Our Lower School welcomes four new members to our team this year.
Shannon Somogyi is excited to be joining the Lausanne team as the Lower School Administrative Assistant. She has been involved in education for the last 12 years. Shannon was most recently a state assistant at Farmington Elementary. She assisted the first-grade team as well as assisting in the SPED department. Prior to that, she was the administrative assistant and Spanish teacher at ECS Lower School. At ECS, Shannon also served as the marketing coordinator for all events and served on the Employee Community Committee. Shannon received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. She has two daughters, Catelyn and Caroline, and loves to spend time with her chocolate lab Gage.
Whitney Robertson is excited to join the Lausanne faculty as a second-grade teacher. Ms. Robertson earned her B.A. in English: Creative Writing, and her M.S. in Teacher Education: Elementary Teaching, from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Before joining Lausanne, Ms. Robertson spent eight years teaching kindergarten, second, and fourth grades in the Memphis area. In addition to her classroom responsibilities, she served as grade level chair, mentored several student teachers, and was a committee member responsible for creating a School Improvement Plan. During the summers you will find Ms. Robertson teaching several popular Lausanne camps. She also loves vacationing at the lake and to the beach. Her hobbies include cooking, working out, and spending time with family and friends.
Angie Valadie is very excited to join Lausanne as the Lower School Counselor and is well acquainted with our students as she completed her School Counseling Practicum experience with us in the Fall of 2017. Angie holds a Bachelor of Science in Education and Master of Education from the University of Memphis and has taught both kindergarten and first grade. While working at the University of Memphis for nine years as an adjunct professor supervising student teachers, she also completed all of the coursework and residency requirements for a Doctorate in Early Childhood Special Education. In 2007, Angie and her husband Steve moved with their two children to Hong Kong where she served as the coordinator of the New Family Mentor Program at Hong Kong International School. Upon returning to the United States, Angie decided to “change her major” and is presently completing a Master of Counseling degree with a concentration in School Counseling at the University of Memphis. Her hobbies include traveling, especially to visit her daughters at college, gardening and reading.
Shelby Longfellow has recently moved to Memphis from Dallas with her husband, Nate, and their two canine children, Bella and Scout. She is a familiar face around Lausanne as she worked with the After Care program and took over for Mrs. Hise in third grade when she left to be on maternity leave. Shelby's extensive work with youth and teens spans from her time spent as a tumbling instructor, summer camp counselor and most recently as a fourth-grade teacher in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education from Texas Women's University. When not teaching she enjoys working out, cooking and traveling. Mrs. Longfellow is thrilled to be back in the third-grade classroom full time and is committed to growing her students and practices at Lausanne alongside her colleagues.
Adding these amazing people to our already incredible lower school faculty ensures that the lower school's goal of nurturing the development of each child emotionally, academically, physically, socially and artistically every day is fulfilled.
Our ultimate goal is to instill and maintain a sense of wonder, and excitement for learning, in all of our children, so they leave the Lower School full of eager anticipation for what’s to come.
Welcome To Lausanne!