Faculty

Jana’s journey to become a teacher began when she was a young child, growing up in a small town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. As children, Jana and her siblings explored the enchanted back woods surrounding their cabin and later the streets of their small town. Intrigued by the curiosity and desire within children to learn, she was drawn towards teaching and was introduced to the Waldorf community as a young college student when she took a job in the aftercare at Yuba River Charter School. Fascinated by the school’s environment, curriculum, and community, she began her educator journey. Jana has since spent over 20 years working with and learning about children. She earned a BA in Human Development and a Multiple Subject CLAD with Emphasis in Early Childhood Credential from Sonoma State. She has attended classes at Rudolf Steiner College and the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training and taught in preschools, Kindergarten, public primary classrooms, has taken a class from 1st through 3rd grade, and substitute taught in all the grades. She finds her favorite place to be in the Kindergarten. She lives in Santa Rosa with her husband and two youngest daughters. She enjoys going on adventures in nature with her family. 

Nico is a proud mother and grandmother and has been working with children for the last 36 years. She is thrilled to be the Rainbow Waldorf Kindergarten teacher.
Nico weaves in a variety of valuable perspectives into her teaching from: her Masters in Consciousness, eco-therapist skills, her teaching credential certificate, her deep nature work from Regenerative Design and Nature Connection, along with her Waldorf teaching certificate. When not working, she can be found swimming in the fresh hot springs or salt waters, hiking up a steep mountain, playing with children at the local parks, needle felting, gathering with other sisters in ceremony, hugging the trees, also organizing another incredible rites of passage gathering through her program Wild Wisdom.

When her fourth child took their turn in Waldorf Kindergarten, Jess decided she was never leaving.
She has been the Sunflower TK/Kindergarten assistant since 2019.
Through her studies in Child Development and Psychology, Jess discovered her true passion for providing unconditional love and respect to all children. Jess deeply values community, wonder, joy and awe. Things she finds in Kindergarten everyday. Jess loves to be at the ocean, in the forest, and spending time with others, especially children and animals.

Sheina has been delighting in young children since her college days. While pursuing a Biology degree at Tufts University, she volunteered at a local preschool and discovered her passion for working with young children. Sheina was a preschool, TK and Kindergarten teacher in the Bay Area for more than fifteen years. She took a decade-long break from the classroom to raise her three daughters and has seen how a Waldorf education has benefited her own children. She is overjoyed that she can welcome young children into the Waldorf Kindergarten experience at Sebastopol Charter. At home, Sheina tends to more than 30 kinds of fruits and berries and 100 Pinot Noir vines. She loves birding, gardening, singing, making wine, and learning languages.

Heather Carpenter joined Sebastopol Charter School in 2013. She completed her Waldorf training at the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training in 2012 and earned her California Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from Dominican University in 2015. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from UC Berkeley, and is T.E.F.L certified. Prior to teaching, Heather has been a program developer (in nutrition research, as well speech and language development), a designer, a photographer, an artist and counselor. She loves to paint and draw, work in her garden, and wander off the beaten path with her son.

Laurie grew up in Texas, spent childhood summers in France, and returned to her birth state of California for college. She earned a B.A. in psychology and a multiple subjects teaching credential at UCSD. Her teaching career began in San Diego, but after a vacation to Hawaii, she ended up living, teaching and raising a family on the Big Island with her husband and two children. It was there that she discovered Waldorf education and taught at Malamalama Waldorf School for 8 years. With her family she relocated to Sonoma county in 2009 and completed her Waldorf certification. She was a Waldorf teacher for 16 years in grades K-7. Presently Laurie enjoys her new position supporting and engaging students in reading and writing. She is in the process of becoming certified in Orton Gillingham (a multisensory, structured literacy approach), and self publishing her second childrens’ book. She continues to dedicate her life to helping children build on their strengths and grow into new skills.

Juliana has been teaching children for about thirty years. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Sonoma State University and her Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential from Chapman University. She began her teaching career in mainstream public schools and later discovered Waldorf education when her oldest child entered preschool. She felt like she came home and has loved it’s whole-child and developmental approach ever since. Her three daughters have attended Waldorf school preK through twelfth grade, including Sebastopol Charter K-8. Juliana attended the California Coast LifeWays program for early childhood and ran a Waldorf-inspired playgarden for preschool children for 15 years before coming back to elementary school teaching. She also earned a health coach certificate from Institute for Integrative Nutrition and loves healthy eating and living. When not delighting in her students, she enjoys spending time in nature at the beach or hiking, gardening, eating good dark chocolate, or drinking a mug of warm tea.

