Chara holds a BA from Tufts University and BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She is originally from Providence, R.I. and has lived in Miami Beach, FL, Somerville, MA, Seattle, WA, Madison, WI, Pasadena, CA, and moved to Portland in August of 2020. After working as a high school art teacher in independent and public high schools, she came to Montessori when her son was a toddler, and she had the opportunity to work in a small AMI Montessori school that had just opened with a toddler room and children's house. She knew that adolescence was the developmental plane that was closest to her heart and in 2014, she attended the Orientation to Adolescent Studies at the Hershey Montessori Farm School and knew that this was the work she wanted to dedicate herself to. She and her family moved to Pasadena, California, and for five years, she developed and helped grow the adolescent program at an AMI Montessori school. She looks forward to moving into an era that places diversity, equity and inclusion at the forefront of the experiences of our children and is excited that Childpeace and the middle school are committed to this work that will be the true embodiment of Montessori's education for peace. She loves riding her bike on urban trails, baking bread, learning to play the ukulele, looking at and making art, and spending time with her wife and son.