Maggie Ball, Director & Teacher

Maggie Ball, our dedicated director, began her journey at Little Wonders in 2012 as a participating parent alongside her son and later, her two daughters. Sharing the joys and challenges of parenting in the encouraging Little Wonders community had such a positive impact on her family that she eagerly embraced the chance to become part of the staff when the opportunity arose.

As a Little Wonders teacher, Maggie instils invaluable lessons of understanding child development in order to set reasonable expectations as parents. She shares her wealth of knowledge and experiences with new parents and continues to apply those lessons in parenting her own children, now teenagers.

In her role as director, her unwavering commitment shines in cultivating an environment where young families can come together to nurture and enrich a strong, supportive community.

Suzanne Zaino, Teacher

Teacher Suzanne has been teaching with Little Wonders since 2004. Before Little Wonders, she completed her undergraduate and Masters in Education at Stanford. She’s a mother of two grown children and has over 30 years of teaching experience, starting with a decade as a high school social science teacher, with half of that teaching at-risk students.

Suzanne began her journey at Little Wonders as a participating family in 2001, where she learned so much and still maintains very close friendships with other parents from that first class. As a teacher, she loves experiencing the growth and delights of little ones and inclusion in people’s families. She firmly believes that raising children takes more than just the parents – both parents and children need other family and friends actively in their lives, and she is passionate about being one of those other people in the lives of our Little Wonders families.

During the pandemic, Suzanne ran an in-person K-3rd social-emotional learning pod for 2.5 years. Working with a small group of elementary students (5-8 students), she connected with each child individually to understand their feelings, their ability to express their needs and hone their ability to be a good friend while playing, exploring and getting messy.

As a group, Suzanne facilitated working through differences in temperaments, academic abilities, and physical strengths. She is very interested in understanding the neuroscience of emotions for children and adults and that informs her recommendations. Also during that time, Suzanne pioneered new virtual Little Wonders classes for elementary support and continued the tradition of preschool support because parents needed a non-judgmental space to learn, share, and explore their challenges and wins as parents and as individuals. Those classes have been so popular, Little Wonders has decided to continue them and this year is offering two sessions of the elementary support class.

Lisa Kearns, TEACHER

Lisa Kearns is a social worker and licensed marriage and family therapist pursuing a Ph.D. in Positive Developmental Psychology. As part of her doctoral studies, she is the Lab Manager at the Adolescent Moral Development Lab, where she conducts research on purpose. A former high school counselor and educator, Lisa has experience addressing adolescent anxiety and believes in the transformative impact of cultivating purpose to enhance life satisfaction.

Lisa is equally passionate about the power of parenting. As the mother of four grown children, all of whom attended Little Wonders, she credits the lessons she learned during those formative years—while sitting in a small chair at the discussion table—for her success as a parent and her ability to embrace the parenting journey with joy. Her mission is to help parents gain confidence in their parenting abilities. She emphasizes that those who choose a cooperative preschool environment are already demonstrating the qualities needed to be outstanding parents.

Lisa lives nearby with her husband of 30 years and their many adopted cats and dogs. A passionate advocate for animal welfare, she spends her summers volunteering at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah.