3rd Grade Guardian
Main Lesson Teacher

Cara holds a B.A. in Anthropology and Literature from the University of Texas, is a trained and experienced massage and energy based bodywork practitioner and is a certified Waldorf Educator. Cara brings over twenty years teaching experience beginning as a Kindergarten assistant at the Ithaca Waldorf School, to the nursery and eventually as a class teacher and learning support tutor at Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School. Cara met Anthroposophy at age 14 and studied child development, biodynamic agriculture as well as a wide range of spiritual studies throughout her teens and early twenties which enriched her parenting of three wonderful children. She has lived in the Hudson Valley for 10 years and enjoys her work with the Phoenix Initiative immensely as it brings all she loves about educating children into a true practice.

1st Grade Guardian
2nd Grade Guardian
4th Grade Guardian
5th Grade Guardian
Main Lesson Teacher

Elsa Gomez trained as a holistic life coach and bodyworker at World School of Massage and Holistic Healing Arts in San Francisco CA where she completed a teacher training program and was invited to join as a faculty member facilitating workshops and trainings for various programs. She received her degree in neuroscience at Washington State University where she worked in Dr. Christine Portfors’ lab researching auditory processing in the brain.

She was a contributing author to the article: "Pharmacologic and Optogenetic Manipulation of the Dopamine System Alters Auditory Processing in the Inferior Colliculus" and presented her contributions at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in 2018. She has worked extensively in STEM outreach; visiting schools, youth shelters, youth correctional facilities with NW Noggin in Oregon, neuroscience outreach group, and as a volunteer educator in the Chemistry Lab at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Elsa Gomez shares her love for numbers and arithmetic as part of her math Main Lesson blocks and enjoys bringing stories of her culture and upbringing through her Spanish classes. She is completing her certificate in Spirit-led Education for a Spirit-led Life through EduCareDo. She lives in upstate NY.

1st Grade Guardian
2nd Grade Guardian
6th/7th Grade Guardian
Meadowlark Kindergarten co-founder
Main Lesson Teacher

Meaghan has worked with parents and families in a variety of capacities for over twenty years, including as an early childhood and parent-child educator and currently as the founder, main lesson teacher and mentor of a spirit-led education initiative in upstate NY. The Phoenix Initiative is dedicated to freedom for all in education. Meaghan also teaches and facilitates the Health and Wellbeing programs on behalf of Developing the Self Developing the World. This work has brought her to numerous schools across the country and in Canada where she teaches students in 4th - 12 Grades, and offers professional development training for faculty and school communities. Meaghan also works through consultation directly with parents and families in the home-setting offering practical support and understanding of child development from birth through adolescence, in the light of anthroposophy.

As an artist with a degree in theater, performance, and English Studies, Meaghan’s artistic work explores how music and story support inner and outer striving within the human condition. Meaghan has led singing, performance, and movement workshops in various contexts for children, teenagers, and adults. She is a contributing author of the Spirit-led Education for a Spirit-led Life subject course and the co-author of the EduCareDo subject course Speech and Drama as Living Arts.

Main Lesson Teacher
Drama, Speech and Movement Teacher

Séamus completed his degree in acting at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. While there, he studied speech, classical acting and Shakespeare with Patsy Rodenburg. Prior to that he trained intensively in the Michael Chekhov Technique for many years studying and performing with Ted Pugh and Fern Sloan who founded the Actor’s Ensemble based in Hudson NY. He then attended Artemis School of Speech and Drama in West Sussex England where he studied Rudolf Steiner’s approach to speech formation with master speech artist Christopher Garvey. Alongside his work as an actor he trained in classical guitar, performance, composition and songwriting. Séamus has worked as a professional actor, musician and speech artist on stages in NYC, London, Europe, Belgium and Australia and has taught speech, movement, acting, drama and music for all ages in a variety of contexts, including at a number of well known universities, Waldorf schools and many alternative education settings. Séamus has taught the art of speech at Inner Work Path workshops. He currently works as a freelance teaching artist, artistic director, playwright and performer. He is a founding faculty member of The Phoenix Initiative and the artistic director of The Actors’ Ensemble.

