Administrative Staff
Susan Alexander, Office Manager
I came to Hilltop in 1989 and hold much of Hilltop’s history. I manage the business end of Hilltop and work closely with the Business and Staff Directors to support staff, children, and families, and to keep Hilltop running smoothly. My work is enriched by the deep and lively connections with the Hilltop community.
My daughter Ricki was born in 1970. I love being her Mom. If I had a grandchild, I would want her to have the quality of care we provide here at Hilltop — nothing less. It’s what I wish for all our children.
I like to be around people who love what they do. The folks who work at Hilltop are some of the most passionate, interesting, loving and lovable people I know. I’m passionate about relationships between human beings and living from the heart. I’m a hospice volunteer and find that nothing connects me so much to living as being present with and caring for someone who is dying.
I spent an entire year celebrating my 50th birthday. I love to laugh, to sing and to listen to music. I’ve become interested in percussion instruments and am trying out the rub board. I am most at peace when I am camping or hiking. Like my mother and father the natural world fills me with awe and joy. I’m an avid dancer, especially to Zydeco. I’ve found that when I let go of judgment and the need to be perfect, I have fabulous dances with all my partners. I love to walk, especially Green Lake where I can marvel at the babies and pet the dogs! I feel prosperous when I choose to read all day long. Cooking beautiful, delicious food is like a meditation – or a prayer — and sharing food with curious, laughing people is a joy. My most valued treasures are the bird feathers, stones, shells and driftwood that adorn my home. This poem by Dawna Markova expresses the essence of my intention:
I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.
Sarah Felstiner, Office Manager
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I taught four-and five-year-olds in the Sunlight Room at Hilltop from 1995 to 2004. Now I work part-time in the Hilltop office, doing important tasks like paying the bills and accompanying children to the bathroom! I love my office job because it calls on my natural disposition to create organizational systems and attend to details. Also, I get to visit in the classrooms all the time, and interact with children, teachers, and families in all of Hilltop’s classrooms.
I’ve been teaching young children since I was 16, and I’ve never had a job outside the field of early childhood education. As an undergraduate at Yale University, I studied child psychology and played the flute in two bands and three orchestras. I went on to get a master’s degree in human development from Pacific Oaks College, where I specialized in educational administration. I’ve published several articles about child-centered teaching practices, and led workshops for other educators at conferences and through the Hilltop Training Institute.
My work with kids and families has been profoundly influenced by my visit to and study of the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The educators in Reggio Emilia have built a city-wide program of schools for young children which truly honors the competence and creativity of each child. As a teacher, I strive to include song and laughter in every day with children. I love designing and caring for beautiful, functional classroom environments, and facilitating and documenting children’s exploration of their own questions and pursuits. I’ve tried to bring some of this same playfulness, thoughtfulness, and aesthetic care to my work in Hilltop’s office.
When I’m not at Hilltop, you can probably find me swimming, doing Pilates, playing the flute, or relaxing with my husband, Scobie, and my cat, Shadow. I perform with an amateur woodwind quintet called the Ballard Breeze, and spend a piece of each summer at intensive chamber music workshops. I love baking cookies and pies, reading mystery novels, watching TV, and island-hopping in Scobie’s cute yellow airplane. My absolute favorite food (except for ice cream) is bagels with cream cheese and hot sauce. Try it, you’ll like it!
Jamie Flaxman, Business Director
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Hi! I am mom to a 9 year old boy, Sam, and a Queen Anne resident. I’ve dedicated my life to ensuring opportunities for young people to succeed, and have more than 20 years experience in the non-profit sector. I’ve been at Hilltop since fall 2005, and love the warm welcoming environment. I have masters degrees in social work and public administration, and have worked in all facets of child-focused organizations, including as a clinical social worker, supervisor, fundraiser, and executive director. I volunteer with the Seattle Public Schools, specifically TOPS K-8 where Sam goes to school. I love cats, and have 3, Popeye, Jazz, and Luna.
Ann Pelo, Mentor Teacher
Ann delights in young children. She has taught at Hilltop since 1992, where she is nourished by her co-teachers’ commitment to growth and challenge, by children’s passionate relationships, and by families’ deep commitment to their children. Ann is particularly interested in anti-bias and peace education and in the philosophy of the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy. She earned a master’s degree in Child Development and Family Studies from Purdue University. Ann is co-author, with Fran Davidson, of That’s Not Fair: A Teacher’s Guide to Activism with Young Children, published by Redleaf Press and many articles about Early Childhood Education….
There’s a poem by Mary Oliver that asks, “What is it you plan to do/with your one wild and precious life?” That question lingers with me . . . My work with children and families fills a big piece of my life and my heart. I am deeply nourished by the relationships with children, families, and co-workers that are at the center of my days at Hilltop, relationships full of joy, honesty, belly laughter, and soulfulness. My writing about teaching also feeds me; the act of articulating the thinking and feeling that shapes my work deepens my awareness and my practice.
I’ve recently begun to learn circus arts, mostly studying aerial tricks on the rope and on the trapeze–and I’ve got the bruises and rope burns to prove it! I am a devoted yoga practitioner; in fact, that’s what drew me to the rope: it looks like yoga in the air. I hike and bike and am outside as much as I can be. Being alive in my body and in this beautiful world is a joy to me.
I’m a reader and a writer, a feminist committed to peace and to justice. I relish a good conversation with a friend over a couple of beers. I like cats very much and dogs from a distance. A bonfire on the beach is heaven to me. The windowsills of my home are lined with rocks and stones and shells. Spring and summer are my seasons. My favorite refrigerator magnet reads, “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”
I’ve been at Hilltop since 1992, when I finished my masters degree in Child Development and Family Studies at Purdue University.