Today we’d like to introduce you to Alissa Mcclure
Hi Alissa, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Salado Montessori, brain-child of Alpine Montessori’s founder Liz Sibley and I, was founded as a nonprofit in 2016 by a small group of super motivated parents and local Montessori advocates in Central Texas. Renovations began in 2017 while a concurrent nation-wide search was conducted for a Montessori Director/Lead Guide who wanted the opportunity to start and grow a Montessori campus in a small Texas town and in January 2018, Chelsey Webb guided the inaugural class. Chelsey attended Montessori schools in Houston through 6th grade and as a result of her exceptional childhood experience decided to pursue her Business degree and AMI certificate in order to lead a school.
My passion for understanding peace, human rights, and development work began in early childhood. I was sent on my first commercial airline at age 5, and have been to nearly 50 countries in an effort to understand life and everything it entails. Professional stops along the journey included work with Neil Shulman (author of Doc Hollywood and president of the Patch Adams Society), Millard Fuller (founder of Habitat for Humanity), Capital Metro’s Community Involvement and Business Development offices and touring with indie-pop band The Please Please Me. Upon entering motherhood I wanted to follow the Dalai Lama’s advice and root somewhere, and founding and volunteering for Salado Montessori is my way of contributing to improved human rights norms in the local culture.
My husband, Jake, and I met in the artist lounge at Southby 2011. Friends first, I was intrigued by this app designer economist and as we became close I came to respect his deep understanding of international economic philosophy.
He thought my cello playing was cool, but had to miss my first show because Yoko Ono needed someone to hang out with in the artist lounge. So, I gave him a pass… but he’s never missed anything since. A Behavioral Economist via Wharton and fiduciary by trade, Jake sought a system of education that taught delayed gratification, the key indicator of lifelong success (see The Marshmallow Study). When I presented the Montessori Method as a project for us to take on, he knew he’d found a match. He’s been the Chairman of the Board ever since.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It was hard at first to find others interested enough in Dr. Montessori’s philosophies to invest their time and resources into the startup called “a nonprofit school.” Nevertheless, once Chelsey was at the helm it took just two years for Salado Montessori to build a solid community of enrolled families, alumni, and donors. Located near Ft. Cavazos, the student body has always been and always will be somewhat transient, with parents receiving permanent changes of station partway through a child’s three-year learning cycle. But when COVID hit, the community was torn apart (as was the global experience, we knew). Fall of 2021 was thus then nearly the new “opening” day.
As of Spring 2025, the classroom is once again stable (also known as Normalized for those familiar with Montessori). The school is small and normal everyday nonprofit experiences such as fundraising to purchase a playground or for a capital campaign are hard work. The Montessori way of approaching a child’s development sells itself, but the concept is only slowly gaining recognition in Central Texas and thus the mountain of marketing opportunities is large.
Aldous Huxley and Eckhart Tolle have both reiterated the importance of developing contentedness, and I would say the silver lining that the struggles the school brought is the children. The Montessori Method encourages each child to fulfill his or her potential through active interaction with an aesthetically beautiful prepared environment. Sometimes it looks like an elven workshop. The child’s experience of success after an initial difficulty with a work they have chosen is the pure essence of effort and you can observe it leading to self-confidence on the face of the child. It is this cumulative experience of adequacy that brings the children to independence, a love of learning, and respect for self and others. That makes the challenges all worth it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m proud I get to dedicate my time to work that tangibly increases successful outcomes for children. I strive to maintain humility and work to serve my community as best as I can, and I want to be known as someone who gives for the greater good.
While I did have the brain-child of the school, I’m still just a volunteer – and that’s important to me. Another parent/volunteer/board member has graciously donated her Development expertise and I’m proud to get to learn from her as I develop my own fundraising and marketing skills for the school. Over the course of my life I haven’t specialized in one thing, but instead I’ve explored a lot. I think that’s what sets me apart – I love to learn from my peers and I love to get really good at new things.
In the past, while working for Capital Metro, I developed a rail safety education outreach program that ended up becoming a national standard for other transit agencies. I didn’t know how to swim well in high school, so I joined the swim team and ended up running an aquatics program during college. Didn’t like public speaking… joined Capital Metro’s public speaking crew…
Right now, I especially love getting to maintain the school property with native wildflowers/grasses and am glad to be able to help others navigate the amazing world of native edible plants. In 2018 the school was located beside fields of cows and sheep. Today there is a gas station on one side, a dollar store on the other, and duplexes across the street and I’m happy to continue demonstrating non-destructive landscaping to all those new onlookers.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I’m super stoked to have found Instrumentl recently. As a self-taught fundraiser its a dream come true.
As for books, I live on Libby, so I’ll just name a few books: Design for Belonging; A Thousand Brains; Wake Up; The Master and Margarita; Raising your Spirited Child (and Baby); Radical Dharma; anything by John Gottman; Love and Rage; the 1619 Project; The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity; anything by Daniel Siegel; … I could go on, but I’ll stop.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.saladomontessori.com
