Walnut Classroom Team
EVE CUSACK, LEAD TEACHER
Eve has a B.A. in Sociology from Northwestern University and an M.A. in Special Education from the University of New Orleans. As a Teach For America corps member, Eve taught public school kindergarten for four years outside of New Orleans, Louisiana. She then served as the educational consultant at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans for two years until Hurricane Katrina brought her and her husband back to Bloomington. Eve joined the BMS teaching staff in 2006 and served as the lead teacher of the Hickory early childhood classroom until spring of 2017. She then began her Montessori elementary (6-12) training and became the lead teacher of the Walnut 6-9 classroom in the fall of 2017.
Eve attended BMS from 1979 to 1987, when she graduated from the upper elementary (9-12) classroom. She lives on a small farmstead with her husband, Sam, who is also a teacher at BMS, their two children, and Eve’s parents.
In her spare time, Eve sings in the UU Church Choir, co-runs a taekwondo studio and volunteers for Bloomington's Urban Greenspaces program by helping to manage invasive plant species.
SAM(ANTHA) STIMER, TEACHER
Sam Stimer is very excited to start her journey at Bloomington Montessori. She graduated from Anderson University with a Bachelor's in English and a Minor in Education with a concentration in Teaching English as a Second Language. She worked for a year after graduating with IPS helping students throughout the district learn English before moving to Beijing, China. She lived in Beijing for five years teaching English and copyediting before deciding to move back home. She loves theater and taking her dogs to dog parks.
JAI HOLT, TEACHER
Jai Holt has a passion for connecting students of all ages to nature. She spent 3 years as an apprentice with the Vermont Wilderness School where she learned wilderness survival, naturalist, and leadership skills. As an apprentice, Jai taught homeschool students during the school year, facilitated workshops for adults, and spent summers teaching camps that provided immersive nature experiences. She has also worked locally at Wild Nature Project. Jai’s passion for nature started at a young age and reminds her of the importance of valuing even the youngest students’ unique gifts and contributions to the community. She began her journey in the Hickory classroom, then moved to the Walnut lower elementary to continue inspiring, teaching, and connecting children with nature.
Jai holds a B.S. in Business Economics from University of Louisville and a M.S. in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana. She enjoys spending time with her 2 daughters, gardening, hiking, camping, learning new skills, attending women’s group, and caring for her 2 cats and 5 chickens.