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Teachers & Staff

All of our staff members are well qualified and serve as positive role models and learning facilitators. 
All lead teachers have college degrees, including early childhood coursework. Additionally, all staff are required to attend continuing education training each year. Our assistants are experienced and educated in early childhood education. Teachers and assistants work together as teaching teams, facilitating a positive and rich learning environment.

We have dedicated office staff who also serve as a positive part of the ECC experience. They take the time to get to know the children and parents, and assist the teachers as needed.

Director

Our Director, Marion Entwisle, has a broad range of experience working with young children. A mother of two, Marion has been teaching children for over 20 years, including nine years as a Director of early childhood programs and as a parent educator. 

Teachers

Esha Bhattacharya

As a teacher, Esha wants to instill strong values, hopes, dreams and knowledge inside her students, and enjoys learning from the next generation. She believes in nurturing social concepts such as respect, pride, share and love of learning. For Esha, these concepts are equally important as introducing math,
language and science. 

She is married and has two children, one of whom attended ECC as a four-year-old. Esha enjoys reading books, gardening, puzzles, traveling, and spending time with her own children. She is from India where she earned her college degree. In order to start a career in early childhood education, she took the 90-hour Montgomery County lead teacher qualifying course in Early Childhood Development. 

Guhhan Green

Children having fun and learning from their play is central to Guhhan’s philosophy for children’s development. She believes that we all learn differently, and each child is a unique individual. She encourages independence and self-reliance by building confidence and setting children up for success. Guhhan enjoys observing in many different classrooms to further deepen her understanding of how the play-based philosophy is implemented by a variety of teachers. She joined ECC in the fall of 2005 and has taught twos, threes, and fours. 

Guhhan successfully completed the 90-hour Child Development and Curriculum Planning training in the spring of 2004. Her eagerness and passion in working with young children continues to evolve, and she is furthering her knowledge through continuing education courses at Montgomery College. In addition to her primary job at ECC, Guhhan teaches and tutors children in both written and spoken Mandarin Chinese.  She was born and raised in Taiwan and majored in design.

Shashi Gupta

Shashi is committed to encouraging children to learn through play, loves working with kids, listening to their stories, and playing with them. Her favorite times of the day include free play and art projects. She also enjoys sharing her Indian heritage with the children, including celebrating Indian festivals, food, and dress. Shashi is celebrating 16 years at the ECC, having joined the staff in November 1996. She has taught two-year-olds, three-year-olds, and four-year olds.

She grew up in India, and has lived in the United States for more than forty years. She is married and has three adult children, two grandchildren, and a third grandchild on the way. One of her grandchildren was a student at the ECC. In her free time, she loves gardening, sewing, knitting, traveling and spending time with her children and grandchildren.

Liz Harless

Liz feels very privileged to observe the benefits of play-based learning and is excited to support that philosophy everyday as a member of ECC's teaching staff. She has over fifteen years’ experience working with children teaching directed play, music and dance. 

As a senior area manager for Gymboree Play and Music, Liz trained teachers to implement a play based curriculum targeted to children from birth to five years of age. Liz is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University and a mother of three.

AnnMarie Kase

AnnMarie is committed to ensuring a nurturing classroom environment for children to learn through play. Her teaching style brings out opportunities for the children to express themselves, stimulate knowledge and develop an interest in learning. Her two daughters attended ECC and when they graduated to elementary school, she made the transition from ECC parent to ECC teacher. After taking a break from the work force to stay at home with her children, she has now returned to ECC.

From a very young age, AnnMarie knew she wanted to work with children. Originally from New York, she graduated from the University of Maryland and earned a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from The George Washington University. She began her career at the Arc of Montgomery County, teaching young children who had chronic medical conditions.

Kelsey Mohler

Kelsey aspired to be a teacher since a very young age, and is happily following that dream. Aside from teaching at the ECC, she works as an in-home therapist for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. This challenging, yet rewarding work has opened many new doors for her. 

Kelsey likes to spend her free time relaxing, watching TV and movies, and cooking. She is a die-hard Redskins fan and cherishes her Sundays during football season, often grilling and entertaining friends. She also enjoys traveling. She graduated from University of Maryland with a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education. She has started Graduate School at Towson University and is working to obtain a Master’s Degree in Special Education with a certificate in Autism Studies.

Sheila Orellana

Ms. Sheila enjoys being a part each child's unique learning process. She loves teaching and has been doing so in multiple facets for the past 11 years. She was a Head Start teacher for six years where she provided a play-based preschool program for children of low-income families. She is also conversationally fluent in Spanish and is excited to find ways to incorporate it into various class activities.

A native of sunny Arizona, Ms. Sheila relocated to Maryland a little more than two years ago. When not teaching, she enjoys reading or spending time with her wonderful husband and two active sons. She has an Associates and Bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education.

Ann Posner

Ann truly embraces the school’s philosophy that children learn through play and enjoys creating an environment that is warm, nurturing and fun. She has been an important part of ECC for over 17 years.

She started her teaching career as an elementary school teacher in Baltimore City and in Prince Georges County. She joined the ECC staff as a substitute when her son was a student at the school. While her son was young, she worked at The Potomac Village School as a teacher of three-year-olds. She returned to ECC in 1997 as a teacher. 

Margie Powell

Margie decided to teach at ECC because of the school’s philosophy that children’s play is their work. She believes that children learn best about themselves, others and the world around them by using their five senses, through hands-on activities and experiences which are meaningful and relevant to children’s lives, and by purposefully weaving language and communication skills into each day. Margie also sees family partnerships and a strong teaching team as key to children’s success.

Margie’s background includes working as a Teacher, Educational Director and Child Care Center Manager. For the last 12 plus years she has been creating and facilitating early childhood teacher education training. She holds an Associate of Science Degree in Early Childhood Education, a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and a Master’s Degree in Child Care Administration.

Angelika Stablow

Angelika’s main goal is to nurture and support children’s growth in all developmental areas by providing lots of age appropriate, play based learning experiences. She has worked in early childhood education for over 20 years. Angelika is an avid gardener and for several years has grown a designated “Monarch Way Station” butterfly garden. Helping her garden to grow is a passion that extends, metaphorically, to the children for whom she cares and teaches. She strives to create a caring classroom community, wherein children feel, above all safe, and that it is their space to care for and explore.

Angelika lives in Kensington, MD with her husband, three sons, a Redfoot tortoise, and a dozen fish. She looks forward to each wonderful school year with her fabulous students, parents and co-workers. She earned her B.A. in Developmental Psychology from Penn State University. 

Vicki Tosques

Albert Einstein once said “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” Every time Vicki reads or remembers this quote, it fills her with a sense of purpose and responsibility. At its heart, this quote speaks of a side of early childhood education that is, at times, forgotten.  By Vicki’s understanding, when there is joy and true creative expression on the part of the teacher there is joy and creative expression present in the children. A complete early childhood education is one that helps young children feel safe and loved. She strives to provide an environment that is filled with conversations and is creatively stimulating to help young children develop.

Vicki has been working with children since she was a kindergarten aide in high school over 35 years ago. She has worked with all ages of children from young infants to middle school age. She has also worn every hat there is in a child care setting. She has been a classroom assistant, lead teacher, kitchen manager, an assistant director as well as a director of a child care center. She has an associate’s degree from Montgomery College. She is currently enrolled in Penn Foster University and plans to pursue her Masters degree at Walden University.