Educational Experts and Contributors

Mare Williams

Mare Williams, director of Aspirations School of Learning in Carlsbad, CA, is a special contributor and expert in early childhood education at An Educated Choice. Mare focuses on issues regarding searching for and selecting quality preschool programs, with the goal of helping parents find just the right preschool for their child and their family.

Mare has built a memorable twenty-year career as an early childhood educator, spending ten years at The Children’s School in La Jolla and currently serving as the director of Aspirations School of Learning, an infant through kindergarten school in Carlsbad, CA. She has achieved many career milestones and accolades that include becoming a mentor teacher with the state of California, achieving clear credential certification, earning a specialization in the Reggio Emilia approach, being selected as a study group member to visit schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and currently serving as a member of the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance. One of Mare’s greatest joys as a teacher has been participating in the development of an art program for preschoolers, The Great Artists.

Mare completed her education in early childhood at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, California, earning both an undergraduate degree as well as a Master of Arts degree in human development with a specialization in leadership in education. Her leadership at Aspirations is based upon her desire to create a special place where children and their families can grow, bond, learn and aspire together, and where children are nurtured, intellectually stimulated and encouraged to use their imagination. As they say in Reggio, “Nothing but joy.”

Megan Cohen

Megan Cohen, M.Ed., educational therapist, and founder and director of La Jolla Learningworks, is a special contributor and expert at An Educated Choice. She addresses issues related to standardized test preparation for the Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE).

Megan is a passionate educator with a firm belief in the effectiveness of individualized, one-on-one instruction. She specializes in reading intervention for children with dyslexia, study skills and metacognitive strategies, and standardized test preparation.

A San Diego native and La Jolla High School graduate, Megan received her B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in International Political Economy and her Master’s degree in Elementary Education and California Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

From August 2004 through January 2009, Megan served as Elementary Director for Wells Academic Solutions, developing a successful K-6 program.  Megan’s professional background includes teaching first grade through Teach for America in inner city Los Angeles, mentoring and tutoring inner city students, and presenting teacher-training workshops on school-site and for the California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE).

Megan is currently pursuing her Certificate in Educational Therapy through the UC Riverside Extension.  She has taken continuing education courses on reading assessment and instruction, dyslexia, and ADHD through the UC Extension Programs and the Center for Child Development at UC Irvine.  In addition, she completed Lindamood-Bell’s training on the language processing programs, Seeing Stars and Visualizing and Verbalizing.  Megan currently serves on the board of the San Diego Branch of the International Dyslexia Association (www.interdys.org) and is active in the Association for Educational Therapists (www.aetonline.com).