Mulberry Forest Montessori is a Montessori-Forest School cofounded by a committed and experienced board united by our commitment to place-based high-quality Montessori education, land stewardship, and accessibility. Mulberry Forest Montessori is located in Reading.

Mulberry Forest Montsesori is a project of the 501c3 organization Access Culture Inc.

Our Team 

Nikoletta Evangelatos Livingston, OT, OTD, OTR, Lead Guide Primary is a lifelong learner and passionate partner to children in their exploration of the world. She holds undergraduate degrees in human development and psychology, and elementary education, and worked as a Montessori-informed preschool teacher prior to pursuing her doctorate in occupational therapy. For nearly a decade, Nikoletta has worked as an OT and a school leader in the Boston area serving children with complex needs and multiple disabilities. Nikoletta has a particular interest in the early developmental years, integrating the complexity of neuroscience with the simplicity and innate wisdom of child directed play. With expertise in the areas of mental health, behavior, and sensory processing, she believes every child has a right to an educational experience that works for their unique needs and recognizes the power of outdoor learning to create equitable, meaningful educational experiences for every child. Nikoletta grew up in a multicultural family, living throughout the United States and visiting family members across the world, much of that time being spent out in nature. She currently lives in Stoneham with her husband, their infant son, and two rescue dogs. You can find all five of them in the Fells most days, rain or shine!

Annapurna Xochiestentli, Primary Guide holds a BA in Environmental Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Latinx Studies from Williams College, and an Association Montessori International Assistant Credential for the primary level. She is trilingual in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, and is currently pursuing a Montessori Teaching Credential from Authentic Montessori Institute. Annapurrna grew up in the margins of Mexico City and the mountains beyond the capital. Her pedagogy is grounded in the belief that teaching is a dialectical process, involving as much learning from children as teaching them. She brings experience in climate education, environmental research, and multilingual storytelling. Through Montessori nature-based education, she seeks to nurture care practices for land and water that cross generations and borders.

Rwick Sarkar, Elementary is an educator and community engagement practitioner from the Greater Boston area. He holds a BA in Environmental Studies and a certificate in Spanish from Williams College. Rwick has experience working in environmental justice education in Western Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, and closer to home, in Somerville. He is passionate about cultivating outdoor spaces for curiosity and transformational learning. Having recently completed a Fulbright grant in Ecuador, Rwick is excited to build an inclusive and supportive learning community here at home. In his free time, he can be found running, rooting on Boston sports teams, or enjoying a simple moment by the river.

Lucy Gossbard, Assistant graduated from Williams College in 2023 with a bachelor's degree in English and psychology; she wove these two majors together through a particular interest in the dynamic relationship between language and play. For the past two years, she has worked in a mental health setting, receiving training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy. As she moves forward with her career, she is excited to work with children and engage more deeply with the linkages between clinical psych and education. Importantly, Lucy grew up with a close relationship to the outdoors and is deeply passionate about the values that engaging regularly with nature can impart (humility, sharing, playfulness, curiosity, etc.!). Lucy hopes to bring her background in mental health to her assistant teaching role at Mulberry and, conversely, is eager to draw from her experiences working with children to learn more about the world and inform her next steps. 

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Accessible Pedagogy and Curriculum Design

Mary Jirmanus Saba, PhD; Geographer is a geographer, filmmaker and educator whose artistic practice bridges community organizing, land stewardship and household labor. Her multidisciplinary works have shown and been awarded widely at festivals, galleries and community spaces, from the Berlinale in Germany, to the ICA in London, the Busan International Film Festival in Korea and Anthology Film Archives in New York. She holds a PhD in Geography from UC Berkeley, and is currently a University of California Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A lifelong learner, who has taught from preschool to the graduate level, she is currently pursuing a Montessori teaching credential from the Authentic Institute of Montessori.

Aimee Fraulo, PhD has over 20 years of experience developing outdoor, nature-based educational programming grounded in neuroscience and sociocultural learning theories. Her background in environmental sociology, ecological systems theory, and learning sciences has informed her collaborative, interdisciplinary, nature-based, and child-centered approach to teaching. She has created educational materials and outdoor learning activities for elementary students and homeschool groups aligned with North American Association for Environmental Education’s (NAAEE) Guidelines for Excellence, developed and presented professional development programs for classroom teachers in the US and internationally in Naples, Italy and Cape Town, South Africa. She holds certifications in Montessori elementary education through the American Montessori Society and in Environmental Education through the North Carolina department of Environmental Quality. She also holds certifications in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction from Duke University and Nature Education through the Civic Ecology Lab at Cornell University.

James McGovern, Educator and Artist recently retired after more than 25 years as an educator. While he spent most of his career as an upper elementary school teacher, he also worked as a behavior support specialist, an after-school program leader, and a paraprofessional. As a founding member of a democratically-run progressive public school in the Boston Public School district, James’s classroom design and student-centered pedagogy has been featured in various film and print media. As a trained artist, one of James’s passions is creating unique classroom spaces that encourage democratic process, social-emotional wellness and ongoing inquiry. James has supervised and recruited scores of student teachers and has appeared as a guest lecturer at the university level at Schools of Education throughout the Boston area.


Lindsey McGovern, Educator and School Administrator is a dedicated, creative and hands-on teacher and educational leader with a background in curriculum, instruction, and assessment for diverse student needs. A lifelong learner, she holds a Masters degree in secondary curriculum and instruction from Boston College and a CAES (certificate of advanced educational specialization) in educational leadership and policy, also from Boston College and has completed extensive additional training.  She is licensed as a special education administrator, superintendent, English teacher, history teacher and special education teacher. She has worked as a teacher, special education administrator, and education director in public and private school settings, and has served as a Section 504 Coordinator, Civil Rights Coordinator, and Title IX Coordinator. At the university level, she supervised student teachers, assisted in educational research, and co-taught graduate courses in education with an emphasis on universal design for learning (UDL). Lindsey has also worked at the state level, providing complaint resolution to parents and monitoring school systems across the Commonwealth for compliance with federal program areas. Lindsey currently teaches English at one of Massachusetts’s two public virtual schools. She is a fierce advocate for equity in education and is actively involved in disability and mental health advocacy work. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and rescue dogs, walking on the beach and reading fiction. She has never turned down a cup of strong coffee.

NEXT ︎︎︎ Our Board 






Mulberry Forest Montessori is a nonprofit organization and does not discriminate by race, color, national or ethnic origin, creed, religion, sex, disability, age, marital status, sexual orientation, or status with regard to public assistance. Furthermore, Mulberry Forest Montessori admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.