Meet Our Team

Kristen Fischer

Owner & Center Director

I have a B.S. in Elementary Education & Sociology. I have been employed by Sylvan of Springfield since April 1999, & I have been a Special Ed & an Elementary Ed teacher.  I love cycling, reading, & collecting children’s books.  I also enjoy attending concerts with my husband, who I have known since 8th grade.  We have had the great fortune to have our hearts stolen by five Great Danes & a Pit Bull/Golden Retriever mix. I spent the summers of 2007 & 2008 working as a Group Leader for a camp in upstate New York.  My favorite city is Boston, & my favorite vacation involves anything with roller coasters.  After 20 years with Sylvan, I became the Owner of our Springfield, MO location in March 2019.  I then also became the owner of our Kansas City, North location in January of 2020.

Patty Chadwick

Director of Education

Patty joined our team in October of 2021 but was a Sylvan instructor at a previous location.  She holds an Associates Degree & a Bachelors of Science in Elementary Education.  She is a licensed Daycare Director and has worked in the educational field since 1991.

Jodie Anderson

Director of Marketing

Jodie has been employed with Sylvan since October 2021. She attended Jefferson Community College for Business Management and Missouri State University for Graphic Design. Jodie manages our social media posts and creates our sales flyers, monthly newsletters, and our marketing projects. She has always enjoyed working with children and has nannied for many families. Jodie has also been a substitute teacher for the Springfield public schools. Jodie and her husband have fostered (and then adopted) two beautiful girls. Her oldest has been a Sylvan student for 4 years, and her youngest began attending Sylvan this summer. She is passionate about children and their futures.

Matthew Haymes

Instructor

Matt has been a member of the Sylvan teaching staff since August 2013. He attended Drury University and earned a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Biology, as well as a Master of Arts and Teaching. At Sylvan Learning Center of Springfield, He tutors mathematics, reading, and ACT/SAT test preparation. Along with working at Sylvan, he teaches at various schools primarily in secondary mathematics and science. Matt also provides private tutoring sessions to help students of all ages learn mathematics. His hobbies include reading, listening to music, watching films, and playing sports.

Janae Rapp

Instructor

Janae has a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science Education.  She is passionate about helping students grow as scholars and as better humans.  She teaches at a local private school and is wonderful with her students.  Janae works with a variety of our students of all ages and subjects.

Cassie Hayden

Instructor

Cassie has a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education with a Special Education certificate from Drury University and a master’s in Education from Southwest Baptist University. She has worked in several different positions in education for over 20 years. Cassie worked as an At-Risk/Title 1 teacher, taught grades first, third, and Kindergarten thru second in a Christian Hybrid Homeschool setting. She has held several different positions at Sylvan throughout her 20 year tenure. You could say, Sylvan is in her blood.  She has been married to her husband for 24 years. They have one son, who will be turning 20 in August.

Cassandra Collins

Instructor

Cassandra has a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University – Central Texas in Psychology with a minor in Sociology. She has been nomadic since childhood (she’s a military brat and was born in Germany) and has lived on 3 continents, in over 15 cities. She moved to South Korea in 2016 to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) for “a year” and stayed until 2020 when Covid forced her back to America where she landed in Nixa. Since then, she had been working in a High-Needs Special Education classroom working with fantastic instructors and learning so much from the students. Her teaching certification is in English/Language Arts, and she is currently studying to add on History.

Audrey Fitzgerald

Instructor

Audrey is currently working on her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Missouri State University, and will be graduating with it in May of 2024. She has also started her Master’s degree in Literacy where she plans to graduate with in December of 2025. She was born and raised in Kansas City, and decided to move to Springfield to attend her parents Alma mater, Missouri State. She has been working with children for as long as she can remember, and has a strong passion and drive to educate the next generation of students. Currently, she is student teaching at Mark Twain Elementary with 5th grade students, which she absolutely loves. When she is not teaching, you can find her in the kitchen cooking up a storm, or she is sewing and mending clothes for herself and others. Driven and dedicated, Audrey has always worked hard for what she loves and believes in.