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Marti, The Formator Institute's pine marten

About
The Formator Institute

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Private Childcare, Professionalized

Families. Professionals. Agencies. In alignment.

The Formator Institute provides training, management, and strategic counsel for private household childcare. For families, that means a care team that functions as a system, not a collection of individuals. For childcare professionals, it means a career built on frameworks that transfer across any household. For agencies, it means placements that hold.

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Why The Formator Institute Was Created

Private childcare doesn’t fail because people don’t care. It fails because systems don’t exist.

Today's families rely on multiple caregivers who have never been given a shared framework. The Formator Institute was created to build one, so care compounds instead of fragments.

About us | Formator Institute

Why Care Fragments

  1. Fragmented care teams produce fragmented outcomes.

  2. Caregiver consistency is a developmental driver, not a preference.

  3. Standard models weren't built for private households. Ours was.
About Us | Formator Institute

How We Rebuild It

  1. Operational structure is the intervention.

  2. Research informs the framework. The household defines the application.

  3. Built for one property or five, the system holds.
About us | Formator Institute

Why Care Fragments

  1. Fragmented care teams produce fragmented outcomes.

  2. Caregiver consistency is a developmental driver, not a preference.

  3. Standard models weren't built for private households. Ours was.
About Us | Formator Institute

How We Rebuild It

  1. Operational structure is the intervention.

  2. Research informs the framework. The household defines the application.

  3. Built for one property or five, the system holds.
Dr. Ginny Schwager, founder of The Formator Institute

Meet the Founder

Dr. Ginny Schwager

Founder

Dr. Ginny Schwager founded The Formator Institute after more than fifteen years of work inside private homes.

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Meet Our Team

Clara Akwarandu, Formator Consultant

Clara Akwarandu

Consultant & Neurodivergent Care Specialist

Clara Akwarandu is a highly trained special needs nanny and behavior therapist specializing in autism-informed care.

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Angela Canny, Formator Coach

Angela Canny

Formator Coach

Angela Canny is a parent and nanny coach who has worked as a professional nanny in private households for more than 20 years.

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Megan Summers, Formator Coach

Megan Summers

Formator Coach

Megan Summers is a nanny and parent coach for private households who leads Communicating with Parents in Formator Group Coaching.

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Aubree Weathers Zunzunegui

Aubree Weathers Zunzunegui

Operations Advisor

Aubree Weathers Zunzunegui advises The Formator Institute on household operations, drawing on a 17-year career in logistics and operations across military, federal, and private service.

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WHO WE WORK WITH

Families

Families

Families

Nanny training and childcare management for families with complex household structures, multiple caregivers or residences, and evolving developmental needs.
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Childcare

Childcare Professionals

Childcare Professionals

Professional nanny training, certification, and career support for experienced nannies and private childcare professionals seeking clarity, confidence, and advancement.
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agencies

Agencies

Agencies

Strategic partnerships in nanny training built on shared standards, clear communication, and long-term placement success.
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Families

Families

Nanny training and childcare management for families with complex household structures, multiple caregivers or residences, and evolving developmental needs.

Explore Family Services
Childcare

Childcare Professionals

Professional nanny training, certification, and career support for experienced nannies and private childcare professionals seeking clarity, confidence, and advancement.

Advance Your Career
agencies

Agencies

Strategic partnerships in nanny training built on shared standards, clear communication, and long-term placement success.

Partner With Us
Microphone icon for The Formator Podcast

The Formator Podcast

The private childcare industry, unfiltered. Candid conversations with the professionals, families, and industry voices shaping private childcare today. Hosted by Dr. Ginny Schwager.

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Shenandoah Davis, CEO of Adventure Nannies

EP 1: What It Actually Takes to Build a Nanny Agency Worth Trusting

Shenandoah Davis - CEO & Owner, Adventure Nannies

Standards, vetting, and why the private childcare industry is overdue for a higher bar & more

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Christa D. Nader, GTM Payroll Services

EP 2: The Payroll Conversation Nobody's Having (But Everyone Needs)

Christa D. Nader - Agency Partner Manager, GTM Payroll Services

Payroll compliance, household employment law, and the tax mistakes that cost families and caregivers more than they expect & more.

