We participate in MentoringinAction.com and serve as online master mentors because:

  • We want to be part of a team that shares a vision for preparing mentors
  • We love to share ideas with beginning mentors in the online courses
  • Participating in this work gives us a sense of purpose beyond the classroom
  • The Mentoring in Action program offers a way to sustain mentoring
  • We want to “pay it forward” to help novice teachers grow
  • We believe every novice teacher should have a qualified mentor

Teacher Leaders



Adam Ingano - Master Mentor Evaluator		Adam Ingano is presently the Coordinator of New Teacher Mentoring for Clinton Public Schools, in addition to his duties as a high school history teacher and department chair. He has served as a Master Mentor Evaluator (MME) during the previous iterations of this course. In these roles he has guided mentors to use the Standards of Effective Teaching Practices in their mentoring conversations, and encouraged them to become leaders in their districts.

He chose to be an MME for this course because he believes the single most important investment any district makes are the people they hire. Considering that philosophy, he wants to empower teacher leaders around the Commonwealth to take an active role in the “care and feeding” of new teachers. Adam is serving as a Maintaining Your Balance Mentor this year.


Amy McLaughlin-Hatch - Master Mentor Evaluator		Amy McLaughlin-Hatch is a History and Social Studies teacher at Southeastern Regional High School for the past 8 years. She attended the New Teacher Center Symposium in San Francisco, California in 2014 with Project Success and was Project Success Southeastern District Coordinator for the Fall and Spring Mentoring Conferences in 2014-2015.

Amy chose to be an MME coach for this course because she values mentoring and wants to pay it forward. She saw first hand the benefit of the train the trainer model in Project SUCCESS and wants to continue that work with the Mentoring in Action Team. She has embraced being a Mentor for the past seven years at her school. Amy is serving as a Maintaining Your Balance Mentor this year.
annemarie-finnAnnemarie Finn has worked at Mashpee Middle High School for 12 years as a Special Education Teacher, teaching both Resource Room and Inclusion classes in grades 9-12. Teacher leadership opportunities within the district gave her the confidence to pursue her CAGS in Special Education Administration.

Annemarie looks forward to applying her experience in more challenging roles within the district in the future. She has witnessed first hand the necessity for strong mentoring programs. She is excited to support our novice teachers to give them the tools and confidence they need to remain in the profession and best serve our students. Annemarie is a Maintaining Your Balance Mentor supporting novice teachers in her school district this year.
april-allegrezzaApril Allegrezza has taught as an elementary general music teacher and chorus director in the Milton (MA) Public Schools for the past 31 years. She became a member of the Mentor Leadership Team and has served as a mentor facilitator for teachers at the elementary level for the past eight years. She has authored the “Milton Mentoring Handbook for New Teachers and Their Mentors” and “A Monthly Checklist of Activities for Mentors and Mentees” which are hand-tailored documents for the teaching population in Milton.

She began working with the program because she really enjoyed being a mentor. Last year, she and other members of the Milton Mentor Leadership Team took the Mentoring in Action course to further their understanding and help build the program. This course enabled them to create a District Action Plan, incorporate the Mentoring in Action and First Year Matters curricula for mentors and mentees, hire additional staffing for the Mentoring Leadership Team, facilitate a formal mentor training program and create professional development opportunities for new teachers. April is a Maintaining Your Balance Mentor supporting novice teachers in her school district this year.


Janet Fitzgerald - Master Mentor Evaluator		Janet Fitzgerald has just begun her twenty-first year at Seekonk High School; she was an English teacher for the first thirteen years, and then she switched gears to become the school’s Transition Coordinator, working with students in Special Education programs on their post-secondary planning. For the last decade, she has served as a mentor to new teachers and three years ago became the Mentor/Induction Program Coordinator for the district.

She chose to be an MME for this course because she believes in the power of mentoring as an anchor for novice educators. Also, she wants to promote teacher leadership for educators at all stages of their careers.
Jenna Spackman is presently a 7th grade English teacher along with being the Mentor Facilitator at F.A. Day Middle School in Newton. She has been the Mentor Facilitator for five years, organizing building orientation, helping to pair new teachers with mentors and working throughout the year with the pairs to facilitate smooth transitions.

She began working with the program because she really wanted to mentor. She remembers how terrifying and overwhelming the first years of teaching can be, and wanted to be able to provide a warm and supportive environment for incoming teachers. Three years ago she took the Project SUCCESS class with Carol (which is the precursor to this program), to further her understanding. Through the class, she learned so much more about mentoring that she decided to take part in this course as an MME to pay it forward.


Jill Pelletier - Master Mentor Evaluator		Jill Pelletier is currently an assistant principal in the Belchertown Public Schools. Before this she was a school counselor and she participated in the Project Success: Mentoring in Action course. She enjoyed the course so much; she applied to be an MME and was the Project Success Western Mass Regional Coordinator of Spring and Fall Mentoring Conferences held in 2014-15.

