Our Team

Suzanne E. Hiller, PhD has worked in the field of education as a practitioner, professor, researcher, and evaluator for three decades. Notably, she was the Teacher Naturalist with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History wherein she designed curriculum with over 36,000 natural specimens. Her research interests center on STEM career motivation and achievement in outdoor programs through initiatives such as citizen science. She has authored books, book chapters, and articles on self-regulation, motivation, and metacognition for students, particularly in outdoor settings.

Linda J. Black, ChFC, GFS, RICP, ChFEBC, has extensive experience counseling clients on portfolio construction, retirement issues, estate planning, and asset protection strategies. She frequently lectures on investment and personal finance topics for various organizations and corporations in her community.

Linda has worked within the financial services industry since 1998 with investment and insurance companies as well as securities firms. As a fiduciary, she has a solid financial foundation and always works with her client’s best interest. Knowing the industry from the inside out gives her a clear advantage in understanding investment products and contracts.

Deanna has over 20 years of experience as a leader with a mix of technical IT skills, functional HR and people management skills to provide a holistic approach to system selection, design and implementation.

Her current position is Sr. Manager, Lead Platform Engineer with Capital One supporting Human Resource systems. She has a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Psychology from George Mason University and is a Certified Scrum Product Owner.

Deanna is passionate about family, learning new skills, building high performing teams, collaboration, networking, system design and volunteering with children.

Ms. Glenn is a Disaster Recovery Specialist in the Office of Capital Access at the U.S. Small Business Administration. Prior to joining the SBA, Karlena worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce as a Partnership Specialist.

In addition to her positions in the federal government, she is a small business owner and has served as director of national mobilization at a national educational advocacy non-profit organization, and served as project director for an after-school program for a consortium of 10 Detroit area schools.

Karlena has formerly held positions within Michigan state government, served on nonprofit boards and volunteered her time in educational endeavors.

Karlena earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Laura Dallman, PhD, is an international presenter, program organizer, and researcher who specializes in the powerful effects of care and social emotional interaction on human development, learning, and overall well-being. Her work and scholarship span multiple contexts and age ranges.

Laura serves as an adjunct professor at George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development. She taught elementary school in American public schools and international schools in Russia, Belgium, Haiti, and Georgia. She continues to use those classroom experiences as a touchstone informing her scholarship and programming.

Jenny Mischel, PhD is a Professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her research interests focus on coping strategies to help youth self-regulate emotions when feeling distressed as well as how to promote positive self-efficacy beliefs. In addition to teaching courses, she finds mentoring undergraduate students to be a rewarding experience. Thus, she collaborates with undergraduate students on studies to explore aspects of social media use, self-regulation, the effectiveness of wellness rooms, and the value in social bonding with others.

Marisel N. Torres-Crespo, PhD, is the founder and director of MTC Professional Development Services, LLC. She has 21 years of experience offering workshops, training, and professional development to teachers and educational administrators. Torres-Crespo is an Associate Professor of Education in a teacher preparation program at a private 4-year institution. She received a BA and MA degree in Elementary and Early Childhood Education and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction in Early Childhood Education. She has taught at the college level since 2002 with a collaborative teaching style, making relationships the center of her philosophy.  She has been presenting nationally and internationally at educational conferences because of her expertise in early childhood education, computational experiences/coding in the early years, and STEM/STEAM in preschool. Other research interests are early childhood play, socio/emotional development, children’s literature, multiculturalism, and bilingualism in the early childhood education field.