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Rachael Lubin, 2026 INA Nanny of the Year

EP3: The Gap Is Yours to Fill


Rachael Lubin - 2026 INA Nanny of the Year & Founding Board Member, Nanny Relief Fund

Rachael is a Certified Professional Governess, a full-charge nanny with nearly a decade of continuous placement experience

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More Episodes

Explore the full Formator Podcast series

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Meet Marti.

Our Formator Mascot
The pine marten is curious by nature, adaptable across environments, and fiercely devoted to those in its care. Marti represents what the Formator Institute stands for and what exceptional childcare professionals bring to the families they serve.

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About the Formator Institute

Learn about the care and expertise behind our nanny training.

View All FAQs
Why was the Formator Institute created?

The Formator Institute was created to address gaps in professional standards, communication, and coordination in private childcare.

Nanny agencies focus on hiring, while the Formator Institute focuses on training, systems, and long-term professional development.

Yes. Programs are grounded in child development research and professional best practices.

Yes. The Institute supports families, professionals, and agencies globally, primarily through virtual services.

Yes. Many engagements involve working with both families and their childcare teams.

The structure you need exists.

Whether you are building a system for your household, advancing your career, or expanding your agency's services, the next step starts here.

Schedule a Complimentary Consultation
Dr. Ginny Schwager, founder of The Formator Institute

Dr. Ginny Schwager

A quiet life has suited me since childhood. Gardening, long walks with my border collie, evenings by a wood fire, a village in the Alps I return to each year because it reminds me what unhurried feels like. I carried that temperament, attuned and drawn to order, into more than fifteen years of work inside private homes. Over those years I kept seeing the same pattern. Even with devoted caregivers, when the systems around a child fracture, children lose what they need most: calm, play, and consistency. That is rarely anyone’s failure. It is a gap no one owns. The Formator Institute exists because it does not have to be that way. We work with families on behalf of the child, the parents, and the family system as a whole.

Academic Credentials:

  • Psy.D. in Counseling Psychology, Springfield College
  • M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology, Springfield College
  • B.A. in Psychology, University of Connecticut

Professional Certifications:

  • Leadership Principles, Harvard Business School
  • Performance Coach, Heroic PBC
  • Parent Facilitator, Circle of Security
  • Life Coach, Optimize
  • Adoption Competency, C.A.S.E.
  • Maternal Mental Health, Seleni Institute
  • Fertility Counseling, Covington

I speak and write for the private service industry. On the Easemakers Podcast I talked through reducing turnover and building support systems in high-net-worth households, and I have presented “The Evolution of Childcare Operations in Private Homes” to the childcare professional community.

Clara Akwarandu

Is a highly trained special needs nanny and behavior therapist specializing in autism-informed care. Clara serves as a Consultant & Neurodivergent Care Specialist with the Formator Institute, where she equips private families and caregivers through professional training, concierge services, and curriculum development to support sustainable, high-quality placements. Her work combines applied behavior analysis with early childhood education to provide individualized, developmentally informed support for both neurotypical and neurodivergent children. Clara also serves as Chair of the Community Advisory Committee for Adventure Nannies and as the Director of Community & Partnerships for Nanny Relief Fund.

Academic Credentials:
  • B.S. in Public Health, UT San Antonio
  • A.A.S. in Early Childhood Education, San Antonio College
  • Currently pursuing a Master’s in Human Development and Family Science, along with a Graduate Certificate in Special Education

Professional Credentials:
  • Registered Behavior Technician (RBT)
  • Positive Discipline for Nannies, Sproutable
  • Credentialed Nanny, International Nanny Association
  • Certified Professional Nanny (PNCP), US Nanny Association
  • Positive Discipline for Early Childhood Educators, Positive Discipline Association
Angela Canny, Formator Coach

Angela Canny

Angela Canny is a parent and nanny coach. Her work centers on emotional intelligence and the partnership between parents and the people who care for their children. She has worked as a professional nanny in private households for more than 20 years, supporting families through the early years and building the kind of trust between parents and caregivers that holds when a week goes badly. She teaches emotional attunement and clear communication, so that parents, nannies and children all feel supported and understood.

