Mia Barbee is a passionate learner-centered educator, building student agency to personalize and differentiate learning. Her teaching experience, which spans over 25 years, includes working with marginalized populations in public schools, as well as working at private international schools. With her background and broad experience teaching in the United States and Latin America, she knows that, regardless of their background and capabilities, the best way to engage learning for children is through interactive play. Ms. Barbee is a committed, life-long learner who has benefitted from grants provided by the Goodnight Educational Foundation and The U.S. Department of State’s Office of Overseas Schools. She holds a BA in Communication Disorders from N.C. State University, an MEd in Teaching English as Second Language from the University of North Carolina, an International Early Childhood Certificate, and has extensive Post-Graduate coursework in Educational Leadership. She has participated as an expert panelist in the Lego Foundation's 'World of Play's philanthropic competition. She is currently serving as the Head of Academics for grades 2-5 and is transitioning into a Reading Interventionist role while following the Science of Reading and using the structured literacy approach.