Faculty & Staff

Our community of devoted and accomplished faculty and staff members strives to create an environment of warmth, enthusiasm, and inspiration for our students each and every day.

To find out about current open positions, visit Work at Sanderling.

Early Childhood

Megumi Caverly

Nursery / Kindergarten
Sweet Pea Lead Teacher

Megumi was born and grew up in Fukushima, Japan. She came to the United States in 1995 to study Anthroposophy and Waldorf education, graduating from Rudolf Steiner College in 1999. Since then, she has taught in both Japan and the U.S. In addition to being our Sweet Pea Nursery / Kindergarten teacher, she is also the mother of a son who graduated from Sanderling & the San Diego Waldorf High School and is currently attending a university in Japan. She loves young children, singing, cooking, and making things, and a self-described bookworm - in both English and Japanese.

Lori Mcgrath

nursery / Kindergarten Rose Class Lead Teacher

Lori was born and raised north of Philadelphia. She earned her B.S. in Psychology at a Pennsylvania University. She worked as a counselor in an adolescent residential treatment center before moving to California on a whim. Lori then worked one on one as a crisis counselor with special needs children and adolescents when she met her husband, Daniel, while both working at a shelter in Oceanside. They married, moved to Encinitas, and now have three children. Lori read about Waldorf education while pregnant with her first child in 2002. Her Waldorf journey began when they enrolled in a Parent Child class at Sanderling in 2006. Lori dabbled a bit by completing her 200 hour yoga teacher training, taking various homeopathy workshops, and running a child care business in her home before becoming an employee of Sanderling in 2014. In addition to many Waldorf Education and Anthroposophical lectures, book studies and parent education events over the years, Lori is completing her Waldorf Early Childhood Education Teacher Training from Sophia’s Hearth in New Hampshire. Lori’s daughter graduated from Sanderling, and is now a student at the San Diego Waldorf High School, and her two sons are currently enrolled at Sanderling . Lori enjoys practicing yoga and being in nature with her family.

Angelica Rubano

Early Childhood Aftercare Director

Angelica was born in San Diego and was a student in the very first kindergarten class of the Waldorf School of San Diego. Her family then moved to New York where she attended elementary, middle, and high school at the Green Meadow Waldorf School. She worked and then traveled in Europe before moving back to the west coast. Her parents soon followed and have been involved with both Waldorf schools in San Diego County. Angelica is the mother of three (growing, lively, beautiful) boys who attend school at Sanderling. She enjoys singing, crocheting, cooking, being in nature, and watching the unfolding of each developing child.

Elementary & Middle Grades

CODY PATTERSON

GRADE 1 - LEAD TEACHER

Cody is a native Californian who recently moved back after nearly 20 years of traveling and living around the world. She earned her (B.A.) in Environmental Studies at the University of Washington and a Masters in Teaching (M.A.T.) from Colorado College. She started her Waldorf teacher training in 2014 before deciding to let it rest while she focused on raising her daughter. Occasionally changing locations has allowed her to diversify her teaching experiences. She volunteered in a Waldorf school,  homeschooled, and taught in public schools as a reading specialist and a classroom teacher. In her last teaching role,  she worked at a Waldorf enrichment center, teaching nature studies, substituting, and assisting in the grades. This last teaching experience re-ignited her motivation for continuing her Waldorf teacher training at Antioch University New England. She loves community and a holistic approach to teaching, so Waldorf education is a natural fit for her as a classroom teacher. As a teacher, she believes that students look to the environment around them and interact with it to know and experience the world, with the teacher nearby as a guide. These experiences shape their outlook toward learning and can create wonder and knowledge for the rest of their life.  Outside of the classroom, Cody enjoys spending time with her best friend, who is also her husband.  The two of them, along with their daughter, can be found taking long walks in nature, gardening, cooking, and spoiling their cat Cosmo. 

Jodi Abelow

GRADE 5 - Lead Teacher

Jodi was born and raised in Nebraska in an active, athletic family. She earned her B.S. in Environmental Planning at the University of Vermont before making a move to the West Coast. She taught Environmental Education to children in the Santa Cruz mountains for five years, during which time she discovered Waldorf education. Jodi began her teacher training at the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training in Marin, CA while also working in the aftercare program and substitute-teaching at the Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Los Altos. Halfway through the training, an opportunity arose to study abroad in Australia, so Jodi spent the year learning, working, and traveling to Australian Waldorf schools before returning to California and relocating to San Diego in the summer of 2006. She worked as an assistant and substitute teacher at the Waldorf School of San Diego before joining our faculty in 2007. Jodi enjoys traveling, swimming, cycling, and running, and is often training for and racing in triathlons. She is the mother of two children, a son and a daughter.

