Our Team
Welcome to our Leadership & Educators page, where you’ll meet the dedicated team guiding and nurturing the young minds at The Nest. Each member of our staff brings a unique blend of experience, creativity, and compassion to ensure every child feels supported and inspired. Get to know the educators who make our school a warm, welcoming place for your little one to thrive.
Director
Eleanor has worked at The Nest for eight years. She has worked several positions including chef, floater, assistant teacher, lead classroom teacher and administrator.
Eleanor has been working with children as far back as she can remember. She understands that more brain development happens in the first five years of life than at any other point, which is why she believes deeply in The Nest’s mission.
She loves to engage children in discussion and work with them to develop empathetic social skills and strategies to address challenging behaviors. She is a believer in the goodness of children and their inherent search for knowledge.
Co-Founder and Multi-Classroom Educator
Mandy Palmer has been working in the field of early childhood education for over 25 years. After receiving a degree in Family and Child Development from Auburn University, she moved to Atlanta in 1996 in hopes of finding better schools in the “big city”. Before starting The Nest, she worked at Clifton Child Care, (now known as The Clifton School) Georgia Pacific Bright Horizons, and Grant Park Cooperative Preschool. Mandy is not only passionate about working with children but also their families. She enjoys being a community builder!
Mandy’s passion comes from a strong belief that children come into this world yearning for connection and knowledge, that the first five years of a child’s life are the most important and impactful years in human development, and that families of young children deserve support from their school community. It takes a village!
Mandy lives in East Atlanta with her son Leo who attends Maynard Jackson High School. Mandy has had the great fortune of living in the neighborhood for 20 years, enjoying what she never had as a child—a loving community of people that work together to make the world a better place for our children.
In recent years Mandy has been interested in and researching how childhood trauma affects the brain, racial & social justice issues, neoliberalism, and how empathy can be the path to inner and world peace. She has come to realize that for any change to happen, you must work hard and resist the status quo. She is excited to work with The Nest community to begin changing the way we see schools for young children to ensure that every child regardless of their economic status have the opportunity to attend quality schools.
Multi-Classroom Educator
Kiah Ballard got her start at The Nest over 10 years ago as an intern pursuing a degree in Early Childhood Education. Since then she has had internship positions in many childcare settings but The Nest always felt like home. Kiah graduated from Georgia State University with her Bachelors Degree in Birth through Kindergarten Education in May of 2016 and was thrilled that she could become a full-time teacher at The Nest. When not spending time at The Nest, Kiah enjoys exploring new places, occasionally binge watching shows on Netflix, and spending time with her family.
Naturalist
Cathy is a self-proclaimed ‘late bloomer’; who has dabbled in all kinds of life and career paths from yogini to bookkeeper to massage therapist and everything in between until at 46 Y.O.; Cathy discovered her career as an educator/guide/partner-in-learning with the littlest learners.
Cathy’s passion for advocating for the young child has been unwavering since the launch of her career as an educator at GPCP. Cathy went on to create a state-licensed service for infants and toddlers in her home. Cathy decided to join the Nest in 2015 during the expansion to 1040 Grant Street.
Cathy found her niche at The Nest as the Naturalist and loves her work with the children creating the Nature Preserve.
Cathy comes to us with a wealth of knowledge gleaned from over 15 years serving families with young children. Cathy is in collaboration with the Nest leadership to provide continuous care to Parkside families when Nest children are matriculating to Elementary school.
Cathy and her husband, Kyle Carlock, live in Grant Park. They are most proud of their 30 year old son, David who graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. When she is not at The Nest, Cathy is practicing yoga, dancing, singing, sewing and bicycling. However, Cathy’s favorite past-time, as well as work, is being in the nature preserve which she has found after many years of searching to be her ‘happy place’. Cathy has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in sociology and a Technical Certificate of Credit in Early Childhood Education.
Green and Blue Room Educator
Charletra Johnson was born and raised in Atlanta. She grew up and still lives in the historic district of Old Fourth Ward near the Martin Luther King Jr. birth home. Her passion for teaching started at the age of 13 while working at a summer youth camp. She loved positively influencing children so much that she worked there the next summer. Working with children sparked her interest in learning how humans think, so she pursued a community Psychology degree from Georgia State University in 2005. After graduating college, she volunteered for the Atlanta Children’s shelter reading books and mentoring children ages 1 to 4.
She joined Grant Park Cooperative Preschool shortly after and immediately became intrigued and fascinated with the Reggio philosophy. She loves that the philosophy has a high image of the child and allows children to discover the joy of learning using over 100 different languages. She worked there for 8 years while earning her infant toddler teaching certificate from Georgia Piedmont Technical College in 2015.
After leaving GPCP, she wanted to continue her career working at a preschool that values children. So as fate would have it, her star aligned with The Nest Nursery School. The Nest is perfect for her not only for the Reggio Philosophy but also because she loves birds!
Studio Teacher
Mika started working at The Nest in 2017. She has worked in every classroom and with every age group at the school. She is often inspired by children’s wonder and curiosity in relating to their environments. She takes special interest in engaging with her students to work through stressful situations and guide children’s emotions, so they can use their tenacity to learn from these challenges. She believes that helping children find the tools and words to express themselves builds autonomy and confidence.
Mika has a passion for the natural world, and she has worked as a farmer locally. She also has had the opportunity to be a Programs Assistant in Education at The Atlanta Botanical Gardens. She tries to instill an admiration and respect for nature in the children. She also works part time as an artist specializing in photography, which helps deepen her materials work in the classroom. She loves to meld her own interests with those of the children’s to create a deeper experience for everyone.
Blue Room Educator
Cassidy was born in Dothan, Alabama and has lived in a handful of cities, including Macon, Savannah, and New York. She holds a degree in Women’s and Gender Studies from Columbia University.
Cassidy’s first experience with childcare was teaching small art classes to younger community members while interning at Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia in 2021. It was here that she discovered a love for sharing the world with children, nurturing their natural curiosity, and guiding and empowering them through life’s big experiences. While living on the farm, she also had the chance to hone skills such as gardening and animal care, and often led study sessions with other interns on spirituality and Earth stewardship.
Since moving back to Atlanta in 2022, Cassidy has worked at Holy Trinity Parish Preschool as a 2-3 year old teacher and at Color Wheel Studio as a Multimedia Educator. She is delighted to be joining The Nest Nursery School’s community of educators in the 2024-2025 school year.
While not at work, she enjoys painting, writing, spending time with friends, and exploring the outdoors.
Orange Room Educator
Sophie has worked at The Nest for over a year after starting at another Reggio-inspired preschool. She has worked with ages infant – 5-years-old and has been a floater, auxiliary teacher, and lead teacher. In her free time she is an artist and author.
Inspired by the story her moms always told about a preschool teacher looking out for her, Sophie strives to make sure all children feel safe and understood in an environment meant to cultivate their individual strengths, not tear them down for their struggles.
Her approach to teaching is to always encourage empathy for others and their environment and the joy of independence as well as community and companionship.
Administrator
Nikki Starz is an artist and teacher. She moved to Atlanta in 2009, graduated with a BFA in Sculpture and Ceramics from Kennesaw State University in 2010. She has worked as a freelance sculptor and artist for the last 12 years and began teaching at the Nest in June 2022. She has permanent work at The Georgia Aquarium, Fernbank Natural History Museum, Dolby Sound System’s Headquarters in San Francisco and has shown with Whitespace Gallery at Aqua Art Fair during Art Basil Miami. She lives in Grant Park with her senior dog and cat- Ada and Goose.
