Board of Directors
Christiane Leitinger - Board Secretary
Christiane Leitinger, M.Ed., is a Montessori educator and administrator, as well as an international service-learning specialist. She has worked with diverse cultural and economic populations in the United States as an early childhood Montessori educator and teacher mentor. Christiane completed her Assistants to Infancy training at The Montessori Institute in 1993 and received her M.Ed. from Loyola University in 1997. She began her Montessori teaching career working at the TMI Lab School and went on to serve as a mentor at Family Star Montessori school. When her family moved to Washington, DC, Christiane began working in the non-profit sector. From 2005 to 2011 she built the award-winning Pennies for Peace tool for both students and educators. Christiane currently works as Director of Enrollment Management at the Montessori School of Evergreen. In addition, she consults to nonprofit organizations interested in adding an outreach and service-learning component to their program. These international projects reflect Christiane’s belief that service-learning, tied to core literature and academic rigor, results in powerful, transformative learning opportunities for students and adults.
JUDITH ORION - Board President
Judi founded The Montessori Institute, originally located in Houston, TX, in 1986. In 1988, after visiting Denver and learning more about the Family Star project, Judi made the momentous decision to relocate The Montessori Institute to Denver in order to support the Family Star founders with training and expertise as they worked to open the first Family Star Montessori center. Judi holds the AMI Early Childhood (3-6) diploma and received her Assistants to Infancy (0-3) diploma at the first AMI training for that level, given in Rome. Judi has conducted Primary and Infancy Montessori classes and is a trainer, examiner, and consultant at both levels and is a national and international seminar presenter at Montessori conferences. Judi is an adjunct faculty member of Loyola University in Maryland. She was also Director of Training for the first 0-6 AMI Diploma course. In addition to directing TMI from its inception to her retirement in 2020, Judi held numerous positions at AMI serving as a board member, and on both the Training Group and Scientific Pedagogy Group. Judi is currently the Head of AMI's Training Division and has overseen the enormous expansion of the AMI Training of Trainers program.