SUSANNE HOOVER

Grade 6 - lead Teacher

Susanne grew up near Frankfurt, Germany and studied biology in Germany and San Diego. She holds a Ph.D. from UCSD in Immunology. Susanne has extensive teaching experience at the college, high school and elementary school level. She has taught German in San Diego for almost 20 years and has raised her two children, Niklas and Lena, bilingually. Susanne taught German at Sanderling and also was the interim class teacher for grade 2 and 4. She loves to travel with her family and feels a strong sense of appreciation for other cultures and customs. She hopes to instill a heartfelt wish to learn and experience new things in her students! Susanne enjoys spending time with her family and many animal friends, and relentlessly trains for triathlons to raise money for cancer-related charities.

Specialty Subjects

Amy Schick

Eurythmy

In 1996, Amy was the founding teacher of the Hummingbird Parent-Child class which later grew into Sanderling Waldorf School. (Her daughter was also part of the first class.) Amy completed her Foundation Year at Rudolf Steiner College in Sacramento, followed by a four-year training in Eurythmy at Spring Valley, NY. She then completed her pedagogical Eurythmy Training at Emerson College in England. Amy has taught Eurythmy at Waldorf Schools in Santa Barbara, San Diego and at the Journey School, a charter Waldorf School in Aliso Viejo, CA. She has been teaching Eurythmy at Sanderling since 1999.

Annette Andranian

German

Annette (or "Frau Andranian", as she's known to students) lives in Cardiff with her husband, their three children, a dog, and five chickens. A native of Berlin, Germany, she has lived in Encinitas for ten years. She moved here after graduating from the Free University in Berlin, where she majored in Elementary Education and teaching English as a Foreign Language. Annette taught first grade at La Costa Meadows Elementary School before leaving teaching to start a family. In her free time, Annette loves to walk and play at the beach, explore with her children, and meet her friends over a cup of tea. She's thrilled to be teaching at Sanderling, especially since the Waldorf environment reminds her so much of her own school experience as a child. She is excited to share her native language and culture with her students.

Amy Hite

GARDENING teacher

Amy Hite is a deep ecologist and believes that humans are interdependent and entwined with the natural world. She views the farm and garden as a holistic system and enjoys teaching people about their role within the system and the delicate balance that holds it all together. Amy is a mother of two teenagers who both attended the Sanderling School. She has taught third grade gardening at Sanderling for six years and is excited to expand into a larger space with the middle graders. Amy was schooled in landscape architecture and regenerative agriculture at UCSC and UCLA. She has been designing urban farms and ecological landscapes for the past 15 years. In her free time, Amy enjoys music, urban homesteading and making folk art.

Mashobane Moruthane

Movement & Games TEACHER / Middle Grades Athletic Coordinator

Mashobane brings our Sanderling community a wealth of knowledge, passion, and over 22 years of Waldorf teaching experience. He is specially trained in Spatial Dynamics, one of the keystones of the Movement Education programs for Waldorf Schools. Mashobane is also an accomplished Waldorf teacher-trainer of Spatial Dynamics. His work in Waldorf education is what he refers to as his "deep calling." In his published article, "Creating Conscious Community Through Ubuntu," Mashobane describes his relationship with Waldorf education within the context of his upbringing: "My strong connection to Waldorf stems from its relationship to my personal culture. I was raised in a village in rural South Africa; I grew up working with the earth. When I encountered Waldorf education, I experienced anthroposophy as the intellectual expression of what I had lived in a traditional African cultural upbringing. As a child I absorbed the culture through feeling, instinct, and tradition. I learned it from what was modeled by my elders, what was expected and done in the community, and what was passed down." He added, "In my village, we lived this idea of intentional activity. Everyone was important and everyone had a role."

