High School Faculty

* Indicates Core Faculty

Humanities

Literature & English

*Chris Segrave-Daly, M.A. Humanities, University of Chicago (American history and literature, African-American studies);  B.A. English, Villanova University. Prior to Monadnock, Chris taught high school English for seven years at Rudolf Steiner School in New York City, where he also served as a member of the  Board of Trustees, a class mentor, a co-leader of the annual junior class trip to Kimberton Camphill, and his school’s delegate to the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America. Chris and his wife, Amishi, have three young children.

History, Social Studies, English, Drama, HS Chair

*Karl Schurman, B.S., Empire State College; Princeton University; NYU Undergraduate Film School; Waldorf HS Teacher Education Program, New England Center for Anthroposophy (certificate of completion). From 2002 until coming to Monadnock, Karl taught in Waldorf high schools and as an upper grades class teacher, primarily at Green Meadow Waldorf School, Chestnut Ridge, NY. Over three decades of self-employed freelancing in the film business in New York City preceded Karl's Waldorf teaching career. He worked all  over the US and in many parts of the world, including shooting the PBS documentary The World of Mother Teresa. He maintains a deep interest in cinema history, the French language, Native America, and mystical Sufi poetry. He spent his own high school years in Brussels, Belgium. Three of his four grown children are Waldorf high school graduates; he hopes his grandson, Ibrahima, will be one as well.

Economics

Katie Schwerin, M.Ed., Antioch University with Certification in Waldorf Education, 1994. Following 13 years of class teaching at MWS, Katie returned to school in 2009 to complete the Waldorf HS Certification, Center for Anthroposophy. After graduating her last elementary school class in 2007, Katie resumed work at her family company, the WS Badger Co, bringing innovation and a strong impulse for social responsibility. Katie has taken up leadership in numerous departments at Badger from marketing to product development and is currently COO, responsible for all aspects of this fast growing and successful company. She has gained hands on knowledge of how to start and how to develop a healthy, sustainable, and responsible business.

French

*Céline Gendron, B.A., Université Québec à Montréal; Waldorf HS Teacher Education Program, New England Center for Anthroposophy (certificate  of  completion). Céline grew up on a farm in Québec, Canada and came to the  US  in  1981 to work in curative education in the Camphill Community in Kimberton, PA. For several years she lived at the Lukas Community in Temple, NH as a co-worker, house-parent, member of the administrative staff, and as Executive Director of the Lukas Foundation. After completing her high school training, she went on to teach French in grades one through seven at the Kimberton Waldorf School and later grades ten through twelve at Green Meadow Waldorf School in New York.

Ivan Besack, B.A., Cinema Studies/Film Production, San Francisco State University; Anthroposophical Studies Program, School of Spiritual Science, Dornach, Switzerland; “Ways to Quality” training and certification, Geneva, Switzerland. Ivan has been a competitive alpine ski racer on the F.I.S. circuit, a documentary filmmaker and most recently an English teacher in France. He is a dual national French-American citizen and has just moved with his wife and three children to Keene from Alsace, France. He is enrolled at the Alkion Center in Hawthorne Valley, New York and will have his Waldorf Teaching Certificate by Summer 2013.

Mathematics

*Connie Gerwin, A.A., California State University; Waldorf Institute of Southern California. Connie has taught algebra and geometry in Waldorf high schools for over thirty years, first at Highland Hall in Northridge, CA, then at High Mowing School in Wilton, NH and more recently at Hartsbrook School in Hadley, MA, Merriconeag Waldorf School in Maine, and  Lake Champlain Waldorf School in Vermont. She serves as a mentor to Waldorf high school math teachers and offers talks and workshops throughout North America.

Projective Geometry

Matthew Messner,B.S., Carnegie Mellon University; Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program, New England Center for Anthroposophy (coursework certificate). After several years teaching mathematics in independent schools of the Friends and other alternative traditions, Matthew became a visiting block teacher at various Waldorf high schools including Merriconeag in Freeport, ME, where his students first made him aware of Monadnock. He is delighted to heed their sage advice that, if ever the opportu­nity arose, he would do well to wend his way here. Outside the classroom, Matthew finds joy in lighting theatrical productions, hiking mountains, and singing kirtan (Indian devotional music). He is a certified yoga teacher.

Physical Sciences

(also Surveying, Trigonometry & Calculus)

*Mr. Falconbridge,Ph.D. in Psychology/Physics; M.S., B.S. with First Class Honors in Biophysics, University of Western Australia; Certification, Waldorf HS Teacher Education Program, New England Center for Anthroposophy. He has worked as a Research Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer in the Physics Department at UWA and completed more than three years of post-doctoral work at UCLA and UC/San Diego. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled Learning to See: Principles of Plasticity in the Early Visual System and he has published various papers since around the theme of the brain’s remarkable ability to learn from its environment. He has served on the board of a developing Waldorf school in California and done volunteer work as an English and Maths tutor for underprivileged children in Malaysia. He and his wife, have three young children.

