Ingeborg Boesch

German Mentor

Born and raised in Marbach, Germany, Frau Boesch’s deep understanding of Waldorf education began when she herself was a student in the original Waldorf school, founded in 1919 in Stuttgart. Later she graduated from the University of Munich, then did her Waldorf Teacher Training at Emerson College in England, where she met her husband, Eric. They taught at the Edinburgh Waldorf School then moved to Chapel Hill in 1998 to teach at EWS. Over her career, she has been a teacher of German and Handwork, a teacher-trainer and mentor to schools in the UK and US, and a Class Teacher, having taken a class from grade 1 through 8. Frau Boesch just retired in Spring 2012 but continues to mentor EWS German teachers and teaches Middle School students after school.

Robyne Borhanian

Teaching Assistant, Grades 1-3

Robyne Borhanian began working at the Emerson Waldorf School eleven years ago and during this time was awakened to her love for teaching. At this time she began her Waldorf teacher training at Antioch New England Graduate School in New Hampshire. Her two oldest children attended the school, and their positive experiences increased Robyne's commitment to Waldorf education. Robyne completed her Master's in Education at Antioch and her Waldorf teaching credentials for both Early Childhood and Elementary education in 2010. Her oldest two children have gone on to attend college and her youngest two now attend the Emerson Waldorf School. Robyne is particularly interested in ensuring that the learning and behavioral needs of all children are embraced and nurtured through a strong connection between teacher and child.

Matthew Chicurel

Strings Ensemble Teacher • mchicurel@emersonwaldorf.org

American violinist and violist, Matthew Chicurel, has performed in the U.S. and Europe in such halls as New York’s Carnegie, Merkin, Alice Tully and Lincoln Center.  Mr. Chicurel has performed with the Carolina Chamber Symphony, Capitol Opera, The Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, The Carolina Phil., Greensboro Symphony, The Manhattan Chamber Symphonee, The West Side Chamber Orchestra and The Symphony of the Mountains.  He is member of Juniper String Quartet, Burnished Trio and formally with BarHop Quartet. He attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, under Ulrich Eichenauer, and received a Masters Degree from Mannes College of Music in New York, under Daniel Panner.  Mr. Chicurel resides in Chapel Hill North Carolina, where he is a freelance performer, Director of the Strings and Orchestral Studies program at the Emerson Waldorf School, conductor with the Piedmont Youth Orchestra, and Vice-President of the non-profit group, Music For Children.

Jason Child

Music Director • jchild@emersonwaldorf.org

Jason Child has been the Director of Music at Emerson Waldorf School since 2005. He became a full-time school music teacher in 1994 while living in Philadelphia and working in inner city public schools. Before coming to EWS, he taught in both public and independent schools, while also maintaining a private music studio, which means he has worked with children from age six months through 12th grade. Mr. Child grew up in Virginia, has a BA in Music from Earlham College, a Master’s in Music Education from Florida State University, and has done Foundation Studies coursework through the Center for Anthroposophy in Wilton, New Hampshire. He has also been a professional singer and plays the guitar and the trombone. At EWS, Mr. Child teaches Grade School Music classes, Chorus to grades 5-12, and Band to grades 6-12. He also serves on the Leadership Council of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America and is Vice President of the Association of Waldorf Music Educators. Mr. Child’s four children attend EWS.

Viorica Comaniciu

4th Grade Teacher • vcomaniciu@emersonwaldorf.org

Ms. Comaniciu joined the EWS faculty in 2009, bringing 15 years of Waldorf teaching experience with her. She earned her Teaching Diploma (Literature and Linguistics) in 1983-87 and her post grad Teacher Certification in 1990 in Brasov, Romania. After 7 years teaching at public school, she received her Diploma in Waldorf Education in Bucharest, Romania in 1992 where she taught grades 1-5 in the newly-founded Waldorf School. In March 1997 Viorica won the green card lottery and immigrated to the United States with her husband and their two-year-old son.  A few months later a second son was born. Finding joy in working with very young children inspired Viorica to enroll in the Early Childhood Teacher Training at Sunbridge College, NY in 2000-2002 and to work in Pre-Kindergartens and Kindergartens in various places. In 2001 she took over a Pre-School group at the River Valley Waldorf School, then a Kindergarten group, and then a 1st grade class which she taught through 5th grade.

