Emily Kozakiewicz – Faculty
A trained Waldorf teacher, Emily has worked with children in many different settings over the last ten years, including early-childhood programs, public school programs, and children with special needs at Camphill Special School Beaver Run. She has been a farm-based educator at Hawthorne Valley for the last six years, working with children in the garden, caring for the horses and honeybees. Prior to this, she apprenticed on a number of biodynamic farms. She feels blessed to be a part of the EARTH program, working with the soil, plants, animals, and children on such beautiful land.
Lisa Damian – Faculty
A Waldorf educator for over 27 years, Lisa has worked with elementary and high school aged students and those with special needs, as well as mentoring. She has a broad background in Waldorf education and pedagogy, phenomenology, Spacial Dynamics and environmental education; and has a deep interest in the relationship between the natural work and the development of the inner life of human beings. Surrounded by nature as a child and growing up in blue collar community, the natural world and practical life have figured heavily into her biography. She homesteaded for 17 years in Vermont while Waldorf teaching and has been a founding faculty member for two Waldorf high schools.
Stu Summer – On sabbatical
Stu Summer was a class teacher at Hawthorne Valley for 25 years. He carried two classes from first grade through eighth grade and handed on his third class after sixth grade. Stu’s inspiration for EARTH goes back to Hawthorne Valley’s original vision and name: the Rudolf Steiner Farm School. He sees EARTH as a reforging of Waldorf Education for children who need the strengthening and deepening that work in nature and on the farm provide. Stu has been married for 25 years and has two grown children. He loves to be on the river.