In addition to his work as a teacher and performing artist Séamus is also co-author of Speech and Drama as Living Arts, a long distance course through EducareDo. He is also the author of the bookParzival - A Journey of Initiation and specializes in teaching the Parzival and Arthurian legends as part of the curriculum in Waldorf/Steiner schools.

Main Lesson Teacher

Anna Claire Novotny has been connected to Waldorf education her whole life, as a student and a daughter of teachers. After graduating with her degree in comparative education studies from SUNY, she completed the Biodynamic Agriculture training at the Pfeiffer Center and Waldorf Teacher Education at Sunbridge College. She then worked for several years at Sunbridge, guiding others to become educators as well as working one-on-one with struggling students in a therapeutic context. Anna Claire and her husband (also a Waldorf grad) moved to the Hudson Valley 13 years ago, where they dedicate themselves to raising their 4 children and running Buttonwood Hollow Farm, a regenerative farm bringing vibrant food to their community. Anna Claire has spent the last 6 years as a homeschool teacher working in small groups and with individual students. She has a deep appreciation for the Waldorf curriculum and finds true joy in sharing her love of all things connected to the wild world, history, geography, and myth with children. She’s thrilled to be on the teaching team at Phoenix.

Meadowlark Kindergarten co-founder

Sonja is a native Oregonian and a Waldorf school Alumnus. As a young adult she spent several years working at a Waldorf-inspired preschool in Camphill. She founded and co-owned a community orientated toy store in Portland, Oregon after the birth of her first child. 

She has training in LifeWays Early Childhood and as a Simplicity Parenting Coach. She is also a trained Postpartum Doula. She has worked with families as a nourishing whole foods chef, and supported families to create healthy rhythms and parenting practices during the postpartum year and beyond.
In 2016, I opened a Waldorf-inspired in-home preschool program, followed by working as the lead teacher in a forest preschool program at the Corvallis Waldorf School. In 2021, she moved with her husband and three children to the Berkshires where she worked as the Forest and Kindergarten teacher at Berkshire Waldorf School. 
In 2025 she co-founded the Meadowlark Kindergarten program at the Phoenix Initiative. 
When she’s not teaching, she enjoys caring for her family, working on restoring their 150-year-old farmhouse, exploring rivers, swimming holes, and hikes with her family, cooking nourishing meals, working with natural fibers and dyes, sewing, knitting, gardening, and continuing her education in nutrition and curative education.

Early Childhood Teacher

Mayra has always known that she wanted to work with children. It was when she met Waldorf education that her path toward becoming an educator was made clear. Her commitment to the wellbeing and development of children has helped guide her in her work with children in parent child classes, nursery classes, and mixed age kindergartens in San Francisco, NYC, and Juneau, Alaska. She is honored to be serving the Phoenix community through the Friday Family Class and La familia Sagrada (beginning November 2025). Mayra began teaching Early Childhood classes at New Amsterdam in NYC in 2009. She completed her Early Childhood teacher training at Sunbridge Institute, Practical training in Biodynamics at the Pfeffier Center, and recently completed her year one teacher training at the Phoenix Initiative. She is currently enrolled in the year two teacher training at the Phoenix Initiative and lives between Ghent and Seattle, Washington with her husband and two daughters.

Main Lesson Teacher
Speciality Teacher

Lisa Damian has been a Waldorf educator for 30 years, teaching elementary and middle grades, and high school where she’s taught main lessons, movement and art classes. 
She’s trained as a movement therapist through the Spacial Dynamics Institute as well as a Curative Educator through Mulberry Center for Curative Education.  She brings a therapeutic eye to her work with children, whether teaching handwork, movement, artistic or academic work which allows those subjects to be tailored to the developmental needs of the child/student.