Life Sciences

(also Algebra II)

*Mary Kay Costello, M.S., Neuroscience and Behavior (research in circadian rhythms), University of Massachusetts, Amherst; B.A., Biology and Environmental Studies, Wells College. Mary Kay has taught biology, chemistry, and math in Waldorf High schools and public schools since 1979, first teaching at the Waldorf School of Garden City (of which she is also an alumna), later at the Hartsbook (Waldorf) School in Hadley, MA. As a teenager, Mary Kay spent several summers working at Camp Glen Brook, where she came to love the Monadnock region, hiking and canoeing it. She is passionate about science, the natural world, hiking, swimming, cross-country skiing, gardening, discovering plants and animals, and finding ways to protect the land, its plants, and animals. Mary Kay has three grown children and one grandson.

Earth Sciences

Geology

Lisa Damian, B.S., Biology and Environmental Science; certified in Spatial Dynamics and Bothmer Gymnastics. Lisa is a Waldorf high school science teacher with over 21 years of experience. She was a founding faculty member of the Emerson Waldorf High School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the founding teacher of the Ashuelot River High School before it became Monadnock Waldorf High School.

Astronomy Intensive

Paul Davis has a lifelong interest in Astronomy and in the Nature of the Human Being. In his youth he spent several years of weekends teaching Introductory Astronomy and Celestial Navigation at the Mystic Seaport Museum Planetarium. He supported this near-volunteer situation with a lucrative but unsustainable career in Ocean Engineering (Computer Modeling) and Commercial Broadcasting. Retiring from all that in 1987, he became a Waldorf High School Teacher and trained at the Waldorf Institute under Werner Glas and Norman Davidson. He taught blocks at various Waldorf high schools as well as adult Evening Astronomy Courses at Sunbridge College in Spring Valley, NY. With the birth of his first son, in 2000, Paul retired from teaching and, after a sojourn with a large Community Chorus in RI, now lives in the Lukas Community in Temple, NH. He is part of a long-term life-sharing household of 12, which includes several adults in need of a supportive environment and his family of five. But he continues to gaze up at the night sky with wonder and awe.

Aesthetics

Study of Art (also Painting)

Kristin Buckbee has studied in a variety of artistic settings including Cornish College of the Arts, Free Columbia, ThinkOutword gatherings, Alkion Waldorf teacher training, the Steiner Institute, and anywhere else something really exciting is happening. On a quest to discover the perfect medium and artistic practice, Kristin’s journey took her from Europe, where she studied the age old techniques of classical realism, frescoes, egg tempera, and gilding, all the way back to the world of American pop culture, street art, and concep­tual expression. She ultimately found her practice lay within an artistic impulse born out of Rudolf Steiner’s indications for the arts. Her greatest passion is teaching, especially young people, and she is extremely excited to continue here at MWHS. Kristin currently lives in Philmont, NY with her husband, Peter, and baby daughter, Isabel.

History of Music

Douglas Gerwin, Ph.D., is the Director of the Center for Anthroposophy in Wilton, where among other responsi­bilities he helps to train Waldorf high school teachers (including Mr. Schurman, Mme Gendron and Mr. Falconbridge). He has extensive high school and university teaching experience in life sciences, history, literature, German, and music. A Waldorf graduate himself, he is the author of several books and many articles. He co-authored of the longitudinal study of Waldorf graduates called The Results of Waldorf Education and his recent work includes researching and developing a sexual education curriculum for Waldorf students in grades four through twelve.

Survey of Architecture (also Clay Sculpture)

Patrick Stolfo, B.A., M.A., has been active as a freelance sculptor and graphic artist since 1973. After a period of independent study and teaching at Emerson College in England, he was commissioned for sculptural installations in Sweden, California, and New York. He has been a teacher of sculpture, art, and art history for thirty years in numerous Waldorf schools, college programs, and Waldorf teacher training institutes in North America.

Movement

Eurythmy

Marie-Eve Piché, diploma in Eurythmy, Spring Valley (NY) Eurythmy School, currently completing a bachelor’s degree on a part-time basis in the Art of Eurythmy from the University of Oslo. She spent a year at Foyer Michael in the central France countryside studying arts and pedagogy in the light of Anthroposophy. Marie-Eve has also worked at Montréal Waldorf School as a class teacher assistant and an after-care teacher. She lives in Keene.

