Brooke Culclasure and Ginny Riga

Brooke T. Culclasure, PhD, is research director at the Richard W. Riley Institute at Furman University, in Greenville, SC. She was principal investigator of the Study of Montessori Education in the South Carolina Public Schools, as well as for several other large-scale, mixed-method education studies. She is co-chair of the AMS Research Committee and serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Montessori Research. Contact her at brooke.culclasure@furman.edu. Ginny Riga, EdD, is the Montessori consultant at the South Carolina Department of Education. She has held numerous administrative positions in Montessori public education for the past 18 years and, in 2000, opened South Carolina’s first total Montessori public school. She serves as the Montessori consultant for Furman University’s Montessori research studies. She is a former board member of AMS and MEPI (Montessori Educational Programs International) and a founding board member of the South Carolina Montessori Alliance. Contact her at griga@ed.sc.gov.