Emily began her Waldorf journey with her children. She was a parent at Sebastopol Charter School for 16 years as her three children climbed the grades from kindergarten through 8th grade. Inspired by the developmental approach in the curriculum, she began working as a classroom aide and joined the staff at SCS as a member of the Response to Intervention team in 2020. After working in a supportive role in 1st and 2nd grade classrooms, After receiving her BA from Sonoma State University, she started her California Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential, which she will have completed this year. She entered the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training this past summer and she looks forward to the continuation of this course study to deepen her Waldorf practice and knowledge . Emily is happy to join the faculty at Sebastopol Charter as a class teacher.

Mr. Ward started at Sebastopol Charter as the Games teacher and Athletic Director. Before that, he was a public school teacher for grades 4th and 6th in both San Francisco and Santa Rosa. A Sonoma County local, Andrew Ward was a Waldorf student at Willow Wood Waldorf School in Sebastopol (before it became SunRidge) 1st through 8th grade. After moving to San Francisco for college, where he went to SF State University and received his BA in history, he later attended University of the Pacific to complete his Multiple Subject Teaching Credential and Master’s degree in education. In 2024, Mr. Ward completed his Waldorf Teacher certification through the Center for Educational Renewal at Summerfield Waldorf School. When he isn’t teaching in the classroom, Mr. Ward enjoys coaching the school’s middle school basketball teams, playing guitar and exploring the great outdoors.

Roel op ’t Ende brings over 15 years of Waldorf teaching and leadership experience to Sebastopol Independent Charter School. He began his journey in the Netherlands, where he earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history—graduating cum laude—from Leiden University. Roel also completed a Master’s in History and Civics Education at Leiden’s Graduate School of Teaching. His Waldorf teacher training took place in-house at the Rudolf Steiner College in Rotterdam—the same school he attended as a student himself.
Roel has taught high school humanities at both the Rudolf Steiner College in Rotterdam and Credo High School in California. He also served as a class teacher and team lead for grades 3 through 8 at Wasatch Waldorf School in Utah, where he supported colleagues through mentoring and evaluation.
Most recently, Roel served as the Education Director at Credo High School, a public Waldorf charter school, where he oversaw curriculum development and teacher support. In addition to his classroom work, Roel teaches for Gradalis Waldorf Teacher Education, offering summer courses in “Teaching as an Art” and leading curriculum webinars throughout the school year.
Roel is deeply committed to the living principles of Waldorf education and is excited to return to the classroom, bringing his love of learning, mentorship, and collaboration to the middle school students and community at SICS. Outside the classroom, he enjoys spending time in nature, practicing meditation, and exploring holistic approaches to education and well-being.

Shari joined the staff in the fall of 2012 to assist us both in the classroom and in the resource room at the main campus. A former handwork and class teacher at Highland Hall Waldorf School in Northridge, CA, Shari is Waldorf trained and has a great deal of experience in a variety of classroom settings. Ms. Thierry has a BA from Cal State Northridge in history and brings an incredible organizational sense from her background managing small businesses.

Originally from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Jehanne grew up on the Canadian prairies before her family moved to Vancouver, BC. Jehanne is a mother, wife, artist, and teacher. She completed her Waldorf Teacher Training at the Center for Educational Renewal at Summerfield Waldorf School, her California Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from New College in San Francisco, and a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, BC.
Jehanne has taught in Vancouver and Oakland where she was also a co-founder of Mariposa Grove, a co-housing community. Besides being passionate about education, Jehanne is a visual artist who is the creative director of the “Nighttime Storywalk” at Full Belly Farm’s annual harvest festival for 18 years, and she has shown her work in the US and Canada. Jehanne then moved to Sebastopol, where she was a class teacher at SunRidge School for 10 years before working at the Sebastopol Charter School.

Lauren Gold Ohlsen has been a teacher and artist for as long as she can remember. She loves sharing her passion for handwork with children and its ability to create connections between the head, heart, and hands with endless benefits.

