Board of Directors 2024-2025
Dan Harrison, President, Alumni Parent
Dan has two children, Austin and Connor, who both attended Woods Creek Montessori. Dan’s wife, Brittany, is a Nurse Practitioner at UVA Health in Charlottesville, VA. While Brittany is a Richmond native, Dan grew up in southern Indiana and transplanted to Virginia to attend the Virginia Military Institute. Dan later completed his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Virginia, performed Post-Doctoral research at UNC-Chapel Hill and returned to the natural beauty of Lexington to teach Chemistry at his alma mater. As a professor, Dan enjoys facilitating opportunities for undergraduate researchers to experience the thrill of inventing and discovering new molecules that lower the energy required to make useful byproducts from carbon dioxide.
Brittany and Dan enjoy developing their small homestead, Basset Hill Farm, where they raise Silver Laced Wyandotte chickens, ducks, Sulcata tortoises, honeybees, children, and, of course, a basset hound. WCM has been foundational in developing their thriving children and teaching Brittany and Dan how work through problems constructively and positively with the boys. Dan is grateful for the opportunity to give back to WCM and help shape its future direction.
Lauren Kozak, Vice President, Alumni Parent
Lauren works at Washington and Lee University, where she currently serves as the Title IX Coordinator and Director of Disability Resources. Lauren and her husband Jeff have lived in Lexington since 2010 and have three Woods Creek Montessori graduates: Benton, Wesley, and Ellis. Lauren appreciates how much WCM gave to her children and is honored to be a part of the Board.
Mike Gilmore, Treasurer, Community Member
Mike Gilmore retired as director of the Alexandria Department of Community and Human Services in 2014. Eleven years prior to working in Alexandria, he was executive director of the Rockbridge and Area Community Services Board for twenty years. Other positions include heading the Office of Child and Family programs for the Ohio Department of Mental Health and research associate at M.I.T. His academic credentials include a Ph.D. In developmental psychology from Cornell and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Yale Institute for Social and Policy Studies.
He and his wife Mary Anne have lived in Lexington since 1983. They have three grown children and two grandchildren. His grandson Mikey enjoyed his time a year ago at the Montessori Center of Pearl Harbor in Oahu. Mike is currently chair of the Rockbridge Department of Social Services as well as Resource Committee chair for the Rockbridge Area Community Services Board.
Megan Hobbs, Secretary, Current Parent
Megan moved to Lexington in 2012 for work at Washington and Lee, where she currently serves as an associate dean of students. She and her husband, Bobby (Commercial Lender at CornerStone Bank), are mom and dad to Anabelle, enrolled in the toddler and after school programs at WCM. Megan was pleased to be offered the opportunity to serve on the WCM Board because she believes in the intimate approach to teaching and learning at WCM.
Stephanie Johnson, Alumni Parent
Stephanie is mom to two Woods Creek Montessori graduates: Anders and Olin. After having kids attend WCM for the last 6 years, Steph wasn’t quite ready to let this special school go and is thrilled to serve on the board. Before becoming a mom, Steph taught middle school English at Lylburn Downing Middle School in Lexington. These days, when she’s not chasing two very active little boys, Steph is an intermittent writing tutor and adjunct writing instructor at VMI. Although she originally hails from Minnesota, Lexington has been home for the past 14 years. Steph, her husband Dan, and both boys are endlessly grateful for the community they’ve found in Woods Creek Montessori.
Cary Edgar, Community Member
Cary was born in Virginia, but spent most of her life in North Carolina, having received her bachelor’s degree in communications and sociology from Appalachian State University. Her family moved to the area in 2020 from Raleigh, NC after making a proactive and intentional choice to live in a smaller community. Cary is the owner of Roundtable Interiors, providing residential interior design and real estate staging services, but her background is in media/public relations, corporate communications, non-profit advocacy and rural economic development. Her husband Will is the senior director of constituent communications for Washington and Lee University, and they have two school-aged children. She relishes time in the yard, working on projects in their midcentury home and hunting for vintage furniture and art. Cary and her family are members of Grace Episcopal Church and love attending live music performances, having a household family-reading-hour and exploring the beauty of their community.
Megging Bissell, Alumni Parent
Megging is mother to one current Woods Creek Montessori student (Ford) and two graduates (Keeler and Lawson). She is married to Collin, a lieutenant colonel in the US Army. As Lexington natives, they were thrilled to find themselves back home when Collin was assigned to the Army ROTC department at VMI. Before life as a military spouse and a stay-at-home mom, Megging was an English major at the University of Virginia then spent a few years in fundraising and marketing at a think tank in Washington, DC. Currently, she fills her spare time hosting an Airbnb and devising ways to protect her yard from marauding deer.
Lauren Leva, Current Parent
Lauren and her family relocated to her husband Jeb’s hometown of Lexington in 2023, drawn by the area’s welcoming community, walkability and natural beauty. Originally from North Carolina, Lauren is a proud graduate of Wake Forest University. Her professional background spans 15 years in strategic communications, and she currently works as the VP of Marketing at Grafik, a D.C.-area branding and marketing firm. Lauren previously served as Deputy Director of Development at Rosemount Center, a bilingual early learning center in D.C., and was a member of its board of directors. As the daughter of an elementary school teacher and mom of Scotty (currently in the Primary class), Lauren is passionate about supporting schools like WCM that foster creativity, independence, and inclusive growth for young learners.
David Ryan, Current Parent
David is married to Meghan Ryan and father to three WCM graduates and one current student. He appreciates the character and knowledge that the school has helped build in his children as well as the community that the school fosters. David has continuously found himself in management and planning jobs in the Army, big businesses, and small businesses, and hopes to be able to give back to this great school.