Our faculty includes many teachers who are currently teaching in local Waldorf schools, as well as visiting teachers from across the country and abroad.
Jean Brousseau completed teacher training at WISC in 1966, and was a Waldorf parent for 30 years. She has long been active in the work of the Anthroposophical Society in Los Angeles. Jean is a co-director of WISC.
John Brousseau enjoyed work as an electrical engineer in aerospace research and development, and enjoyed even more being a class teacher at Highland Hall for the following 31 years. He is a founding director of WISC and serves as chair of the Teacher Education Committee of AWSNA.
Jack Bryant completed his Waldorf Teacher training at WISC in 2000, taking his first teaching assignment at the Santa Fe Waldorf School in New Mexico. For the last 7 years Jack has been teaching sculpting and practical arts full time at Highland Hall Waldorf School, where he served as Whole School meeting facilitator for three years and as a member of the new governance Leadership Team. Jack brings more than 30 years of practical experience to his teaching, working in the building and construction trades. He attended Art Center College of Design and Santa Monica College. Jack has four children who are Waldorf students and graduates.
Shivani Burrows-Goodwill, M.Ed spent 15 years as a Waldorf class, and Kindergarten, teacher, before taking up the mission of bringing her Waldorf experience to inner-city students at a charter school in San Diego. Ten years later she finds relief from the constraints of public school with the joy of teaching curriculum and music classes to WISC students in San Diego.
Dennis Demanett is currently a class teacher at the Pasadena Waldorf School where he has the second grade. He has been a Waldorf class teacher for 31 years. Enthusiastic about teaching all grades, Dennis is eloquent about how child development and Waldorf curriculum fit like a glove, and why teaching each subject out of an abundance of imagination is so important.
Jacqueline Develle brings 14 years experience as a Waldorf school class teacher with a background in public school training and Montessori kindergarten. Due to her interest in seeing all teachers succeed, she completed a mentor training and is currently listed as a Pedagogical Advisor with AWSNA (Association of Waldorf Schools of North America). Jacqueline supervises student practicums, mentors students and teachers in Waldorf schools, and co-directs WISC in San Diego. She is also currently teaching Foundation Courses in San Diego.
Having trained as a teacher at the Waldorf Institute of Mercy College in Detroit, Michigan, Charlotte Dukich has been a Kindergarten teacher for 35 years at various schools in Southern California. At local schools Charlotte has led courses in Anthroposophical Foundation Studies and Early Childhood for WISC and Center for Anthroposophy, New England. Now that she has retired from full-time teaching, Charlotte is mentoring kindergarten teachers and is part of the faculty for WISC San Diego.
Michelle Foxx is woodworking teacher and Director of the After-School Care Program at Pasadena Waldorf School.
Ko Chen Hawkes, BA, a graduate of the Hibernia School of Artisitic Therapy in England, is an art therpaist and teacher. She brings a wealth of life experiences to her work teaching at Waldorf schools, professional development seminars, conferences, and in private practice. She was a board member and teacher at The West Coast Instiute of Studies in Anthroposophy, in British Columbia. She has three grown children, two of whom have graduated from Waldorf schools in England and Vancouver Island.
Alexander Houghton recently completed his second, eight-year tour of class teaching at Highland Hall. While teaching sixth and seventh grade science he discovered the importance, relevance and joy of studying phenomena as a way to understand and appreciate reality. He currently enjoys working as a co-director and teacher at WISC.
Holly Koteen-Soulé received her BA and MA from Antioch University in Seattle, and studied Waldorf education at Emerson College. She was a Waldorf Kindergarten teacher for 18 years, first at the Seattle Waldorf School and then as the founding teacher of the Bright Water School, also in Seattle. She has led courses in early childhood for several teacher training centers and has served as an AWSNA consultant for developing schools. Holly has been on the core faculty of Sound Circle Center since 1995, where she is the director of Early Childhood education.
Eloise Krivoshea
Bruce Laurelin discovered Waldorf Education in South Africa and became a Waldorf teacher in 1981. Bruce teaches Philosophy, Festivals, Anthroposophy, and Music. He is currently the music teacher at the Waldorf School of San Diego.
