About KinderKiddz
Meet our team
Susan Muscato
Center Director
Susan has been caring for children in various capacities for forty years. She has two degrees in teaching and is dual-certified by the state. In between teaching at two different private schools, she owned her own day care for eight years while raising her four children. For the last ten years, she has been the director of the early childhood program for the Buffalo City Mission while managing three other departments for the organization. During her time at the Mission, she subcontracted with two different universities in NYC to train their Pre-K teachers and sat on the local AEYC committee. She was also actively involved in her church’s children’s programming for 27 years while her children were growing up. Education has and continues to be her passion. She looks forward to working with KinderKiddz staff and families to provide an excellent educational experience for the children we serve. She loves finding ways to inspire and motivate those around her to create lifelong learners. A safe, loving learning environment at these early stages sets the tone for how children feel toward school as they grow. Her goal is that after children spend their early years at Kinderkiddz, they will enter kindergarten excited and well-prepared.
Kim Nelson
Assistant Director
Kim has her Associate Certificate in Early Childhood Education. She initially started in the childcare industry 10 years ago as an Assistant Teacher and quickly became a Lead Teacher in a Preschool classroom. Kim enjoys being around children and watching them grow. She loves having the opportunity to guide and teach little minds. There is no better feeling for her than knowing she has helped to brighten a child’s day and seeing their faces and expressions while they experience and learn new things. She works in the capacity of an Assistant Director at KinderKiddz and deals with children of all ages, while at the same time getting to know the parents and families in our wonderful Grand Island community. She has raised three children of her own — Kara, Corey, and Ryan — and enjoys hanging out with family and friends. Kim loves the beach and vacations on LBI in NJ every summer with her family. One of her favorite places to visit is Cedar Point, since she loves roller coasters. She is also a huge sports fan and diligently follows the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres and has had Buffalo Bandits season tickets since 1992. The past 10 years of working with children has been amazing for her and she looks forward to many more years in this field!
Shellina Patel
Owner / Administrator
Shellina Patel was born in Kenya, East Africa, studied in England, married in Canada and has been in the US for the last 14 years. She has owned and operated a retail store outlet and restaurants across the border in Canada, although she did take a small hiatus the last few years to dabble in insurance working remotely from her home. Mrs. Patel’s journey with KinderKiddz began with her husband, Barney’s dream of owning a childcare learning center. To-date, she and all her staff laughingly refer to working at the center as “Living Barney’s Dream”! She is very well respected and loved by the parents, staff, volunteers, and children at KinderKiddz. Working with your children is something she has grown to love more and more, and it is now a great passion of hers. She really enjoys seeing the children’s faces when they discover something new or come to the realization that they have accomplished something they once thought was impossible. She has 2 children of her own – daughter, Krishna and son, AJ. She also has a cat named Maaya, a fluffy sassy queen! Her family dynamic is different, but she wouldn’t change it for the world. Barney and Shellina are childhood sweethearts and just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary November this year. Pretty crazy, eh?! Outside of work, Mrs. Patel loves spending her time resting (lol), cooking, and enjoying quality time with friends and extended family members. She truly looks forward to working with you and your children!