Core Faculty
Nancy Balasubramanian, History and Faculty Chair
Ms. Balasubramanian (or Ms. B) teaches history, current events, and a senior elective. She received her B.A. from the College of William and Mary, and her M.A. from the University of Maryland. Her professional experience includes teaching at private high schools in California and at the North Carolina School of Science and Math. She joined the EWS Faculty in 2005.
Rob Rich, Mathematics
Rob Rich joined the EWS Faculty in 2003, and teaches math in the High School and Grade 8. He previously taught in the suburban Boston area, and is in the process of completing his Waldorf High School teacher training with the Center for Anthroposophy in Wilton, New Hampshire. Mr. Rich has a B.A. in anthropology from Dartmouth College, and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University. He has nineteen years of professional engineering experience designing, manufacturing and testing high precision electro-mechanical devices for spacecraft and is currently working with a local architect on the design of a solar greenhouse. Among his many other accomplishments is the fact that he has hitchhiked from Paris to the Arctic Circle.
Dan Moise, Science
Mr. Moise holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Physics from the University of Bucharest, Romania. He completed his Foundation Year in Anthroposophy in Dornach, Switzerland, and has completed the Waldorf High School Teacher Training. He was a Pioneer teacher at one of the first Waldorf schools in Eastern Europe. Most recently he taught Chemistry, Climatology and Math at the Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge, New York. In addition to his Waldorf training and teaching, he brings industry experience in toxicology and lab science. He speaks English, Romanian, German and French, and is highly accomplished at the strategic board game ‘Go’.
Ms. Braden, born and raised in New York City, attended Bennington College and then graduated from Boston University with a BA in English Literature. As a journalist, she covered the nascent personal computer industry for publications including the New York Times. She then moved into public relations and marketing, and was a senior account executive for Ketchum Communications in New York. Moving to California, she did marketing work for companies including Apple Computer. Following the birth of her daughter, her path led her to Waldorf, and she completed her teacher training at the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training in 2004. She immediately began teaching humanities courses at the San Francisco Waldorf High School, and has taught at the Marin Waldorf School as well. Lisa also has experience in stage managing several off- and off-off-Broadway productions. She writes poetry and short fiction, and hopes to complete a novel.
Angelo Sphere, Humanities
Mr. Sphere teaches literature and dramatic arts. He holds a BA in Japanese, MA in Comparative Literature and graduated from the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training in 2009. Before coming to Emerson, Mr. Sphere taught English composition and literature at community colleges in Louisiana and California. He has traveled extensively in Japan, Greece and Scotland, among other countries. In 2006 he decided he would make a pilgrimage of all the sites of Herakles’ labors- so far he has visited six of the twelve locations.
Part-Time Faculty
Lisa Krogh, Mathematics
Ms. Krough moved to the Chapel Hill area from Buffalo, New York, where she was the third grade teacher at the Aurora Waldorf School. She received her BA honors in computer science and mathematics from the University of Waterloo, in Ontario Canada, and a Masters of Science in Education from Niagara University in Niagara Falls, New York, and did Foundation Studies at Aurora. Ms. Krough and her family love living in North Carolina: “The weather, the people, the trees…we love it all!”
Robert Mays, Chemistry
Mr. Mays received a BSc degree in chemistry from MIT and worked for many years in software engineering at IBM. He received his certificate in Waldorf High School Teacher Education in the physical sciences from the Center for Anthroposophy in Wilton, NH, and has taught chemistry and physics blocks at Waldorf schools in Colorado, Massachusetts, Vermont, Illinois and California. He is one of the founders of the Emerson Waldorf School, his daughter and son are alumni, and he served on our Board of Directors for many years. He teaches chemistry in the High School and Middle School. With his wife, he does research on the nature of consciousness and recently published a research paper on the subject.
Special Subjects
Peter Moyers, Practical Arts and Circus Arts
Mr. Moyers joined the EWS faculty in 1992, and took a class from Grade 1-8. He then took a year’s sabbatical in Europe, and returned to EWS to take the 6th grade class through to 8th grade. In August 2005, he began teaching the 5th grade and took this class through 8th grade. In the fall of 2009, he becomes our Practical Arts teacher and also teaches Circus Arts. Mr. Moyers was born in England, spent his first three years in the Sudan and the next ten years of his childhood in Ireland. He then moved back to England, 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 is married with four children, two of whom are EWS alumnae and two of whom are students at EWS.
