Our Team

Iris Ponte, Ph.D.

Dr. Iris Chin Ponte (she/her) is Director and Classroom Teacher at the Henry Frost Children’s Program Inc. in Belmont, MA. Dr. Ponte was trained personally by Director Debbie LeeKeenan of the world renowned Eliot-Pearson Children’s Laboratory School at Tufts University. Dr. Ponte has studied multiple early education approaches including, the Reggio Emilia Approach, the Montessori Method, as well as the Eliot-Pearson Developmental Approach.

As a former Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Ponte has expertise in cross-cultural issues in education. She has taught and conducted extensive school research in the United States, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, China, Japan, and Newfoundland. Dr. Ponte has also previously worked for Sesame Street Research at the Children’s Television Workshop in New York among many other media and research institutions. She has published in the areas of children and technology, behavior management, children’s play, and heritage trips for adoptees in China. In addition to being a Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Ponte has received various scholarship and fellowship recognitions from the Children’s Defense Fund, the Watson IBM Fellowship, CBS, and the American Educational Research Association.

Read Dr. Ponte's Director's Statement.

Heather DiGiovanni

Heather (she/her) is the Director of Operations at the Henry Frost Children’s program. She holds a BA from Mount Holyoke College and a Master of Applied Child Development from the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. Heather formerly worked as the Preschool Program Director at the Mass Audubon’s Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary. There she developed curriculum to encourage play and exploration in nature that she continues to use at Henry Frost in our outdoor classroom. Through Tufts University and the Ponte and Chau Consulting, Inc., Heather served as a research assistant with the Natural Playground Research Project where she was responsible for overseeing data collection, analysis, and dissemination. She loves to share her passion of nature and science with her students.

Jess Albert

Jess Albert (she/her) is a preschool teacher at the Henry Frost Children’s Program in Belmont, MA. Jess holds her Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education from the University of Connecticut where she worked at the Uconn Child Labs. After graduating, she became a Teaching Fellow at Lemberg Children’s Center at Brandeis University. This fellowship helped her earn a scholarship to Tufts University as a Graduate Teaching Assistant working at the Eliot-Pearson Children’s Laboratory School. She worked under the supervision of Dr. Iris Ponte and guidance of Director Debbie LeeKeenan. Jess earned a Master of Applied Child Development with a concentration in Early Intervention and Sensory Integration. After graduating, Jess worked at Henry Frost Children’s Program during Dr. Iris Ponte’s maternity leave and then spent 5 years as a Lead Teacher at Lemberg Children’s Center. For the past 6 years, Jess has been a stay-at-home mom to her 3 children.

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Ann Rittenburg

Ann (she/her) joined the Henry Frost Children’s Program staff in January of 2016 and is thrilled to be back in the classroom teaching young children, now that her own children are young adults. She holds a BA in Psychology (Bates College) and an MA in Child Development (Tufts University). While at Tufts, Ann worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the Eliot-Pearson Children’s School. In line with her interest in the intersection of research, policy, and practice, Ann worked for several years as a researcher in the field of child and family policy at Harvard University, Wellesley College, and Tufts University. While raising her own four children, she served as a co-chair of the Parent-Teacher Advisory Board at the Eliot-Pearson Children’s School, the Belmont School and has been a Town Meeting Member in Belmont for the past two decades.

Joan Collins

Joan Collins (she/her) has served as a home aid for over 20 years. With extensive experience in supporting families, she managed multiple households with daily tasks and childcare. Joan also served as a primary substitute for Harvard Affiliate Preschool, Botanic Gardens. In this role she gained experience in infant, toddler, and preschool classrooms. DEEC certified and having recently participated in the Northeast Montessori Institute Assistant’s Overview Course, Joan is thrilled to teach in our Extended Day Program.

Sarah Collins

Sarah Collins (she/her) Is very happy to be a part of the Henry Frost Community. She has worked as a camp counselor and a preschool assistant for the past six years at the Arlington Boys and Girls Club in Arlington, MA. As a graduate of the Woburn Memorial High School and DEEC certified, Sarah is thrilled to be a classroom assistant in both the Henry Frost morning program and extended day.

Claire Kamenski

Claire Kamenski (she/her) is a preschool teacher at the Henry Frost Children's program in Belmont MA. Her studies have taken her from Kinesiology, Pediatric Physical therapy, and finally Early Education. After a Bachelors of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she graduated with a Masters in Teaching at Northeastern University. Over the past 12 years, she has taught in both public and private settings in Oxford, England and Massachusetts. Over the years, she developed a passion for the Reggio Emilia approach, specifically prioritizing emergent curriculum and teaching as a guide and an observer. Claire is a strong advocate for human rights and equity in and out of the classroom. She is committed to continuing to understand her own biases and using her platform of privilege to support black lives. Every day in the classroom, she hopes to inspire curiosity and joy in all her students.

