When Kristin Carpenter decided to open a private school, it felt liberating. “We spent 12 years providing the best interventions and instruction outside of school. Realizing we could design an entire curriculum around the best evidence-based practices was exciting,” she explains. Linder offers campuses in Old Town and McLean, and it has been awarded a “Best Private School K-8” and a “Best School for Non-Traditional Learners.”

Carpenter uses all of her multiple graduate degrees. “Schools have operated in the silo of education for too long, with serious delays incorporating research from other fields. Designing an exceptional program requires knowledge of cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology, education, literacy and numeracy. While I might have collected degrees, it allows Linder Academy to reflect current knowledge about educating kids and developing enthusiastic lifelong learners.”