take pictures of her friends and family.
Jenny Barrett
consultant/mentor
Jenny Barrett was the director of First English Lutheran Pre and K from June of 2007. When she was little, she liked playing with her 5 siblings outside, trying to dress her dog, and lining up stuffed animals across the bed. She went on to receive a Bachelors and Masters in Early Childhood Special Education. She taught for 8 years in Howard County, as an early childhood special education teacher and team leader. After becoming a mother, she taught Kindergarten 3s and 2s at FELP. Both of her adult children attended FELP. She also teaches classes for teachers and parents for Mariposa Education with a focus on building emotional resilience.
Tacy Macgill-Biggs Office administrator
As a kid, Tacy loved to climb trees and play in the stream that ran through her yard. She continues to love the outdoors. Tacy joined us as office administrator in 2007. She keeps track of everything, schedules tours, runs admissions smoothly and takes care of billing. She worked in sales, but now she is the friendly voice that answers the phone at FELP Tacy has two children, Sam and Char. She loves to bike, read, run and spend time at the Eastern Shore with her family.
Our Two and Three Year Old Teams
Seedlings (2 day 2s) and Buds (3 day 3s)
Jeanne Stafford
Jeanne grew up in a small village in New York, playing in the woods, exploring the hills, gullies and glens. Summer meant splashing in the “crick.” She was most often fossil hunting, building stick forts and making mud pies. She noticed the way the light and shadows filtered through the leaves and reflected on the water (and still does!) earning a BFA in Photography from RIT. She first joined the FELP community as a parent in 2011, volunteering and subbing. She joined Amber in the 2s and 3s in 2014 and has since completed additional early childhood coursework to become a lead teacher. She has worked Early Drop Off, Lunch Bunch and FELP Camp for many years, and was a co-creator and facilitator of FELP’s Home Engagement Program 2019-2020. She also works at Mariposa Education. She loves the open hearts and minds of the littlest learners and can’t imagine a better career. She loves spending time with her family, especially out in nature, and photographing the things she sees there.
Laura grant
Laura grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis, where she roamed wild & free with her little sister and their neighborhood friends. As a child, she loved to play in the common ground and explore the creek across the street looking for fossils, rocks and bugs. She attended Granny School with her cousin, where they ate graham crackers and milk for breakfast, listened to their grandma’s stories about the Old Country, played amongst their grandpa’s tomato plants, made witches’ brews in the garden, sang nursery rhymes, and ran to watch Laverne & Shirley whenever it came on. Laura’s mom was a teacher who spent her summers taking Laura and all the neighborhood kids on endless adventures, and Laura’s dad took her on quiet, treasured trips to bookstores. Laura’s love of books and bookshops and reading went hand-in-hand with her love of adventure and she took many road trips as she grew up and eventually traveled to Burkina Faso as a Peace Corps Volunteer. She was so inspired by the nurses she worked with in Burkina that when she came home she went to nursing school and then public health school. She worked as a nurse in the Emergency Department and in community health for 10 years before staying home with her 2 kids for close to another 10 years. She was so inspired by the teachers who taught her kids at FELP that once again she decided to change directions and follow her heart back to FELP, back to the classroom that nurtured both her and her children as she learned how to be the parent she wanted to be. Today Laura's favorite things continue to be road trips, adventures, fossils, playgrounds, books & bookstores, creeks... and coffee.
Pebbles (2 day 3s) and Dewdrops (3 day 3s)
Elisabeth Ebert
Elisabeth grew up in a musical family and moved a lot but the common denominator in all the places was the wonder of nature - butterflies and giant trees, sparkly rivers and distant clouds were all sources of imagination, stories and companionship. She grew up playing outside and has spent her adulthood so far in much the same way - subbing in the nature based preschool where her mother taught, hiking in places from Alaska to the Appalachian Trail, getting her degree in biology and organic chemistry, teaching Music Together, dancing, singing, mothering. Now she teaches at FELP, where all these things come together to help her support wonder in the growing hearts and minds of children.
Lisa Murphy
When Lisa was little she spent the days playing outside and swimming with her sister. She was obsessed with Barbies and Tinker Toys. She grew up and now has a teenage son named Jack. She likes road trips and going to the beach. She is usually up for any fun thing in Baltimore with her family. She is a graduate from Towson University and worked as a paralegal. After staying home raising her son and volunteering at schools, she began working with Beth and Vanessa in the 4 day 4s in 2013 and she loved it. In 2014, she joined as an assistant in the 5 day 4s class. She also is a lunch bunch and aftercare teacher as well as a regular at summer camp.
