The Institute · Now accepting applications
The Prepared Leader: Charter Cohort, ten seats · Condensed, January to June 2027
Montessori Makers Group
Home of the Prepared Organization.
The framework for the school adults inhabit, and the people, systems, and platforms that hold it together.
Strong classrooms.
Complex systems.
Montessori schools invest deeply in the quality of classroom life, and that investment shows. But organizational systems often develop reactively, shaped by growth and urgency rather than intentional design.
That is a structural gap rather than a leadership failure, and it can be closed with the same intentionality that shaped the classroom in the first place.
Alignment is not an aspiration. It is infrastructure.
This work is grounded in anti-bias, anti-racist practice and a justice-centered view of what Montessori can and should be. It starts from the conviction that peace requires justice, and that schools have a responsibility to reflect that in how they operate, not only in what they say they believe.
What do you need right now?
Where most schools begin.
Prepare, place, develop, sustain. No other organization in Montessori links all four, and each piece was built to reinforce the next.
You don't need every part of it right now. Start where the pressure in your school is actually real.
Prepare
MMR trains educators through a full-scope credential with equity at the center and a paid practicum that treats preparation as a profession, not a costly side project.
Place
MatchHub connects MMG-prepared candidates to schools built for their philosophy, and gives schools a way to find candidates who were actually prepared in alignment.
Develop
The Institute builds leadership capacity in people already doing the work. Seminars, coaching, and formation across the full arc of a Montessori career.
Sustain
Advisory and MMAP give schools the systems and organizational design that let good people stay, grow, and lead without burning out.
MMG is one coherent ecosystem, built around what Montessori schools actually depend on: well-prepared people working in aligned schools, held together by structures that don’t collapse when a leader turns over.
Four planes of development, one prepared organization.
“I built Montessori Makers because I saw leaders doing extraordinary work, without the structures to sustain it.”
Hannah Richardson, Founder
Montessori leader, strategist, and creator whose career spans independent, public, charter, and justice-centered Montessori communities, from infant classrooms through middle school and into the board rooms where the future of a school actually gets decided.
About HannahFive things that shape everything we do.
Montessori works best when the whole organization is aligned, not just the classroom.
Strong systems protect people and make excellence sustainable.
Adult culture is not separate from child outcomes. It shapes them.
Peace requires justice: safety, dignity, belonging, and courage for every child and adult.
Montessori is not sustained by ideals alone. It needs structures that let those ideals live.
From the Community
We had the pleasure of working with Hannah during a critical hiring phase, and her professionalism stood out from the very beginning. She navigated a complex search with care and clarity, combining professionalism with a personal touch.
Alisa Anania
Head of School, The Tidewater School
Strategic SearchI couldn't have done this without Montessori Makers Group. We appreciate her Montessori knowledge and background combined with the deep analysis of each candidate. It made all the difference in finding the right fit for our community.
Rebecca
Director, Wheaton Montessori
Strategic SearchThe frameworks gave me language I didn't have before, and practical tools I could use the very next week.
Sonja Villalba
Administrator, School in the Hills
Staffing CourseFeatured in Montessori’s leading voices.
AMI
Association Montessori Internationale
Featured presenter on Montessori leadership and organizational alignment.
Asia Montessori Conference
Hanoi, Vietnam
International keynote on Montessori systems thinking and school leadership.
Breaking the Paradigm
Podcast · January 2026
Co-founder of The Peace Rebellion in conversation on justice, Montessori, and structural change.
Montessori in Action
Public Montessori in Action International · Podcast
Highlighted for the Decodable Book Series, called out as a primary classroom veteran and school leader.
PMAI
Public Montessori in Action International
Multiple episodes on school reopening strategies, adult culture, and Montessori leadership.
Now Booking · Fall 2026
Fall professional development dates are open.
Schools and conferences planning keynotes, workshops, or leadership retreats for August through the following spring are welcome to reach out now.
The Makers Network
A weekly email for Montessori leaders and practitioners.
Free. No noise. Just what matters to people doing this work.