International
Montessori
Congress

Gabor Maté

Gabor Maté (pronounced GAH-bor MAH-tay) is a retired physician who, after 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, worked for over a decade in Vancouver's Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. The bestselling author of five books published in 43 languages, including the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction, Gabor is an internationally renowned speaker highly sought after for his expertise on addiction, trauma, childhood development, and the relationship of stress and illness. For his ground-breaking medical work and writing he has been awarded the Order of Canada, his country's highest civilian distinction, and the Civic Merit Award from his hometown, Vancouver. His most recent book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture is a New York Times and international bestseller.

His next book, co-written with his son Daniel, will be Hello Again: A Fresh Start for Parents and their Adult Children, based on their popular workshop.

www.drgabormate.com

Adele Diamond

Adele Diamond, PhD, FRSC, FAPA, FAPS, FSEP, ScD (honoris causa), DPhil (honoris causa) is the Canada Research Chair Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She is considered one of the two founders of the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience and a world leader on executive functions, which depend on the brain's prefrontal cortex and interrelated neural regions. Executive functions enable us to mentally manipulate information, flexibly switch perspectives or mindsets, think before we act, maintain focused attention, creatively problem solve, and succeed despite obstacles.

Prof. Diamond's work on executive functions has profoundly influenced education, child development, and public policy. She has emphasized that addressing social and emotional needs may be central to whether executive functions improve and whether those improvements last. Thus, she offers a different perspective from mainstream education in hypothesizing that focusing exclusively on training cognitive skills is less efficient, and ultimately less successful, than also addressing emotional, social, spiritual, and physical needs.

Adele Diamond is the first in her family to graduate high school or go to college. She was educated at Swarthmore College (BA, Phi Beta Kappa, Sociology-Anthropology and Psychology), Harvard University (PhD, Developmental Psychology), and Yale Medical School (Postdoctoral Fellow, Neuroanatomy).

Alain Tschudin

Professor Alain Tschudin completed his PhD in Psychology in 1999 through the then University of Natal (The University of Kwazulu-Natal) on the comparative evolution of social complexity and intelligence in dolphins and primates, registering as a professional psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. In 2007, he completed his second PhD in moral philosophy and theology on the meaning of being, at the University of Cambridge. Alain worked for the University of Seville and the European Commission on a project to foster social integration and economic participation for immigrant and ethnic minorities in Spain. He later returned to South Africa and ran the Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal using dialogics to pursue solidarity among residents and refugees, along with peace, democratisation and human rights initiatives in marginal communities. He has done humanitarian work with Save the Children International, with UNICEF in the Central African Republic and served as the UN's inter-agency Child Protection Assessment Coordinator for Northern Syria. Alain was Executive Director of Good Governance Africa, a pan-African NGO, in Johannesburg, Professor in the WITS School of Governance and lead consultant for the UN Special Advisor on Africa on the nexus approach to fast-tracking the SDGs across Africa. Subsequently, he was Director of the International Centre of Nonviolence at the Durban University of Technology. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland and is a Senior Research Associate at St Edmund's College, Cambridge. Since 2022, he has served voluntarily as President of the Association Montessori Internationale, the NGO set up by Dr Maria Montessori in 1929, headquartered in the Netherlands and he recently joined the Board of the Gorée Institute in Senegal. In 2025 he was named the UNESCO Gandhi-Montessori-Luthuli Chair on Education for Peace and Transformative Solidarity hosted by Stellenbosch University and co-hosted by St Edmund's College, Cambridge University.

Angeline Stoll Lillard

Angeline Lillard is Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia where she directs the Early Development Laboratory and the Montessori Science Program. She is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science. She received her PhD in Psychology from Stanford University in 1991, and the American Psychological Association's Boyd McCandless Award for her early career contributions to Developmental Science. Her book, Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius (Oxford University Press) received the Cognitive Development Society Book Award, is translated into several languages, and is currently in its 3rd edition. She has been keynote speaker at dozens of Psychology and Montessori conferences nationally and worldwide. Her research has been funded by the Institutes of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and many private foundations.

Anuradha Shankar

Born in a family deeply involved in India's Freedom Movement, Anuradha Shankar grew up strongly committed to Gandhian values. Anu has been actively engaged with Ekta Parishad, a grassroots movement for land rights and Jai Jagat, an international movement for peace and non-violence. She is on the board of the Universal Solidarity Movement, which works to develop responsible, ethical citizenship in school children in India. She mentors groups of young adults working on a non-violent economy and harmony between communities. She has been a Focal Point for UNICEF, developed capacity-building programmes for child-friendly policing, and given inputs to UNICEF's 5-year country plans as well as critical feedback on their programme implementation. She is a decorated senior officer of the Indian Police Service and has leveraged her position to ensure safety and security regimes for the vulnerable, particularly women and children. As the leader of a regulatory organisation, her core competence is critical analysis for ensuring optimum results in the delivery of justice and her primary mandate is oversight of the mechanics of governance in a democracy. She is seen as a change agent rather than an upholder of bureaucratic perimeters. Anu has travelled widely to speak on Kasturba Gandhi and the role of women in India's struggle for freedom.

