Welcome to Waldorf School at Moraine Farm
At Waldorf School at Moraine Farm our mission is to help students discover and develop their individual capacities so that they can fully engage in the world and contribute meaningfully to society. We aim to cultivate clarity of thinking, compassion and moral strength, and purposeful action in our students.
Founded in 1986, Waldorf School at Moraine Farm strives to instill in our students a strong sense of community, a true enthusiasm for learning, and a deep reverence for nature. Our location at Moraine Farm, in the north shore city of Beverly, MA, allows our thriving Science in Nature Program to take full advantage of this amazing property. The campus also lends itself perfectly to our Kindergarten curriculum, giving students the opportunity to be outside exploring and experiencing nature on a daily basis. Our Early Childhood Program benefits from our location with a recently expanded campus, adding a Greenhouse for our Early Childhood Program for expanded hands-on science and gardening learning experiences. There is much that has grown in our 35 years as a school and so much more to come.
Please scroll to view our faculty and staff below.
“I wanted to be in a place where students really loved their teachers and were excited to go to school every day and where they got something bigger out of their class time....”
- Waldorf School at Moraine Farm Alumna -Early Childhood Faculty

Kate Hill
Parent and Child Lead Teacher
Kate holds a B.A. from Emmanuel College. She received her Birth to Three Years training at the highly respected Sophia’s Hearth Center in Keene, New Hampshire and has studied at the Center for Anthroposophy. With over 15 years of development experience working with nonprofits, Kate has used this knowledge to grow our parent and child program. She was Vice President for Development at the Conservation Law Foundation and Director of the Harvard Medical School Alumni Fund. Kate lives in Magnolia with her husband Chris, her daughter Kat who is a 2016 graduate from Waldorf School at Moraine Farm, and golden retriever Winston. The Hill family joined the Waldorf community close to 20 years ago and the school has been an important part of their family life.

Stephanie Irvine
Daisy 3-Day Nursery Teacher
Stephanie Irvine was born and raised in New Zealand. She has a B.S. from Auckland University majoring in Physiology and Pharmacology. She has taken Foundation Studies and is currently taking courses at Sophia’s Hearth. Stephanie has been an assistant in nursery for many years and has also substituted in kindergarten and parent and child classes. She has two children who both attended Waldorf School at Moraine Farm. She lives in Salem with her husband and children.

Miranda Ovesen
Early Childhood Assistant
Since discovering her heart was worthy of its beat, Miranda has had a powerful calling to be, in many capacities, a loving light to those around her, while dancing with her inner healer, creator, and lover of all beauty that is life. Miranda’s passion and drive to improve the state of our schools and mental health institutions grew from her childhood hardships, awareness of the suffering of those around her, and a determination to wake the world up. Nannying and working at the remarkable Waldorf School on Moraine Farm fuels this passion, but having a full child care schedule alone is not fulfilling; continuing her education alongside her work is. The Birth to Age Three Certification Program offered by Sophia’s Hearth, has deepened Miranda’s understanding of children’s early years and has brought her closer to her dream of sharing a more heart-centered and holistic child care approach with the world.
Kierstin Hazzard
Buttercup Nursery Lead Teacher
Kierstin is an alumna of WSMF, attending from the school’s very first year as a nursery student through the 8th grade. She received her B.S. in Early Childhood Education and Human Development and Family Studies from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. While teaching at Rockport Integrated Preschool in Rockport, MA, she completed Foundation Studies in Anthroposophy at WSMF. She also completed various Renewal courses/Waldorf Class Teacher training through Antioch University while teaching at the Headstart program at Pathways for Children in Gloucester and Beverly, MA. After four years at Pathways, her daughter Everly (currently enrolled at WSMF) was born, and Kierstin became a stay-at-home mama. When her younger daughter was two, Kierstin returned to her second home at our school as an Early Childhood Assistant. Kierstin’s passions apart from teaching include theater and working with her hands: knitting and needle felting, gardening, and caring for the family chickens.

