(She/Her)

Executive Director

Celeste is the founder of Big Wonder. She has her Master of Arts in Teaching and over a decade as an educator working with infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary, middle school, and adult students. She has served as a curriculum developer, education coordinator, coach, and teacher supervisor of and volunteers in multiple roles. She has taught in eight countries, giving her extensive experience in diverse socio-economic, religious, racial, and cultural settings.

Celeste’s work as an educator is rooted in the belief that education is the most effective catalyst for societal change and that early childhood education is the most critical foundation from which all aspects of human development are built. To that end, she believes anti-bias and anti-racist values are best-practice in every classroom. She is a co-founder of The Arise Framework, which is designed to enable patterns of growth to create race-conscious early childhood communities. Celeste is a children’s book author and founder of Shining Lamp Press. She lives in Saint Paul, MN, with her husband and son.

(She/They)

Program Coordinator

Hannah has a master’s in ECE with director qualifications from the Boulder Journey School’s partnership program with the University of Colorado Denver. Hannah is an early childhood and arts educator with over a decade of experience in teaching, mostly in Reggio-inspired, emergent learning settings. She is an Atelierista (studio director) at St. Paul School of Northern Lights, a unique, Reggio-inspired K-8 public charter school with foci on outdoor and place-based education and social justice. Prior to her current role at Northern Lights, Hannah taught in Montessori and blended programs. A strong proponent of accessible, quality preschool education, she developed a low-cost program for 3-5 year-olds. She has also led music (ukulele, voice) and theater programs with children. Hannah has led professional development on the 100 Languages of Children, observation & documentation, cycles of inquiry, and the history of the schools of Reggio Emilia. With the Reggio-Inspired Network of Minnesota, Hannah has led professional development presentations and is a volunteer member of two committees.

(She/Her)

Board President

Emily and her husband have two lively elementary-aged boys, but still remember the ups and downs of child care. When the center near their house closed suddenly, they worked with neighbors to try to buy the building and start a new childcare center there. Though it didn't work out, Emily learned a lot about the behind-the-scenes of starting a childcare center.

Emily Northey has 15 years in non-profit program administration focused on downtown revitalization. She currently co-owns the consulting firm Northey Government Services, LLC with her husband, where they assist grantees with their reporting. As the leader of Minnesota Main Street, after it restarted in 2010, Emily traveled throughout Minnesota, training local communities in downtown revitalization including: zoning, fundraising, economic development, property management, historic preservation, events and marketing, volunteer leadership development, record-keeping, and nonprofit management. She also provided direct technical assistance on these issues as well as procuring other experts to supplement. Emily evaluated programs annually and crafted custom training and TA based on programs’ needs.

Through this in-depth work with communities of all sizes in Minnesota, Emily became very familiar with the signs of volunteer-based programs that are healthy and those which are more likely to be at risk of failure or closing suddenly. After, Emily was Executive Director of the West 7th / Fort Road Federation for 4 years. She brings this in-depth knowledge of managing small or start-up nonprofits to the Board of Big Wonder.

(She/Her)

Secretary

Nadia is drawn into the world of education by its possibility to be world-transforming. Raised by professors in Papua New Guinea who were committed to engagement in grassroots development work in rural villages, Nadia experienced firsthand the power of education to transform people’s personal and collective reality. She went on to study child and cross-cultural psychology at Macalester College, while also earning teaching licenses in Early Childhood, Kindergarten, and Elementary education. Nadia has spent the majority of her career working in schools in developing countries in the South Pacific islands, striving to offer high-quality, internationally standardized programs to students of diverse backgrounds. She has served on numerous education boards and advisory councils at the national, regional, and local levels, many of which supported the development of innovative, grassroots-led initiatives to develop educational programs suited to the needs of the population. Nadia is currently working towards a Master of Education in Parent and Family Education from the University of Minnesota. She lives with her family in an intergenerational home in Willmar, MN.

(She/Her)

Board Member

Ambrosia Mosby is currently employed at the County Attorney’s Office in Ramsey County, MN as part of the criminal division trial team. Prior to working in Minnesota, Ambrosia worked as a Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney in Chesterfield County, VA, supervising criminal cases that arose out of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court building, a prosecutor in the Richmond City office, Richmond, VA, working on prosecution and program development and a Senior Trial Attorney at the Public Defender’s Office in Richmond, VA, working as a defense attorney and also providing immigration advice to other public defenders in Richmond and throughout the state. Originally from Richmond, VA, she grew up in small-town MN, earned her BA from Carleton College, was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and received her law degree at The College of William and Mary. In her free time, Ambrosia loves traveling, garage sale shopping, attending festivals and sports events. She currently resides in Forest Lake, MN with her husband, 5 children and Labrador, Piña.

(He/Him)

Board Member

Dr. Wandemberg is a USAID scholarship recipient. As an international consultant, Dr. Wandemberg has collaborated with the UNDP, USAID, ACDi/VOCA, and many NGOs in Europe, Asia, and North and South America in humanitarian missions. Dr. Wandemberg has been a professor of human behavior, sustainable development (social, economic, environmental), an analyst of managerial and geopolitical issues with extensive experience in critical-thinking skills development, strategic planning, academic leadership, budget and resource management, institutional efficiency, employee engagement, servant leadership, capacity building, and public relations. For the past 30 years Dr. Wandemberg has collaborated with communities, organizations, and corporations around the world catalyzing enhancive workplace cultures, integrating sustainability and tropophilia through self-transformation processes and Open Systems Design Principles, creating a culture of Trust, Transparency, and Integrity.

(He/Him)

Board Treasurer