Bo Mynett

Bo Mynett is an AMI 6-12 Trainer with more than a decade of experience in the education of children and adults. She has been working as an Elementary Montessori guide in both the United States and the Netherlands. In the academic year of 2022/2023, she directed the first AMI 6-12 diploma course in Delft.

She worked in a Montessori environment before taking her AMI 6–12 training in Bergamo and continued to work in the classroom in San Mateo, California as well as at Casa Bilingual Montessori School in Pijnacker in The Netherlands. After several years she decided to also take the AMI 3–6 training course in Boston, USA. She later went back to Bergamo, Italy to do the training for Trainers under the guidance of Baiba Krumins Grazzini for 2 academic years.

Since January 2022 she gave five 6–12 Orientation Courses at the International Montessori Institute in Delft followed by the first AMI 6–12 Diploma Course ever held in The Netherlands. She is currently the Director of Training for the first AMI 6–12 Diploma Course in Mwanza, Tanzania where close to 40 students are participating, and also Director of Training for the first Dutch AMI 6–12 Diploma Course in Delft.

Eder Cuevas Iturralde

Eder Cuevas Iturralde is Executive Director of Montessori Mexico, Head of the Chihuahua Montessori School, AMI trainer for school leaders, and AMI board member.

He is passionate about Montessori's social contribution through Horme and ESF, with programs such as Montessori environments in prisons. He has supported Montessori schools in the process of continuous improvement, developing programs for adolescents and workshops for families in more than thirty countries.

Eder has studies in physical education and sports, a master's degree in sports psychology, and a bachelor's and master's degree in education. His Montessori training includes AMI elementary in Bergamo, Italy, and AMI adolescent training in Ohio, USA. He was a professor at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua at the bachelor's and master's levels for 15 years in the areas of sports and is currently a consultant for Montessori Sports.

Judi Orion

Judith A. Orion M.A. Director of Training holds the AMI Early Childhood (3-6) diploma and received her Assistants to Infancy (0-3) diploma at the first AMI training for that level, given in Rome.

Judi has conducted Primary and Infancy Montessori classes, and is a trainer, examiner, and consultant at both levels. She conducted teacher training internationally and was Director of Training for the first 0-6 AMI Diploma course. Judi works at AMI as the Director of Pedagogy and served for many years as the Chair of the Training Group, the AMI committee that oversees the training of new AMI trainers. In 2020 Judi retired from The Montessori Institute, Denver, Colorado where she was the director of 0-3 training courses for 30 years.

Julia Ballesteros

Julia Ballesteros Sentíes is a Human Communication therapist specialized in cognitive neurorehabilitation from the Complutense University of Madrid, with over 25 years of experience working with adults and seniors in clinical and community settings. She is a Board Member of Montessori Mexico, a member of the Mexican College of Human Communication Therapists, and the first AMI Montessori trainer in Spanish for aging and dementia. Certified as a Montessori guide (3–6), in Montessori for aging and dementia, and as a Death Doula, Julia has pioneered the integration of Montessori philosophy into aging, dementia, and palliative care, training professionals internationally and founding NUÚP honra.conecta. She also organized the First International Montessori Congress on Adults and Seniors and continues to focus her work on dignifying every stage of life, fostering compassionate caregiving, and honoring human authenticity through Montessori principles.

Molly O'Shaughnessy

Molly O'Shaughnessy is an AMI Primary (3–6) Trainer, consultant, and Executive Director Emeritus of the Montessori Center of Minnesota (MCM). For nearly three decades, she led MCM, expanding its impact through teacher training, community-based Montessori programs, and the development of a permanent campus in East St. Paul that includes an AMI training center, a model early childhood program, and a Montessori museum. She is the founder of Montessori Partners Serving All Children (MPSAC), supporting high-fidelity Montessori programs in historically marginalized communities. An internationally respected Montessori leader, she has served on the AMI Board, the AMI Trainers Group, and continues to consult, teach, and speak worldwide on equity, leadership, and social justice in Montessori education.

Lynne Lawrence

Lynne Lawrence has served as Executive Director of AMI since June 2008. Prior to this role, she was Acting Secretary General and Chair of the Association's Human Resources Committee. She also worked as a trainer with the Maria Montessori Training Organisation (MMTO), now known as the Maria Montessori Institute.

As Executive Director, Lynne actively promotes the inclusion of the Montessori Movement in developing countries, while also working across other areas of the Association, including Montessori training programs worldwide, research and development initiatives of the Board of Directors, and the coordination of AMI's committees and staff.