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.
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.
Susan R. Johnson, MD FAAP has been a behavioral and developmental pediatrician for more than 22 years. After directing the Early Childhood Clinic during her fellowship she completed a year rotation in child psychiatry. She became an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF and Co-director of the Pediatric Obesity Clinic and Shapedown program. She also served for 7 years with the San Francisco Unified School District as their Physician Director at Golden Gate School Health Center.
After the birth of her son she completed a certified Waldorf Teacher training and studied Anthroposophical Medicine, in Arlesheim, Switzerland. Dr. Johnson has participated in numerous seminars and workshops exploring various forms of movement therapies such as Therapeutic Eurythmy, Parelli and therapeutic horseback riding, Spacial Dynamics, Brain Gym, HANDLE, and Bal-a-vis-x. Her greatest passion is to help children with auditory and visual processing problems through movement therapies that strengthen their vestibular/balance system.
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.
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.
Ken Lavner, M.M. graduated a class at Highland Hall Waldorf School after teaching grades one through eight (2008). In addition, Mr. Lavner has been an NEH Landmark History Grant Recipient (2007-2009). He obtained his Waldorf Education Certificate in 1999.
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.
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.
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.
Rena Osmer, M.A., has been passionate about Waldorf early childhood education since completing her training in 1985, and has taught children, parents, and teachers for many years. She is keenly interested in innovative ideas and new initiatives and has served the national development of Waldorf early childhood as WECAN Board Member, founding Board member of Sophia's Hearth, and LifeWays North America Board member. Rena's career began on the eastern seaboard in Wilton, NH at the Pine Hill Waldorf School, the Center For Anthroposophy and Antioch New England. On the western coast she worked for Rudolf Steiner College as Director of Early Childhood Education and co-founder of the Caldwell Early Life Center and the LifeWays Children's Center . She most recently has moved to the Florida sub-tropics where she currently teaches a mixed-age kindergarten in a new Waldorf initiative, Sea Star, in Boca Raton.
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.
Alessandra Lisa Profumo has been an educator for over thirty years, twenty of which have been as a Waldorf teacher at Highland Hall. Lisa taught for three years in the kindergarten after a number of years as an early childhood educator and is completing her second round as class teacher. With an M.A. in educational psychology, Lisa has taught education classes at UCLA and for WISC. She has given workshops and lectures for a variety of national and international organizations, mentored teachers, and has done extensive work in the area of parent education. She has three grown children who graduated from Highland Hall and remains as passionate as ever on the importance of protecting the endangered state of childhood.
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.
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."
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 is a kindergarten teacher of 3-6 year-olds at Santa Cruz Waldorf School where he has been teaching kindergarten for more than 20 years. Steve is the former editor of Gateways, the bi-annual publication of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN). Steve has written many articles and given lectures and workshops across the US and in Switzerland. He is author of a new book, Connecting With Young Children; Educating the Will, (available at lulu.com) and also has a story and music CD entitled Kudya Zvekukwata / Eating at Other People's Houses. Steve is a father and grandfather. His website is chamakanda.com.
Michael Steinrueck completed the four-year training in Creative Speech at the Schulungsstaette fuer Sprachgestaltung und Sprachkuenstlerische Therapie in Stuttgart, Germany in 1984. For the following six years he worked as speech teacher and therapist at the Karl-Schubert Schule for children with developmental disabilities in Vienna. During this time he also developed a performing career, touring with one-man recitation programs throughout Europe. He now lives in Chestnut Ridge, New York with his wife and children, where he has been speaker-in-residence with Eurythmy Spring Valley since 1990, teaching within the training and performing throughout North America, Europe and Japan with Eurythmy Spring Valley Ensemble. In 1997 he founded Creative Speech Spring Valley, an organization that offers seminars, conferences, and private coaching in creative speech and public speaking, as well as poetry, drama and storytelling performances. For many years Michael has taught in the teacher training program of Sunbridge College, as well as in various Waldorf schools. He is a co-founder and faculty member of The Speech School of North America, a professional training in the art of Creative Speech.
Katherine Thivierge completed her teacher training at the Waldorf Institute of Detroit in 1976. She later pursued a training in Speech Formation at the Speech School (now the Artemis School of Speech) in England and also holds a graduate diploma in Anthroposophical Therapeutic Speech. She has worked artistically and therapeutically with children and teachers in Waldorf schools for over ten years. She is presently the administrator at the Oakland Steiner School in Michigan.
Katherine Thivierge, speech artist, has worked artistically and therapeutically with children and teachers in Waldorf schools for over ten years. She is presently the administrator at the Oakland Steiner School in Michigan.