Kim D'Angelo

Spanish Teacher, Grades 1-8 • kdangelo@emersonwaldorf.org

Senora D’Angelo grew up in Montana near Yellowstone Park. She graduated from Montana State University with a BA in Modern Languages. She has lived in Venezuela, Mexico, Peru and Ecuador, where she served as principal flautist with the Cuenca City Symphony. She taught ESL in Peru and flute, piano, English, and Spanish in various schools in Florida. After marrying and having children, Kim spent 5 years teaching private language and music lessons, writing children’s stories, importing Peruvian handcrafts, performing on the flute and being home with her baby daughter. At the same time, she was one of the founding parents of a Waldorf initiative in Florida and began Waldorf teacher education intensive training, which she completed in the the spring of 1999. In December 2005 the D’Angelo family moved to North Carolina, enrolled their children in EWS, and in the Fall of 2006 Kim began teaching Spanish in grades 1-8 and woodwinds in Middle School.

Mary Kirchoff

Athletic Director • mkirchoff@emersonwaldorf.org

Mary Dee Kirchoff has been affiliated with Emerson Waldorf School as a parent and volunteer since 2000. She has a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education from the University of Vermont, and a Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy from the University of New England. She has been a licensed Physical Therapist for the past twenty years and has been involved in coaching athletes since the mid 1970s, including field hockey, soccer, basketball, tennis, and racquetball. She has experience teaching physical education in private and public schools, has coached Emerson Waldorf High School girls’ basketball, and has coached the U.S. Racquetball Team. Her recent book, Finding the Answer, chronicles her outer and inner path toward success as an athlete, winning many titles including the 1984 World Racquetball Championship. She joined the EWS Faculty in 2010 as our Physical Education Teacher and teaches grades 3-12.

Carol Kubik

Handwork Teacher • ckubik@emersonwaldorf.org

Ms. Kubik is our Handwork teacher for grades 1-8. She was born in Florida, and attended the University of Florida, studying Humanities and Art. She then worked in a retail establishment and taught handicapped children for a few years, until she had her own children and discovered Waldorf Education. She did her Waldorf teacher training at Sunbridge College in Spring Valley New York, studying child development as she was experiencing the development of her own children. She did Waldorf Handwork training with Greta Frolich, and Early Childhood Training, also in Spring Valley. She joined the faculty of EWS in 1988 as the Handwork teacher, and taught EWS’s very first graduating class. Ms. Kubik took a break from teaching for a few years when she had her third child (but continued mentoring the Handwork program), and then picked up full time teaching again as her daughter entered school. Her three children are all alumnae of EWS. Ms. Kubik was instrumental in starting our Children’s Woodland Shop, many years ago, on the deck of the current Kindergarten. She was also our 1st delegate to AWSNA, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America.

Suzanne Mays

Lyre Teacher

The Emerson Waldorf School has been a large part of my life and my husband's  since 1983, when we had first discussions with Barbara Shell, Eve Olive, and Olga Wierbicki  to create the school. Our daughter and son attended the Emerson Waldorf School. Crystal was in Barbara Shell's combined 2nd/3rd grade class in September 1984.  Zephyr started in Alwyn Moss' kindergarten that year and the following year in grade 1 with Keith Hill. Our son's class – led by Ben Bingham for the last two years of middle school – was the first 8th grade to graduate from Emerson Waldorf School.  My professional work is as a certified music practitioner (www.thegiftofmusic.net) bringing live, prescriptive-therapeutic music to the bedside for those who are ill or at the end of life. The instrument I use is a large 49-string lyre. At the Emerson Waldorf School my lyre has been heard every December at the annual Spiral of Light.  This school year of 2012-2013 begins my seventh year assisting Jason Child, the school's Music Director, with the lyre program for grades 1-4.

Jennifer Miller

7th Grade Teacher • jmiller@emersonwaldorf.org

Ms. Miller joined the EWS faculty in 2010, with 12 years of teaching experience including 4 years at the Pine Hill Waldorf School in NH.   Born in Phoenix, AZ, Ms. Miller lived in California, Sweden, and New York before receiving her Waldorf Teacher Training in Wilton, NH and settling there to live and teach in 1998. She began as an assistant teacher and then taught grades 1-3 at Pine Hill. She has also taught at the Well School in Peterborough, NH where she served as the reading specialist as well as class teacher.  Ms. Miller has a BA in Psychology from the State University of New York at Cortland, and she continues to have a deep love and connection to theater which began in early childhood.

