For Montessorians, by Montessorians

Matt Hillis is our co-founder and Montessori leader. His vision and determination to finetune marketing strategies for Montessori schools drives Nido Marketing’s focus and approach to helping schools grow.

He is the Executive Director of Bergamo Montessori Schools, the oldest Montessori program in the greater Sacramento area. His role focuses on organizational development, training, marketing and strategic growth. Since assuming the position in 2004, the enrollment of the schools has grown 200% to nearly 500 students.

Matt is Vice President of the Montessori Administrator's Association, a non-profit organization that supports the development of authentic Montessori schools. He also developed and continues to manage MariaMontessori.com, one of the highest trafficked Montessori information sites in the world.

Matt holds a Bachelor's Degree in History from the University of California at Davis and a Montessori teaching credential from the American Montessori Society.

 

 

He lives with his wife, Suzanne, and their two sons in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Daneen is the dedicated Montessorian on our staff. She comes with a wide range of experience that gives her a unique advantage to understanding our member’s needs and serves as a bridge between our marketing staff and the Montessorians we work with.
 
She’s holds an AMI elementary diploma, M.Ed in Montessori education, and certification in the Developmental Environmental Rating Scale and the Nurtured Heart Approach. Before joining Nido, she was a community director at Bergamo Montessori school while guiding a lower elementary environment. Daneen also has extensive experience with nonprofit organizations, holding positions as an Executive Director and development coordinator.
 
Daneen resides in Minnesota with her husband and two children. She loves health and fitness, figuring out the parenting journey, and supporting quality programming for local Montessori schools. In addition to her work with us, she also manages over 500 referees for local youth soccer clubs throughout the state of Minnesota and supports mothers in the labor and delivery process as a doula.

John is the paid search and social architect for Nido Marketing. With over 9 years of experience in digital marketing, John crafts our member's campaigns to create optimal results using a Montessori-specific templated approach that adjusts to each member's unique ecosystem.

He is a Certified Google Partner and a Digital Marketer Certified Partner.

He has successfully managed 100+ accounts and currently oversees over $200,000 per month in Google Ad spend. Most recently, he helped to build, launch and market the Ford Motor Company's Dealership video marketing initiative.

He lives with his wife, Sam, and their two daughters in Cave Creek, Arizona. John enjoys the outdoors, especially hiking and cold weather camping.

Kristi is the content writer at Nido Marketing. She creates our blogs, emails, and social media posts for members to use on their school websites. Kristi taught for 15 years, has an AMS lower elementary credential and a M.Ed. in Montessori Integrative Learning. She is especially interested in integrating art into the classroom, bringing children out into nature, and finding ways to bring Montessori to as many children as possible.

Kristi lives in upstate New York with her husband and two children. In addition to her content writing, Kristi serves on the board of the Radix Ecological Sustainability Center in Albany. In her sparetime she enjoys cooking for her family and hiking in the Adirondacks.

Ivan Bunin is our Client Success Manager. He owns the intricate details which foster great results for our members. Ivan has a broad range of skills in design and marketing studios, e-commerce businesses, and personal assistance that gives him the ability to find a solution to any ongoing question.

Ivan lives in Poland and dreams of traveling to places like the United States, Cuba, and France, and many other countries. He plays guitar, does card tricks, and loves sports, drawing, and calligraphy.

Danish is a Front End Web Developer & Graphic Designer. His previous work experiences have enabled him to gain a broad and diverse understanding of the mindset and skills needed to succeed as a Front-end developer and graphic designer.

These skills, combined with his ability to adapt to a wide variety of circumstances and to manage many responsibilities while nurturing necessary lines of communication with others, He has over five years of experience designing & developing websites for various agencies. His credentials compliment the fact that he’s very well versed in different sectors of design and development websites.

Donna D’Hoostelaere is a life-long learner and AMI-trained Montessori guide who founded Aldea Montessori in 2001. For 30 years, Donna has worked with Montessori schools, first as a parent volunteer, then as a classroom guide, administrator, and school owner. She has experience on both sides of the table--having questions as a parent and having answers as a trained guide--and has made it her mission to share everything she has learned with parents and other schools' staff. Donna has been a public speaker about Montessori and general parenting for 15+ years. She has created videos that are being used world-wide for parenting education.

Donna has a Masters degree in Education from St. Catherine University, as well as certifications in the Nurtured Heart Approach (Certified Trainer in 2014 and a Certified Advanced Trainer in 2018). She is a Leadership Parenting Coach with The John Rosemond Leadership Parenting Institute and a certified Facilitator with NuParent, a unique parenting education program created by Children’s Bureau.