Understanding Waldorf Education
2026-27 Instructors
Click instructor photo or name for full bio.
Stephanie Skinner, M.A.
Early Childhood & Field Mentor
Coming from a background of permaculture and sustainable, grassroots development, Stephanie Skinner, MA, has been working within Waldorf education for 25 years. She is currently teaching at Live Oak Waldorf School.
Dorothea Altgelt
Grades One
Dorothea has been a Waldorf subject teacher for movement and World Language for 17 years in Germany and the US. She was part of a small group that brought Jaimen McMillan to the US to begin the Spatial Dynamics training. Later, she studied at Antioch and taught four rounds of grades one through five at Shining Mountain Waldorf School.
Catalina De Luna Garza, M.Ed.
Foreign Language
Catalina was born and raised in Mexico. She moved to the USA in 2010 with her two daughters. She has been an educator for over 30 years, 20 of those in Waldorf Schools, including Atlanta Waldorf School, as a Class Teacher as well as teaching foreign language.
Roel Op’Tende
Philosophical Foundations & Grade Eight
Roel began teaching in 2011 at the Rudolf Steiner College in Rotterdam. His dedication to Waldorf education transcended borders, leading him to teach at the Wasatch Waldorf Charter School in the United States. Having previously served as a social science teacher at Credo High School, Roel now holds the position of Education Director.
Thesa Callinicos
Visual Arts & Grade Five, Handwork
Born and raised in South Africa, Thesa attended Johannesburg Teachers’ Training College before graduating from Emerson College in Sussex England. She’s been a Class Teacher & mentor for 35 years.
Karl Johnson, M.A.
Field Mentor & Grade Six
Karl has been a Waldorf educator since 1986. He is currently the Pedagogical Director of Pedagogy at the Mountain Song Community School in Colorado Springs and also offers mentoring support to teachers in schools throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Karl teaches science and music in the Gradalis training program and is an active Gradalis Field Mentor.
Vernon Dewey
Grade Seven
Vernon moved to Hawaii in 2022. He taught for 14 years at The Denver Waldorf School, first as an assistant, then serving as a class teacher for two classes, one from grades 1-8 and another from grades 6-8. He then served as Education Director for the 2021-22 school year.
Sandra Kirschner, B.A.
Grade Four & Field Mentor
Sandra led two classes (1-8) at Shepherd Valley Waldorf School. She is currently teaching at Shining Mountain Waldorf School.
Martina Simunek-Suarez
Foreign Language
I have been a class teacher at Boulder Valley Waldorf School in Niwot for 7 years and a foreign language teacher since 2004, though currently I only teach German to middle school students; well, and enough to my second graders to satisfy their curiosity about my mother tongue.
WECAN Associate Member Institute.
The mission of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America is to foster a new cultural impulse for the work with the young child from pre-birth to age seven.
“Receive the children in reverence, educate them in love, and send them forth in freedom.”
–Rudolf Steiner
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