The CMI tribute

Biographies

Over the decades, Andra Smith’s work outside the home has included teaching English as a Second Language to adults, training children and adults with vision problems to get around their communities, planning CM conferences, and helping with curriculum. Her work with visually impaired students from preschool to high school took her into regular and special ed classrooms in 20 or more school divisions in three states. Seeing so many kids disengaged and bored with worksheets, she would come home and groan to her husband Carroll about how much an educational revolution was needed. She is so thankful the ideas and methods of Charlotte Mason are gaining wider acceptance and practice. During her children’s younger years, Andy tried to homeschool her two children with CM methods but, to her overwhelming disappointment, found that “air traffic controlling” all those layers were beyond her personal limits.  At the time, she did not understand her attention deficit issues, and she knows how dealing with executive function deficits can be mistakenly attributed to moral failure. When she started exploring attention issues, she did not fit the typical ADD profile generally understood at that time,  and she was told by a special education teacher, “You can’t be ADD because you have a master’s degree.”  So she began self-educating by reading everything she could find on ADD. In her forties, God brought her insightful, competent people who understood attention deficit disorder and helped her make radical, life-nourishing changes.  Introduced to a relationship with Christ in college, Andy is grateful to God for the tremendous stability and blessing that walking with Christ has brought to all of life. In learning to steward the neurochemistry she has been given, Andy is also grateful to God for the added blessings that understanding and applying executive function strategies bring. Alongside Danielle Merritt-Sunseri, Andra Smith founded the Blue Orchard Bee in 2019 to come alongside neurodiverse students and educators.

"I’m so, so pleased that there are more and more sessions for special needs. Thank you, Danielle and Andy."
~Beth Hollman

Danielle Merritt-Sunseri grew up in a quirky family on the coast of Virginia and in the mountains of Pennsylvania.  She completed her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry (2000) at St. Francis University, Loretto and her Master of Science in Chemistry (2003) at the Pennsylvania State University.  When she decided that it was time to leave the research lab, a providential Google search introduced her to Charlotte Mason.  Her Mason education began in 2009.  In Home Education, Danielle found her theological training and her dearest educational experiences growing together into a beautiful garden, more deeply connected than she had previously understood.  Danielle is a certified educator in Universal Design for Learning, a writer and developer for the Alveary curriculum, and a cofounder of the Blue Orchard Bee, CMI’s initiative toward a relational education for neurodivergent persons, which began in 2019.  She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband, Jay, and their 3 youngest children.  Danielle is a late-diagnosed autistic person that enjoys planning and designing projects, handicrafts, the symphony, and a good conversation with her cats.

Andy’s work through Blue Orchard Bee has helped us reframe how we see struggling learners – not as broken, not as failing, but as whole persons who require understanding and tools that truly fit. ~LeAnn Burkholder

Contribution

Through their work to support neurodiverse students and educators, Andra and Danielle have given our community a faithful human voice for those who have often felt unseen. They have worked to make the Charlotte Mason method accessible in homes where attention is fractured, where overwhelm is frequent, and where courage can feel in short supply.

They remind us that:

• The child is a born person, without exception.
• Attention is not about effort; it’s about capacity and support.
• Relational education isn’t reserved for the "ideal learner" but is, in fact, for every child.

Andy and Danielle’s personal experiences, research, and reflection first led to Offend Not, a CMI retreat in 2019 “designed so that parents, in the tranquil, wooded seclusion of the St. Francis Springs prayer center, could come together to reflect on the Gospel call to ‘offend not, despise not, hinder not.’” Attendees were invited to "continue the work of Charlotte Mason and the PNEU in observing children, navigating current research, and reflecting on the Gospel" - an invitation which is still the heartbeat of Andy's and Danielle's efforts today.

This first retreat became the catalyst for many conference sessions and entire conference tracks which Danielle and Andy have since both coordinated with others and taught themselves. Danielle has led sessions such as "With Love, from Autism," "When the Method isn't Working," "Universal Design for Learning" and recently served as one of the keynote speakers at the 2025 CMI conference with her session "Offend Not." In her talks, Andy often helps others consider the nature and impact of executive function and working memory capacity and has regularly called educators to lean into the idea of stewardship, reminding them to “steward what you’ve been given, not what you wish you’d been given,”

"You have no idea how this idea [Andy's phrase on stewardship] has changed my life and been a compass throughout the years." ~Jennifer Swearingen

Their work continues to be most visible through the Blue Orchard Bee which Danielle and Andy co-founded in 2020. The Blue Orchard Bee is a free initiative to support neurodiverse students and educators toward a relational education, and through Andy and Danielle's efforts it now offers online community, five video courses on big ideas such as Andy's course on “Stewarding Your Neurochemistry” and more targeted considerations such as dyslexia and ADHD, and numerous topical conversations including book reviews, personal stories from the community, and interviews. 

Through their teaching, writing, and encouragement, Andy and Danielle have given hope to parents who felt alone, confidence to educators who felt unsure, and belief to children who needed someone in their corner.

We are delighted to honor them with the CMI Tribute. Please visit the Blue Orchard Bee community, explore the resources, and join us in our gratitude for their work.