Academy of Thought and Industry at Austin

Julia earned her bachelor’s degree in English literature from Brown University. After several years working in literacy education, she discovered Montessori and completed her AMI Elementary and Adolescent Certification. She created an adolescent program where she discovered the joy of working with teens. She has organized Montessori teacher trainings at the adolescent level, including the AMI/NAMTA Orientation to Adolescent Studies. She initially joined Higher Ground as a Programs Coach and Manager, working to support all ATI campuses, but she missed being in a school community- and in November 2020 joined ATI Austin. She could not be happier to be back working directly with students. Outside of work, Julia is a yoga instructor, enjoys singing and spending time with loved ones, and has a cat called Boo.

Josh has been in the human development space for over 15 years as a certified life coach, personal development entrepreneur, meditation guide, mentor, and youth leader. In 2015, he co-founded Startup Island, an experiential learning platform that has curated retreats, workshops, conscious conversations, and developmental resources for thousands of students and professionals globally. Josh's educational mission is to help every individual become the CEO of their life. In his personal life, Josh is a lover of nature, writer of poetry, and while he thoroughly enjoys being surrounded by books and/or trees, his happy place is nowhere other than alone on a basketball court — likely pretending there are 5 seconds left on the clock and the game is in his hands!

Kristina earned a bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Studies and Organizational Leadership at historic Wilfrid Laurier University in Brantford, Ontario. She has always had a passion for learning and teaching but her path to teaching was a long and winding one. From wrangling animals to pouring espresso shots, Kristina’s life finally changed for the better in 2014 when she first began teaching. Since then, she’s taught science, maker education, and everything in between! When she’s not cooking up plans for the next cool project to do with her students, Kristina is running wild with her dogs, journaling, and learning new languages.

Brendan earned a doctorate in American Studies from the University of Texas and a master's degree in American Studies from California State University, Fullerton. He has taught courses about rhetoric and writing, American history, media and culture, and the history of utopian communities in the U.S. In his spare time, he enjoys collecting records, watching bad movies, and playing with his cats. A lifelong collector and traveler, Brendan has the life-long goal of visiting each of the 3143 counties in the United States.

Matt entered the field of education over a decade ago when he moved across the country to begin teaching and writing history curriculum. Since then, he has earned a Montessori certification from the Association Montessori Internationale, taught humanities-related courses to ages from elementary through high school, and worked on the Higher Ground Education programs team developing curriculum and training & mentoring guides at our adolescent schools across the country. His mission is to help create learning environments that enable students to live a fully human life, now and in the future: one of knowledge, action, and self-determination.

Audie Alcorn is a 7th-generation Texan who earned his teaching diploma through the Association Montessori Internationale in 2009. Since then he has taught at both Montessori and traditional schools, in both public and private schools, and at the elementary and middle-school levels. In 2017, he founded ATX Tutoring & Academic Services here in Austin and has been tutoring full-time for the past couple of years. Though he has enjoyed working one-on-one with his tutoring students and their families, he has missed being part of a learning community and so is looking forward to returning to the classroom. Prior to his career in education, Audie worked as an accountant for Price Waterhouse, as a ranger at Zion National Park, as a buyer for Whole Foods Market, and as a wear-all-the-hats type at a small publishing company in Arizona. He has three college degrees -- one in Accounting and two in Philosophy -- and was a member of a weekly-performing improv troupe for four years while attending the University of Arizona. His other creative/spiritual pursuits include running, chess, writing, poetry, storytelling, quilting, and music. He lives in South Austin with his wife Colette, stepson Noah, cat Mixi, and guinea pig Albert Einstein.

Sebastian Gamboa graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with bachelor's degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Physics. At CMU, Sebastian tutored incoming Freshman and Sophomores in calculus based physics I and II for two years. After graduation, Sebastian continued his work as a physics research assistant in Carnegie Mellon's cosmology department, while also helping the curriculum development team at Higher Ground develop middle school math curriculum material.