We teach primarily by observing, questioning, guiding, and embracing children’s play.

Lincoln Nursery School has a faculty of unusual depth and experience. Our teachers embrace professional growth through a spirit of inquiry and collegiality. We are inspired by current best practices in early childhood education, as well as our collaborative community. We find that our work as teachers is enhanced by the transparency of our cooperative environment: we both support and learn from parent partners.

We employ a team of teachers who demonstrate incredible energy, creativity, professionalism and warmth.

Each class has two teachers. Mark Weltner (Studio Blue) teaches music and movement to each class once each week, and a liason from the deCordova Learning and Engagement team works with children in small groups on a regular basis, as possible during the pandemic. Nancy Fincke, the school’s director, leads our staff.

Nancy Fincke, Director

Nancy has been passionately leading LNS since 1995.

Nancy has been in the field of early childhood education for thirty years. She has a Masters in Human Service Administration from Lesley University. Nancy began as an occupational therapist in an inclusive preschool and was then inspired to become a director after her own family’s experience at a parent cooperative nursery school. Nancy’s education prepared her to understand child development and programming/activities that foster independence in living and expression.

She recognizes that her role as a director is to help build community among the children, parents, and teachers, with the goal that everyone experiences a sense of well-being and democracy. She believes that the highest quality of early childhood education is offered when teachers are supported in their professional development, maintain collegial dialogue, while developing relationships with parents, the deCordova staff, and the greater community. Nancy encourages everyone to listen to the children, discover their interests, offer experiences and materials, value each other and have fun.

Nancy has deep gratitude for our amazing Lincoln Nursery School community. The daily sounds of children’s voices, the commitment of her colleagues/teachers, the parents’ support, and the alumni who stay in touch are continued reasons for her appreciation.

Sisy Thomas, Assistant Director

For over two decades, Sisy has found meaningful joy and wonder in working with young children during their early years. From her own childhood, Sisy can recall the profound experience of play and how it shaped her own life, ultimately leading to exploring the fields of science, medicine and education. It was her time in the Child Life department at North Shore-LIJ and Boston’s Children’s Hospitals that gave her a new perspective on partnering with children and supporting their way in the world. She was deeply struck by the insights she gained from listening and learning from the children around her. This solidified her pathway toward early childhood education.

As an educator, she has seen the extraordinary growth and individualization that happens between birth to age six and how pivotal it can be in becoming who we are. After many years in the classroom, Sisy realized she could expand her work by collaborating with families in an administrative role, most recently as a director. Supporting children in all their potential is the work of a village and there is no better environment for this than a parent cooperative school. This is why both her children went to such schools, including LNS (a few moons or so ago).

Sisy feels so fortunate to return as an assistant director to a school which inspired her greatly, working alongside Nancy, the dedicated teachers, supportive parent community, and the remarkable children who make it all possible.

Studio Blue

Sue Higson, Co-Lead Teacher

Sue has been in the field of early childhood education since 2000. After a few years in the corporate world left her yearning for more, she returned to school to become certified as an educator. She then opened a daycare and ran it for eight years before deciding to stay at home with her three children. She returned to work when her youngest son began middle school. Looking back and taking the time to self-reflect, Sue realizes that one thing that’s helped her in the field is her ability to listen and the desire to get to know the children in her care as well as their families. She is interested in learning not only the “big issues,” but also the small details that may seem insignificant to many, but which make each child unique. Sue firmly believes in the idea that even very young children are capable of so many things when given the right opportunity and environment.

Nancy Wurtz, Co-Lead Teacher

Nancy began teaching in 2012, and has worked as a classroom teacher in Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade. Prior to teaching, Nancy worked in publishing as a graphic designer. She took a leap of faith when she went back to school to receive her Masters in Early Childhood education and never looked back. Upon graduating, she was fortunate to find a position that combined her love of art with teaching; the elementary school where she taught in Acton had a substantial art integration focus.

