Executive Director & lead teacher, elementary ii

Laura Roberts

Laura is our Executive Director and is also our Lead Teacher for Elementary II.

Her own Montessori education developed a life-long love of learning that has led her to a BA from Hastings College, an MA in Medieval History from the University of Washington, and most of the way through a PhD (oh that pesky dissertation!). In 2008 she became a Fulbright Scholar, and took her family to study medieval manuscripts in Germany. She has taught hundreds of college students as a teaching assistant and then as an instructor, and was recognized by her department for her excellence in teaching.

In late 2015, Laura decided that she was done wishing for alternative elementary education in Lincoln and decided to do something about it.  She quit writing her dissertation and began work on what would become Bluestem Montessori Elementary, gathering friends and like-minded folks to start brainstorming.  Since then she has learned all about founding and managing a nonprofit, Montessori education and philosophy, and educational administration. 

Laura is a Girl Scout leader and a mother of two spirited girls, and completed her Montessori certification for ages 6-12 at Mid-America Montessori Teacher Training Institute in Spring of 2020.

Melody Vaccaro - Interim Board President

Melody Vaccaro is a technologist, community leader, and advocate. Melody serves on the board of trustees at the Unitarian Church of Lincoln. She is a founder of Nebraskans Against Gun Violence and the community advisor for Huskers Against Gun Violence. Melody grew up in Papillion, NE, earned her Girl Scout Gold Award, and graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She also served as an elementary teacher in the United States Peace Corps in Bulgaria.

As a Montessori parent, she values Bluestem’s commitment to hands-on, nature-based learning—especially the classroom rule of “no punching the flowers.”

Sarah Zuckerman, Secratary

Vicki Wood

PTO President

Jaymie Stillwell-Edler

Jaymie’s background is in opening restaurants internationally and domestically for Applebee’s. She is a book fanatic and can be caught reading with her dogs in any spare time she has! She is very excited to have found a place to call home for her child in Bluestem, and thrilled to be part of this community and to help it thrive. Jaymie is also our current PTO president.

Louis Todd-Meyer

Lois Todd-Meyer earned her BA and MAT degrees from Hastings College and taught high school English/Language Arts in two rural Nebraska school districts for 28 years. She and her husband moved to the Lincoln area in 2014 and Lois completed her Doctorate in Education degree at UNL in 2015. Beginning in 2014, Lois taught as an adjunct in the Teacher Education Department at Concordia University and for the Developmental English program at SCC until she retired in 2023. She was a Commissioner for the Nebraska Library Commission for six years and is currently a board member of the Nebraska Center for the Book and the Nebraska Literary Heritage Association. Lois will always have a passion for education and literacy.

Lois has two grown children and (currently) three growing grandchildren. She appreciates the opportunity to be a part of Bluestem Montessori’s continued growth as they provide excellent education experiences for a growing number of children in Lincoln.

Christina was born in the Black Forest, Germany, started her university learning in Frankfurt & München, got her Ph.D. at Washington University in 1987, and taught German Language, Culture, Literature and Womens’ Studies at UNL until 2023. She founded UNL’s Study in Berlin Program in 1995 and chaperoned it through many stages since then. With the security of tenure for a single parent, she adopted two African American baby boys who are now wonderfully grown men. On her many 6-months-stays in Berlin, her children attended Montessori style schools, and stateside they attended The Montessori-Prairie Hill Learning Center, where she served as parent on the board from 2004-2010. Beyond her professional life as an educator, she branched out via a Leadership Lincoln year of learning in 2022/3 and sees herself now a strong ally to the local Niskîthe Prayer Camp group (indigenous-led), trying to co-educate her fellow-whites about our responsibilities vis-a-vis the needs of Turtle Island (US) as a complex, interwoven eco system for humans, animals, plants, earth, water and fire.

In her free time, Christina is enthusiastically converting her former front lawn into a mostly native plants based insect refuge, harvesting from edible berries and flowers for her famed jellies, and sharing the back yard with her 2 dogs and 4 cats in their newly constructed catio.

As life-long educator, Christina is excited to support the science-based, multi intersectional approaches Bluestem offers the current generation as four of her grandchildren (most of them in a different state) invigorate her interests in experiential learning approaches.