Founders & Directors
"Every person who enters our doors deserves to find a calling to change the world."
Shannon Falkenstein
"Our bright, curious, active children were so bored in conventional school. They wanted to build, create, explore and become independent. Many parents wanted the same thing: for their children to be the protagonists of their lives. So, I started meeting up with other parents to envision something new. Then God showed me Acton Academy, we applied, and were one of the first locations in the world (now there are more than 350!). We have never looked back. Our children are thriving, happy and living their own hero's journeys."
- Shannon Casey Falkenstein is the co-founder and director of K-12 programs at Acton Academy El Salvador, the first alternative school to be founded in El Salvador.
- Shannon is also the host of "The New Schools" podcast, which explores innovative models of education around the world.
- Shannon is the Founder of the membership group Expats in El Salvador, serving more than 10K expatriates from around the world.
Education
Shannon earned her B.S. in Human Biology and Anthropology from Emory University, her M.A. in Secondary Science Education from NYU and her Montessori Guide certification from North American Montessori Center.
Carmen Castro-Dárdano
- Carmen Castro-Dárdano is the co-founder and director of Montessori at Acton Academy El Salvador, the first alternative school to be founded in El Salvador.
- Carmen has more than 20 years of Montessori classroom experience and served as the academic coordinator of Mi Casita Montessori for 10 years.
- Contributor and Facilitator of Maite Vallet's "Leolandia".
Education
She studied Early Childhood Education and Psychology at the University of Central America (UCA) in El Salvador and has her Montessori Guide certification from North American Montessori Center in Canada. Carmen is fully certified as a Montessori School Adminstator by the Associacion Montessori Internationale (AMI).
David Falkenstein
“I learned more from working with my grandfather on projects, than from conventional school. As an entrepreneur, I believe project-based learning is much more effective than content learning and memorization.”
- David Falkenstein is the managing and founding partner of Cadejo Brewing Company, the first craft brewery of El Salvador and the first brewery of any kind to establish itself in the country in over 100 years.
- David previously co-founded a financial research sales firm in New York, New York in 2002; a venture whose operations he moved to his home country of El Salvador in 2008.
- Before that, he worked as a technologist for 7 years at IBM Consulting Group in the United States.
- Member of the 10th Class of "CALI," the Central American Leadership Initiative.
Education
David earned a degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University in 1995.
Our Advisors
Laura Sandefer
- Laura married Jeff Sandefer and is the happy mother of Sam and Charlie and step-mother to Taite. It is the inspiration of these children that led Laura and Jeff to co-found Acton Academy.
- Her greatest hero is her mother who was a Master Teacher.
- Her wisest mentor is her father who sent her off to college with two words of advice: "Be curious".
Education
- Studied at Vanderbilt University the College of Arts and Science.
- Earned the Walter Wattles Fellowship award at Lloyd’s of London.
- Earned her Master of Education at Peabody College (Nashville).
- Worked at the Oklahoma Arts Institute, creating fine arts education programs for teachers and talented high school students.
Jeff Sandefer
- Jeff Sandefer lives a dual life as an entrepreneur and a Socratic Guide. As an entrepreneur, he founded his first company at age 16 and went on to found or co-found seven successful businesses.
- As a Socratic teacher at the University of Texas, Jeff's students five times voted him the school's Outstanding Teacher and Businessweek named him one of the top Entrepeneurship professors in America.
- Jeff went on to co-found the Acton School of Business, an MBA program perennially ranked by the Princeton Review among the best in the nation.
- In 2012 The Economist honored him as one of the top fifteen Business School professors in the world.
Education
Jeff is a graduate of the Harvard Business School, where he served for over twenty years on the school's governing committees. He was a longtime director of the Philanthropy Roundtable and National Review magazine and one of the youngest members ever elected to the Texas Business Hall of Fame.
