Mary Eames Ucci

Education Director

Mary Ucci came to this position with over 25 years of experience teaching preschool and kindergarten children. Arriving at the Child Study Center in 1976, she served as Lead Teacher of the oldest group until 1992 when she assumed the position as director.
Mary completed her undergraduate degree at Connecticut College and went on to graduate studies at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study at Tufts University. She currently serves as the Co-President of the CCDLA (Council of Child Development Laboratory Administrators), writes a regular column for the Child Health Alert newsletter, is a policy board member and curriculum consultant for the Hammond Square Preschool in Woburn, MA, and lectures and consults to schools in the area. Her special interest is the establishment of developmentally appropriate environments for young children.
Mary is married and has two children and four grandchildren.

Meg Hesselmann graduated from Coe College, Cedar Rapids, IA in 1979 with a BA in Religion and from Erikson Institute in 1997 with an M.Ed/Early Childhood Development. She spent 12 years teaching 2, 3, and 4 year old children in suburban Chicago before relocating to Boston in 2004. She is married and has two daughters.

Mary Ruth Negro

Lead Teacher, Middle Group

Mary Ruth Negro is a graduate of Agnes Scott College. She has been teaching at the Child Study Center since 1990. Prior to that time she had been both a teacher and administrator in Head Start and taught private play groups. Mary Ruth is an active volunteer in the storytime program for children at the Wellesley town library. She has been a consultant to local churches in organizing developmentally appropriate preschool church programs. Mary Ruth is married and has three children and one grandchild.

Susan Kerr

Lead Teacher, Oldest Group

Susan Kerr has been teaching preschool aged children since 1982. Sue received a B.A. in English at Colby College and did graduate work in Early Childhood Education at Wheelock College. She lived in Edinburgh, Scotland for five years, and while there worked in a Social Assistant Work Department nursery. Upon returning to the U.S., Sue worked as an Assistant Teacher/Intern in the Youngest Group at the Child Study Center, was a Lead Teacher in the middle group for two years, and has been a Lead Teacher in the oldest group since 1995. Sue is married and has two boys.