LEadership

At A Mother’s Touch, leadership is present and supportive. In our school, you will find every person on our Leadership Team kneeling beside a child to listen, asking questions about a child’s plan, helping a child solve a problem, and noticing a child who needs a hug. Our Directors are experienced, knowledgeable, open, and approachable. Our Executive Directors are on-site and interactive with your children and all aspects of our center. We look forward to meeting you!

A Note From Our Founder

Where has 30 years gone? It has gone into smiles, laughter, tears, paint covered hands, sticky faces, hugs, wide-eyed excitement, sleepy toddlers and first steps. Generations of families have honored A Mother’s Touch with caring for their littles. Some littles have grown up and come back to teach. And parents who once had children here are coming to their grandchildren’s winter performances and graduations. This is the glue that holds A Mother’s Touch together, spanning time and connecting us to the community and each other.

When I started A Mothers Touch in 1994, it was to fill an important need in the community, and it still does! Children and families were and are our number one priority. Early childhood years are magical: full of wonder and awe. It is our job to foster these gifts– to spark curiosity, engage with questions, allow for independence, and follow their lead.

Children are natural learners. They are naturally kind, inquisitive, and empathetic. As early childhood educators, we stand by this and honor each child everyday. Our classrooms and curriculum are designed for exploration, and A Mother’s Touch teachers gently guide the children in their learning process. You will find our students tending the garden patch, running through a sprinkler, painting a Picasso and designing habitats for their dinosaurs. Nature is education. In our school, there will be lots of outdoor time, leaf collecting, butterfly releasing, chick hatching, trike riding, and playground time with friends.

I hope you take the time to learn more about us. We would love for you become a part of our growing family.

Laurie Gashkoff
Owner and Grandmother of 8 Littles who Attend(ed) this School

Meet Our Executive Directors

Rachael Gashkoff, M.Ed.

Rachael is a graduate of Columbia University in New York City and Relay Graduate School of Education. She has her Master’s in Education and is an alumna of AmeriCorps’ Teach for America Program, through which she taught in East New York Brooklyn focusing on literacy growth and grit in partnership with families of the community.

Upon her return to Chicago, Rachael joined Noble Network Charter Schools, where she continued to teach and served as a Dean of Instruction. There, students and teachers demonstrated the curiosity, initiative, resilience, and care for others that led to record levels of student growth and achievement. Notable to the results was an emphasis on core values that connected students and staff to each other as well as to their community. It takes a village to nurture a child’s potential.

Rachael is a strong advocate for quality education for all. She was a mentor in Harvard University’s Global Teacher’s Project and served on a collegiate board of Best Buddies International, an organization dedicated to providing equitable opportunities for individuals with intellectual and physical disabilities. Her experience spans developmental stages, beginning with instruction for nonverbal learners, and extending through instruction of high school students in college level courses. Through her experiences, she has come to understand that education begins with the creation of a nurturing environment at an early age and requires a true responsiveness to the individual children in your care.

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Lexi Ostrander, BSN, RN

Lexi graduated from the University of Michigan School of Nursing. She brings to A Mother’s Touch many years of experience as a pediatric intensive care nurse at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. At Lurie, Lexi served as charge nurse and the chair of the Education Council, planning and executing ongoing education for the 100+ nurses on staff.

She also served as Nurse Educator at Almost Home Kids, an innovative, community-based care system that provides a bridge from hospital to home for children with medical complexities. There she focused on educating staff, ensuring the highest quality and safety standards of care, and advocating for children and their families. Lexi is a Basic Life Support Instructor and continues to provide CPR training in the community and for all of our staff members.

Lexi feels a profound respect for children and educators, which is the foundation of her commitment to A Mother’s Touch. As Executive Director, she is passionate about supporting our mission according to the values that built A Mother’s Touch and that are carried out in classrooms by teachers with great care every day.

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Meet Our Directors

Lynsey Haase-Corcoran

Lynsey has been supporting the children, families, and staff of A Mother’s Touch for over 15 years! In her time at A Mother’s Touch, Lynsey has helped A Mother’s Touch gain and maintain accreditation as our in-house accreditation specialist and has overseen logistics and training for our schools as our Director of Operations. Lynsey has 8 years of experience as a Director and is now the Director of our school in Arlington Heights.