Our Four Year Old TEams
RiverRocks (4 day 4s)
Vanessa Burnham
Vanessa was born and raised in Baltimore. She loved watching sports with her dad, especially the Orioles. Her mom was a fabulous cook and she enjoyed cooking and learning from her. She always had fun playing with her friends, listening to music with them and singing and dancing a lot. Of course summers meant hanging out at the pool. Not a lot has changed for Vanessa. She still enjoys all those things except now with her 4 children. Vanessa joined FELP in 2012 in the 4 day 4s and worked there for 8 years. She has also taught on Fridays in the Kindergarten class. She also has taught Lunch Bunch and is the lead of that program. After completing her early childhood coursework, she now teaches the Dewdrops and Pebbles. She is a busy parent of her 4 children and an active volunteer. Vanessa has also provided childcare at Meadowbrook pool, various friends and neighbors.
Char Biggs
Char was born and raised in Baltimore. As a kid, Char loved to play outside, collect worms with their brother, create art, and spend time with horses. They graduated from Skidmore College and currently teach the River Rocks with Vanessa as well as art class on Friday. Char also works with Art with a Heart where they teach art to kids in Baltimore City public schools. Char is no longer a huge fan of sports and collecting worms, but they still love spending time outside and with horses, creating art, as well as reading and baking.
Sprouts and Raindrops (5 day 4s)
Marcie Shriver
Marcie can’t help it, she loves the beach. It all started because her Dad was in the Royal Air Force in England and her family got stationed all over the world. When she was 4, he was posted to Aden which is a seaport city in today’s Yemen. She has now learned that she lived in a volcano (that’s worth mentioning even though she didn’t know it when she was 4 and the volcano is very, very dormant) the walls of which form the shape of the harbor. They frequently went to Elephant Beach and she got to play in the sand, get wet and enjoy the many sunny hot days.Marcie joined Sharon in the Sprouts in 2013. She is also the director of our summer camp program for 6 weeks. She has many years of experience with young children. After training in the UK as a NNEB, she came to the States to nanny for a family with quadruplets in Washington D.C. Since then she has worked with several different families as a child nurse and nanny. She completed additional early childhood coursework since joining FELP to be a lead teacher. She is the mother of Sam, a college graduate and a FELP alum. She enjoys long walks with her standard poodle Lola, reading, gardening, the beach and spending time with family and friends.
Katja Ehrhardt
Katja was born in Hamburg, Germany. As a child she enjoyed riding horses at her sister’s farm and helped her other sister, an Occupational Therapist for children, teach the kids important everyday skills. Katja traveled a lot with her parents and later alone to Asia, Africa and the United States. In Germany she worked for 15 years as a nurse in both small, specialized and large university hospitals. In 2011 her son Nikolas was born and when he was just 9 months old she and her family came to Baltimore. Her husband started working at JHU, doing research and teaching students. Katja has two more kids. The twins Martha and Robbie were born in Baltimore. All three children went to FELP and she had many opportunities to substitute in the classroom. Katja enjoys hiking, reading books, and going to the beach and playing with her kids. To keep her German traditions alive Katja likes to cook German dishes. Now she took the great opportunity to join the FELP team as an assistant teacher.
Our Kindergarten Team
Oaks
Tracy Slezicki
Tracy grew up in Texas. She spent many summer vacations and holidays traveling to NY and Puerto Rico to visit family. When she was young she stayed active by participating in Gymnastics, Dance, Ice Skating, Tennis and Soccer. She liked the feeling of freedom while playing outdoors with her sister and friends. Tracy could be found riding her bike in the creek, skateboarding and wondering the fields. Today she still enjoys that sense of freedom by riding her motorcycle, scuba diving, camping, hiking and traveling. In her down-time she enjoys doing yoga, meditating, reading, listening to music, and spending time with family and friends. She has two children Angelo and Tsering, who is a FELP alumni. Tracy earned her degree in EECE/Psychology from CUNY. She taught K and 3rd grade in Baltimore City. Tracy came to FELP as a parent and began teaching the 3’s in 2007. After a few years in the threes and moving out of state for a while, Tracy became a co-teacher in our Kindergarten in 2012, where she has been guiding our Kindergartners ever since. She also led our summer camp for several years.
Hyacinth Douglas
Coming soon…
Kathy Verde
Kathy starting at age one, spent the time around her birthday, midsummer, at the beach. She enjoyed and still does, playing with trucks and cars, then with her two brothers, now with her students, making forts and splashing in puddles. Kathy grew up and received her degree Elementary Education. She taught at Friends, Epiphany Day Care, and Immaculate Conception. Kathy started at FELP in 2007. She loves signing, art, sewing, math, science and all of the fun things she plans with the class.
Library
Beth Spedalere
Beth grew up liking to play with baby dolls, pretending to be Shirley Temple and going to the pool. Her classroom always had lots of dolls, dress ups and music! Miss Beth grew up to earn her degree in education and psychology from Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio. She has 3 children, now independent adults. She enjoys dancing, sail boat racing and pottery. She is also our school librarian. Beth catalogs all of the books and orders new ones. Beth has at FELP since 1991! She loved teaching the River Rocks 4 day 4s class, where she enjoyed reading books to the class, creating fun projects and enjoying their play.