Summer Programs

For over 27 years, Allison’s passion has been early childhood education.  She started her career at Hood Street Elementary on Fort Jackson and then Forest Lake Elementary in the administrative office.  She began teaching at St. Martin’s in the Fields Drop-In Nursery and then continued at Kilbourne Park Day School, where she was a teacher and then the Assistant Director.  From there she was the Assistant Director of Eastminster Day School before coming to Heathwood first as the Director of Summer Programs and Assistant Director of Extended Learning and, since 2020, as Director of Summer Learning.  Her love of children even extends to running a summer camp for over 10 years called F.I.T.S. Camp (Fun In The Summer). Many of her former campers are now Heathwood students.  

Allison is a member of St. Martin's in the Fields and Coralbell Garden Club. She and her husband Neil have been married for 21 years and have four children. In her spare time she loves gardening, hiking, riding bikes, going to the beach and mountains and is looking forward to her first grandchild due this August.  

Vanessa grew up in the Los Angeles area and earned her BA in Human Performance with a minor in Entrepreneurship at the other USC - the University of Southern California. She was a standout intercollegiate track and field athlete, competing for 4 years. She served as the Captain of the USC 2014-2015 Track & Field team and was the PAC 12 400-meter champion that same year. In addition to numerous accolades, Vanessa was a 3x All-America, a 2x All-American Academic, and a 2016 Olympic trials participant.

Since graduating from college, Vanessa has worked as a fitness trainer, a track and field coach, and a youth developer at the Boys and Girls Club. Recently, she taught Physical Education at two middle schools in Florida: Hallandale Magnet School (Hallandale, Beach, FL) and Burn Middle School (Brandon, FL).