Over the last 20+ years Lauren worked as an art teacher, an environmental educator, and taught Kindergarten-3rd grade as a classroom teacher in Sebastopol. She was the co-creator/director of Solstice Yoga and Nature Camp which she started in Sebastopol in 2004. Lauren and her husband own a local ecological landscaping firm in Sebastopol, Permaculture Artisans, and are dedicated to regenerative land stewardship.

Lauren holds a BFA from the University of Arizona with an emphasis on fiber arts, painting and child development. She earned her California Multiple Subject CLAD Credential in 2005 and recently completed a Single Subject Credential in Home Economics.

She lives with her husband and her two children in their abundant permaculture paradise. Lauren loves spending time with her family, tending her beautiful garden, walking on the beach, adventures in nature and enjoying her handwork projects.

Born and raised in Sonoma County, Tim is an active violinist and teacher with fully local roots in the community. He received his initial orchestral training in the Santa Rosa Symphony’s youth ensembles and the San Francisco Youth Orchestra, while studying violin with Dominick DiSarro, Linda Ghidossi-De Luca, and Kathryn Marshall. Tim went on to study with Axel Strauss and Wei He at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he earned his B.M. in Violin Performance. While still at conservatory, Tim became involved in teaching classroom strings in the first years of Santa Rosa Symphony’s Simply Strings, an experience which led him to discover his passion and talent for teaching young musicians. Shortly after, he took the full time position of strings teacher and program coordinator at Sebastopol Independent Charter School, where he has taught since 2015. Tim went on to earn a CA teaching credential in music at Cal State East Bay.
Tim is a member of the Santa Rosa Symphony, the orchestra in which his mother was also a violinist. Tim also performs frequently with Bellarosa String Quartet, as well as with his local celtic band, Rogues’ Regiment. When not performing or teaching, Tim is an avid ultimate frisbee player and disc golfer. He lives in Santa Rosa with his wife and three children.

Ms. McDonald grew up and has lived all her life in the Bay Area. She graduated from San Francisco State University with a BA in Radio and Television with a minor in music. After spending time in the communications field, she married and began raising her two daughters.For many years she taught piano so that she could be home with her girls. Her passion for math grew out of her volunteer time in her daughters’ classes. She noticed how they struggled in math class and as she looked for ways to support them, she developed a strong desire to bring her teaching skills to the task. She returned to school at Sonoma State to get her credential and additionally to receive her master’s in education. She loves helping students develop their math skills. This will be her 10th year as a classroom teacher. In addition to a love of math, Ms. McDonald enjoys playing piano, ukulele, singing, gardening and reading. She also loves to play with her cat, Aslan.

Kristen McLaughlin began working at the Sebastopol Charter School in 1997 as an assistant teacher in the kindergarten then moved on to teaching handwork grades 1-8. Prior to arriving at Sebastopol Charter she was a Waldorf preschool teacher. Kristen completed her Waldorf teacher training at the Center for Education Renewal. Her prior schooling was at Dominican College in San Rafael, studying nutrition and sports medicine, at Yale studying economics, and at Sarah Lawrence studying child psychology. Kristen loves to garden, bake, learn new fiber arts skills, hike, and go camping. Kristen has a life long love of learning and hopes that she passes this passion on to her students.

Originally from Cuba, Laura spent her adolescence and early adulthood living in the Los Angeles area, where she attended the University of Southern California (USC) and obtained a degree in Psychology and Spanish Literature. She later attended California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), successfully completing a teacher certification program. As a result, she has been educating elementary school children since 2007.
Teaching assignments have included 7 years teaching 4th grade in Culver City Unified School district (SoCal), 2 years teaching 5th grade at a Dual Immersion Spanish Language school in Napa Valley Unified School District, and most recently, instructing art to children of various ages at a Sonoma County nonprofit organization.
In 2015, she decided to relocate to Northern California with her family, a place she now is proud to call home. What she loves most about NorCal living is easy access to breathtaking nature. She often enjoys hiking with her husband and son discovering the various beautiful county and state parks throughout the region.
Laura continues to expand her horizons by now joining a team of dedicated teachers who understand, what is so well captured by Waldorf pedagogy, that nurturing the whole child is the best form of education. She is also pursuing a Landscape Design certificate at Santa Rosa Junior College fulfilling a deep desire to not only nurture children, but our plant world as well.

