Mother, Daughter and Colleagues in the Classroom: Mary Anne Gleason MAT ’11 and Amy Gleason MSPED ’17

Mary Anne Gleason MAT ’11 and Amy Gleason MSPED ’17 share more than a mother-daughter bond.

The Dominican grad school alumnae are colleagues at St. Luke Catholic School in River Forest where they collaborate on student support services and activities outside the classroom—Mary Anne as an eighth-grade language arts teacher, Amy as a learning resource specialist for students with special education needs. 

The positive impact and connections they have made with their tight-knit school community earned the pair the 2024 Those Who Excel Award of Special Recognition from the Illinois State Board of Education. They share the honor with Katie van Meurs, Mary Anne’s daughter and Amy’s sister, who is a parent volunteer at St. Luke.

Mary Anne decided to pursue a master’s degree from Dominican with the goal of teaching at St. Luke, where all seven of her children have attended and where she spent years as a volunteer. Her decision came just as daughter Amy was studying education as an undergrad at a Chicago university. 

“When getting my master’s, I felt complete support from my professors,” Mary Anne said. “They only wanted me to do well. I seriously felt that.”

In 2011, Amy was hired as an early childhood teacher at St. Luke. Her mother joined the faculty the next year. And when Amy, then a third-grade teacher, decided to pursue a Master of Science in Special Education, she followed in her mother’s footsteps and enrolled at Dominican. 

“I know my mom had such a great time at Dominican and a lot of our teachers at St. Luke had also graduated from Dominican,” Amy noted.

Both women say they apply what they learned in their classrooms.

“At Dominican, we were able to build a toolbox that we then brought with us into our teaching careers,” Mary Anne said. “I still have files I refer to. They are just great lessons.”

Amy says she’s used educational apps she was introduced to at Dominican and developed a virtual field trip that was inspired by a course she took.

“I wouldn’t be able to help as many students as I do if I hadn’t gone to Dominican,” Amy said.