Peter Moyers

Practical Arts Teacher • pmoyers@emersonwaldorf.org

Mr Moyers joined the Emerson Waldorf School faculty in 1992 as  a class teacher and took a class from grades 1-8. After a year’s sabbatical in Europe, he returned to EWS and continued class teaching in the middle school. In the fall of 2009, he became the Practical Arts teacher; he also teaches Circus Arts and helps direct many class plays. Mr. Moyers was born in England, spent his first three years in the Sudan, and the next ten years in Ireland. He then moved back to England and finished school and University there and in France. He did his Waldorf Teacher Training at Emerson College. Mr. Moyers has also worked as a carpenter and in a professional theater company.  He has been known to catch hummingbirds in his hand, and then release them when you least expect it! He is married with four children, all of whom have attended EWS.

Mary Beth Mueller

Farm Coordinator • mmueller@emersonwaldorf.org

Mary Beth Mueller has wonderful memories of time spent on her grandfather's farm as a child, which led her to building the Gardening Coordinator position at Emerson Waldorf School. For the last 4 years she has been working with teachers and parents to both build a farm program and a beautiful farm space. She has an MA in Clinical Child Psychology from Southern Illinois University, has done Masters Degree work in Leisure and Environmental Education at Aurora University, has completed a Land Management series with the Biltmore School of Forestry, and has attended a number of workshops and lectures about Biodynamics, all of which feed her quest to build an excellent farming program.

Lauren Nyland

Educational Support Coordinator • lnyland@emersonwaldorf.org

Lauren has a M.S. Ed in Waldorf Remedial Education from Sunbridge College and is trained in Extra Lesson. She recently completed the Body-Mind Centering Infant Developmental Movement Certification. She has taught Waldorf Parent-Child Classes at two Waldorf Schools. She is Montessori-certified to teach grades 1-3. She currently coordinates Educational Support and teaches Extra Lesson classes for student from Kindergarten to High School. She enjoys hearing the questions that teachers and parents bring and the conversations that follow as we collaboratively work to support the students.  Lauren has two sons – one in the grade school and one in the High School.

Shannon O’Connor

1st Grade Teacher • soconnor@emersonwaldorf.org

Ms. O’Connor graduated with a BA/BFA from Parsons School of Design in NYC, with a dual degree from Eugene Lang College through the New School of Social Research in Liberal Arts. Her love of art has taken her to study in Italy and France, and her love of music brought her to Ireland, Denmark, and all around America. She paints on anything from canvas to salvaged barn boards, to the downstairs walls in Duke Chapel. Ms. O’Connor visited this area when she was 21 for a conference on cultural diversity within the Waldorf movement and fell in love with the school. After moving here to work on the Haw River Festival, she found herself working at EWS within a year. She has worked in Kindergarten, her own Home Nursery, EWS After School, Summer Camps, and loves teaching High School Art as well.  She completed her Waldorf Teacher Training at Antioch, New Hampshire and is now beginning her journey as a Grades teacher.

Candor Plaza

After School & Summer Camp Director • summercamp@emersonwaldorf.org

Candor received 12 years of Waldorf education as a student at Hawthorn Valley, then Pine Hill, and finally High Mowing Waldorf School. She has been a parent at EWS since 2005 with one daughter in the High School and another beginning Elementary! She has worked with children in rural community schools and camps, inner-city schools, South American village schools, and right here as an EWS summer camp counselor since 2008. Candor has also supported the Middle School classes with the development and facilitation of the Middle School Coming of Age Program since 2007. Additionally, she is a Birthing From Within Childbirth Mentor and Doula and a certified Life Coach specializing in Presence-Based Coaching. Candor is thrilled to bring together fun-filled art and nature-based After School & Summer Camp programs.  Summer Camps serve the EWS community, as well as the broader local community of children who look forward to their Waldorf summer experience all year long!

Joelle Ramos

German Teacher, Grades 4-5 • jramos@emersonwaldorf.org

Joelle fell in love with the German language in the seventh grade and has been learning it enthusiastically ever since. Her first experience abroad was for a summer with the American Field Service (AFS) in Vienna, Austria, as a high school student. She went on to spend her junior year of college on academic exchange in Regensburg, Germany. After graduating from the University of Colorado, Joelle spent a year as an Au Pair in Berlin, Germany. Her experiences abroad have given her invaluable insights into German and Austrian culture, and the opportunity to hone her ability to speak the German language.

Joelle earned a Master’s degree in German and Art History from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is currently pursuing Waldorf teacher training. She grew up in Oregon, but spent twenty-five years living in Colorado. She and her family moved to Chapel Hill in June of 2011. She loves North Carolina and is thrilled to have the chance to explore the East Coast and the South. Joelle has two daughters who attend the Emerson Waldorf School, and feels blessed to be a part of such a special community.  Joelle is teaching German in grades 4-5.

