Olga's interest in Montessori started with her young cousins, whose mother, Olga’s aunt, has been a 3-6 guide for over 30 years. Olga paused her university degree temporarily and went to New York to do her elementary Montessori training at the Center for Montessori Teacher Education. During training she met Mark Powell when he came from Australia to take the same training. They were married at the training centre in 1996 in a ceremony based on the Montessori curriculum.
After a few years of working in Montessori schools in Massachusetts, Olga decided to complete her biology degree and worked as a research scientist and as a lab manager for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at labs in Harvard University and UC Berkeley, California.
Olga really never left Montessori as she has always been involved in the schools where Mark and their daughter, Bella, attended. She has started PTAs, been a relief teacher and has taught lessons in Science, Art, and cooking both in USA and Australia. Olga has also attended conferences worldwide, and visited many Montessori schools in the US, Australia, and New Zealand with Mark.
In her other life Olga has been an Administrator and Training Assistant for the Centre for Investigative Interviewing at Griffith University since 2021. The Centre’s primary focus is to generate new knowledge about interviewing and interviewer training techniques with the goal of improving justice outcomes for vulnerable witnesses.
Olga's role at Montessori Australia is to provide administrative functions for the growing Montessori Quality: Authentic Practice (MQ:AP) program, assisting Elizabeth Goor, Director of Quality Management and Planning, who leads the program. She also coordinates Montessori Australia's events and conferences.
