After several years in advertising and publishing, Lisa shifted gears to earn a Masters in Early Childhood and Elementary Education from Bank Street College of Education in New York City. Prior to Hamlin, Lisa feels incredibly fortunate to have learned and taught in four wonderful, very different school communities in New York, Cambridge, Denver, and Chicago, where she had the rare opportunity to be a founding teacher of a new school. Most of Lisa’s classroom experience has been with Kindergarten, her favorite age group, but she has also been a lower school learning specialist and worked with Pre-K through Grade 3 children in shelter and summer school settings.
Lisa deeply values developing relationships with colleagues, children, and their families; the classroom is her second home. Energized by designing interdisciplinary curriculum that is responsive to children’s developmental interests and needs, Lisa works to provide varied modalities for expression, enabling children to nurture passions, take risks, make connections, and be resourceful problem solvers. Self-reflection, self-advocacy, constructive collaboration, and kind, respectful engagement with others are skills Lisa explicitly builds into each day, often through role play and plenty of humor!
Lisa is close with her 21- and 25 year-old sons who thankfully check in regularly to share their growing-up adventures! With family and friends, Lisa explores the city, hikes the redwoods, bodysurfs, reads, plans for her next adventures, and volunteers. Admittedly fueled by a serious appreciation for an extremely strong cup of coffee, you’ll often spy Lisa on campus savoring that last morning sip as she greets the Kindergartners!