FACULTY & STAFF

Our faculty and staff join us from all over the United States and abroad, bringing their experience and joy for working with young children and families.  We are most grateful for their interest and involvement in the work of Sophia's Hearth Family Center.  The special, intimate and collegial atmosphere present in every event is a hallmark of our conferences and courses, and arises from the gifts of our excellent faculty.

Our permanent staff includes: director, Susan Weber; associate training course director, Jane Swain;  family programs director, Nancy Macalaster; childcare program director, Paula Sousa; and office manager, Bonnie Chamberlin.

SUSAN WEBER is the Director of Sophia's Hearth Family Center.  She brings many years as a public school teacher and administrator, Waldorf early childhood teacher, Waldorf early childhood teacher training coordinator at Antioch University New England, and adult educator.  She has  completed extensive training at the Pikler Institute in Budapest, Hungary.  She regularly presents the work of Sophia's Hearth Family Center, as well as themes relating to the very young child, at local, national, and international conferences.  Locally, she teaches Sophia's Hearth's Joyful Beginnings Parent Infant playgroups and shares her experience with various topics at our speaker series. 

JANE SWAIN   is a pediatric physical therapist with sensory integration training.  She has completed a five year training in Spatial Dynamics and is currently involved with advanced training in this work.  In Sophia's Hearth's conferences, workshops and courses, she presents work on movement development in the infant and young child, support of the child's senses, remedial work in movement with young children, children's games and their link to academic learning and cognitive development.  She is the Associate Director of our Training Course. 

NANCY MACALASTER guides the parent programs and is a playgroup facilitator.  She holds a degree in Child Development from Connecticut College and a master's degree from AntiochNew England University  in counseling psychology. She is also a graduate of Sophia's Hearth's training program for early childhood professionals, "The Child in the First Three Years" and has completed training at the Pikler Institute in Hungary. She also teaches in our professional development workshops and courses.

PAULA SOUSA  directes our childcare program.  She holds a masters degree in early childhood education from Lesley College Graduate School and a Masters of Science in early childhood education from Sunbridge College in Spring Valley, New York.   She has studied the Pikler approach to early care with Anna Tardos.

BONNIE CHAMBERLIN is our business manager.  Mother of three children, she cares for our bookkeeping, course and conference organization, mailings, and fund raising management.   

PRESENTERS  INCLUDE : 

MOLLIE AMIES was born and educated in England. She studied eurythmy in Dornach, Switzerland, with Lea van der Pals, and has taught in Waldorf schools in both Europe and the United States. For sixteen years she taught eurythmy students at the School of Eurythmy in Spring Valley, NY where she also presented eurythmy artistically as a stage performer. At present she practices hygienic eurythmy at Monadnock Waldorf School in Keene and offers courses for adults.  

LIBBY HADDOCK has been an early childhood teacher for many years at Monadnock Waldorf School in Keene. In her very active retirement, she is pursuing her love and gift of puppetry with the Cobb Meadow Puppetry Troupe. In addition to her many years of puppetry work in public performances and in her classroom, she has completed a three year training in puppetry with Suzanne Down of Juniper Tree Puppets. She is also involved in mentoring Waldorf early childhood teachers throughout New England.

HELLE HECKMANN comes to us from Copenhagen, Denmark. She is the founder of Nøkken, her twenty year old childcare program for children from walking age to elementary school age. Helle is active in teacher education throughout the world, supporting teachers in North and South America and Europe. Her books include, Nøkken, More News From Nøkken, and most recently, Childhood’s Garden, a narrative with accompanying video.  

CAROL NASR  is a Waldorf early childhood educator and parenting mentor with twenty years of experience in Kindergarten, Nursery, Parent- Infant and Parent-Child groups. Her Waldorf teaching experience is  complemented by training in the RIE™ approach with infants and toddlers. Carol developed a program for mothers in transition and their children in an urban setting in southern California. She currently lives and works in Halifax, Nova Scotia, offering playgroups in her home and in community-based parent resource centers.

KIM SNYDER-VINE holds a Four-Year Goetheanum Diploma from the London School of Speech Formation. She has been teaching, performing and consulting in creative speech, drama, and hygienic speech, for children and adults, in Waldorf Schools and Waldorf Teacher Training Institutes, artistic training centers, as well as private and public venues, worldwide, since 1983. Kim was a founding member of Portal Productions in London and the Alchymia Theatre in Chicago. Recently she has performed internationally with Eurythmeum Stuttgart, the Symphonic Eurythmy Tour, and Eurythmy Spring Valley.