The Team

Siri Fiske

Siri is the founder and Head of MYSA School.  Siri is passionate about education reform and creating learning environments that focus on the learner. A strong advocate for experiential learning, Siri has traveled the world with groups of students experiencing with them first hand the lives of others. She has taught science and math. She has designed, launched, and nourished many programs in public schools, including arts and music programs that currently reach thousands of students in the Los Angeles area. Her most recent job before moving to Washington, DC was helping to design and launch a K-12 school in South Korea.  Siri holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, a MA in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a MAT (masters in teaching with a focus on technology) from the University of Southern California.

Nina Cortina

Nina is the Head and Lead Teacher in grades K-5.  Nina has been working in education for 17 years.  During this last year, she has been working as a Global Teacher teaching high school students from all around the world, virtually.  Prior to this, she served as the Principal of the Miami Children’s Museum Charter School for ten years. There she developed a hands-on curriculum based on the Museum’s exhibits, a project-based Gifted Program and a district awarded “Gold” STEAM program. She began her teaching career as a Montessori teacher and fell in love with the Montessori approach. The Montessori ethos became a critical component of her development as an educator and continues to play a role in her teaching philosophy at MYSA.  Nina is originally from Miami, Florida and received her Master’s in Educational Leadership in 2009 from Nova Southeastern University.

Ariel Martinez Brumbaugh

Ariel is the English Language Arts and Lead Teacher in grades 6-12. Ariel has nine years of experience both teaching and leading in independent schools. She has an MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and teaches the Connect class and Literature. To her, MYSA is an oasis for kids who need both the freedom to be an individual as well as the support of a school family. Ariel can be found kayaking on the Patuxent River with her black Lab, Tavi, in her free time. 

Mike Meadows

Mike is our Middle School Math and Science Teacher and resident Renaissance man. He has been working in education for over 10 years.  He loves exploring the creative possibilities of education, bringing his eclectic background in literature, film studies, and architecture to bear on curriculum design and classroom instruction.  Mike holds a PhD in Literature from Yale University, a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University, and teaching certificates in Reading English Language Arts and Italian from the Maryland State Department of Education.  Mike is also a passionate believer in education reform and has worked with the non-profit group Teach Plus to advocate on key policy issues to reimagine K-12 education for the 21st century. Outside of school, Mike can be found at his pottery studio, in acting class, or exploring DC with his husband and beagle.

Robyn Gausman-Burnett

Robyn oversees all things curricular via our new App and supports great teaching at MYSA. She is a graduate of Villanova University and The New School for Social Research. She holds several certificates in education including a concentration in Special education for Positive Psychology and Optimism from the Institute for Childhood and Educational Psychology-Europe, certificates in Comptency Based Eduaction and Educational Profiling from MIT. Over the past thirteen years she has taught math, business, and social studies spending time at schools in Korea, China and the US. For the past two years, she has been the Curriculum Specialist for Maryknoll School a K-12 Catholic school in Hawaii. In this role she directed teachers through the transition to national standards, redesigned the faculty and graduate profile and led the the schools project-based learning and instruction initiative. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling as much as she can, reading great books, going to the movies and playing strategic board games.

Lila Teenyanoff

Lila is the Makerspace teacher at MYSA School. Originally from Vermont, she graduated from Mount Holyoke College with majors in Geology and Critical Social Thought. Lila’s prior experience includes teaching STEM classes at KID Museum, facilitating tinkering and science explorations at the Montshire Museum of Science, as well as art making at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. She is always excited to see students explore their ideas through tinkering. In her free time, Lila enjoys ceramics, skiing and visiting the zoo. 

Whitney Retzer

Whitney works behind the scenes to help admin and outreach flourish. She has worked in international education for more than a decade in Azerbaijan, Japan, Thailand, UAE,  and the USA. She has Marketing BA from the University of Minnesota and a MEd in educational leadership from the American College of Education. As a former educator, she loves the teaching and learning process and comparing best practices internationally with MYSA’s robust curricular offerings for subject-based mastery. When she is not working, she can be found exploring with her husband and daughter.

Additional Instructors

Students engage in a variety of classes within walking distance of the school. Currently students in Bethesda are enrolled in Spanish and Mandarin classes at the International School of Languages , cross training at Next Phase, and kickboxing at Bethesda Boxing Kickboxing Academy.