Our teachers & staff:

Stacie Martin is a mother of two boys, ages 9 & 11. She has a Bachelors Degree from The Ohio State University in Human Ecology with a focus on Child & Family Studies, and is a licensed teacher grades K-8. She's done counseling work in the Hilltop area of Columbus, and has had experiences teaching in Worthington, Dublin, and inner-city Columbus. Through teaching at The Mustard Seed Retreat she wants to nurture children's growth in the writing process, help instill a love of nature, and have fun! Stacie is a member of The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and is currently writing a fictional middle grade novel.

Pam Cline-Hitchcock, owner of The Mustard Seed Retreat/Cline's Plant Farm has a Bachelor of Science degree from The Ohio State University in Landscape Horticulture with a minor in Education. Her 35 plus years in the gardening business includes internships at Scotts Miracle-Gro, Rochford Greenhouse in Cheshunt, England and the world-renowned Hillier's Nursery in Romsey, England.  She has sold nursery stock for D.Hill Nursery in Union, Illinois, and flower bulbs and perennials for The Leo Berbee Bulb Company where she wrote bare root planting and landscaping guides, gave talks at garden centers across the state of Ohio and designed bulb gardens for Kenyon College, Red Roof Inn and The Ohio State University. 

Pam has worked at numerous retail garden centers to include: Slemmons Gardens (where she got her start) in Plain City and Worthington, Country Acres Greenhouse in Marysville and Bakers Village Garden Center in Shawnee Hills. In 1987, Pam opened Cline's Plant Farm for the first time at her farm five miles from Ostrander. She operated this business for seven years then closed when her son was one. For sixteen years she's been involved in various occupations, mostly real estate, but never really leaving the gardening world. In April 2010, she re-opened Cline's Plant Farm and now operates it in conjunction with The Mustard Seed Retreat; a special place for writers, gardeners and peace seekers. Pam has written garden columns for The Marysville-Journal Tribune and The Delaware Gazette. She has published in AAA magazine and is currently working on a young adult trilogy.


Cheryl Trivissono is a recently-retired teacher of language arts with a special interest in the word music of poetry. Cheryl believes that we all have an inner poet that surfaces in our photos, letters and gardens. She has coached hundreds of students at Dublin Coffman High School where she taught writing and literature to nuture that inner poet through Ohio Arts Council's Poetry Out Loud National Project. With her encouragement, students have learned to make a classic poem their own and to compete at local and state level contests as they memorized, interpreted and performed their chosen pieces before a live audience. Bringing poetry from words on a page to performance is her passion. Cheryl lives just down the road from The Mustard Seed Retreat with her husband Ron, who is a poet and doesn't know it, and their yellow labs, Annie and Betty. Their two daughters; Shelly, 20, a student at The University of Toledo and Cindy, 23, a recent graduate of Kent State University, send her poetic texts full of life and humor and are a constant source of inspiration