Nancy has a passion for helping children learn through hands-on, exploratory and open-ended environments. She loves witnessing the deeper learning that happens through the experiential processes of art-making and exploration of the natural world. Nancy lives in Lexington with her husband Dana. She enjoys visiting with her son and daughter, Liam and Maeve, who live in Brooklyn, NY. Nancy loves to spend time outdoors, attend live music, and is an avid cyclist. Many vacations are spent seeing the world from a bicycle with her husband and friends. Nancy is excited to be a part of the LNS community and to experience the beautiful Studios and surroundings through the eyes of our young learners.

Studio Yellow

So after five years at home with her children, she returned to a school setting. Working in a cooperative preschool, she is inspired by the daily connections she makes with families while in the midst of a close-knit, supportive community. Wendy brings her love for the outdoors and all its inhabitants to the classroom. With the natural surroundings of the school, she is attentive to providing children experiences of all kinds with natural objects, turning their attention to the various calls of birds, and introducing them to the kindness of bugs. She carries with her a large treasury of wonderful memories, knowing that even the most challenging experiences make long lasting, positive, impressions on the lives of young children.

nothing more rewarding than helping children explore and learn about their world. She taught preschool for nine years before she became the Assistant Director of the center. In this role, she helped teachers plan curriculum, trained teachers on positive and meaningful child-teacher interactions and helped parents to navigate their children’s learning journey. However, she realized that she missed teaching, and decided to become a full time teacher again. She is very excited to be back in the classroom and to be a part of the LNS community! Outside of the classroom, Charlene loves to read, travel, and play video games. She lives with her husband and spends lots of time with family and friends. She is an avid Dungeons and Dragons player and can’t wait to bring her love of fantasy, storytelling, and imaginative play into the classroom.

Studio Purple

Karen Prince, Co-Lead Teacher

Karen grew up on a farm in Northern England. Not cut out to be a farmer, she earned a business degree and moved to London to work at the BBC. As exciting as life in London was, Karen had the travel bug and headed to the US for the first time to work on a summer camp, travel and see the Grand Canyon. Fast forward a few years and she decided maybe she should heed the advice people had been giving her for years – ‘you should be a teacher’ – and went back to school to do just that. After teaching in a mixed grade class in the UK (K,1 & 2) Karen moved to the US permanently and taught pre-school in Brookline until the birth of her daughter Maya. Maya, Jeff and Karen spent three very happy years at LNS. After Maya moved on to Lincoln Public School Karen began her career at LNS, first working in Studio Purple at the Old Stone Church, assisting in the pilot class at deCordova, moving to Extended Day, and finally, co-teaching in Studio Purple!

Mariana Stefanini, Co-Lead Teacher

It was back in Brazil, many years ago, that Mariana first heard about the Reggio approach to education, and vividly remembers being fascinated by it. The more she learned, the more she knew that was how she wanted to approach children’s everyday experiences. She finds it is a privilege to spend her days alongside children and to be given the opportunity to wonder, find meaning, experience joy, and most of all, learn from and with them. Mariana first graduated as a psychologist at the University of Sao Paulo, in Brazil, but working with children in inclusive classrooms led her into changing paths and becoming a teacher.

She completed another bachelor’s in education, followed by a master’s degree in “Innovative Early Childhood Education” at CU Denver and the Boulder Journey School. She has decades of experience, teaching infants to 5^th graders. While working in a cooperative school alongside curious, inquisitive toddlers, she grew passionate about nurturing a strong relationship between school, families, and the community. She feels very fortunate to be part of Lincoln Nursery School and to be able to share these values with this incredible community. She lives in Woburn MA, with her husband Rogerio and their two daughters: Giovanna and Rebecca (Rebecca attended LNS for two years!).

Studio Red

Lauri Bounty, Co-Lead Teacher

Lauri has been in the field of early childhood education for over twenty-five years. Over the course of her experience, she has also raised two girls and taught tennis to young children. Lauri always knew that she wanted to teach. Listening to children inspires her, and Lauri’s love of the visual languages enables her understanding of their importance in children’s communication. She feels privileged to be a part of a growing and vibrant learning community where everyone works to better themselves and their practices. Her experience has taught her that when a class comes together around a common cause or idea, it can bring together an entire community while meeting everyone at different levels.

