Marianne Cordyack
and her husband, John, have been living in Reston, Virginia since 1972. They have two grown children. Their daughter, Susanne is a Special Education teacher in Fairfax County. She is married to Colin Whitehouse and they have 2 children, Emily and Tyler. Marianne and John's son Brian is a design manager for washingtonpost.com.

Marianne has a degree in Art from Hood College, Frederick, Maryland. She has a Masters degree (with a concentration in Ceramics) from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has also studied pottery extensively at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina and Haystack School of Crafts in Maine.

Marianne taught art at Langston Hughes Middle School in Reston for 8 years before resigning in 1996 to start her own art school. She taught adult and teen wheel-throwing classes, workshops, children's after-school art classes, and children's art and clay camps. In June 2004 she retired from teaching weekly classes and now teaches only occasional workshops in Salt firing, Raku firing, and Glaze making. She is very happy to now have more time to spend working on her own pottery!

She is on the Board of Directors for The Clay Connection, a networking group for clay artists in the Washington, DC area.

Her other interests are traveling, gardening and photography.