About

Board of Directors

Sue Cozart - President

Sue Cozart works at Intel leading worldwide teams to develop and enhance the customer experience for engineers using Intel's FPGA products.  She has worked in various engineering and marketing roles in the semiconductor industry for 25 years.  In addition, Sue was a co-founder and operations director for a music school for five years, helping to open and build the school to five locations around the Austin area.  Sue is the mother of three children who started at Austin Montessori School as young children and commenced from the Adolescent Community. In addition to Sue's volunteer work at AMS, she is also an active volunteer at Austin Pets Alive! fostering dogs and cats, walking dogs, and feeding kittens

Laura Potter - Treasurer

Laura Potter is a retired engineer, having worked 25 years in the semiconductor industry in a mix of technical and leadership positions.   She spent five years as an engineering manager at Apple, where she successfully built multi-disciplinary teams in multiple cities during a period of rapid growth.  Since retiring, Laura has been traveling, raising two teenagers, and moving her family across the country to San Francisco. In her volunteer work, Laura has acted as Treasurer of the Westlake High Theater Booster Club and served on the Westlake High School PTO board. She also volunteers as a tax counselor with AARP Tax-Aide.  

Nicholas Pippins

Nicholas Pippins is a Montessori child, Guide, and Administrator. He currently serves as the Director at Lotus Montessori on the east side of Austin working alongside his wife, Amilyn Houghton, the founder.

Nicholas attended Austin Montessori School as a child and graduated from the first 9th-grade class at the AMS adolescent program. After his undergraduate studies in religion and philosophy at Hendrix College, he pursued his Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) Elementary training in Bergamo, Italy.  Before joining our Board of Directors, Nicholas served AMS as an assistant, then a Guide in the Upper Elementary Classroom, and has also earned an AMI Primary diploma from the Montessori Institute of North Texas.  He brings with him years of understanding and experience in the Montessori Method as well as an unprecedented knowledge of the history and rich culture at AMS.

Steve Menyhert

Steve Menyhert is an alumni parent of a daughter who attended Austin Montessori School from the age of 2 until graduating from the adolescent community. He has been a software engineer for over 40 years, starting in Mainframe and Mini-Computer development and progressing to modern Cloud-Native architectures. He worked for six years on the PowerPC Microprocessor program at Motorola and worked for 15 years developing software in the Investment Banking space, most recently for Thomson/Reuters. Along the way, Steve has worked at five technology startups. 

For six years, Steve volunteered as framing and roofing crew chief at Austin Habitat for Humanity and built 28 houses. His prior board experience includes serving on the board of Vancouver Habitat for Humanity in British Columbia. Steve holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Cincinnati and an Executive MBA from Georgia Tech.

Dustin Weiss

Dustin Weiss is the CEO and Team Principal of The Weiss Group at The Agency, a dynamic real estate team located in Austin, TX. He holds both an MBA and an Undergraduate Degree from Loyola University Chicago. Dustin's global perspective was ignited during his time at the Gaines Creek Campus at AMS, where he was guided by Don Goertz. This transformative experience inspired him to embark on four study abroad programs across Europe and Asia, significantly enriching his worldview. As a proud Austin Montessori School graduate, Dustin's connection to his roots in Austin runs deep. He attended AMS from the Children's House through the Adolescent Community, providing him with an in-depth understanding of both the city and the AMS mission. This unique combination of local expertise and a profound commitment to AMS values distinguishes him as a native with an extensive understanding of the city and a deep dedication to the AMS community.

Grae Baker - Head of School

Grae Baker (Ex Officio) is the Head of School at Austin Montessori School in Austin, TX.  Grae holds an AMI elementary diploma, a B.A. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.Ed. in Montessori education from Loyola College, and has completed the AMI Orientation to Adolescent Studies.  He began his work in Montessori as a primary classroom assistant. He later served as a guide in upper elementary, 6-12 elementary, and as founding lead teacher of the adolescent program at Omni Montessori School in Charlotte, NC where he went on to serve as Head of School. 

Debra Day Floyd - Vice President

With business acumen, leadership skills, and a warm human touch, Debra Floyd has helped numerous individuals, commercial enterprises, and non-profit entities reach their goals. Her career has included a stint with Ernst & Young and a long stretch with Eaton Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio eventually becoming an independent consultant for various small and large businesses. Her contributions included project management, business plan development, business process development, and new business acquisition and integration. Her purpose has included a focus on education and community, as well as helping other people find their niche. Her daughter attended AMS through upper elementary school.
 
Debra is a CPA and holds an undergraduate degree in Accounting from Ohio University and an MBA from the University of Texas Executive Education Program.  She has served as a Board Member on the University of Texas Executive MBA Alumni Association and in 2010 joined the Board of KLRU, serving as Chair of the Finance Committee, then as Treasurer in 2013, and currently as an Executive Committee member. 

Drew Liedeker - Secretary

Drew Liedeker owns The Cleaning Authority, Austin, a housecleaning franchise he purchased in 2004. It has grown from a year-old struggling business to the #1 franchise in North America, with more than 1000 customers and 70 employees. Drew was elected Chairman of the Franchise Advisory Council to represent his peers to the franchisor and is respected as a leader, problem solver, and instigator for positive change.

Previously Drew was a marketing and sales force effectiveness consultant with The Alexander Group, Inc., where he led worldwide task forces to develop go-to-market solutions for Fortune 500 companies. He earned his MBA in entrepreneurship at The University of Texas and his BS in finance from UVa. Drew’s two children attended Austin Montessori School from Children’s House through 9th grade. 

Jason W. Snell

Jason W. Snell is a trial lawyer and Austin Montessori School parent since 2015. He has been a business litigator for more than 20 years and is recognized as a creative problem-solver. Jason first honed his skills as a litigator practicing in Dallas and then New York City. In 2007, Jason founded The Snell Law Firm in Austin to bring high-quality and more personal representation to businesses and individuals. 
 
Jason currently serves as a board member for Life Reimagined for Children, a non-profit that supports the mission and activities of the Travis County Juvenile Probation Department. He is also a member of the Jury Service Committee for the State Bar of Texas. Jason previously served as a board member for the Lawyer Referral Service of Central Texas and the Austin Bar Association (2011–2013).

Chris Howard

Chris Howard's professional life spanned 20 years in a variety of engineering and management roles at Motorola Semiconductor. As an Operations Manager there he traveled extensively and built multinational teams achieving record growth and launching a variety of new technologies. After retiring he was an Operations Consultant and also worked for several years helping low-income individuals with their tax preparation.

Chris's three daughters attended Austin Montessori School from Children's House through the adolescent community and he has served the school in a volunteer capacity for decades. He holds degrees in Genetics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Sandy Bartholome - Business Manager

Sandy Bartholome (Ex Officio) ) is the Business Manager at Austin Montessori School.  She holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, an M.S. in Management Information Systems from the University of Houston – Clear Lake, and a NonProfit Finance Certificate from Rice University’s Glasscock School of Continuing Studies.  Before joining AMS in July 2016, she worked at Chinquapin Preparatory School near Houston for thirty years, the last ten as the school’s business manager.
Austin Montessori School is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex or gender, disability, or age in providing educational services, activities, and programs. Austin Montessori School complies with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA"), as amended, which incorporates and expands upon the requirements of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended; the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended; and any other legally-protected classification or status protected by applicable law.