Meet Our Staff
Director: Katie Sheehan
Katie has worked with young children for the past 10+ years of her life, making it a natural transition to work with children in her career. Katie has been in the Bennett Program at the YMCA since the summer of 2008 as a lead counselor in our Day Camp Program. Katie returned to her home state of Illinois, where she had previously received her B.S. in Child Development from the University of Northern Illinois, that fall as an Early Childhood Teacher at KinderCare. Katie could not stay away and joined the Day Camp Program again in 2009, creating a new program in the camp designed to serve toddlers. She decided to stay on that fall as the Assistant Director in the Preschool and continued in that role through the summer of 2010. Katie's role in the summer was to act as a fill-in lead counselor, as well as planning the implementation of a new curriculum for the upcoming school year. In the Fall of 2010 Katie took over the Director position in the Preschool and has enjoyed the new challenges it brings as she works to provide the best care for the children at Bennett as well as being sure to stay within state guidelines and keep the children safe.
Katie received the Employee of the Month Award for October 2010 from the YMCA of the Rockies, Estes Park Center for her tireless efforts to build and maintain an excellent Preschool program.
Katie received the Employee of the Month Award for October 2010 from the YMCA of the Rockies, Estes Park Center for her tireless efforts to build and maintain an excellent Preschool program.
Assistant Director: Diana Walton
Diana came to us from Michigan in the summer of 2009 after graduating from Alma College with B.A. in English and Dance. Diana began her work with the Bennett Program as a lead counselor for camp and when it was time to leave found she wanted to stay and work with this age group, deciding to stay on for the school year as a teacher in the fall of 2009. As the state of Colorado changed it's qualifications Diana worked to maintain her group leader qualifications in her first year of teaching, helping her to realize this was the field she wanted to establish her career in. Diana again worked in the Day Camp in the summer of 2010 as both a lead counselor and assitant to Katie, helping her to create and establish the curriculum for the new school year. Diana is currently a full-time student, working to gain her Director Qualifications in the State of Colorado in order to better serve in her position and gain a better understanding of the field.
Early Childhood Teacher: Lorrie Barnett
Lorrie grew up in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. In high school, she ran cross country, jumped on the track team, and sang in school musicals. Every spring break she and her family would come to Colorado to ski; Lorrie fell in love with the mountains at an early age. Despite her love for the West, Lorrie headed to Boston for college and pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in clinical psychology at Tufts University, with a minor in art history. In her junior year of college Lorrie lived in London and was able to do a lot of traveling around Europe before heading back to Tufts her senior year. Lorrie worked at a preschool part-time and realized how much she loved to work with young children; so, when she applied to work at the YMCA for the summer, she immediately chose Bennett over the other age groups at camp. Even after living in Boston and abroad Lorrie continued to miss the mountains and two days after her college graduation she arrived at the YMCA to work as a day camp counselor. Three months later she still loved Bennett and couldn’t think of any place she would rather be, so she decided to stay! A semester of preschool has gone by and Lorrie is still loving living in Estes. Lorrie also enjoys reading, playing with her dog, Millie, cooking, doing crafts, skiing, and exploring the Park on snowshoes in her spare time.
Assistant Teacher: Sabrina Robin
Sabrina is a wonderful addition to our team this school year! She assists in the afternoons and some mornings. Bio to come!
