Our Teachers
Jennifer McIlhenny (she/her/hers)
Jennifer brings her open heart, creative mind, and endless love of young children with her to work as director and educator at Lavender Farm Preschool.
Jennifer has more than twenty years experience teaching, and learning from preschoolers. She found her love of teaching while acting as a parent teacher at her children’s cooperative preschool where she spent five years parent teaching and learning from a Reggio Emilia influenced, Anti-Bias director and educator. Jennifer also spent nine years as a lead teacher and pre-K educator as well at a magical Reggio Emilia inspired preschool in Northeast Portland.
Jennifer is committed to ongoing Anti-Bias education and professional development thorough the Oregon Center for Career Development and Portland State University. She’s been awarded the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) Code of Ethical Conduct Commitment to a Professional Code of Ethics and awarded the Oregon Registry Step 10 (BA in Early Childhood Education equivalent).
She has completed extensive Anti-Bias training at The Anti-Bias Leadership Seminar through Threads of Justice Collective as well as training for creating Trauma Sensitive classrooms.
Jennifer is a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the North American Reggio Emelia Alliance (NAREA) and Rethinking Schools. She is also in the process of becoming a Certified Trainer for the Oregon Registry professional development (https://www.pdx.edu/occd/oregon-registry-trainers).
Jennifer holds a BS in Journalism/Communications from the University of Oregon and a Postbaccalaureate degree in Graphic Design from Pacific Northwest College of Art.
A Portland area native, Jennifer lives with her husband, Todd (who moonlights as our substitute teacher) and their two dogs, Koya and Ione. Jennifer and Todd have two kids Isabel and Caden. Isabel recently graduated from the University of British Columbia studying Kinesiology. Caden is finishing his senior year this fall at the University of Washington double majoring in Philosophy and Honors Political Science with an emphasis in justice. When Jennifer is not teaching, she loves spending time with her family and friends along with camping, backpacking, yoga, dance, and swimming in fresh water.
Mary Aghayan (she/her/hers)
Along with being a phenomenally kind and delightful human, Mary is an artist. She holds an Associate Degree in Fine Art and in Computer Graphic Design. She has several years of experience teaching art to children of different ages in her private art studio and several kindergartens. She was also a nanny and has worked in a preschool since she moved to Portland four years ago. She is a volunteer teaching Farsi Language to the kids with bilingual nationality in IWAO (Iranian Women Associated of Oregon). She loves working with kids and uses her creativity to make them happy. She lives with and her husband Fred and her kitten, Pasha. Mary’s daughter Ella is in her final year at OSU studying journalism. Mary loves gardening, cooking, yoga, dancing and making arts and crafts. She believes this quote that says: “Logic will get you from A to B. But Imagination and Art will take you Everywhere! “
She is delighted to be a part of Lavender Farm Preschool to learn and share her experiences with everyone.
Annalisa Caso (she/her/hers)
Annalisa is a 24 year old PSU college student going for her BFA in Creative Writing. Inclusion is very important for her and she loves being able to blend creativity with learning. In her free time she makes and does cosplay. When not at the sewing machine, she is primarily found reading fantasy books, manga, and comic books.
Kira Cruz-Uribe Brown (she/her/hers)
Kira has been working as a preschool educator for a number of years. Outside of the classroom, Kira enjoys cosplay and creating costumes from scratch, using her seamstress and fabricator skills. Kira is excited to bring her years of experience and creative talents into the classroom.
Katee Foxx (she/her/hers)
Katee grew up the oldest of 6 kids and has always been a caretaker- a sister, a babysitter, a summer camp counselor, a nanny, and eventually a preschool for 10 years. Katee received a BA from Humboldt State University, and has professional training in Reggio Emilia pedagogy, Montessori pedagogy, Anti-Bias curriculum, and Early Childhood Garden Science. She is a lover of music, gardening, and crafting, and brings all of these passions to her teaching.
Katee began teaching preschool in Berkeley, CA- leading an after school program, mentoring as an assistant teacher, and eventually becoming a lead classroom teacher at the incredible Berkeley School. After moving to Portland in 2016 she was a lead teacher at a sweet Reggio-Inspired, Anti-Bias preschool for many years. Katee especially enjoyed her role as the school “atelierista”- creating emergent curriculum, lots of documentation, provocations, and building large installations.
Throughout her many years teaching in the classroom, Katee was actively learning in other classrooms. Katee has been fortunate to train in garden science at LifeLab in Santa Cruz, and at Alice Water’s Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley. She was certified in language and botany studies with the Montessori Teaching Center in the East Bay. Katee was able to work alongside an elder Reggio-Inspired mentor for several years, visit with Bing Nursery School at Stanford, and take Reggio-Inspired trainings through Portland's Helen Gordon Center and the renowned Opal School. Katee actively built anti-bias curriculum with her co-teachers and was able to attend and present at several workshops at Wild Lilac in Portland.
Katee lives with her husband, Sky, her two children, Coco and Scarlett Poppy, her great dane, Bowser, two cats, Nova and Pico de Gato, and as many plants as she can fit in her garden. She does a great deal of volunteer work with her neighborhood association, and she spends much of the year running their annual plant sale and holiday market. She loves to hike, garden, sing, bake and is always obsessed with a new craft.