Paula Hinchliffe, Co-Lead Teacher

In 2012, Paula graduated from Salem State University and started teaching in a preschool/pre-k mixed age classroom. There, she was introduced to the Reggio approach and fell in love with learning alongside the children, together as researchers. Paula has had the opportunity to visit the schools in Reggio Emilia and was truly inspired by the studies that were taking place along with the Remida -the community recycle center. After making the move to teaching Kindergarten in Boston, she was

challenged to discuss important social justice issues with young children. Listening to children’s ideas and questions about issues happening in our world has become extremely important to her in her teaching practices. Paula lives in Chelmsford, MA with her husband and two sons – Oliver and Quinn. She is so excited to join the LNS community as a Studio Red teacher!

Her trusty yellow lab, Norris, is often by her side! Michelle is thrilled to be a part of the LNS community and to combine two of her personal and professional passions, nature-based learning and the arts. Her graduate degree from Lesley University focused on integrating the creative arts daily into students’ curricular and school experiences. Michelle has been teaching and working with young children for over 20 years and seeks to empower children as learners and nurture a caring and inclusive class community.

Extended Day

Cindy Heaney, Co-Lead Teacher

Cindy has been in the early childhood field for more than thirty years and doesn't remember a time when the very act of learning didn't pique her curiosity and leave her wondering. Her extensive work with infants and toddlers taught her the significance of trust and how it must be reciprocal in a vibrant learning environment across all ages. Her work with preschoolers and young school-agers layered on the values of joy, humor, respect and understanding in a classroom community.

Ever curious, Cindy went on to graduate school to continue exploring the theories that had been bubbling up in her work, reinforcing the vital importance of active, hands-on learning that is child-driven, where children are the active agents and the teacher’s role is to set the stage, observe, document, facilitate when necessary and enter the child’s learning cycle on the child’s terms, avoiding unnecessary adult interruption – a delicate dance always. A firm believer in life-long learning, she is looking forward to sharing daily adventures with the Extended Day community and seeing how this experience will shape her work and theirs. She is eager to weave her love of children’s literature and storytelling into the afternoon curriculum, along with cooking, nature and good old-fashioned puddlejumping!

Mireille Tremblay, Co-Lead Teacher

Mireille comes from a small town north of Quebec City, Canada. She moved to Massachusetts with her husband in 2009, and stayed home with her children during their early years. She loved this age so much that she decided to start teaching preschool instead of returning to her previous field of study. Previous to coming to LNS, Mireille taught at The Community School in Maynard for five years, which shaped and influenced her teaching style. Mireille is passionate about the outdoors and she was able to create an outdoor program during this time to help children and families spend more time in nature.

Outside of teaching, Mireille loves spending time with her family, traveling, and gardening. She is excited to be a part of the LNS community, especially the Extended Day program, and to share her passion of nature with the children.

Other folks crucial to LNS!

Emily’s AEP role helps LNS teachers, children, and community relate to the art and natural environment at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum by helping to bring the art at deCordova to life through connections in the classroom, installing art-and-nature-inspired immersive spaces in the studios, and making the school visible to the wider public. Her extensive experience with place-based learning will help facilitate an ongoing relationship with the art, staff, and land of deCordova as LNS continues to deepen its understanding of the site. Emily comes to LNS as a Museum Educator with 20 years of experience in progressive, informal teaching and holds a Master’s degree in Art History and Museum Studies. Both of her children attended LNS and she has been working with the school since 2011 as a deCordova educator and is excited to be able to grow her relationships with the faculty, children, and caregivers of the LNS community through this innovative new position.

DJ began her career in education in 1999 upon graduating from Boston College with a masters in elementary education. After teaching 3rd and 4th grade in a variety of school settings, she arrived home in Lincoln to grow her own family. Soon, her daughters were enrolled at LNS, during which DJ served as a family-helper, board member, and finally, president of the board. DJ’s passion for nature and her willingness to slow down and connect with young children and families made her feel right at home at LNS. After her girls aged out, DJ returned to LNS as a teacher. She feels incredibly lucky to call this warm, thoughtful community her home away from home!

Mark has been with LNS since 2003, when he began as a music & movement teacher. After many years as a co-teacher in Studio Blue, he recently retired from teaching, but has stayed on to help out with technical matters, managing the LNS website and other behind-the-scenes issues.