Suzanne Gagnon's plan is playing out exactly as she intended when she got her teaching assistant certification in 2016. Her son, Nathaniel, was just a year old, but Suzanne knew she wanted to work at the school he attended some day.

Suzanne was first introduced to West Bay when she sent Nathaniel to kindergarten there 6 years ago. She fell in love instantly and started volunteering and substitute teaching.

She's now a Pre-k teacher assistant at West Bay and Nathaniel is a 5th grader. Suzanne absolutely loves working with kids at West Bay where she can teach them about Jesus.

Originally from Illinois, Suzanne moved to Rhode Island with her family when she was 5 to help care for her ill grandfather. She met her husband here and they've been together nearly 30 years-- married for 22 of them!

She loves spending time with her husband and son and together, they serve at Faith Baptist Church in Warwick where she attended as a child. In addition to family and school, Suzanne is a CNA and Med Tech at Commonwealth House Assisted Living in Warwick RI-- owned by the family of one of her students.

Stephanie Linden is the 5th grade teacher at West Bay. This is her first year in that role, but her time at the school spans 14 years.

Stephanie was introduced to West Bay because her nieces were students and she instantly fell in love with the school. She took every opportunity to be part of the West Bay family-- after school cleaning crew, a classroom assistant, preschool teacher, and substitute teacher.

Having her own classroom, though, has been her dream since she was in 6th grade. Stephanie loves forming relationships with students and helping kids learn new concepts. Mostly, however, Stephanie's passion is helping her students see that they are made to shine God's love.

Stephanie is a lifelong Rhode Islander and has been a member of Christian Hill Community Church in West Warwick since she was in middle school. She still serves there faithfully today. When she's not teaching, Stephanie loves doing yarn art and other fun crafts!

Nancy Davis loves the little ones! She's the Director of West Bay's Early Learning Program (ELP) and teaches Pre-k. She has served in that role for much of the 18 years she's worked at the school.

Nancy loves when she can help a young one acclimate to a school environment for the first time and when she can help their families navigate the toddler years. Building relationships with both her students and families is most important to her as it offers her the privilege to speak God's truth into their lives, which she says is the best thing she can teach them.

Nancy's love for little ones starts in her family. She and her husband John each have two children and between them, Nancy and John have four grandkids. Nancy is a lifelong Rhode Islander, but her grandkids all live out of state. One of her greatest joys is visiting them!

When she's not teaching or playing with her grandkids, Nancy is serving in the nursery at Hope Church in Cranston, beaching and boating in the summer and reading and playing board games in the winter.

Rosalinda Moore is West Bay's Student Support Specialist. Her passion is helping students learn grade-level material in a way that is specific to them. She also teaches Middle School Math.

Rosalinda wanted to be a teacher since a child herself, but when she came to Christ at age 21, her priorities and passions shifted and she pursued a career as a Christian marriage and family therapist to help families thrive. After becoming a mom and moving back to RI from Washington state where she'd been working, she took a job as a mental health counselor at a private boarding school for students with learning differences. She also worked with at-risk youth in a large public middle school.

After two years of being a West Bay parent, she had the opportunity to join the team as the Student Support Specialist, bringing her experience working with families and youth with learning differences, neurodiverse brains, social emotional needs, and other special needs. A need arose for an extra middle school math teacher, and when she took it, her childhood dream of becoming a teacher came true!

Rosalinda has a 6th grader and 4th grader at West Bay and future Little Eagle! When she's not teaching, she serves on the Worship Team at Quidnessett Baptist Church in North Kingstown and she and her husband lead a community group there. Rosalinda lives in South County with her family where she grew up and went to high school and had Mr. Shuman as her guidance counselor!

Renee Ashman is West Bay's kindergarten teacher. She loves watching the growth and progression of students at that age.

Renee spent much of her teaching career in upper elementary. She taught 5th and 6th grade for more than a decade at Aquidneck Island Christian School before starting at West Bay 6 years ago. But her passion for teaching goes back to when she was 10 years old.

Renee used to play "school" with her childhood friends. She always wanted to be a teacher. Now, she strives to be a positive influence on students' lives and help them feel good about what they've accomplished and fall in love with God.

Renee has been married to her husband Robert for 8 years and considers his 4 kids and 9 grandkids her own! The couple lives in Tiverton and even though Renee has a 50 minute drive to West Bay, she says she'd never work anywhere else. Together, Renee and Robert host a home group for Victory Church in Tiverton and serve as greeters there.

When Renee is not at church or school, you can find her at the beach, in the kitchen cooking, writing or trying her hand at gardening.

Tara Mudrak is West Bay's 2nd grade teacher, Primary (K-2) Lead Teacher and Professional Development Coordinator. Her path to those roles, however, is a bit unconventional.

Tara graduated from Rhode Island College with a degree in education, but after college, she took time to travel and worked on a cruise ship as a social host. That's where she met her husband, Ed-- a musician. When the ship docked, the two received graduate degrees in Las Vegas. Tara bcame a human resources excutive for Target before she and Ed settled in Rhode Island to raise a family. The two have been married for 18 years and have 16 year old twin girls.

After becoming a mom, Tara took some time off to be a wife and mom but when the girls were school-aged she knew she wanted them at West Bay. Tara worked as a part-time assistant in ELP and fell in love with teaching little ones. She went back to school and worked hard to earn her certification while continuing to teach.

When she's not teaching, Tara is serving at Christian Hill Community Church in West Warwick. For many years she was part of the children's ministry and now serves on the cleaning team! In her spare time, she and Ed have a jazz duo called "Mood Swings" and love to visit and entertain residents in assisted living and memory care homes.

Ellie Greenhalgh is the School Chaplain at West Bay. The kids call her Miss Ellie and have for the past 10 years she's served in that role. But her time at the school dates all the way back to its inception.

Her husband David (known to the kids as Dr. G.) was West Bay's first headmaster in 1981. The two were fresh off a yearlong mission trip and were working at the RI School for the Deaf when they got the call about a new Christian school in the West Bay.

While Dr. G. lead the school, Miss Ellie was the gym and music teacher and their four children were among the 60 students that launched the school. All of them serve in ministry today, including Dr. G. and Miss Ellie.

Miss Ellie leads women's Bible studies, directs the kids' church program on Sunday mornings at Bethany Gospel Chapel in Swansea, MA and as a couple, they spent more than two weeks in Serbia this summer leading a kids camp for missionary kids.

Both Miss Ellie and Dr. G. remain closely tied to West Bay because they strongly believe that Christian education is foundational to a child's development. As the lead chaplain, Miss Ellie oversees chapel services at West Bay every Wednesday for all students, leads worship for the lower school and worked closely with Mrs. Holbrook in launching a middle school Worship Team four years ago.

Miss Ellie and Dr. G. have been married for 57 years and between their four children, they have 15 grandkids! Before she met Dr. G. though, Miss Ellie's high school boyfriend of two years was Pat Sajak, but she says she doesn't need a "wheel of fortune" to be rich.