Faculty & Staff
Our Faculty brings a wealth of training, experience, and dedication to our homelike classrooms every day. All of our teachers are trained professionals who have made early childhood education their career. They are modern-day Mary Poppinses, skilled in the techniques of preventative discipline - creating ways to gently guide behavior through clear expectations and positive example. Even more important, our teachers are warm, loving people who care for each child as a special being.
JODY MEESE, Director, grew up in western New York State and has been at The Mountain School since 1990. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Education and a master’s degree in Music. Before coming to The Mountain School, Jody worked as a public school teacher and enjoyed a long career as a professional flutist in such diverse cities as Hartford, Toronto, Cleveland, Boston, Los Angeles, Mexico City and Salt Lake City until she settled in the Bay Area in 1988. Jody came to The Mountain School first as a parent, and shortly thereafter joined as an employee during the first year of the school’s existence. “Our family as a whole has benefited from our Mountain School experience,” she believes. She is the mother of two grown children and a student of yoga and calligraphy.
GALE MORFIN, Lead Teacher, grew up on Long Island, received her bachelor’s degree at the University of Florida, and completed her Waldorf teacher training at the Rudolf Steiner College in Sacramento. After 17 years as a lead teacher at The Mountain School, Gale brings tremendous experience and expertise to the artistic process of caring for young children. “When I first encountered Waldorf education,” she remarks, “I was stunned. It seemed to hold within it everything I wished I had experienced as a child.” Gale and her husband lived in Finland for four years where she taught preschool before coming to The Mountain School in 1994. For 2007-08 she spent a sabbatical year in Italy.
KIMI KEATING, Lead Teacher, received her bachelor’s degree in Art History from San Francisco State University and graduated from the San Francisco Waldorf Teacher Training program in 1999. Kimi says she was drawn to “the depth and creativity of the Waldorf philosophy” as well as to its highly sensible approach. “It nurtures intellectual development and wonder through activities that are practical and well thought through.” Kimi was a classroom assistant for three years in the Mill Valley public school system, was lead teacher at a local home preschool, and spent two years as a kindergarten apprentice at the San Francisco Waldorf School where she also taught Summer Kindergarten Camp. She joined The Mountain School in 2002 as Assistant Teacher. In 2005 she became Lead Teacher in the Chickadee nest.
SYLVIA DONATI, Assistant Teacher, has traveled far and wide from her childhood home in New York State. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Chinese from Connecticut College, and two master’s degrees in Asian Studies and in Urban Planning from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. After moving to the Bay Area to work as an environment planner in San Jose, Sylvia became a mother and switched gears. She went back to school (again) and received her certificate in Waldorf education from the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training. She joined The Mountain School as Assistant Teacher in 2007 where she enjoys sharing her love for song, play, and the natural world.
BRENDA NOVICK, Assistant Teacher, grew up in New Mexico and attended Dominican University before being introduced to Waldorf education through her children. Drawn to its emphasis on nature, beauty and imagination, Brenda moved on to earn her certificate in Waldorf education at the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training and joined The Mountain School in 2009. Says Brenda, “Here, every activity, every action, every gesture, has meaning. In a world where we often rush, our children can still have a place to experience purpose and happiness in the everyday pursuits of life.”
Philosophy