Nancy Blanning
Program Co-Director: Child Development, Developmental Movement, Language Arts in Early Childhood, Anthroposophical Studies
A member of the Sunbridge Early Childhood faculty since 1994, Nancy assumed the title of co-director in 2015. Now retired from a nearly forty-year career at The Denver Waldorf School, where she served as a kindergarten teacher and member of the educational support staff, Nancyâs main focus is therapeutic education with a special emphasis on developmental movement as supporting young childrenâs physical incarnation and sensory development.
A frequent keynote speaker and presenter at national and international early childhood conferences and workshops, including serving as a faculty member at Denver’s Nurturing the Roots Therapeutic Course, Nancy’s writing credits include serving as contributor and editor of Gateways, the publication of WECAN (the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America, based in Chestnut Ridge; NY); regular columnist for Lilipoh magazine; contributor to âYouâre Not the Boss of Meâ (WECAN publication), editor of WECANâs First Grade Readiness; and co-author, with Laurie Clark, of Movement Journeys and Circle Adventures, a collection of original movement imaginations for the classroom. Nancy holds a BA in English from the University of Colorado, with teaching credentials. She also earned a certificate as Extra Lesson provider and therapeutic educator from Gradalis Seminars, where she attended four-year anthroposophical therapeutic/remedial training in Extra Lesson and supplementary therapies and academic support strategies.
Leslie Burchell-Fox â96
Program Co-Director: Completion Track Lead Advisor, Handwork and Crafts, Festivals, Anthroposophical Studies
Leslie has been a member of the Sunbridge early childhood program faculty since 2004 and assumed the title of co-director in 2015. Leslie is currently leading the Parent & Child program at Green Meadow Waldorf School, where she has been on the faculty since 2002 in various roles in the Early Childhood department.  She previously taught kindergarten and nursery for six years at the Waldorf School of Baltimore.
Leslie is also a Lazure artist whose beautiful work graces our Upper Brookside classroom. Prior to becoming a Waldorf teacher, she was a professional fiber artist specializing in surface design and wearable art, and she continues to practice her craft. She also spent several years as a speech pathologist. She holds a BS in Speech Pathology from Kent State University and an MSEd in Waldorf Education from Sunbridge College ’96.
Laurie Clark
Child Development, Therapeutic Education
Laurie is lead kindergarten teacher at The Denver Waldorf School and mentors Waldorf teachers around the country. She has been teaching Waldorf  kindergarten for 27 years and is Director Qualified in the state of Colorado. Laurie is co-author with Nancy Blanning of the book Movement Journeys and Circle Adventures: Movement Enrichment with a Therapeutic Emphasis for Early Childhood. She earned her Associateâs degree in Early Childhood Education, attended the Teacher Training program at Rudolf Steiner College in Sacramento, California, and completed her remedial training with the Association for a Healing Education program.
Andrea Gambardella
Anthroposophical Studies
Andrea began Waldorf teaching in 1977 as a founding faculty member at The Waldorf School of Baltimore. Her over 40 years of experience as a Waldorf Early Childhood educator and leader include, most recently, serving as Early Childhood Admissions Coordinator at Green Meadow Waldorf School, where she taught for many years. She is a former board, task force, and committee member of WECAN, Leadership Council representative for AWSNA, and served as a director of Early Childhood education for Sunbridge College.
Meggan Gill â10
Contemporary Topics, Rhythmic Games and Music
Meggan is Sunbridgeâs director of education and organizational culture. A member of Alma Partners, and a specialist in diversity, equity, and inclusion, she is also a trained Waldorf early childhood educator. She is also an active committee member and workshop presenter for AWSNA and WECAN, and, along with Dr. Linda Williams, led a workshop at the 2023 World Teachersâ Conference. Megganâs teaching experience includes most recently serving as lead toddler teacher at City of Lakes Waldorf School and, from 2009-2020, serving on the faculty of the Brooklyn Waldorf School, where she led parent-and-child and kindergarten classes and was active on the Faculty Council. Prior to joining BWS, she taught kindergarten at the Olympia Waldorf School and parent-and-child and nursery classes at the New Amsterdam School. Meggan, who originally hails from the Pacific Northwest, earned her undergraduate degree in health sciences from The Evergreen State College, her MEd in curriculum and instruction from SUNY Empire State, and her certificate in Waldorf early childhood education from Sunbridge.