As a former Sebastopol Charter parent, board member, and “new” campus construction manager, Alysson is delighted to join the school as the woodworking teacher. With her degree in architecture from Yale University, Waldorf training from the Center for Educational Renewal, general contracting license, and multi- and single-subject state credentials, the middle-school woodworking program perfectly combines her love of making things and her love of education. With years of experience as a Waldorf class teacher and a Waldorf high school history teacher, Alysson brings pedagogical depth along with a full set of practical skills to her work in the wood shop. She notes “Woodworking strengthens our capacities for focus and patience, calls us into a hands-on relationship with the natural world and its astounding gifts, and puts purpose to each student’s innate creativity.”

Ashley Schroth-Cary is a holistic nutritionist who studied at Bauman College and San Francisco State University. Her background is in emergency response, having worked as an EMT/firefighter and a ski patroller. However, she found her true calling as a nutritionist. She has spent the last eleven years helping build wellness programs in Sonoma County focusing on nutrition, exercise and stress management. In these programs she has done extensive work with 1:1 patient and client nutrition counseling, group workshops and cooking classes as well as individual and group exercise training.
Ashley is a 5 time certified personal trainer who has worked as a group fitness trainer as well as a personal trainer. She is also a sports nutrition specialist. She is passionate about helping people eat healthier, train better and stress less. When she isn’t working, she enjoys being with her 2 daughters, husband and dogs, usually doing something outdoors or figuring out a way to sneak away to Lake Tahoe. She has a passion for healthy cooking and loves to help others ignite their passion as well.

Kelli brings over two decades of experience in education, with a strong commitment to supporting student achievement across diverse learning needs. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from The Ohio State University and relocated to California in 2002, where she went on to complete both Mild/Moderate and Moderate/Severe Special Education credentials at Sonoma State University. She also holds an Extensive Support Needs Bridge Authorization.
Following ten years of classroom teaching, Kelli transitioned into educational leadership. She has cleared her Administrative Services Credential and currently serves as the Vice Principal and Director of Student Support Services at Sebastopol Charter School. In this role, she draws upon her comprehensive background in special education and student support to enhance inclusive practices and ensure that all students receive the resources they need to thrive.
Kelli is the proud parent of a college-aged child and values time spent outdoors. She has been actively engaged in the Waldorf education community for the past four years.

Photo and Bio to come.

Sophia Wiebe decided she wanted to work with children at a young age. She loved teaching her sister the letters of the alphabet, along with other life lessons, such as how to build the perfect fort out of willow branches. After ten years of Waldorf education at the Sebastopol Charter School, Sophia went on to attend Santa Rosa Junior College, Cabrillo College, and ended with her B.A. in Liberal Studies from Sonoma State University. Throughout her studies, Sophia has valued her Waldorf education, and has always known that her future career would be influenced by it. Sophia loves to work with her hands in her free time, whether it is knitting gnomes and socks, or building bookshelves and tables out of scraps of wood found in the front yard.

Giulianna Zocchetti is a dedicated School Social Worker committed to supporting students’ emotional well-being, academic success, and personal growth. She works collaboratively with teachers, families, and school staff to create a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment where every student can thrive.

Giulianna provides individual and group counseling, crisis intervention, and classroom support, as well as guidance for families navigating community resources. Her approach is warm, strengths-based, and grounded in building trusting relationships. She is passionate about helping students develop resilience, confidence, and the social-emotional skills they need to succeed both in and out of the classroom.

Giulianna is honored to be part of the school community and looks forward to supporting students and families throughout the year.

Michelle is passionate about working with children and their families to best support the whole child. She has been working with children for over a decade with a focus on independent learning within various environments. Her background translates seamlessly as a speech therapist assistant as Michelle has a natural ability to engage children in a fun and exciting way to meet their individual and changing needs. Additionally, Michelle is experienced in leading group social skills instruction using the Social Thinking Curriculum. Once children learn foundational social skills, Michelle helps to apply them in real-life scenarios to ensure the skills are generalized. She is a strong advocate of Thinking Maps to expand children’s language development, and experienced with articulation and expressive/receptive language and speech sound disorders.

Michelle currently holds a Bachelor of Science in Geography from the University of Queensland, Australia, maintaining a 4.0 while earning her SLPA license from Pasadena City College’s highly acclaimed Speech Language Pathology program and is currently licensed to practice in the state of California. Michelle holds an Educational Specialist Award from PCC and Certificate of Recognition from the California state senate and state assembly.