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Meet Us |
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WSP High School Faculty and Staff
 Lisa Babinet, PHD teaches math in the high school. Lisa received a PhD in science education from the University of Pennsylvania. She has three Master’s degrees including one in secondary math education from the University of Pennsylvaina, and one in applied psychology from the University of Santa Monica. She has taught mathematics in middle school and high school for many years. Lisa’s most recent experience has been as a math teacher, director of educational programs, and dean of students in the middle school at Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough. Her son and her daughter are students in our school. Michaela Bergmann teaches Eurythmy in the high school. She completed a five-year training course to become a stage eurythmist and eurythmy teacher for all ages, including adults, from the Eurythmeum Stuttgart. She also has a diploma from Micheshof Hepsisau, Institute for Therapeutic Pedagogy and has studied acting and drama. Michaela has been a eurythmy teacher for 10 years, and she recently taught kindergarten to sixth grade eurythmy at the Westside Waldorf School in Santa Monica. While at Westside Waldorf, she also taught handwork for all grades. Michaela is experienced in working with children with special needs using therapeutic eurythmy techniques. Michaela joined our school in 2003. Mary Jane DiPiero re-joined the school as High School Coordinator in January 2007. She was a founding parent of Waldorf School of the Peninsula, was a class teacher for five years and enrollment director for two. She completed her Waldorf Teacher Training in 1998 and also has an M.A. in English and a California secondary teaching credential. She taught high school English and journalism in Maryland and Vermont, and had a teaching Fulbright in Italy. She also worked as a university press and technical editor for many years. Jim Duport, MBA, teaches Algebra II. Jim is a math major with a lifetime secondary teaching credential. He taught math at Los Gatos High School and after 10 years, Jim temporarily (in 1982) left teaching to work in private industry for two Fortune 500 companies and is currently the principal at a small software company, www.LseMod.com. Jim has also taught professional seminars in commercial real estate finance and in negotiations. Kelly Leahy McKeown, MA, is the high school counselor. Kelly is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and holds a California Pupil Personnel Services Credential with a specialization in K-12 School Counseling. She received her masters from St. Mary’s College with a dual emphasis in School and Marriage, Family and Child Counseling. Kelly discovered Waldorf education when one of her graduate school professors taught the temperaments and assigned a hand-written reflection paper that required page borders to be decorated with beeswax crayons. Kelly is currently enrolled in the Community Learning Center Foundation Studies for Waldorf Teacher Training through Rudolf Steiner College. Prior to joining the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, Kelly spent nine years at an independent high school, and four years at a 4th-8th grade public school. Kelly was a teacher, counselor, director of service learning programs, coordinator of health education curriculum, and facilitator of peer counseling and mediation. Kelly also researched, developed and facilitated domestic and international cultural and service immersion adventures where she gained extensive experience working with adolescents outside the classroom. She has a passion for student leadership development and has ushered many emerging leaders through the process of setting and realizing their goals.Scott Merrall joins the WSP High School as History and Movement teacher. He earned his certificate in Spacial Dynamics© in Stuttgart, Germany and subsequently taught Movement and English at the Rudolf Steiner Schule in der Nordheide, Germany before returning to the U.S. in 1993. He was a class teacher at WSP for three years, and then worked as a carpenter and builder in Santa Cruz while helping raise his son Leander. He received his BA in History from UC Santa Cruz. His historical work focuses on the dynamics of social and cultural change and the role of history and memory in forming our view of the world and ourselves. Scott is especially interested in guiding students toward crafting their own unique narrative interpretations of historical and contemporary events. Scott loves backpacking, sports, playing guitar with friends, old movies, barbeques, and above all, spending time with his 11-year-old son, Leander.  Deborah Newlen teaches English and Drama. She has been teaching English, Drama, Philosophy, Psychology, and Ecological literacy at East Bay, served as board member and faculty chair, and founded traditions such as the Junior Wilderness Trip and the All High School Summer Reading Symposium. At WSP, some of the courses Deborah will teach include: 9th grade Writing and Grammar, Comedy and Tragedy (English), and 10th grade Poetics (English), Drama, and World Religions. Deborah brings many ideas about collaboration between WSP High School and the East Bay Waldorf School that will increase the social pool and enhance the learning experiences of all of our students. Mark-Daniel Schmid, PHD joins the faculty as a music teacher. He received his Ph.D. in Music History from Northwestern University, his Master of Arts from West Chester University, and a Diploma in Piano Performance from the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, Germany. Prior to coming to the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, he was an associate professor in music history and piano at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania, where