SUBJECT FACULTY

Elizabeth-McKay-resize

Elizabeth McKay
Eurythmy Teacher

Elizabeth has a BA from the University of South Carolina and a MA from New College of California. She moved to Asheville in 1999 to be closer to her family and to enjoy the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina. In 2006 she received her Eurythmy diploma from the Rudolf Steiner College in California. When her first child was born, she dedicated her time to nurturing the growing Waldorf community in Asheville. She is a founding Board Member, past Board President, and serves on the Leadership Team. She is the mother of two young children who attend Azalea Mountain. Elizabeth is currently pursuing additional training in facilitation and mediation. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, hiking, dancing, and reading.

Julia Krusenbaum
Spanish Teacher + Remidial Reading Support

Born and raised in Wisconsin in a family of German immigrants, Julia comes an anthroposophical background as she attended a Waldorf school as a child and spent time on her grandparents biodynamic farm.  With a BA in the Spanish language, Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies as well as a certificate in Chican@ Latin@ Studies from the University of Wisconsin Madison, she further developed her passion for latinx cultures by spending a summer in Peru and Costa Rica.  Later upon graduation she moved to Granada, Spain where she spent three and a half years teaching English and yoga as well as immersing herself in the Spanish language and culture. She believes that learning another language is an opportunity for a child to develop a new sense of thinking, feeling and relating.  With Spanish becoming the second language of the United States, it is a great passion of hers to foster bilingualism in the next generation. She has worked in dual-immersion programs in public schools through AmeriCorps as a reading tutor and classroom assistant and is trained in the Orton Gillingham approach to teaching reading.  Her interests include languages, travel, the outdoors, sustainable food and yoga. She believes in the value of language acquisition forming an integral part of children’s education alongside the teaching of cultural competency.

Waldorf strings and early childhood teacher, Jennie Brunner

Strings Teacher  
Jennie Brunner

Bio coming soon

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Charity Cimarron
Music Teacher/ 5th-7th Grade Handwork Teacher

Charity Cimarron is a mother, woodland creature, craftswoman, and performing musician. She spent many years living alternatively, off-the- grid, in a straw-bale house, in a converted school bus, and in tents, tipis, and yomes across the country. She has spent countless hours hiding out in the underbrush, learning bird songs, eating wild foods, and making medicine. As a craft addict, she has spent even more hours weaving, spinning, sewing, book-binding, and basket-making. She has been playing piano since she was 5, singing in choirs since she was allowed in. She plays guitar, banjo, accordion, and writes her own music. Her passion is Eastern European and Balkan music. She has played in a few touring bands and is currently working on a solo album!

Annie Balagur
1st -4th Grade Handwork Teacher

Annie grew up in the green mountains of Vermont, from a young age seeking out and exploring new crafts with her mom. She studied psychology, education, and studio art at Wheaton College MA and is currently training in Applied Practical Arts at the Fiber Craft Studio in Chestnut Ridge NY. She has been living in northern California for the last four years, working at the East Bay Waldorf School and the Davis Waldorf School as a class assistant and aftercare teacher. She is excited to live in the mountains again and to find new hiking trails.She also enjoys cooking, making plant medicine, natural dyeing, and spending as much time outdoors as possible. Living at co-ops has allowed her to live her values and share them with others by making conscious choices as a consumer, minimizing her environmental impact, and living more intentionally in general. She strives to continue developing her crafting skills to be able to make practical items that forgo the need to buy items that are often unsustainably made or disposable. She wishes to share with children the skills and patience required to make beautiful and useful things with their own hands.

Ethan Schultz

Games Teachers / Wood Working Teacher

Bio coming soon

Carole Hanlein  
Educational Support Director

Carole Hanlein has been involved in Waldorf Education since the 1970s when she attended Emerson College in Sussex England. She is trained as a class teacher, early childhood teacher, Eurythmist and Extra Lesson teacher. She has worked in these capacities in several schools in the US as well as homeschooling her three sons for many years in Asia. After completing an M.S. in Waldorf Remedial Education in 2006, she worked as an independent Educational Support Teacher in the Midwest until 2012, when she began working as Educational Support Director at Shining Mountain Waldorf School. There she was engaged in building up the Educational Support Program and working with the Extra Lesson to support students with academic or developmental challenges. She is also trained and practiced as an Orton Gillingham reading tutor. She is passionate about the possibilities inherent in Waldorf movement therapies such as Extra Lesson and Therapeutic Eurythmy, as well as monitoring and supporting students’ academic progress while keeping true to the developmental model of the human being that is the foundation of the Waldorf Curriculum.

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