 Leimomi Apoliona Brown
Teacher
In high school Leimomi knew she wanted to work with young children and was interested in progressive education. As a college sophomore she studied in India because she wanted to see the world and as a result became interested in the Hawaiian Rights Movement. She was a founding member of the Protect Kaho’olawe Ohana, which was successful in stopping the military assault of Kaho`olawe by U.S. forces and negotiating its return from U.S. military jurisdiction. This activism awakened in her the desire to discover what it meant to be a Hawaiian so she began an intensive study of Hula and changed her major from Philosophy to Dance Education and Hawaiian Studies. When looking for a school for her two young daughters, Leimomi discovered Acorn Hill and immediately found a kind of home – a home where her interest in the arts, philosophy, environmental justice, multiculturalism, storytelling, movement, and inner development has dovetailed neatly into her professional life. Working at Acorn Hill allows Leimomi to spend time teaching young children, a most rejuvenating and fulfilling occupation.
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 Kate Gage
Teacher
Kate was born in the DC area. She traveled through Europe, settled in Ethiopia and traveled again in East Africa. When she returned to the States she finished her BA (science, painting, poetry and pottery), and received her MFA (in painting and new forms) from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. During her middle years she lived in an artist’s loft in Soho, in the country on Martha’s Vineyard, and at the foot of the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. She gardened, made art, designed theatre sets, and got involved in a household hazardous waste project. Kate discovered Waldorf education shortly after the birth of her daughter and is now a certified Waldorf Elementary Education and Therapeutic Education Teacher. Since 1996, she has loved working at Acorn Hill as a five-day morning, parent-child, and afternoon teacher. Kate has written articles for Waldorf publications and gives workshops and presentations at the annual Waldorf Kindergarten Conference and to our Acorn Hill community.
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 Liz Hagerman
Teacher
Liz Hagerman MA, BC-DMT grew up in the wild west of Montana, and received a BA in Psychology at the University of Montana. She has an MA in Dance/Movement Therapy from Goucher College and is a board certified dance/movement therapist. Her two children (both boys) led her to Waldorf education and the magical oasis of Acorn Hill. From 2001-2010, she worked as an assistant kindergarten teacher which deepened her knowledge of child development and Waldorf early childhood education. Her interest in and respect of very young children led her to study at the Pikler Institute for infants and children in Budapest, Hungary and Sophia’s Hearth Family Center in Keene, New Hampshire. She has taught the parent infant class since 2006, and is currently the lead teacher for the parent infant/baby/toddler classes. She also maintains a small private practice in dance/movement therapy. During her summers Liz works as a commercial salmon fisherman in Alaska.
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 Anna Hall
Teacher
Anna grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina and graduated from North Carolina State University with a BA in English. After graduating, she worked at North Carolina State University Library as a Research Librarian for three years. After finding out about Waldorf Education in Virginia Beach, Anna moved to Detroit where she attended the Waldorf Institute of Mercy College, earning her Diploma in Waldorf Early Childhood Education. She then worked as a Waldorf Kindergarten Teacher at the Detroit Waldorf School for six years, later moving to the DC area to be a class teacher, taking her students from first to seventh grade at the Washington Waldorf School. After having her child Emily, Anna worked as a tutor and child care giver for three years, before becoming a lead teacher at Acorn Hill. Anna has been a Waldorf teacher for the majority of her life and is still growing and learning from the children she teaches to this very day.
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 Janet Johnson
Administrator
Janet was born and raised in the Chicago area and attended Northern Illinois University, where she studied mathematics, art history and textiles. She and her husband relocated to the DC area in 1978 to pursue interests in Waldorf education and to start their family. Janet came to Acorn Hill as a parent in 1982 and joined the Board of Directors in 1987. Her two daughters Sarah and Emma Heirman attended Acorn Hill and graduated from the Washington Waldorf School. As a parent, Janet taught doll-making classes at Acorn Hill for a number of years before becoming our administrator in 1993. Janet believes being a parent at Acorn Hill deepened and enriched her own life, and that Waldorf education continues to inspire and inform her work in the business and parent life of the school.
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 Carole Beltrand
Teacher
Carole grew up in France where she graduated as an MD with specialization in psychiatry at Paris VI University. She worked several years as a child psychiatrist, with a special interest in mother-child psychotherapy. In the United States, she worked as a behavioral interventionist in a Maryland early childhood mental health program. Carole discovered Waldorf education in 2004 when her twin boys attended Acorn Hill’s parent-child class and enjoyed our warm and welcoming community as well as the quality of the approach to early childhood education. She participated with great pleasure in the handwork group of Acorn Hill and at Potomac Crescent Waldorf School where her children attended first and second grade. Carole worked for two years at Acorn Hill in the office and as a substitute teacher for Acorn Hill and Potomac Crescent, before joining Acorn Hill in September 2010 as an assistant teacher.