Kris Ritz

5th Grade Teacher • kritz@emersonwaldorf.org

Miss Ritz joined the EWS faculty in 2008 after spending an inspiring year living in an anthroposophical life-sharing community, Plowshare Farm, where she assisted courageous adults with developmental disabilities who reside there with the various aspects of home life, as well as guiding workshop activities. Prior to that, Miss Ritz led a talented group of students from the first grade into the sixth grade at the Austin Waldorf School, where she was a member of the College of Teachers and served as grades faculty co-chair. Whether on the farm or in the classroom, she gratefully recognizes the many lessons the residents and students have taught or deepened within her, and how we all connect with compassion, respect, humor, and purposeful work. Born in upstate New York and living in a variety of places since, Miss Ritz graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. During her advertising career, she discovered Waldorf education. A new pathway unfolded for her, and she returned to school to receive Waldorf certification and a Masters in Education from the Antioch New England Graduate School. Miss Ritz also enjoys traveling (near or faraway), reading, running, and a challenging hike up a mountain.

Deborah Rogers

2nd Grade Teacher • drogers@emersonwaldorf.org

Deborah Rogers discovered the beauty and merits of Waldorf education through her own daughter’s Waldorf experience. During those first ten years, Deborah volunteered in a myriad of capacities to delve deeper into Waldorf education. At last she did her Waldorf teacher training at Antioch University, teaching Handwork as she did so. She then taught third grade at Taos Waldorf School before joining us at EWS last year to begin a journey through the grades with her lovely group of vivacious children. Deborah earned her degree in Psychology from The University of Texas at El Paso and did graduate work at Kansas State University. She was a massage therapist, yoga instructor, and clothing designer for many years prior to becoming a Waldorf teacher. She brings with her a deep sense of Beauty and Goodness in her striving to share and discover Truth with her children.

Jane Salemson

Cello Strings Ensemble Teacher • jsalemson@emersonwaldorf.org

Jane Salemson has been teaching strings at EWS for 21 years and obviously loves it. A professional cellist trained at the Guildhall School of Music in London, UK, and part-time treble viol player, Jane performs regularly with the Durham Symphony and the UNC Viol Ensemble as well as running Musica, a booking agency providing professional musicians for weddings and social events. That, along with her private teaching studio, grandchildren, and traveling to her overseas family, makes for a fulfilling if hectic life.

Malina Stoychev

3rd Grade Teacher • mstoychev@emersonwaldorf.org

Malina Stoychev joined our faculty in 2010, bringing 16 years of Waldorf teaching experience. Born in Bulgaria, Malina earned her B. A. in Elementary Teacher Education in Shumen (Bulgaria), added a B.A. in Curative (Waldorf) Education in Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, and took part in a Mentoring Seminar, sponsored by AWSNA, 2006 through 2009. In the beginning of her teaching career, some 20 years ago, she taught ESL in Shumen, Bulgaria and was a class teacher (first through third grade) in a developing Waldorf School in her hometown. Later Malina moved with her family – first to Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, and then to Glenmoore, PA, where she worked as a house parent, art therapist, and educator at Camphill (Waldorf) Community, a group home for people in need of special care. In 2001, Malina took a first grade and led them on through fifth grade at the River Valley Waldorf School, PA, where she then worked for three years as Pedagogical Administrator and Subjects Teacher.

Benjamin Trueblood

8th Grade Teacher • btrueblood@emersonwaldorf.org

Mr. Trueblood joined the EWS faculty in 2006 as the 2nd grade teacher. He was born in Chicago, attended the Chicago Waldorf School beginning in Kindergarten, and was a member of their first High School graduating class. He attended Warren Wilson College in Asheville for 2 years, where he studied “everything”, and then took a break to travel in India for 6 months. Returning to the States, he transferred to the University of Georgia and studied Anthropology, which included fieldwork in Budapest and Transylvania on the Roma people and the interaction between music and the cultural and political position of the Roma. Mr. Trueblood is also interested in experimental “Music Concrete” and just released a record album (Record Link ) and CD (CD Link).

Shannon Wiley

6th Grade Teacher • swiley@emersonwaldorf.org

Mr. Wiley was born in Berlin, Vermont and was educated at Scottsdale Community College, Scottsdale Vocational Technical Center, Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, and Antioch New England Graduate School. He taught grades 1-5 at the Cape Cod Waldorf School, as well as 8th grade Anatomy and Physiology and also served on the College of Teachers as Faculty Chair. Mr Wiley has also been a Waldorf Kindergarten teacher, a substitute teacher at Pine Hill Waldorf School, a college Anatomy, Physiology and Nutrition teacher, a massage therapist, and an accounts manager. He is married with two children, both EWS alumni.