About Us
Meet the people behind Parents' Nook
Guided by educators, engineers, parents, facilitators, and community builders who believe care can grow through trusted neighborhood spaces.
Core mentors & co-founders
A small, thoughtful team around the model.
Portraits appear where a team member has shared one for public use. Other cards stay role-led.
Tanaya V.S
Co-FounderTanaya is a mom and a computer engineer by background, deeply curious about network theories, mathematics, and physics. She believes children's open-ended play mirrors the dynamics of deep physics—where simple interactions give rise to complex, emergent patterns.
At Parents' Nook, she bridges distributed systems and federated learning with Waldorf, RIE, and Piaget's play theories to create neighborhood-based, trust-driven micro-communities. Each Nook learns locally, adapts naturally, and grows through the rhythms of parents, facilitators, and shared spaces.
Read Tanaya's profile →
Virginia Barker-Moreno
Program Director - South Bay NooksParent, facilitator, musician, and South Bay program lead helping Nooks grow through trust, creativity, belonging, and neighborhood presence.
Read Virginia's profile →Samantha Infeld
Mentor (Since the Beginning)Homeschooling mom, mentor, and NASA engineer who has shaped Parents' Nook from the beginning with a systems-thinking lens.
View Samantha's LinkedIn →Christina Assirati
Mentor (Since the Beginning)Mom and educator rooted in RIE and Waldorf philosophies, bringing observation, rhythm, respect, and child-led learning into the foundation.
Lead Play Facilitators at Most Recent Nooks
Warmth, rhythm, and creativity in the room.
These are the most recent lead facilitators from Nooks shaped by music, open-ended play, parent connection, and local trust.
Virginia Barker-Moreno
Lead Teacher - Be Natural Music StudioVirginia leads the Cupertino music rhythm, bringing music, play, and shared creative flow into neighborhood-based Nooks.
Read Virginia's profile →Alithea "Thea" Bohannon
Lead Play Facilitator - OMCA NooksExperienced mother with early childhood, music, arts, postpartum doula training, and a calm presence for nature-based play.
Sarah
Lead Play Facilitator - Randall Museum NooksStay-at-home mom with a background in child development, speech pathology, Gymboree, and Reggio Emilia play facilitation.