Joan Franklin Smutny - Board Chair
Joan Franklin Smutny, President, is Founder and Director
of the
Center for Gifted and Midwest Torrance Center for Creativity (www.centerforgifted.org). The Center for Gifted offers programs to thousands of gifted
children from all socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, ages four
to grade eleven. She has authored, co-authored or edited over 16
books on gifted education, including such works as:
- Teaching Young Gifted Children in the Regular Classroom: Identifying, Nurturing, and Challenging Ages 4-9 (1997)
- The Young Gifted Child: Potential and Promise, an Anthology (1998)
- Stand Up for Your Gifted Child (2001)
- Underserved Gifted Populations (2003)
- Gifted Education: Promising Practices (2003)
- Acceleration for Gifted Learners, K-5 (2007)
- Reclaiming the Lives of Gifted Girls and Women (2007)
- Igniting Creativity in Gifted Learners, K-6 (2009)
- Differentiating for the Young Child: Teaching Strategies Across the Content Areas(PreK-3) (Second edition, 2010)
- Manifesto for Gifted Girls (2010)
In 1996, she received the award for Outstanding Leadership in Gifted Education given by the National Association for Gifted Children (www.nagc.org) and is a member of their National Parent Trust Advisory Committee. She regularly conducts workshops and sessions for teachers and parents around the country and speaks at national and state conferences on topics of interest to educators and parents of gifted children.
Janet Bartell
Janet Bartell, Board Member, was Curriculum and Staff Development Director at Armitage Academy, Kenosha, Wisconsin, for five years; taught in the elementary grades in Northfield, Illinois, public schools for 29 years; and is currently an independent education consultant whose focus areas include staff development, gifted education, curriculum differentiation, and children’s literature. She has been a Program Site Director and Presenter of Parent Seminars for the Center for Gifted, Glenview, Illinois; has taught graduate workshop courses for beginning teachers at National-Louis University; and has had articles on gifted education published in gifted journals. Her B.A. degree in Elementary Education is from National-Louis University, with a minor in Music Education. Her daughter, now a teacher, loved attending Barbereux School.
Jackie Carlson
Jackie Carlson, Board Member, who joined the Barbereux Board in May, 2010, contributes her extensive knowledge and expertise from the arena of small business ownership to efficient oversight of the operation of our school. She has owned several highly successful hair salons on the North Shore over the years, and currently owns a salon in Skokie. Her son attended Barbereux for pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade, and she has been a loyal supporter of The Barbereux School over the years. She has contributed to many special projects toward the enhancement of the school’s mission. She especially loves gardening and the visual arts and has many philanthropic interests.
Maria Freeman
Maria Freeman, Board Member, is the Associate Director of The Center for Gifted, Glenview, Illinois, as well as serving as Site Director for the Center’s Worlds of Wisdom and Wonder and Project programs and organizing the Parent Seminars. She earned her doctorate from the University of Chicago, where she wrote her dissertation on William Rainey Harper’s inductive method of teaching. Dr. Freeman is the mother of three children, a college freshman who has enjoyed volunteering at Barbereux, a son who completed four treasured years at Barbereux, and a son who also loved his three years at Barbereux.
Nancy Messman
Nancy Messman, Board Member, received a B.A. in Education from Milton College in Wisconsin, fulfilling a lifelong desire to become a teacher. She also has taken graduate coursework in gifted education at National-Louis University. She taught kindergarten, fourth, and fifth grades at Fox River Country Day School (formerly The Chicago Junior School) in Elgin, Illinois, followed by a number of years teaching fourth and fifth grades at Quest Academy, a three-year-old through eighth grade school for gifted students in Palatine, Illinois. She has been active in the field of gifted education, attending conferences, mentoring teachers, and working with student teachers. She also has been a speaker and writer in the field and has judged national creative writing contests for elementary and high school students. Nancy has been recognized for excellence in teaching, receiving awards from the Golden Apple Foundation as well as Those Who Excel, sponsored by the Kohl Foundation. When not teaching, Nancy enjoys reading, gardening, bicycling, kayaking, drawing, photography, and travel.