As a coach with The Formator Institute, Angela works with nannies on emotional intelligence frameworks and helps families build working partnerships with their care teams. She translates child development psychology into relationship-centered practice that fits the realities of a private household. In Formator Group Coaching she leads Burnout and Self-Regulation, one of Cohort 1’s two topics.

Academic Credentials:

  • M.A. in Psychology, University of Phoenix
  • B.A. in Psychology, University of Phoenix

Professional Certifications:

  • Certified Emotional Intelligence Coach, Symbiosis Coaching

Nannies come to Angela to deepen their relational skills. Families come to strengthen the partnership with their care team.

Megan Summers, Formator Coach

Megan Summers

Megan Summers is a nanny and parent coach for private households. Her work centers on attachment: how the care each of us received shapes the care we give the children in our lives. She has spent more than 20 years with children and families, from newborns through middle school, as an educator of children with high needs, a professional nanny, and the parent of now-adult children. That range gives her coaching a wider view and a steady empathy. She trained as a life coach through an ICF-approved continuing education program, and she works to make every session a safe place to dig deeper, grow, and build stronger connections for everyone around a child.

As a coach with The Formator Institute, Megan works with parents, nannies and the other adults in a child’s life. Her coaching focuses on clear communication with firm boundaries, with the children in your care and with the parents you work for; on emotional attunement, self-regulation and co-regulation; and on care teams where parents, nannies and children all feel supported and understood. In Formator Group Coaching she leads Communicating with Parents.

Academic Credentials:

  • B.A. in English and History, Wheaton College
  • Graduate credits toward an M.Ed. in Elementary Education, Wheelock College (now the Wheelock School of Education at Boston University)

Professional Certifications:

  • Certified Formator™, The Formator Institute, 2026
  • Master Parent Coach, Jai Institute for Parenting, 2024
  • Parent Coach, Jai Institute for Parenting, 2023
  • Insight Accelerate Coaching, Insight Coaching Community, 2025 (ICF-approved continuing coach education)

Nannies come to Megan to work through difficult things without losing relationships. Parents come to understand the care team they already have.

Aubree Weathers Zunzunegui

Aubree Weathers Zunzunegui

Operations Advisor

Aubree Weathers Zunzunegui is an operations and staffing consultant and the founder of AW Strategies, where she places private staff and builds the operations around them for families, family offices, founders, and executives. Her 17-year career in logistics and operations began in the U.S. Air Force and continued with the Department of Defense in air mobility and flight line operations, including nearly seven years supporting high-tempo operations in the Middle East. She later consulted for the Department of Homeland Security on change management, emergency preparedness, and contingency planning, and supported C-suite leadership at a Google subsidiary. Today she works with high-net-worth households on the administrative and operational layer that keeps a home running well.

As Operations Advisor to The Formator Institute, Aubree brings a unique outside view of how household systems hold up under pressure, and how a childcare team fits into the wider operation of a home. Through the partnership, families who work with the Institute can also access household and home office operations support and advisory, including continuity and preparedness planning.

She is a Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner, which shapes how she guides households through transitions: a new hire, a restructured team, a change in leadership, or a relocation. She was a guest on The Formator Podcast in 2026.

Academic Credentials:

  • B.A. in International Relations and Affairs, American Military University

Professional Certifications:

  • Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner
  • FEMA Emergency Management Institute, Incident Command System (IS-100, IS-200)

Aubree is based in the Atlanta metro area. Learn more at AW Strategies.