Puanani Leal completed the Eugene Teacher Training Program in 2001. She is currently the seventh grade class teacher at the Pasadena Waldorf School. Puanani has been teaching painting and other visual arts at WISC for two years. Painting in the Waldorf school is one of her great passions and is enlivened by her work with future Waldorf teachers.
Paul Matthews is an accomplished poet, Waldorf teacher, and author. He has taught at Emerson College, and traveled widely to deliver workshops in the U.K., Germany, the United Sates, Australia, and New Zealand. Paul's overriding concern is for the role of poetry as a community-making activity and as a means of schooling the imagination.
Patrice Maynard, M.Ed., is the leader for Outreach and Development of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA). She was a class teacher as well as a music teacher, taking one class through a complete cycle of eight grades and a second class through 5th grade at Hawthorne Valley School in upstate New York. Ms. Maynard is the parent of three Waldorf graduates.
Nancy Mellon has a varied background as a teacher of literature, creative writing, painting and drawing, and color therapy. She has been connected with the Waldorf educational movement since 1976. As a writer, therapist and teacher, she works to support family and community expression through the arts. With cross-cultural training in healing through the arts, she offers workshops and courses, often with others, at many locations in the US, Canada and abroad. Her newest book is about the vital links between human physiology, personal development, and storytelling imagination.
Christine Meyer has been a Waldorf teacher at Highland Hall Waldorf School since 1983. After graduating the second of her classes as a class teacher, she began teaching English in the middle school and high school. Christine teaches singing and upper grades English for WISC.
Katie Moran has been the movement teacher at Highland Hall Waldorf School for five years and an outdoor educator for fourteen. She is a graduate of WISC and a student of Spacial Dynamics*. She has brought courses on Circus Arts, Archery, Ballroom Dance, Spacial Dynamics, and the Pentathlon to adults in WISC, the AWSNA (Association of Waldorf Schools of North America) conference, and Spacial Dynamics training seminars.
* For for information about Spacial Dynamics, visit spacialdynamics.com
Johanna Mueller-Laurelin is a widely acclaimed Eurythmist who performs with stage groups in Europe and the U.S.A. An experienced Eurythmy teacher in Waldorf schools and Eurythmy schools, she is a teacher and co-director in the San Diego WISC program. Johanna attended a Waldorf School from Kindergarten through High School.
Clio Osman, born and raised in Oregon, holds a BS in Elementary Education. She taught grade school then joined the Peace Corps, where she instructed volunteers on how to teach modern mathematics to children. She also taught math in an Oakland, CA Junior High School. Backpacking and world traveling led her to England, where she encountered and fell in love with Waldorf Education. She did 4 years of Eurythmy training as part of the Waldorf teacher course at Emerson College. Clio taught Eurythmy at Wynstones, then in Germany for the last 30 years. She is currently the Eurythmy teacher at both Highland Hall Waldorf and Valley Waldorf City schools.
Dean Pollard received his Waldorf training at the Rudolf Steiner College, Sacramento, and Eurythmy Training at the Zuccoli Schule, Dornach. He has 11 years of innovative Eurythmy Teaching from K to 12th grade, at the Sacramento and Santa Cruz Waldorf Schools. Dean is an award-winning theater director and pioneer of the Eurythmy Staff, bringing a very practical Shamanistic approach to the art of Eurythmy.
Andrea Pronto holds a diploma in Special Education from the Independent Music School at Rudolf Steiner Seminar in Germany, and has been the music teacher at Live Oak Waldorf School since 1986. She is on the faculty of Rudolf Steiner College, has completed singing training from the School of Uncovering the Voice, and received a diploma in Therapeutic Singing.
Michael Ridenour has made Waldorf a combination quest and pilgrimage. He has done Waldorf time in New York, Santa Rosa, San Diego, Orange County, Chicago, the Bay Area near San Francisco, and Los Angeles. After years of teaching high school he finds a second home as a class teacher. He likes the feel and challenges of a young school, and he is happy to be at Valley Waldorf City School with a group of students who feel the same way— in his own words, "They want flex and they want to get it right, with the verbal, artistic skills and desire to learn that makes Waldorf teaching such a right way to go."
