Who's Who

Sandy Kemsley

Sandy Kemsley is the founder and creator of abcteach. Sandy was employed for 24 years by the Waterford, Michigan public schools, where she taught elementary grades. She also worked on many district curriculum committees, including language arts, science, math, and assessment, and was recognized in teacher of the year programs. She received her undergraduate degree in education from Michigan State University, and her masters degree from Oakland University. As part of her graduate education, Sandy studied theme units and multi-aged classrooms in London. This experience influenced her child-centered approach to teaching. Sandy lives in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, with her husband, George, and their sons, Stephen and David. She enjoys playing golf, having big family gatherings, and creating teacher resources.

Culley Harrelson

Culley is the system administrator, DBA, technical architect, webmaster and postmaster for abcteach. Culley grew up in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. After graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a B.A. in philosophy, he moved to Portland, Oregon, where he worked as a software consultant for 5 years before he teamed up with Sandy to help develop her increasingly popular abcteach site.

Anne Johnson

Anne Johnson is our editor. She was born in Washington, D.C. She earned her English/journalism degree in California. She worked in Japan as an English teacher for three years. In 1994, she moved to the Czech Republic, where she teaches English and works as a proofreader, translator, and editor.

Sheryl Schreefel

Sheryl works in the technical support department of abcteach. She lives in Waterford, Michigan with her husband Hellmuth, and their two children, Erik and Kelli. Her previous educational experience includes working with elementary-level students experiencing problems in reading and mathematics. She graduated from Central Michigan University with a bachelor of science degree in education.

Chris Johnk

Chris is a web application developer for abcteach. Chris grew up in Menlo Park, California. He earned a bachelors of science degree in oenology (winemaking) from UC Davis, and after working as an assistant winemaker for a number of years, earned an MBA from San Jose State University while working as the microbiologist for a winery in the San Jose area. He subsequently worked in finance for a few years, increasingly with the development of new financial software products. This work eventually led to a career in computer software development. He has lived in Portland, Oregon for the past six years working in Software Quality Assurance and object oriented Web Application Development.

Deb McLain

Debbie works in the tech support department of abcteach. She lives in Waterford, Michigan, with her husband Mike, a Fire Department Captain, and her son Scott, who is in his second year of college. Deb worked as a teaching assistant for 12 years, helping elementary school students with math and reading. She also served as the school's technical advisor. She attended Eastern Michigan University and Marygrove College.

Also see our contributing writers list.