Elizabeth Hall
Anthroposophical Studies
Liz is a member of Sunbridge’s Elementary Teacher Education faculty; she is also eighth grade teacher at Green Meadow Waldorf School where she has been a class teacher since 2006 and is a member of the schoolâs Collegium and the Teacher Development Committee. Prior to joining the Green Meadow faculty, she was a class teacher and lower school chair at the Waldorf School of Baltimore. Liz holds a BA from Earlham College, where she double-majored in English and Spanish and minored in Art History; an MA in Education and Waldorf Certificate 1-8 from Antioch New England Graduate School; NH certification 1-6; and a Certificate of Curative Education from Camphill Special Schools, Inc.
Jana Hawley â09
Singing
Jana has been a faculty member of Sunbridgeâs Elementary Teacher Education program since 2002 and served as its program director from 2009-22. Since 2006, Jana has been on the faculty of Green Meadow Waldorf School, where she has been a class teacher and lower school music teacher and a member of the Teacher Development Committee. She has been a visiting faculty member at several Waldorf teacher training institutes in the U.S. and abroad and spent 14 years on the faculty of the Whidbey Island Waldorf School, teaching music and main lessons. She has led workshops in movement, singing, and composition, and is a contributor to The Mood of the Fifth: A Musical Approach to Early Childhood, a WECAN publication. Jana earned her BFA in Music from Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA, and her MSEd in Waldorf Elementary Teacher Education from Sunbridge College.
Jennifer Kleinbach
Art of Speech
Kemal Lowenthal
Woodwork / Basketry
Kemal teaches woodwork and applied arts at Green Meadow Waldorf School, the school from which he graduated. Prior to coming to Green Meadow, he was on the faculty of the Maine Coast Waldorf School for five years, where he served as the elementary faculty chair and sat on the Leadership Committee and the College of Teachers. In addition to his current subjects, Kemal has also taught high school math, literature, art, 6th grade geology, 7th grade algebra, and drama. He holds a BFA in ceramics and sculpture, with a minor in art history, from the School for American Crafts, Rochester Institute of Technology, and an MEd in Waldorf elementary education from Antioch University of New England.
Melissa Lyons
Eurythmy
Melissa has been teaching at Sunbridge since 2011 and has worked as administrator of WECAN since 2000. Before the birth of her daughter, she taught eurythmy in Waldorf schools in Connecticut and New York. Melissa first encountered eurythmy as a student at the Waldorf Institute (Sunbridgeâs predecessor), and she continues to marvel at what eurythmy reveals about life and the reality of being human. She is a 1997 graduate of Eurythmy Spring Valley.
Mac Mead
Gardening, Esoteric Science
Mac has been the director of the Pfeiffer Center in Chestnut Ridge, NY, since 2007 and has farmed and gardened biodynamically for more than thirty years, working with the land on every scale from hand work to field-scale vegetables, tending an orchard to managing dairy cows. He was the resident farmer at the Fellowship Communityâs Duryea Farm from 1997 until 2005, and a co-worker at the Camphill Village in Copake, NY, from 1972 to 1974, where he did therapeutic community work and also taught nature and games at the fledgling Waldorf school there.
As a co-worker in the Fellowship Community beginning in 1975, where he learned biodynamic methods directly from former co-workers of Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, Mac helped start the Third Grade farming block at Green Meadow Waldorf School, and taught that block for fifteen years; he also helped initiate the Pfeiffer Centerâs public school outreach program, The Outdoor Lesson. Mac graduated from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania with a degree in psychology.
