Below is the proposed Dan Mills PTO Board for the 2021-2022 school year. Voting is now open and will close on May 14, 2021. For additional information about each proposed Board Member, read on below!

To view the Dan Mills PTO Bylaws, visit: http://www.danmillspto.org/pto-bylaws

Vote Here

Christine Pulle

Christine Pulle has served on the board since 2019. As an advocate for MNPS and 14 year resident of East Nashville/Inglewood, she is honored to have a role in supporting the wonderful Dan Mills Dragon community of which she's been a part since 2015-16. She is the parent of a 2021-22 Dan Mills 3rd grader and Kindergartener, as well as a 6th grader at Isaac Litton.
She wants to continue to create avenues for families to build relationships at school - with one another as well as with our fantastic administration, teachers and staff. As we come out of one of the strangest years many of us will live to see, she is eager to facilitate opportunities for growth of our community and engagement. Let's make each day count!
Christine is the Director of Operations for Breakpoint Advisors, a commercial real estate appraisal and consulting firm. In her spare time, she enjoys Nashville's parks and greenways, jogging around her Inglewood neighborhood, and spending time with her friends and family.

Lauren Melancon

Lauren Melancon is the proud parent of a rising 2nd grader at Dan Mills Elementary School (Go Nebula!). This will her be second year on the PTO Board, formerly serving as the VP of Communications. Lauren has enjoyed learning more about Dan Mills over the past two years and looks forward to continuing to share that knowledge with families. She is excited to nurture the many traditions at Dan Mills and work with teachers, administration, and parents to cultivate new ones. Most of all, Lauren is beyond thrilled at the response the PTO has received this spring by families who would like to become involved at the school! She has had an opportunity to meet so many new, enthusiastic people who love their school community and she can’t wait to meet more families as her daughter continues her studies at Dan Mills. Many hands make light work and she wants to hear from everyone how we can continue to support and improve. In her free time you can find Lauren working to perfect her biscuit and pimento cheese recipes - this Midwesterner certainly has a soft spot for all things Southern.

**Tommie Allen**

Tommie Allen is excited to help out with the PTO this year, and hopes to help bring some sense of normalcy to this very different school year. She has had children at Dan Mills consistently for over 9 years now! Tommie loves that the PTO gets to be superheroes that get to step up to assist teachers and families.

Kate Blocher

Kate Blocher hails from the great state of Indiana and has lived in Inglewood for 10 years with her husband, Ryan and three children: Hudson (11), Cord (6) and Indiana (4), all who have attended Dan Mills. She has served on the Dan Mills PTO Board for six years in various capacities including Treasurer, Co-VP, Communications and rescuer of children out of trees. Since her Hoosier Hoop Dreams never quite materialized, Kate is currently the President of Colts Chocolate Co. But, as a Jack of all trades, Master of none, she enjoys spending time participating in triathlons, gardening, cooking, creating Pinterest files she never uses and drinking all the coffee!

Jon Rizzo

Jon Rizzo is a proud parent of a DMES Dragon in 3rd grade, as of Fall ‘21, and loves staying involved in his daughter’s life at school! After seeing how much amazing work the PTO was doing, he wanted to get involved and help out wherever he could. Jon can’t believe we are so lucky to have such a fantastic community of parents, teachers, and administrators collectively caring for our children. Outside of Dan Mills, his family plays lots of music in their house and they like to get outside to enjoy all that Nashville has to offer!
If you see him around, stop and say hi!

Mary Barnes

Mary Kline Barnes joins the board as Secretary for the 2021-2022 year. She has two children at Dan Mills, a 6 year old entering first grader and a 9 year old entering 4th grader. She is excited to serve on the board to give back to Dan Mills Elementary School and support the teachers and school community.

Marisa Williams

Marisa Williams is the parent of two Skywing Dragons, Roxy a 3rd grader and Reese a 1st grader. They love Dan Mills and she wants to do everything she can to support the school! This will be her 3rd year on the PTO. Marisa was the Treasurer of the PTO for the 2020-2021 school year and what an unprecedented year it was! She is returning as the Treasurer again this year and has a strong desire to serve. Marisa is very passionate about promoting inclusion and continuing to build the community of Dan Mills. The Dan Mills teachers, faculty, and staff work so hard to educate our children and she loves working alongside them! Marisa was a Supply Chain Engineer who is currently a stay-at-home mom. She enjoys spending time with family, exercising, watching sports and traveling the world (hopefully she will do more of it post-pandemic). Marisa believes education is a lifelong process and looks forward to learning new things. Her next goal is to learn Spanish!

Lauren Hitch

The 2021-2022 school year will be her family's third year at Dan Mills, and they have been so thankful to be a part of this wonderful school community! Lauren has a rising 1st grade son and rising 5th grade son (DMES graduate). She is looking forward to supporting our school and getting to know it better by serving on the Board. Gratefully, her family will be a part of Dan Mills for another 5 years! In Lauren’s spare time, she enjoys walking around her neighborhood with their newly adopted puppy, gardening, and reading...usually with a cup of coffee close at hand.

Wendy Hinton

Wendy Hinton has a Kindergartener at Dan Mills, a 5th and 7th grader at Litton. This is her 7th year serving on the PTO board. She holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Education degrees from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. As an MNPS graduate (and Dan Mills alum!) and former MNPS teacher, she’s passionate about our neighborhood schools. She currently works part time managing rental property. When she’s not at Dan Mills, Wendy can often be found traveling with her husband and kids or reading.

Cast Your Vote for Board Elections Here

Are you interested in becoming more active with the Dan Mills PTO? There are several committees that parents/guardians can get involved in, all of varying commitment levels. All committees report to the Board and at least one Board Member is a member of each committee. Email us here and a member of the PTO Board will contact you soon!