Monica Van Aken, Ed.D.

Head of School

Monica Van Aken Ed.D. has served as the Head of School at Milwaukee Montessori School since 1999. In 1926, her grandmother completed her training with Maria Montessori and was her father’s Montessori teacher in Germany until the time that Hitler closed their school because it was filled with children from Jewish families. Her mother took her Montessori training in Germany with Montessori’s proteges along with Mario Montessori in England.For over 30 years, she taught at Whitby Montessori School in Greenwich, Connecticut where she attended school up until high school. Because Monica knew how to use all the Montessori materials, in the summer when she visited her grandparents in Germany, her grandmother paid her (in chocolate at first) to sit and help her students with their lessons. Monica was ten years old at the time and quite happy to be paid for the responsibility she had. She remembers deciding that she was going to be a teacher after taking that first bite of chocolate at the end of her day of “work”.

Education

• Doctorate, Education Policy & Leadership, University of Virginia
• Masters Degree in Private School Administration, Columbia University
• Fellowship in Educational Policy, Oxford University
• Master’s Degree in Elementary Education, University of Connecticut
• BA History, Lafayette College
• Advanced Montessori Diploma, Association of Montessori Internationale
• Casa Dei Bambini (3-6) Montessori Diploma
• Nine years teaching experience

Department: Administration