Linda Ogden-Wolgemuth â06
Biography Work
Linda is currently faculty administrator at Brooklyn Waldorf School where she has served on the board for several years. Previously, she led a class from first through eighth grade at the Rudolf Steiner School and continued to teach various grades there and serve as a college and board member before joining Sunbridge as our director of education from 2019-22. A graduate of the Center for Biography and Social Art’s three-year certificate program, for which she currently serves as board secretary and leads biography workshops, Linda also holds a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in in Germanic languages and literatures. She earned her Waldorf teacher training certificate from Sunbridge.
Rebecca Ruof â16
Practical Activities of Waldorf Early Childhood Education
Rebecca is currrently a lead nursery teacher at the Berkshire Waldorf School, after teaching nursery at Green Medow Waldorf School for many years. Rebecca, who grew up in Germany, attended a Waldorf school from kindergarten through high school. Before becoming an early childhood educator, she taught various subjects at Waldorf schools including in Budapest and Baltimore. Rebecca completed her Waldorf early childhood training as a student in Sunbridge’s Early Childhood Completion Track Class of 2016.
Rie Seo â18
Practical Activities of Waldorf Early Childhood Education
Rie teaches kindergarten at The Waldorf School of Garden City and is also an instructor in Sunbridge’s “Introduction to Waldorf Early Childhood Education” Summer Series course. Before joining the WSGC faculty, Rie served as the aftercare lead teacher at New Amsterdam School. She also led nursery and parent/child programs at a Waldorf-inspired Japanese Saturday Program in Brooklyn and was the founder and lead teacher for outdoor Waldorf-inspired parent/child classes in Queens. Rie earned her BA in drama from Tamagawa University in Tokyo, Japan; her MFA in theater design from NYU Tisch School of the Arts; a certificate in early childhood education from LifeWays; and a diploma in Waldorf early childhood teacher education from Sunbridge.
Motria Shuhan â06
Puppetry/Marionettes
Motria is Director and Founder of Acorn Waldorf School, a WECAN school located in Accord, NY.  Her fourteen years of experience working with young children include nine years at the Mountain Laurel Waldorf School in New Paltz, NY, where she worked in the nursery and kindergarten and served as the Pedagogical Chair for three years. With a special interest in the art of puppetry, Motria has staged shows for conferences, festivals, and other community events. A graduate of Sunbridgeâs Early Childhood Teacher Education program, she also completed a three-year Advanced Therapeutic Course for Early Childhood Educators in Denver, Colorado.
Lynn St. Pierre
Hand Gesture and Movement Games
Lynn is a Waldorf early childhood educator who first came to the singing and movement games of Wilma Ellersiek in a workshop offered by Kundry Willwerth at the 2008 WECAN East Coast conference. She went on to co-teach courses with Kundry and now continues this work worldwide.
Jane Swain
Practical Activities of Waldorf Early Childhood Education
Jane, a core faculty member at Sophia’s Hearth, is a movement specialist and pediatric physical therapist with a special interest in the childâs integration of the primitive reflexes. She studied at the Pikler Institute in Budapest, is a graduate of the Level III training in Spacial DynamicsÂź, and is certified in Bothmer GymnasticsÂź, in Sensory Integration Praxis testing and Bobath/Neuro-developmental Treatment for children with cerebral palsy. She also taught movement education in the early grades at the Monadnock Waldorf School and has provided classroom consultation and worked privately with children for many years.
Jessica Heffernan Ziegler
Professional and Social Aspects of Waldorf Early Childhood Education
Jessica has been the executive director of Sunbridge Institute since 2008. Her professional focus on leadership skills, governance issues, and personnel development are utilized both in her executive director role and in her work as co-instructor of Sunbridgeâs âCollaborative Leadershipâ course and related workshops; she previously taught in Sunbridge Collegeâs Administration and Biography programs. Jessica is a partner in MIRA Companions for Development, an international consulting group, and works as an executive coach and organizational development consultant for Waldorf administrators and teachers and other professionals in diverse institutions and schools in both the US and Germany. She served as the first administrator and as a board member at a Waldorf school she co-founded in Everswinkel, Germany, and has sat on many other boards, including her current role as trustee of the Otto Specht School in Chestnut Ridge, NY. Jessica holds a BS in business management and did her biography training with Karl-Heinz Finke and her executive coach training with SECA International.