Senora Criolani has lived in Durham since 2004. In Argentina, her native country, she received her teaching degree as well as a degree in Information Systems Analysis. In the United States, she has received certification as a Spanish Facilitator and her “Professional Certificate in Translation” from NYU. Ms. Criolani has extensive experience teaching Spanish to people of all ages, and has also worked as Editor-in-chief and author of several educational publications, and as a translator.
Laura Guinan, Art
Ms. Guinan came to the Emerson Waldorf School as a parent wanting meaningful education for her children. This interest has blossomed into the study of anthroposophy and a desire to integrate her profession as an artist and teacher with its ideals. Laura grew up in Texas where she obtained a B.F.A. in studio art from the University of Texas. Her love of travel, culture and art has led her throughout most of the United States, much of Europe, Mexico and Canada. After meeting her husband (a Texan living in Italy) she earned her M.S. in Art Education at the Pennsylvania State University then settled down in Wyoming for 8 years making and teaching art. While there she won a Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship as well as a Ucross Foundation Residency. Laura and her husband Val Martinez left the West for Chapel Hill in 2001. Currently, they are happily raising their two children Luci and Nico.
Jason Child, Music
Our Music Director, Jason Child, came to EWS in 2005, with 12 years experience teaching music to kids from 6 months old through 12th grade. He 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, Wilton, NH. He began teaching music in 1988 and became a fulltime music teacher in the public schools of Philadelphia in 1994. He has also been a professional singer, and plays the guitar and the trombone. Immediately before coming to EWS, he was teaching music, language arts and social science in a private school in Tallahassee, Florida. Mr Child teaches music classes 1st – 8th, chorus 5th – 12th and beginning brass. He is the Vice-President of the Association of North American Music Educators, and has four children at EWS.
Mary Kirchoff, Physical Education
Mary Dee Kirchoff has been affiliated with Emerson Waldorf School as a parent and volunteer for ten years. 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 1970’s including field hockey, soccer, basketball, tennis, and racquetball. She has experience teaching physical education in a private and public school, coached Emerson Waldorf High School girls’ basketball, and 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 as our Physical Education Teacher, Grades 1-12, in 2010.
Brigida Baldszun, Part-Time Eurythmy Teacher
Brigida Baldszun was born in Bremen, Germany. She went to Waldorf schools until she was 20 years old, and then studied the cello intensively until starting her eurythmy training in Vienna, Austria. She was a founding member of the Waldorf School in Darmstadt, Germany, and worked there for 9 years, when she moved to the US and to the Spring Valley Waldorf School in New York to learn eurythmy in the English language. She then worked for 7 years as a eurythmist in Detroit and Chicago before returning to Spring Valley in 1996 to join the performance group. Ms. Baldszun continues to be intrigued by the balance between performing and pedagogical work, and teaches children in Waldorf Schools as well as adults at Sunbridge College in N.Y. She visits EWS twice a year, teaching Eurythmy blocks Grades 1-12.
Kathleen Jackson, College Counselor
Kathleen Jackson came to EWS in 2008 as College Counselor for the High School. She grew up in the Washington, DC area with a passion for ballet and French, and graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in French and anthropology. Subsequent graduate study at the University of South Florida led to a Master of Education degree in Library and Information Science, followed by eleven years’ work in the libraries of Rice and Duke Universities. As an administrator in the Duke Libraries, Ms. Jackson also received intensive training in organizational development. She left library work to stay home with her two young sons, and her family home schooled from 1996 to 2007. During those years she freelanced in management consulting and worked seasonally as a reader for Duke University’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions. She is passionate about contra dancing, Quebecois culture and language, and running.
Lower School Teachers Shannon O’Connor and David Nikias also teach art blocks in the High School and Kim D’Angelo teaches Spanish. Please see the Grades School section of the website for their biographies.