Joseph Rubano an incurable lover of meditation and reader of spiritual texts, was tricked into reading Steiner by his wife leaving books around the house. Unable to resist, he came to call himself an ‘anthroposophist’ with a small ‘a’. Once hooked, he pursued his love of inner development, counseling and the magic of meeting by studying with Georg Kuhlewind and by completing the Biographical Counselling Training in Emerson College (1991). His love of movement was met and enhanced in the Spacial Dynamics Training with Jaimen McMillan (1999). Currently he is a counselor and life coach, poet and Spacial Dynamic movement educator working in the San Diego area. He and Patricia have led biography, communication, and parenting workshops in New York, Minnesota, and California over the past 10 years.
Patricia Rubano has been connected with Waldorf education and Anthroposophy all her adult life. She has worked with young children from infants through kindergarten for over 20 years. She helped found the Waldorf School of San Diego, and has worked for and with Sanderling School in No. County. She spent many years teaching at Green Meadow W.S. in N.Y. where her two children attended school. She currently works in the realm of adult education mentoring early childhood teachers and offering workshops. She co-directs the Biography and Social Art course with Signe Schaefer through Sunbridge College and also teaches the week-long Introduction to Waldorf Early Childhood Education there.
When Merrie Schmidt enrolled at WISC in 1995, she had a teaching credential in English and two children, Sarah and Cameron. In 1997 she completed her Waldorf teacher training and joined the Highland Hall faculty as a handwork assistant and main lesson substitute. She also taught English in the eighth grade and brought bookbinding to the high school. Her youngest child, Joey, joined the family in 1998. Beginning in 2000, Merrie carried her first class from 4th through 8th grade, and her next class for grades seven and eight. She is currently finishing her Master's degree in Education while also substituting in the lower school and working with the high school English Department (all of this while "on Sabbatical"). She recently joined the WISC faculty, where her course titles include: Inner Order: Planning and Time Management for Teachers, Spiritual Foundations and Practical Work of Middle School Physiology and Anatomy, and Nurturing Parent Communications. Her personal philosophy has never let her down: "In a wide enough frame, everything makes perfect sense; our worst fears are ... just not true."
Elizabeth Sevison comes from a background in fine art and art history. She has been a student of anthroposophy since 1976, with a special interest in Waldorf education. Having served as a board member of the Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Los Altos, CA, and assisted in the founding of the Sanderling School in Cardiff, CA, she is currently co-directing and teaching in the San Diego WISC program.
Elizabeth Seward, PhD
Joana Sguario DaSilva, a Brazilian Sculptress, Painter, Art Teacher, and Interior Designer, started teaching at WISC in 2007. For almost 20 years she has been teaching adults and adolescents, both in schools and in her own art studios in Brazil, England, and the US. She holds a BFA in Visual Arts from FAAP in Sao Paulo and completed her Waldorf Teacher training in Brazil, as well as a one year Art Program at Rudolf Steiner College and three years at the Sculpture School of Emerson College. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, and is a parent of a Waldorf alumna. She is currently taking the Interior Design professional program at UCLA, and works as an Interior Designer, Color Consultant, and Volunteer Docent at the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu.
Stephen Spitalny has been a kindergarten teacher at the Santa Cruz Waldorf School for 19 years. Currently his kindergarten includes 3 through 6 year olds. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of WECAN (Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America) and has been the editor of their bi-annual publication, Gateways, since 2000. A prolific writer on various themes, he has given lectures and workshops across the US and in Switzerland. Steve has 3 daughters and is a grandfather as well. He is a Zimbabwean music enthusiast and a member of Sadza Marimba and Mbira Band (www.sadza.net).
Uta Taylor-Weaver has been a Waldorf student herself. She has degrees in Early Childhood, Elementary Education ,and Junior High from the University of Oklahoma, Karlsruhe, and Stuttgart. Uta has been the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for Humanities to study and research Goethe's Faust. She has graduated four classes and has been a foreign language teacher and lecturer for many years . Uta is affiliated with Waldorf Teacher Training Centers in the the USA and in Europe.