Dance

Richard Clough, B.A. History/Theater Keene State College. Richard has been involved with the Performing Arts since his formative years. Starting as a musician, then moving to acting, and finally to dance, he has been teaching Social/Ballroom Dance in the Keene area since 1986. He is comfortable with the Smooth dances such as Foxtrot and Waltz, the Latin dances such as Cha Cha and Rumba, and Club dances such as Swing and Salsa. Rich strives to give students the tools to enjoy and express themselves to music individually and in partnership.

Yoga

Meenakshi Moses began practicing yoga in 1985 and received teacher certification from the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers International in 1988. She has studied and practiced Sivananda, Iyengar, and Ashtanga Yogas and taught Sivananda, Pre-natal, and Ashtanga Yogas. Meenakshi's main study and practice in recent years has been of Ashtanga Yoga.

Physical Education

Ivan Besack ~ soccer

Glen Mallet ~ basketball

Stefan Hofer-Fay ~ volleyball

Nell Wiener ~ ultimate Frisbee

Instrumental Music

Wind Ensemble

Bruce Elliot studied Jazz saxophone at the Hartt School of Music with Jazz Master Jackie McLean. He has been playing in and leading various musical groups around Keene since 1998. Bruce graduated from the Waldorf teacher training at Antioch New England Graduate School where he was class­mates with MWS class teacher Tim Price. For five years Bruce was a class teacher at MWS. Currently he plays in two bands, The Nines and The Terry Landis Band, as well as teaching and working as the massage therapist at the Cheshire Wellness Center.

Strings Ensemble

Philip Bloch B.A., Music, Yale University, concentration in performance, composition, and improvisation. He has performed, taught, and written music from college onward. Philip insisted on violin lessons at age five, and has been playing fiddles, guitars, mandolins, violas, and various other instruments ever since. Many types of music have inspired him: from Benny Goodman to Stephane Grappelli, Odetta to Doc Watson, Mozart to Led Zeppelin. His composition, Songs of Peace, debuted in May 2012, in a performance that included student singers and string players from Keene schools. Mr. Bloch lives off-grid in Whitefield, Maine, with his fiancée and a whole bunch of animals, none of whom are meant to be eaten.

Handbell Choir

Lauré Mackey has been involved with handbells for more than 14 years, as a director and as a solo, duet, and ensemble ringer with church and community choirs in NH, NJ, ME, and VA. She has played with Back Bay Carillon, Casco Bay Ringers, and New England Ringers in past seasons, and currently rings with Granite State Ringers. She has taught chime and handbell classes to students in school music programs and to adults and youth at handbell workshops. Currently, Lauré rings with St. James Episcopal Church in Keene, NH. Lauré works as a virtual librarian online for Penn Foster School of Scranton, PA, and as a bookkeeper with Counting House Associates of Greenland, NH. She is also the owner of Beaded Brilliance Mobiles & More and her artistic creations can be seen on Etsy and in Galleries in Massachusetts & Indiana. She and her husband, Bruce, live in Keene with their 2 teenage boys, four cats, and Tori the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

Vocal Music

High School Chorus

Maria Belva, B.A., Psychology & Education, SUNY/Potsdam; MMus Choral Conducting, University of Maine; CMVT (Certified McClosky Voice Technician), McClosky Institute of Voice, Emory University. Maria is a professional choral conductor and private voice teacher based in Peterborough, NH. Her voice studio serves students of varying abilities and needs, from timid beginners to experi­enced soloists, from children to adults. She directs the Peterborough Children’s Choir (more than 70 children in four auditioned ensembles) and the Keene Youth Chorus, and is music director of the Peterborough Unitarian Church. Maria also is active as a soprano soloist throughout the Monadnock region. She sings with the Peterborough Chamber Singers.

A Capella Group

Julia Kerr, B.A., Elementary Education, Goucher College; completed the Foundation Studies program. She was at the Waldorf School of Princeton for seventeen years, first as a parent, then as an administrative assistant, teaching assistant, substitute teacher, special subject teacher, and as a class teacher for four years. Currently, Julia is the 7th grade class teacher at MWS. She is an accomplished handwork teacher, a choral musician, and has been a mathematics teacher in grades four, six, and eight. Julia has three sons and a husband who has been a teacher and now a camp director. She enjoys being outdoors with children and sharing her enthusiasm for singing with others. She has directed choruses and choirs at various points in her life and is a particular fan of helping people to sing a capella.