Brian Fizer
Lilac Kindergarten Lead Teacher
Brian Fizer has over a decade of elementary and early childhood education experience. A native of West Virginia, Brian has lived in New England for about 15 years. He earned a masters in Elementary Education from Northeastern University, where he also served as an adjunct faculty member. For most of his career, Brian taught in the Boston Public Schools where he taught students who were new to the country.
Brian is excited to join a community committed to racial justice and inclusion. He is a baker, gardener, and an outdoor enthusiast. He lives in Beverly with his husband and daughter as well as their 2 dogs and 6 chickens.

Alannah LeBlanc
Sunflower Kindergarten Lead Teacher
Alannah holds a B.A. in Foreign Languages and Comparative Literature from UC Riverside. Upon graduating from university, Alannah sought various opportunities in Early Childhood Education, teaching in kindergartens in both traditional public and charter schools. In 2018, Alannah took a position as the lead teacher of a first grade class at a Waldorf-inspired charter school in Prescott, Arizona. This experience served to confirm her passion for Waldorf Education and led her to pursue her Waldorf Teacher Training in Eugene, OR with WTEE (Waldorf Teacher Education, Eugene) and a specialization in Waldorf Early Childhood Education with Sound Circle Center for Arts and Anthroposophy. Prior to joining the Waldorf School at Moraine Farm, Alannah worked as one of the lead teachers at the Red Earth Waldorf Kindergarten in Sedona, AZ. In her free time, Alannah enjoys knitting, connecting with nature in all forms, and making bread.
Grade 1 – Grade 8 Faculty

Celia Martone
1st Grade Teacher
Celia holds a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and a minor in Social Work from Elizabethtown College and is currently pursuing Waldorf Teacher Training at Sunbridge Institute. She was lucky enough to discover Waldorf Education during her undergraduate studies and had the wonderful opportunity to complete her student teaching internship in third grade and then work as an assistant last year in first grade at the Susquehanna Waldorf School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Upon graduating from Elizabethtown College this past spring, Celia moved from Philadelphia to Massachusetts to take her first class on an adventure through the grades. What an adventure it has been so far! In her free time, Celia enjoys reading, painting, handwork, and hiking with friends and family.

Lisa Maynard
2nd Grade Teacher
It is not unusual to see Lisa running with the older children or crawling through a mystical obstacle course with the younger ones. She loves creating pedagogical stories for the children and finding forgotten folk songs to teach in class. Lisa brings rich and lively lessons that are layered with many different opportunities for the children to develop their capacities of compassion, imagination, flexibility and persistence. She is masterful in bringing math concepts and arithmetic to the children using the imagination, and mental math strategies. She is dedicated to bringing the Waldorf curriculum to life and making math accessible to all children.
Lisa Maynard is an AWSNA certified Waldorf Teacher, receiving her credentials from Antioch University in 2015. She also holds a MA Ed in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona University and a Bachelors of Science in elementary education from the University of Connecticut. Sight unseen, she relocated to Arizona for a teaching position in a public school and enjoyed teaching third grade for eight years. For the last nine years Lisa has been a grades teacher in a public Waldorf school in Arizona.
Lisa’s two adult children graduated from a public Waldorf elementary and high school. Her eldest daughter is a marine biologist currently researching whales in Mexico, and her youngest daughter is studying nutrition and cooking at Johnson and Wales. Lisa is an avid swimmer and runner and has traveled internationally as a photographer for Tempe Sister Cities. With enthusiasm, she continually strives to learn about different cultures and people everywhere she goes. Lisa has a calm, confident presence and a love for teaching children of all ages.

Anna Scalera
3rd Grade Teacher
Anna has a masters in Elementary Education from Antioch University and is a certified Waldorf teacher. This is Anna’s second time teaching at WSMF, where she has previously been a class teacher at the grades level, having held a class from 4th through 8th grades. After leaving WSMF, Anna spent time training Waldorf teachers, and refocusing her own Waldorf teaching on younger students. Anna sees immense value for young children to have a healthy experience as they embark on their school years, and she brings this perspective to her teaching.