Karina Bezkrovnaia

Orchestra

Karina Bezkrovnaia, born in Riga, Latvia is a third generation professional musician. She started piano lessons at age 3, and at 6 she was admitted to the violin class at Emila Darzina Music School for specially gifted children. In 1986 Karina continued her education at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory College of Music. Karina continued her music career in Tijuana, Mexico, where she joined Orchestra de Baja California and recorded 9 CDs, one of which was nominated for the 2001 Latin Grammy Awards. In 2003 Karina received a Merit Diploma from the prestigious Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. As an active freelance musician in San Diego she continues to perform with the California Chamber Orchestra, Classics 4 Kids Philharmonic and just completed her 14th season as a Concertmaster at the Old Globe Theater. Her past engagements included former San Diego Chamber orchestra, San Diego Symphony and Lyric Opera San Diego. She become a member of Sanderling’s string faculty in 2015. Her students' achievements are proof of her extensive knowledge, experience and talents as one has become Concertmaster at the upper division in the San Diego Youth Orchestra, while others have joined the ranks of international recording artists.

Priscilla Dulin

Handwork

Priscilla was raised in San Diego where her childhood days were filled with reading, creating, and exploring the natural surroundings. After earning a B.A. in Literature and Writing Studies, she worked for Poway Unified School District. She is a student in the teacher training program at the Waldorf Institute of Southern California, and before becoming our handwork teacher, she was the Marigold classroom assistant in our Nursery/Kindergarten for several years. She has also worked for the Waldorf-inspired LifeWays center A Child’s Garden of Thyme. She enjoys spending time with family and friends and creating all types of handwork, especially knitting and doll-making.

Administration

BEN GASKIN

Director of administration

ben.gaskin@sanderlingwaldorf.org

Ben Gaskin has been in service of Waldorf eduction for over 20 years as a class teacher and in administration. He taught at the Waldorf School on Kauai and resided there for 10 years before moving to Ashland, Oregon in 2008. He joined the staff at the Siskiyou School in Ashland and took a class through grades 1-8 before joining the administrative team as the Programs Coordinator. Ben recently moved to Vista, California in the fall of 2022 with this wife, Mia (and golden retriever, Sadie May) and made a connection with Sanderling over the past year. His leadership skills, experience and passion for Waldorf eduction will be a valued asset as we move forward at Sanderling for the upcoming 2023 /2024 school year.

Michael Knauss

Interim pedagogical CHAIR / DIRECTOR

Michael was born in Füssen, Germany, and grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. His first encounter with Waldorf education was in 1975 when he worked and taught at the Camphill School Hermanus, a school for children with special needs. From there he went to do the Waldorf Teacher training at the Lehrerseminar in Stuttgart. Since then, he has taught various classes in England, Germany and the United States. He has completed two cycles, grades 1 through 8, as a class teacher, and taught woodwork in middle and high school for 12 years. In September 2019, he began teaching grade 7 at Sanderling Waldorf School.

TRACY POWER

Front office coordinator

TRACY.POWER@SANDERLINGWALDORF.ORG

Tracy is the Front Office Administrator at Sanderling. She was born and raised in San Diego. Her love for preserving nature and gardening is what brought her to Sanderling. She keeps an eye on the children from 8-4 Monday thru Friday. When she is not at the school she loves hiking with her dogs in the many trails of San Marcos.

Jazmin Hayes Miller

Business Operations Manager

Jazmin.hayes@sanderlingwaldorf.org

Jazmin is a military wife and new mother to her sons, Malachi & Ezra. Her family moved to San Diego from Savannah, Georgia, but she has grown up all over the continental United States. She has a degree in International Affairs and Mathematics from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania where she was also a Division I basketball player. She loves adventure, challenges, and DIY. Her lifelong passion for learning and children brought her to Sanderling.

JULIA MCMASTER

REGISTRAR & AFTERCARE ASSISTANT

JULIA.MCMASTER@sanderlingwaldorf.org

Julia grew up in Riverside, California with her four siblings and two loving parents. She braved the move to the beautiful state of Washington to attend Washington State University. She earned her B.A. in Human Development with a minor in Psychology. As a 2020 graduate, a traditional university graduation was out of the picture. Fortunately, her family surprised her with a graduation ceremony on the deck of her parent’s lake house, her favorite place, with her closest loved ones in attendance. After returning to Riverside, California, she began working at Operation Safehouse, an emergency shelter for youth in crisis. It was within these walls that her desire to make a meaningful difference in the lives of young children was ignited. In May of 2022, a new chapter began as Julia and her partner embarked on a move to Oceanside, California. She found Sanderling through her older sister, who was leaving the school to pursue her teaching credentials. Quickly, she learned how her degree in human development connected with the Walford philosophy. Outside of work, Julia enjoys cooking, baking, reading, spending time of the lake with her family, and listening to live music.