Manual & Fine Arts

Blacksmithing, Wood Sculpture, Woodworking

Stefan Hofer-Fayhas been inventing and creating things as long as he can remember. His creativity was fostered through 12 years at the Kimberton Waldorf School. After high school Stefan traveled to South America and Norway. His passion has always been woodworking and therefore, he studied wooden boat building and log house building in Norway. While in Norway, he also had the opportunity to learn blacksmithing, knife making, woodcarving, hide tanning, and sailing. Stefan lived on a farm for a year in a remote section of northern Norway working for a master log builder as well as taking care of and driving sled dogs. He began teaching children and adolescents at Kroka Expeditions, a wilderness education school in Marlow, NH, and assisted on their Vermont HS Semester. He also had the opportunity to teach a few courses in Norway at the Fosen Folk High School. Stefan also assists Hans Van Riel and teaches his own classes in woodwork at the MWS Elementary School. He is currently studying education full time at River Valley Community College.

Black & White Drawing, Painting, Sculpture

Nick Pomeroy received a three-year intensive training in Art and Anthroposophy at the School of Sculpture, Emerson College, Forrest Row, UK, where he also received additional practical training in pedagogical painting, drawing and sculpture. A Waldorf graduate and member of the pioneering class of Portland Waldorf High School, Nick later returned to PWHS as the Fine Arts teacher. Throughout his adult life he has taken many classes and workshops in a wide spectrum of arts: ceramics, printmaking, graphic design, etc. He thoroughly enjoys working with adolescents and feels he learns as much from the students as they do from him.

Clay Sculpture

Patrick Stolfo (see above)

Clowning

Laura Geilen is a member of the North American Nose-To-Nose Clown Facilitator team under the guidance of Vivian Gladwell, founder of Nose-To-Nose UK. She collaborates with the highly respected Walking the Dog Theater of Hudson, NY, and teaches movement, circus arts, Spacial Dynamics^® and clowning to adults, kids, and special needs populations throughout the Berkshire-Taconic region. She also travels to bring her personal and socially healing clowning workshops to adults and collegial groups. Laura lives in Hillsdale, NY.

Coppersmithing

Hans van Riel, undergraduate and graduate degrees in the Netherlands. A former high school teacher, Mr. van Riel has taught at MWS for 23 years of his total of 30 years in teaching: grades 6 through 8 twice and now as Specialty Teacher. Many consider him the Renaissance man of MWS. Outside the classroom, Mr. van Riel shares his musical talents (clarinet) at assemblies, the Crafts Fair, festivals, and parties. He serves as part of the Building Committee and has left many marks by his design or hand on the Elementary School addition.

Painting

Kristin Buckbee (see above)

Pottery, Ceramics, Bookbinding, Drawing, Stone Sculpture, Block Printing

Kristin Powers, B.F.A., Ceramics, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Kristin hails from England and Canada and has lived in the Monadnock region for over 20 years. She studied stone sculpture, photography, and poetry in Southern France. Kristin is a co-founder of Trikeenan Tileworks, an internationally renowned producer of handmade ceramic tile, established in this region for over 21 years, and she has received many awards for product development, design, and marketing. Her three children all graduated 8th grade from Monadnock Waldorf School.

Printing, Etching, Papermaking

Stephen Powers, B.F.A., Printmaking, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Powers hails from Boston and has lived in the Monadnock region for 20 years. He is a co-founder of Trikeenan Tileworks, an internationally renowned producer of handmade ceramic tile and as a designer he has won numerous awards. His three children all graduated 8th grade from Monadnock Waldorf School.

Stained Glass & Geometric Origami

Hans Schepker, Originally trained as an electronics engineer, Hans has practiced solid geometry through teaching at Waldorf Schools across the U.S. and Germany. Born and raised in Germany, geometry has always held a high position in his interests. Hans’s exposure to various and sundry crafts and trades during his formative years fostered a skill and interest in mechanics and working in wood and textiles. After time in the defense industry, he worked with the “soft” geometry of custom-made garments. Nine years of kite design and manufacture followed, which put geometry into the sky. Ever changing constellations of paper forms began to float from the ceilings in his house. He is now putting light bulbs into those same and other forms, now made of glass, illuminating private, corporate, and public spaces.

Weaving, Spinning & Knitting

Marcy Schepker is a tapestry weaver, soft toy maker, and community person with 36 years of experience as a weaver and teacher. She feels that the knowledge that each one of us is an artist, a crafts person, and an apprentice in our own capacity and that each of us has special gifts and needs is central to our lives and work. Central also to the success of her work is the core belief in the continual balance of each person’s creativity with the energy they draw from working together. She believes this process to be vital to being a crafts person, and also important as a social model. Her art builds bridges between people. Marcy’s Pear Tree Studio in nearby Harrisville has been written up in The Boston Globe and in Fiberarts magazine.