Jessalyn Hall
4th & 5th Grade Teacher
Jessalyn Hall attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst earning her B.A. with a dual focus in Anthropology and Comparative Mythology. She fell in love with class teaching at a Waldorf Charter School in Arizona, teaching grades 1-3, before moving to New York and continuing in grades 5-8. Jessalyn holds a MEd in Waldorf Education from Sunbridge College. In addition to Waldorf, Jessalyn has completed her Montessori teacher training and co-taught in Montessori elementary classrooms. In both Waldorf and Montessori schools, Jessalyn has worked as a math specialist, developing mathematics curriculum. She brings a sense of wonder and delight in learning to work with her students.

Danielle Harrington
Middle School Teacher, Learning Support Specialist
Danielle has her Masters in Education and Child Development from Tufts University from where she also earned her undergraduate degree with a major in French and studio art. She studied experiential education with the School for International Training in Toulouse, France, where she lived for three years leading hands-on learning excursions for American college students as well as teaching English to French children and executives. Danielle brings a wealth of teaching experience as a lead teacher in both private and public schools and has worked professionally in the field of teacher education as well. She has special interest and expertise in teaching foundational reading, writing, and mathematics skills to a wide range of learners, and has special training in children’s social-emotional learning as well. Her goal is to help students see their own amazing strengths while building their skills and confidence step by step in areas that challenge them.
Prior to joining us at WSMF, Danielle was a teacher at Glen Urquhart School where she served for eight years. She also taught for seven years in the Brookline public schools, including one year as an elementary math specialist. Danielle was first introduced to our school when she attended parent-child classes as a new mom. Her interdisciplinary teaching style, meaningful relationships with students, collaboration with parents, and desire to be part of a close-knit community all drew her back to WSMF.
Subject Faculty

Heather Collis Puro
Handwork Teacher
Heather Collis Puro received her B.A. in Political Science and English from the University of Richmond in 1990. She received her handwork teacher certificate from the Applied Arts Program in Spring Valley, NY in 2015. Heather and her family discovered the Waldorf School at Moraine Farm in 2000 when she began Parent and Child classes with her son. Heather joined the faculty as the handwork teacher in 2017 and now teaches in Grades 1-8. Ms. Collis Puro learned to knit, sew and embroider at an early age and takes every opportunity to add to her repertoire of handwork. She is on the faculty of the Applied Arts Training Program, a four year certificate course for handwork teachers. Heather has served the school in many capacities over the years, including as Faculty Trustee on the Board, member and Chair of the Faculty Management Group (now the Leadership Circle) as well as serving as the Interim Director of Faculty and Administration for the 2019-2020 school year.

Deann Reyes-Wangh
Middle School Math
Deann Reyes-Wangh has a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice Studies with an emphasis in mathematics from Arizona State University and a Masters of Education in Middle School Mathematics from Cambridge College in Charsletown, MA. Most recently, Deann taught math at the Waldorf School of Garden City in Garden City, NY. Deann has 10+ years of teaching experience in middle school math. Growing up, Deann was an avid soccer player and continued her love for the sport at the college level. She now thoroughly enjoys coaching soccer and softball. Deann resides in Beverly with her wife and 2 children. Deann is a member of the school’s Faculty Management Group.

Michael Mansur
Woodworking and Games and Movement Teacher
Michael Mansur was a student at Waldorf School at Moraine Farm. Michael developed an interest in childhood education while working first as a substitute teacher in the early childhood classes. Michael then became a kindergarten class assistant at Waldorf School at Moraine Farm in 2016. Michael has studied Biodynamic Agriculture with Gunther Hauk at Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary and is currently studying for a degree in Education.