Being an MME and coordinator, offers new leadership opportunities and the ability to reach out to others regarding mentoring. Through these opportunities, she is able to view mentoring from a whole new perspective. By participating in the course, acting as MME, coordinator, and a lead mentor within her district, she can see how much of an impact a mentor can have for a new teacher AND how much a lead mentor can do to help support induction.
John Radosta is starting his 25th year at Milton High School, where he teaches English. He still remembers how difficult it was to get through his first few years of teaching, and so he joined Milton's mentoring program in 1999. Now he is one of four Mentoring Leaders in the district, and he's excited to be a part of the Mentoring in Action team. John is a Maintaining Your Balance Mentor supporting novice teachers in her school district this year.


Kathi Rogers - Master Mentor Evaluator		Kathi Rogers is presently retired after 36 years of teaching English, Reading, and Special Needs at Norton High School. In Project SUCCESS, she also served as a Master Mentor Evaluator. In addition she works as an Instructional Consultant for the MA Department of Education’s alternative licensing program and as a Department of Education evaluator for the RETELL/SEI Endorsement courses. In another educationally related role, she works as an educational lobbyist for the Massachusetts Teachers Association advocating for both teachers and students.

In all of these roles, she strives to help mentors and candidates use the Standards of Effective Teaching Practices in their work and to use them herself. Encouraging teachers to become leaders in their districts is her way of paying back the many colleagues who assisted her throughout her career. It is also her strong belief that by doing this work, she is helping to have a positive impact on students.



Liz Talbot - Master Mentor Evaluator		Liz Talbot just recently retired after 12 years teaching in Chelsea as a Reading Specialist and working as a mentor in middle school. In Project SUCCESS (which is the precursor to this program), she served as a Mentor and as a Master Mentor Evaluator (MME).

Liz chose to be an MME for this course because she values mentoring and believes that this course provides a much needed structure for mentors to really make a difference for their novice teachers.
She believes that the guiding principles of “balance, inspire, and lead” are a framework for the creation of an effective mentoring program.
maggie-heffernanMaggie Heffernan is presently an 8th grade Mathematics teacher at F.A. Day Middle School in Newton. This is her 10th year as a public educator, two of which were at the elementary level. She has experience mentoring several first-year teachers and student teachers and is now a mentor facilitator at her school. She enjoys working with newer teachers in order to improve their practice as well as her own.

She holds a M.Ed. in Mathematics from Boston University and a B.S. in Middle Level Education from the University of Vermont. Maggie is a Maintaining Your Balance Mentor supporting novice teachers in her school district this year.


Maryanne Margiotta - Master Mentor Evaluator		Maryanne Margiotta has been a high school English teacher at Southwick Regional School for the past 15 years. In Project SUCCESS, she served as a Master Mentor Evaluator, and she also serves as her district’s Mentoring Coordinator, working closely with both new teachers and their mentors. In these roles she has guided mentors to use the Standards of Effective Teaching Practices in their mentoring conversations and encourages them to become leaders in their districts. Like teaching, this is work that gives her great joy!

Maryanne feels that it is important to not only keep new teachers’ work aligned with the teacher evaluation standards, but also to keep teachers actively engaged in their own learning. She finds it valuable to guide other mentors – not only in helping them to hopefully become better practitioners, but in also allowing her to reflect on her own practices during the process.
nicole-frencicNicole Frencic is beginning her 12th year as a Special Education teacher at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School, where she also serves as the Lead Teacher of her department. Nicole co-teaches in both the English and Mathematics departments at Assabet Valley. Throughout her time at Assabet, she has been a mentor to two novice teachers, and recently completed the “Mentoring in Action: Becoming a Qualified Mentor” course in Spring 2016.

Nicole chose to become an MME for this course because she wants to support and guide novice teachers as they evolve into confident educators. She believes that the support of a mentor, and a structured mentor induction program play an important role in the success of new teachers. Nicole is a Maintaining Your Balance Mentor supporting novice teachers in her school district this year.
sarah-kramerSarah Kramer is a Mathematics teacher at Assabet Valley High School. She is beginning her sixth year of teaching and teaches Algebra 1 and Geometry. She has been a new teacher mentor for the past 2 years as well as a student mentor to incoming freshmen students.

She chose to be an MYB for this course because she wants to be part of something bigger. By taking on this leadership role she is able to make a difference in her district by providing a supportive environment to help incoming teachers thrive and become more effective. Her quest for becoming the best teacher possible is ever revolving and opportunities like this allow her to become a better educator through the different experiences and knowledge novice teachers have to offer. Sarah is a Maintaining Your Balance Mentor supporting novice teachers in her school district this year.


Scott Connery - Master Mentor Evaluator		Scott Connery is an Administrator at Oxford High School with 15 years of teaching and mentoring experience. In Project SUCCESS (which is the precursor to this program), he served as a Master Mentor Evaluator (MME) where he guided mentors to use the Standards of Effective Teaching Practices in their mentoring conversations and encouraged them to become leaders in their districts. He is also a Mindful Mentor Leader (MML) for the Mindful Leadership in Action Course. He truly believes this is important and worthwhile work.