he taught music history for nine years. He is the editor of the Richard Strauss Companion published by Praeger Publishing Group and was also a contributor to the International Dictionary of Black Musicians, published in 2001. He is also an accomplished pianist and has accompanied recitals in Germany and Switzerland as well as throughout the United States. Having taught piano to young children for many years, Dr. Schmid looks back fondly on his days as a student at the Waldorf School “Uhlandshöhe,” the very first Waldorf school, in Stuttgart, Germany, and feels that the wonderful experiences he had there destined him to become a teacher. “I can always tell when a young adult has attended a Waldorf School,” he says. “They have a certain glow about them, a deep curiosity about the world and its citizens, an open mind to new approaches, and a knowledge beyond the physical world.”Adjunct FacultyJennifer Nori Ahlgrim is teaching African style hand drumming and rhythm at the high school. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interior Architectural Design from the California College of the Arts in Oakland and San Francisco. She practiced in the architectural field for many years before moving on to raise two children. Her children have been students of the Waldorf curriculum since preschool and are currently in the eighth and sixth grades at the Waldorf School of the Peninsula. She is enrolled in the High School Teacher Training program at Rudolph Steiner College. She is the manager of Hearts Delight, the retail gift store at the Waldorf School of the Peninsula. She has been studying African style drumming, rhythm and dance for the last decade. In addition to her class at the high school, she is currently teaching drum classes to adults as well as an elective drum class to the middle school students at the Waldorf School of the Peninsula.Leila Allen, currently high school drama teacher and admissions director at Summerfield Waldorf School in Sebastopol, teaches the 9th grade Comedy and Tragedy block in the fall and doing improvisational drama work with the students throughout the year. Leila has diplomas in speech formation and theater education from the Stuttgart School of Speech and Drama, as well as a diploma in therapeutic speech. In addition to teaching drama and directing high school plays, she has been a visiting speech formation teacher in Bay Area Waldorf schools and a therapeutic speech practitioner. She has also been instrumental in planning a number of international youth conferences. Alecia Dodge teaches the basketweaving. She taught handwork in grades 1-8 for 14 years at the Waldorf School of Santa Barbara. She graduated from Sunbridge College's Applied Arts Program for handwork and woodwork teachers. She has a Bachelor of Science in home economics from University of California Davis. For the past three years she has been a teacher and program coordinator for the Handwork Teacher Training Program at Rudolf Steiner College. With her experience as a member of a college of teachers, Board of Trustees and faculty, she has a wealth of knowledge in governance, administration and working as part of a team. Erica Goss teaches an art journaling class in the high school. She was born in Germany to a family of writers and artists and received her B.A. in English and her M.F.A. in creative writing from San Jose State University. She won both a Sibley and a Phelan award for poetry, as well as the first Edwin Markham award, from San Jose State. She is co-editor of caesura, the literary magazine of Poetry San Jose. She has taught English at San Jose State, and currently teaches poetry at Saratoga High School. Erica has been married for twenty years to her husband Don Peters; they are the parents of two children. Harald Hoven, director of the garden at Rudolf Steiner College, master gardener, faculty member, and founder of the Biodynamic Association of Northern California, will be the principal instructor for the October agricultural week at Rudolf Steiner College. Trained in Germany, Harald has received his certification in horticulture and has apprenticed in biodynamic farms and gardens in Europe. He has been at Rudolf Steiner College for more than 23 years and is well known as a regional and international speaker on biodynamic farming and gardening. The freshman class travels to Fair Oaks for a week in the fall, camps in the olive grove near the Sacramento Waldorf School, and has seven hours of instruction a day, learning about the complete farm ecosystem through hands-on activities and lectures conducted by Harald and the farm apprentices. Carolyn Siegel teaches an art block in the high school. She is a licensed Marriage Family Therapist (MFT) with a passion for clay. She began seriously working with clay in 2001, has taught small groups of students, and shows and sells her sculptures locally. She is bringing the 9th grade a six-week block of ceramic art, specifically hand-building. Carolyn has been a parent at Waldorf School of the Peninsula since 1998 and currently has an eighth grader at the school. She is also enrolled in the Waldorf High School Teacher Training through Rudolf Steiner College. "I didn't think of myself as an artist until I got my hands in clay," says Carolyn. "Then the artist in me sprang to the forefront. Clay's forgiving nature is a great medium to birth the unseen but felt inner ideas and emotions into the world of the seen and expressed." WSP High School AdvisorsBetty StaleyRudolf Steiner College
Betty Staley is the Director of the Foundation Year and Waldorf High School Teacher Education at Rudolf Steiner College. She is the author of Between Form and Freedom; A Practical Guide to the Teenage Years; Soul Weaving, Hear the Voice of the Griot: A Guide to the History, Geography and Culture of Africa; and, most recently, Adolescence: The Sacred Passage. |