Executive Director and Board of Directors

Janel Cottle - Board President, Interim Executive Director
director@connectedco-op.com

Janel was born in Michigan and has lived in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Idaho, Oregon, and California.  She married her husband Jeff in 2003 and after 2 years of living in San Diego, they decided to move to Jeff’s home state of Utah.   She and her 2 teens started their homeschooling journey 4 years ago and wish they had started sooner.  Her oldest son graduated in 2022 and her 16-year-old is a student at ConnectED.  Along with homeschooling and working at ConnectED, Janel works full-time in Real Estate as a Property Manager. Janel joined the ConnectED Board before the doors opened for the 1st year.  She has served ConnectED in various positions.  She has served as the Events Board Member, the Board President, on the Academic Advisory Committee, as a Teacher, and as the Interim Executive Director. She is passionate about ConnectED and spends many hours working to create a safe and fun environment for ConnectED families. They have 2 Goldendoodles (one is a service dog) and a Shih Tzu.  She likes to stay busy, loves spending quality time with her family, her happy place is being in the mountains with nature all around her, and she enjoys crocheting when time allows.

Shannah Tanner - Secretary
shannah@connectedco-op.com

When Shannah isn’t at home she is either shuttling her children to their extracurricular activities with an audiobook playing along the way, or executing her latest “big idea” excursion. As a homebody and a traveler at heart (these don’t have to be conflicting qualities) she wants to do and see it all at her family’s pace. After growing up in the Portland, OR, area, when Shannah married her husband she had never been farther east than the Colorado-Utah border, but after attending grad school in upstate New York, she realized just how much she was missing beyond the doors of a formal classroom. Now as a certified teacher and mother of four, she wants to experience all the possibilities of the world right alongside her students. Shannah’s love for discovery means she over-researches, loves to ask questions, and has become a perpetual student. In her fifth year of homeschooling, she can honestly say that the world is at our fingertips, either captured in a read-aloud on the couch or an exploration of the French countryside, the flexibility of homeschooling has opened endless doors of opportunity.

Andrea Ventilla - Treasurer
accounting@connectedco-op.com

I am excited to work with this Co-op and especially with children. We have three girls and I have been homeschooling for 9 years, this is going to be our tenth. My oldest girl, Fanni, will be in 9th grade part-time in our local jr highschool. My middle daughter, Flora, will be in 7th grade and would like to be part of the acting for movies class with ConnectEd. My youngest, Zsofi, will be in Davinci Davis as a 5th grader.  We have lived in Davis County for 10 years, before that we lived a short time in Austin, Texas, and also in Rexburg, Idaho. In my spare time - when I think I have some??- I like reading, hiking, and gardening.  I am looking forward to working with you all!