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 Teresa Price
Teacher
Teresa joined our faculty in 2005 as an assistant teacher, after eight years of substituting and working in our Summer Program. She has served on both the Diversity Committee and our Board. She is currently Vice President of the Southern DC Chapter of Mocha Moms Inc., of which she has been a member for more than 10 years and has run a summer camp for young children from her home. She has been involved in holistic health for over 25 years and assists her husband in their holistic health business. Teresa has been very active in many community projects involving children, parenting, education, world peace, nutrition, and equity and justice. Her sons Alan and Amir were students at Acorn Hill and the Washington Waldorf School for over twelve years. She has a BS from the University of Maryland in Business and Psychology. Teresa grew up in Prince Georges County, Maryland and spent her childhood baking, cooking, singing, playing, reading and spending time in nature.
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 Christina Gage Sewer
Financial Officer
Chrissie first came to Acorn Hill as Business Manager and member of the Finance Committee in 2002 and became a member of the Board in 2004. She is now our Financial Officer, after serving as Accountant and on the Board during a 4 ½ year hiatus as the accounting manager for a local faith-based non-profit. With a wide range of business and managerial experience in corporate accounting gained over 20 years, Chrissie aspires to continue to bring a pragmatic approach to the financial workings of school. Balancing this work through faculty study and the consensus governance model has been both challenging and rewarding to Chrissie but inspirational to her commitment to Acorn Hill. A native Washingtonian, Chrissie did her undergraduate work in accounting at the University of the Virgin Islands and received her BSBA at American University. Chrissie is the proud parent of a grown daughter and a small pack of canines and felines.
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 Carol St. John
Teacher
Carol was born and raised on a dairy farm in the Finger Lakes region of central New York, where she learned how to grow vegetables, knit, sew, and prepare meals from fresh food grown on the farm. By the age of ten she was driving a tractor, playing piano, dancing ballet and managing the family vegetable stand. Upon graduation from SUNY Plattsburgh Carol moved to Long Island and began her career as a math teacher. After receiving her masters in education she became a public high school guidance counselor and later a district administrator. Carol started a counseling service for Women in Transition in Rochester, NY and served as a volunteer in the CASA program advocating for foster children. It was her volunteer work with foster children that reacquainted her with education. After attending Waldorf Teacher Training in 2003, she returned to the classroom to work at Acorn Hill, completing a full circle from her early beginnings on the farm, thus combining her education and life experience.
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 Diane Tyburski
Teacher
Diane was born and raised in a suburb of Chicago, IL and has a BA from Loyola University of Chicago. She moved to the Washington, DC area in 1986 and began a family shortly thereafter. With an interest in the environment and natural foods she then began a career at the Takoma Park Silver Spring Food Co-op and was Project Manager for the opening of their second store in Silver Spring. Joining a yoga practice at a local Ashram led her to the works of Rudolf Steiner and participation in a biodynamic CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture) beginning in 1998. Looking for a nursery school for her younger children brought her to Acorn Hill and in 2003 she joined the teaching faculty. Diane completed her Waldorf Early Childhood teaching certificate in 2006 and her MS Ed in Waldorf Early Childhood Education, both from Sunbridge College, NY in 2009.
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 Leslie Woolverton
Teacher
Leslie Woolverton has lived in the Washington, DC area the majority of her life. She double majored in Visual Arts and Art History at Trinity College, DC. Leslie began a varied and rich professional life right after college working at the National Institutes of Health as a photographer, serving as a correspondent’s assistant at ABC Network News, and owning and operating her own photography studio and interior design businesses. Parenting her young son led her to reconnect with the joy of Waldorf education and her anthroposophical upbringing. She came to Acorn Hill with her son and in 2003 joined our faculty as the Assistant Teacher in the Parent/Child classes. In 2008 Leslie became the Assistant Teacher in the 3 Day Nursery Class and continues to teacher in our Parent/Child classes.
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 Sandi Zeese
Teacher
Sandi Zeese was born in New York City, growing up on Long Island and then Albany, Georgia. She earned B.A. in Russian in 1972 from Duke University and has done master’s work in Chinese. Sandi has traveled around the world, working in both Europe and Thailand. Her children Elliott and Rachel both attended Acorn Hill and are graduates of the Washington Waldorf School. Sandi started teaching at Acorn Hill in 1997, first as an assistant, then continuing as a lead teacher after completing her Waldorf early childhood certification at Sunbridge College, New York, in 1998. Sandi has also completed her training in anthroposophically based therapeutic singing. Sandi joined the Acorn Hill Board in 2000, and served as Board Secretary for four years. She enjoys singing, swimming and travel.
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