Marshunda Smith
Instrumental Music Teacher, Homeschool Program Coordinator, Administrative Assistant
After obtaining her B.A. from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Marshunda began teaching and discovered a love of conducting and teaching music! She earned a Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting with an emphasis in Music Education at the University of Southern Maine.
While in Maine, she conducted the Odeon Youth Orchestra as well as guest conducted at various music festivals. She was inspired to help co-found and conduct the No-Name Orchestra of Boston, granting musicians a chance to play a concerto or other solo work with a full orchestra. The conductor, soloist, and orchestra perform a work for the first time upon meeting each other with no rehearsals. No-Name Orchestra is now in its 6th year since being founded and gives at least 3 performances each year around the Boston metro area.
In February of 2018, Marshunda guest conducted the North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra and made history by becoming the orchestra’s second female conductor in 20 years and the first African American to conduct the orchestra in its 70-year history! In the same year, she created the Coquettish Dances program and recorded and released the Coquettish Dances album.
Currently, Marshunda is working on several musical endeavors titled “The Marshunda Project presents”. The first Marshunda Project premiered on October 5, 2019. She conducted and premiered new works by a local composer as well as brought forth works for chamber orchestra from composers who aren’t well known. Because of the success of the first project concert, Marshunda is creating a series of concerts. “Il Violoncello Italiano” and “Second-Hand Melodies” are two concerts that are coming up in the near future

Andrea Ledesma
Spanish Teacher
Andrea grew up in Ecuador and has recently become a US citizen. She is a native Spanish speaker and looks forward to bringing elements of the culture of her childhood along with her while teaching our students

Hannah Yeager
Science, Nature, Engineering, and Design Teacher
Hannah joined the WSMF community in January 2021 as our after-school STEM Club teacher; she also led the homeschool students in an “Outdoor Engineering” class and taught “Animal Engineers” as a middle school elective. Hannah is excited to continue sharing her love and knowledge of science with students at our school as our Science, Nature, Engineering, & Design Teacher!
Before coming to work at WSMF, Hannah worked as a science educator at the New England Aquarium and the Museum of Science in Boston. She received her bachelor’s degree in Ecology from Susquehanna University. While at Susquehanna, she completed research in the fields of geology, paleontology, environmental science, and animal behavior.
In her free time, Hannah loves spending time outside hiking, camping, and exploring the beach. She also loves cuddling up with her many pets: a dog, two cats, and a tortoise!
Administration

Rachel McCarthy
Admissions Director
Rachel holds a B.A. in Communications from the College of St. Benedict, an A.A. in Culinary Arts, and an M.S. in Nonprofit Management from Johnson & Wales University. She also comes to us with a wealth of experience in the admissions world, as well as the hospitality and sales industries.
Rachel began her admissions career as a student volunteer while she was an undergraduate at the College of St. Benedict. Upon graduation, she joined the department full-time. Rachel has over a decade of admissions experience at the college level during which she expertly helped families find their ideal college match.

Laura Freysinger
Main Office Support, First and Second Grade Afternoon Teacher
Laura received her BFA from Tufts University and The Museum School of Fine Arts and for 30 years has worked in the clothing design and manufacturing industry.
She completed two courses of Foundation Studies in Anthroposophy and studied at Emerson College, England with master Waldorf teachers. Laura was a Co-Chair of the Waldorf Community Association, has served on various committees and has been a handwork assistant for 8 years.
Laura came to Waldorf School at Moraine Farm as a parent in 2002 and has volunteered and/or worked at the school in various positions since 2006. She enjoys yoga, gardening, all sorts of handwork and sailing with her family. Her son is a 2016 graduate from Waldorf School at Moraine Farm.

Gretchen MacKilligan
Main Office Manager
Gretchen grew up in the Waldorf school community and has loved the education ever since. She taught Kindergarten in a Waldorf-inspired charter school and worked in the nonprofit world of educational support. Gretchen has two children who’ve attended this school.

Vanya Yoors
Director of Teaching and Learning
Vanya Yoors spent his first two years of college studying Environmental Education through the Audubon Expedition Institute, a program then affiliated with Lesley College. After meeting and studying with a Tibetan Buddhist teacher in NYC he transferred to The University of Wisconsin and spent a year in Nepal studying Tibetan language. His thesis focused Tibetan folk songs. He then received his B.A. in Waldorf Education from The Rudolf Steiner College and later participated in a Masters in Waldorf Education program at Antioch University. He taught for four years at the Eugene Waldorf School in Oregon before coming to Waldorf School at Moraine Farm in 1995 where he has taught movement, science as a served class teacher for the past 26 years. He has represented our school with the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America for over a decade and has served on the College of Teachers, Site Search Committee, Development committee, Finance Committee, and Board of Trustees.