Early Childhood Education 

Susan Breipohl

Susan has lived and worked in Washington, DC since 1996.  Susan earned her undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education from The Catholic University of America in 2000.  She earned her masters degree in Early Childhood Special Education from George Mason University in 2008.  She has held her teaching license since 2000 and just renewed it once again!  She has always been drawn to Early Childhood due to her interest in human development and the spontaneity and joy of working with the young child.

Susan began her work with DC Public Schools when she volunteered as a reading buddy at Noyes Elementary in 1997 and all of her practicum and student teaching experiences were in DCPS settings. Her first two years of teaching experience were at The School for Arts in Learning (SAIL) where she taught an Inclusion Kindergarten class.  She spent the next seven years at The School-Within-School, a Reggio Emilia Inspired DC Public School.  During this time she had to opportunity to travel to Reggio Emilia, Italy and study their schooling system for young children.

For the past 2 years, Susan served as a Special Education Inclusion Specialist at a local charter school in the Trinidad neighborhood.  As an Inclusion Specialist she managed the caseloads of students in grades Pre-K through 4th who were identified as having mild to significant and multiple special needs.  This included writing and implementing IEPs, chairing IEP meetings and facilitating related services.  Susan engaged in research on special education topics and created and implemented Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA) and Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP) along with the teacher coaching that was essential for the success of these plans.  On a weekly basis she coached and instructed classroom teachers in the areas of special needs and rights, differentiated instruction, accommodations, best practices and an inclusion model. 

In her continued efforts to be an informed and well-rounded Educator, she recently facilitated a BCR (brief constructed response) scoring team (DC-CAS) and was a Content and Bias Reviewer for the DC-CAS.  Susan has created, facilitated and led numerous teacher and parent workshops focused on The Project Approach, Responsive Classroom, Best Practices in Early Childhood Education and The Reggio Emilia Approach.  She has particular professional interests in Teacher Language, Sensory Integration, and the Importance of Drawing.

Susan is excited to enter her twelfth year of education and looks forward to working with the dedicated early childhood teachers of DCPS.  Susan will proudly serve as an Early Childhood Master Educator.

Cheryl Ohlson

Dr. Cheryl Ohlson has more than two decades of experience in the fields of early childhood education and early childhood special education. She began her career as an early childhood educator within the District of Columbia Public Schools, teaching both pre-kindergarten and kindergarten at Smothers Elementary School. 

Cheryl also served on the faculty of the Graduate School of Education at The George Washington University and has more than ten years of experience teaching graduate-level courses in early intervention, early childhood education, and early childhood special education. 

In addition to her teaching, she was responsible for supervising graduate interns in their practicum and student teaching, working within early childhood programs and public schools throughout the Washington metropolitan area. 

During her tenure at GWU, Cheryl was a recipient of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Head Start Research Fellowship, supporting her research related to the impact of Head Start services on young children and their families.

Cheryl most recently has pursued her work with urban schools as an early childhood educational consultant, providing training and consultation within public schools, charter schools, and early childhood development programs serving a high-poverty population of children and families across DC. 

She has worked closely with system and program administrators to support the provision of best practices in early childhood programs, and provided coaching, mentoring, and professional development to teachers.

Cheryl serves in leadership positions on the board of directors of two non-profit early childhood programs in the district and is a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the Council for Exceptional Children, Division of Early Childhood.

Cheryl holds a Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Education from Boston College and earned both an Master of Arts in Early Childhood Special Education and a Doctoral degree in Special Education from George Washington University.

Cheryl lives in DC with her husband and has two school age children. She is serving as a senior master educator, overseeing early childhood and language acquisition master educators.

Rachel Roberts

Rachel Roberts comes to the master educator program with years of experience in early care and education settings.  She started her career in Michigan as a lead teacher at the Leelanau Children’s Center, a progressive private preschool with a focus on experiential learning and the outdoors. During her time there, Ms. Roberts was instrumental in establishing the school as one of twenty-one exemplary programs in the United States chosen by the Doris Duke Foundation.

For several years, Ms. Roberts taught state-funded preschool and Head Start in a blended classroom at Crystal Lake Elementary in Benzonia, Michigan.  An active member of the school’s Title I committee, Ms. Roberts hosted a variety of parent and family engagement activities focused on parenting, literacy and everyday mathematics in the home.  Her classroom was also chosen to serve as a pilot for the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment in an effort to increase resiliency in preschoolers, and won the “Most Creative Classroom” award in 2009.

In 2009, Ms. Roberts was chosen by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start to serve as a National Head Start Fellow here in Washington, DC.  Ms. Roberts has presented at a variety of local, state, regional and national conferences, on topics such as transitions, guided play, conflict resolution, the CLASS, using data to promote positive child outcomes, and community collaboration.  Early in her career, Ms. Roberts created “Parents Together”, a monthly parent support group that is still in practice today.

Ms. Roberts holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Child Development from Michigan State University, and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Western Governors University. 

Rachel will be serving as a master educator for Early Childhood Education.

Lisa Woodruff

Lisa Woodruff comes to DC Public Schools with 12 years’ experience working in Early Childhood Education and Special Education. 

She began her professional career in Prince William County, Virginia as an Inclusion Specialist within a Head Start classroom. During that time, she also served as a Resource Specialist and worked with children identified with special needs and their families within community child care centers and home settings. 

In 2006, Lisa was selected to open a pilot 6-6 model classroom for students on the Autism Spectrum and their peer models. She served as the Instructional Team Leader during that time and under her mentoring and leadership, her team received the annual team award. The award recognized Ms. Woodruff and her teammates for their ability to contribute the highest standards of pedagogy and professionalism in various educational capacities.

In addition to Lisa’s classroom experiences, she has worked as a Child Find Specialist for Alexandria City Public Schools. In this position, she coordinated all aspects of the evaluation process for children suspected of having a developmental delay and provided auspices to Special Educators and Speech Pathologists as they pertained to the evaluation process. 

She also provided parents with insurmountable support and guidance as related to the Special Education process and the developmental milestones for young children. She conducted trainings and staff development for community Pre-K programs regarding best practices, differentiated instruction and classroom modifications. 

Ms. Woodruff presented at the Annual Children Together conference regarding collaborative classrooms and participated in a Strategic Planning group for Autism.

Lisa has a certification in the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (Categories I: Making it Happen and Category II: Inquiry), and extensive experience in implementing the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scales, Functional Behavior Analysis and Behavior Intervention Plans.

Ms. Woodruff ‘s formal preparation includes a Bachelor of Science, Speech Pathology and Audiology and a Master of Art, Early Childhood Special Education both from West Virginia University.

Lisa will proudly serve as a Master Educator for Early Childhood and Special Education.