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Alastair Moock

Alastair Moock (he/him) is a 2013 GRAMMY Nominee, three-time Parents’ Choice Gold Medal Winner and recipient of the ASCAP Joe Raposo Children’s Music Award. Long one of Boston’s premier folk artists, Alastair turned his attention to family music after the birth of his twins in 2006. The New York Times calls him “a Tom Waits for kids” and The Boston Globe declares that, “in the footsteps of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, Alastair Moock makes real kids music that parents can actually enjoy.” Moock and Friends’ live shows are rowdy, rootsy, singin’ and dancin’ fun for the whole family!

More information about Alastair can be found on his website: www.moockmusic.com.

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Debbie LeeKeenan

Ms. LeeKeenan (she/her) has been the Director of the Eliot-Pearson Children’s School, a lab school for Tufts University Department of Child Development, for the past 15 years and a member of the Tufts early childhood faculty for 18 years.  She has been in the field of education for over 35 years. Her interests are in early childhood education, curriculum development, teacher training, applications of  Reggio Emilia in the United States, and antibias teaching and learning. She has extensive experience as a teacher of teachers; she has supervised and provided professional development for her staff of 20 teachers for the last 13 years, ranging from undergraduate field placement students, graduate teaching assistants and student teachers to mentor lead teachers. She also has developed professional development school partnerships with urban public schools and created models for inservice-preservice teacher education. She has co-authored several articles and chapters for various publications including Young Children, the first edition of The Hundred Languages of Children (edited by Edwards, Forman, Gandini), and Proactive Parenting: Guiding Your Child from Two to Six, written by Faculty of Tufts University, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development. She has presented workshops at numerous conferences, both locally and nationally and has been a consultant for various school systems and educational organizations.

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George Scarlett

W. George Scarlett (he/him) is a graduate of Yale University (B.A.) and Clark University (Ph.D., Developmental Psychology). He has worked with such giants of the field as Jerome Bruner and Howard Gardner and has authored numerous articles on children’s play and co-authored books on parenting, managing behavior problems, and religious-spiritual development in childhood. His past research at Harvard Project Zero, the Language and Cognitive Developmental Center and the Cambridge-Somerville Mental Health Center includes development of play assessment techniques for work with typical, at-risk, and atypical children. For over two decades he has taught courses on children’s play. Currently, he is deputy chair of the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. He is also the co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence for Sage, published in 2005. 

Lisa Kuh

Lisa Kuh, Ph. D., has worked as an instructional coach, classroom teacher, teacher educator, university professor and researcher, and professional developer. She was the Director of Early Education for the city of Somerville, Massachusetts, and worked with public, center-based, and Head Start preschool programs to create access to high quality early education opportunities. Dr. Kuh has been part of faculty at Tufts University, University of New Hampshire, and Lesley University. She is the author of Thinking Critically About Environments for Young Children and Complementary Curriculum Approach: Transform Your Practice Through Intentional Teaching. She has published and presented on the impact of outdoor playspaces and classroom environments for young children, teacher professional development, documentation, Montessori education, anti‐bias education, as well as literacy and math content. She is committed to bringing equitable learning experiences to children through curriculum innovation and loves nothing more than sitting in a tiny chair in a classroom, observing and playing.

Maryann O’Brien

Upon graduating college, Maryann O’Brien (she/her) began her dream of teaching kindergarten in Roxbury, MA as a long-term substitute teacher. A few years later, she completed her Ed.M. at Boston University studying early childhood special education legislation. Maryann moved to NYC where she became an Early Childhood teacher in one of the first federally funded First Chance Programs for young children with special education needs, in Harlem. Most of her 42 years in education have focused on children with learning differences and their families. Maryann was the Associate Director at the Eliot-Pearson Children’s School at Tufts University for 14 years where she coordinated the special rights program. Prior to that she was an Early Intervention Director, Education Specialist at the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, grant reviewer for the federal Department of Education, and Preschool teacher and Program Director in NYC. 

Martha Pott

Martha Pott, Ph.D. (she/her), is on the faculty of the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, where she teaches courses in personal & social development; parent-child relationships; observational methods for early childhood; assessment of young children; and evolutionary perspectives on human development. She has conducted cross-cultural research on parenting practices and family life that compares parenting in Japan and the US, as well as immigrant Chinese families and Euro-American families living in the US. Martha has also had a private practice helping parents with their children’s everyday behavior problems. Before earning her doctorate, Martha was a teacher in early childhood, elementary, and secondary education settings as well as early childhood and elementary special education settings. Martha was also the Developmental Specialist on an educational intervention team, coordinating assessment and services for children ages birth to seven years old for 16 California school districts. She helped write the State of California laws and regulations governing special education programs and services. Martha’s avocation is working with paper and making books by hand.