Preschool - 5th Grade
Giving the Future Wings
Our Board of Directors
Julie Brenninkmeyer
BOARD PRESIDENT
Julie Brenninkmeyer joined the board in 2022 and has a daughter growing up happily at DMS. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Education, she has been using her background to develop strong collaborations in STEM education and curriculum development. Julie has held project management positions at both Tufts University and the Museum of Science Boston where she co-authored the “Engineering the Future” curriculum for high school classrooms. She held several teaching and administration positions in the United States, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Julie was the Director of the Costa Verde International School in Sayulita, Mexico where she coordinated the efforts of staff and families to bring an environmentally conscious education to a diverse bi-lingual student body in a developing community. She lives in Durango, Colorado with her daughter, husband and dog, where she loves coaching and enjoys traveling, mountain biking and skiing with friends and family.
Lauren Dorzok
Lauren Dorzok was born and raised in Colorful Colorado. She landed in Durango to continue her Liberal Art Education at Fort Lewis College. After graduating with a double major in Political Science and Sociology, she never left. Lauren was blessed with a foundation in Montessori Education, her first teaching position was as a summer camp counselor at her Montessori School, in Golden, CO. Lauren specializes in Early Education and has held many positions working with children from birth through elementary. She currently works as the Practice Manager for a pediatric primary care practice in town. With 8 years of experience in pediatrics, she brings a unique perspective to the board. Lauren’s children are currently attending Durango Montessori School and you will often find them with their Goldendoodle sitting under the tree on the lawn for their daily gratitude practice. Their free time is spent roaming any outdoor space in search of the next adventure.
Allison Dingler
TREASURER
Allison Dingler grew up in Southern California, the daughter of a geologist and a teacher. Some of her fond childhood memories are helping her dad find just the right rock sample when exploring outdoors and helping set up her mom’s elementary classrooms when a new school year was about to kick off.
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Heading into college at UC San Diego, Allison chose to keep with the path that led outdoors. While in classrooms and labs more than outside, she finished with a B.S. in Earth Sciences. During the later part of her undergraduate time, Allison took a research assistant job managing the small satellite station down the hill at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It was in these years that she found her eventual career path that mixed science, a fair bit of management, and some education.
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She subsequently spent six years using satellite data to study Southern California earthquakes, collecting and analyzing seismic data from tectonic spreading centers around the Pacific Ocean, educating the science community on a value of integrating disparate data sets (think biology, chemistry, physics data brought together in a 3D visualization) to tell of more complete story of an environment, and organizing several grad student ski and camping trips to the Sierras. Allison left San Diego with a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences-Geophysics and a fellow grad student as her husband.
Since then, Allison has been based in Houston, TX, Baku, Azerbaijan, and now Durango, primarily working as a geophysical operations project manager.
Outside of work, she’s an active mom of a daughter and a son (plus a dog and a cat). Both kids have been in Montessori schools prior to moving to Durango and she’s now happy to a be part of the Durango Montessori community with her son. When not around the Smiley Building or working in her She Shed, she can be found doing, or at least trying, one of the many athletic or artistic activities Durango offers.
Bobby Tober
Beginning at a young age Tober began working under his grandfather’s mentorship, whose creative abilities and skills included remodeling/repairing cars, woodworking, designing jewelry, and home repairs. Working for his dad's company, Tober first began as a convenience store technician and repair man and later received his bachelor degree in architecture. After graduating, he worked for an architecture firm designing schools throughout the state of Texas. Those combined experiences taught Tober the necessary skills he would need to create and build furniture, lighting mechanisms and design buildings.
Tober worked with and later directed general contractors and architects in residential, public, and business projects. With an emphasis on school design and construction program management, Tober has 30+ years experience in design and construction related areas including landscaping, lighting design and creation, building furniture, and drafting structural drawings.
Tober moved to Durango in 2021 and his son proudly attends Durango Montessori.
SECRETARY
Anna Layden
Anna Layden has been an educator in Durango for the past 20 years, and she got her start as a Lower Elementary teacher at Durango Montessori from 2005-2014. She is passionate about Montessori education and is excited to have her sons begin their own journey at DMS in the 2024-25 school year.
Anna has a BA in English, several teaching licenses, an MS in Educational Leadership, and a Montessori teaching certification. She currently works at San Juan BOCES while also providing private psychoeducational evaluations to students all over SW Colorado. She is grateful for the opportunity to stay connected at DMS, where she first found her calling as an educator.
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