Important to Lynsey and A Mother’s Touch is knowing each child and family by name, collaborating across a child’s support system, and building authentic connections with families and staff. She cares deeply about helping children build social-emotional competencies. As a long-time member of the community, Lynsey stays connected to the local school and park districts, library, and neighborhood. She knows of and shares local resources with families and staff. Above all, Ms. Lynsey knows our children, staff, and center operations from the inside out, and she looks forward to continuing to build relationships with you! Lynsey loves that A Mother’s Touch feels like family and welcomes you into our growing, close-knit community – a home away from home!

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Heather Fugate

Heather brings to A Mother’s Touch 25 years of experience in early childhood education with 15 years of experience as a Director of a licensed early childhood center. Heather has opened a school from the ground up, drawing intricate knowledge of the time, thought, details, systems, and accountability that go into creating an environment where children thrive and families feel engaged and invested.

Heather has a strong grasp of different educational philosophies, including Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and emergent curriculum in early childhood classrooms. She brings a child-led approach to our classrooms, prioritizing children’s interests and hands-on engagement, while fostering strong teacher responsiveness and meaningful relationships with both children and their families.

She loves A Mother’s Touch for its commitment to continuous improvement. We are always striving to provide the best possible experience for children, families, and teachers. Each day, she looks forward to seeing children engaged in projects – covered in glue and tape – and teachers’ passion shining through with smiles and questions that extend learning. She invites you into our warm, loving, and curious classrooms to feel the sense of community and get excited about learning.

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Parent Testimonials

“We love knowing our kids are in a safe, happy environment learning and growing every single day! All of the teachers have been wonderful and it’s so evident that they truly care for the kids!”

"A Mother’s Touch has been an amazing place for our two girls, 2 and 4 years old. The teachers are wonderful and the girls look forward to school every day. A Mother’s Touch is a safe, happy, friendly place, and the teachers have been instrumental to their growth, development, and confidence!"

"We are so lucky to have such an amazing and supportive community here at A Mother’s Touch! From the first time walking to learning to write - A Mother’s Touch has been a part of so many major milestones! We love this school and what it does for our family!"

"The staff at A Mother’s Touch has become family to our kids! They enjoy going to school and come home happy every day! The staff are all welcoming, kind, loving, and patient. We love and are impressed that the staff knows every child’s name in the school and always says hi to the parents."

"As parents, dropping off our daughter every day was very easy because we were certain our daughter was in the best possible hands. The office staff has everything buttoned up and knows all the ins and outs of every child who enters the school doors including their names."

"When it came time for our daughter to leave for Kindergarten at our local school, we all had a very hard time leaving the love that had been a part of our life for the past few years. Our daughter left A Mother’s Touch more confident and prepared for what was next, having learned responsibility, social skills, and how to advocate for her needs."

"The same teachers that welcomed our oldest child when we first started so many years ago are the same teachers that are seeing our youngest child off to kindergarten at the end of this year. The consistency of staffing and lack of turnover are truly unique, and it is one of the primary factors that led us to A Mother’s Touch in the first place. And we have not been disappointed!"

Employee Testimonials

"A Mother’s Touch’s dedication to creating a positive and nurturing environment has made a significant difference in my experience as an educator. It is a privilege to work with such a dedicated team. I am excited for the years to come!"

“This is my home away from home! The people I work with are not just my coworkers, but my family. There are no words to describe the love and commitment this place holds!”

“A Mother's Touch shows a lot of love when it comes to families and self-care. I appreciate the open door policy for communicating needs and concerns. I love our traditions, especially the Harvest Feast and Teacher Appreciation Week. The parents here make us feel special too! Everyone says it here because it's true -- this is my home away from home!”

“A Mother's Touch is truly my second home - a place where I belong. My colleagues are like family, forming a supportive team where we all feel valued. I am incredibly grateful to work at a place that genuinely cares about every family, child, and staff member.”