Grade School Specialty Faculty

Irene Mitri: Strings Teacher, Grades 4 and 5

Irene Mitri has a wealth of experience in classroom and private teaching, spanning over 20 years. She holds an MA in Music from Yale, and an MEd from Harvard. Irene has substituted at SWS and has taught some of our students in her private studio.

Patricia Costa Kim: Strings and Choir Teacher

Patricia was born in Brooklyn, New York, a child of two very musical parents. As a seventh grader at St. Athanasius elementary school, she was asked to lead the singing at church. Her artistic interests led her to the High School of Performing Arts where she learned to play viola and enjoyed the opportunity to perform as accordion soloist with professional symphonic orchestras! Working as a singer, keyboard player and music educator helped her to earn a BFA from the City College of New York and a masters degree from the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. The years of teaching, recording, composing, arranging and performing from Brooklyn and Broadway to Nashville, inspired a move to the Emerald City. Since 1990, Patricia has earned her Ph.D. at the University of Washington School of Music, taught in Seattle Public Schools, and spent seven years working as Director of Education and Community Programs for Seattle Symphony, including responsibility for the creation and implementation of Soundbridge (Seattle Symphony Music Discovery Center). Patricia has been a Waldorf parent since 2002 and enjoys learning new ways to experience music with students, colleagues and families at SWS!

Tom Varner: Band Teacher, Grades 6 – 8

Tom Varner earned a BM from the New England Conservatory and a MA at the City College of New York. He is internationally known as one of the top living pioneers of jazz on the French horn, as a great all-around horn player, and as an inventive, witty, and passionate composer for his different ensembles, with thirteen CDs released under his own name. Tom won the 2000 Jazz Composers Alliance Composition Award, has toured all over the world, and played on over 70 CDs, with Jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Quincy Jones, Steve Lacy, John Zorn, Bobby Previte, and Jim McNeely. Tom also wrote the soundtrack for the feature film Saints and Sinners. After living in New York City for 26 years, Tom moved to Seattle in the fall of 2005. Since then, he has enjoyed teaching private students, as well as classes at Cornish School of the Arts and the Lakeside School. He has appeared as both bandleader and sideman with numerous artists at the Vancouver, Earshot, and Bumbershoot festivals, the Seattle Art Museum, and at Tula's and other clubs. Tom is married to a Seattle native, has two great kids, and is excited to be teaching at the Seattle Waldorf School!

Naoki Hirata: Japanese Teacher

Naoki was born and raised in Niigata prefecture in Japan. From the age of three, he enjoyed skiing with his father. He studied pharmacy at Kanazawa University, and after graduating worked for a hospital in his hometown as a pharmacist. He spent most of his twenties in Tokyo, attending an acupuncture school and working as a pharmacist. He enjoyed the metropolitan busy life and encountered Anthroposophy through a friend, which changed his life. Immediately Naoki joined an Anthroposophical study group and was fascinated by Steiner’s philosophy. In 1983 Naoki and his wife Yumiko moved to Camphill Village, Beaver Run in Pennsylvania to explore Curative education and Anthroposophy. They spent four years as seminarists, caring for and living with mentally handicapped children. Their first child was born and Waldorf education became a real practice for their own child as well. Naoki trained as a Waldorf teacher at the Waldorf Institute in New York State. The Hiratas then moved back to Japan and Naoki worked for a Waldorf approach kindergarten as a kindergarten teacher. In 1992 Naoki and his family moved to Seattle and SWS, where Naoki has been teaching Japanese ever since. He loves sharing his language and culture with American students.

Dana Ashton: Spanish Teacher, Grades 2 – 6

Dana Ashton has been teaching Spanish for 15 years and loves the language, contact with Spanish speakers and travel. During the past ten years she has taught at a Waldorf school, at the community college level and held a twice-weekly Spanish language group for adults. She is a big fan of jazz, Latin music, Bach and Motown, and enjoys the outdoors, Native American studies, watercolor painting and singing with others. Dana has two teenagers, two small dogs and a fiancee.

Britt Urquiza: Spanish Teacher, Grades 1, 7 and 8

Britt was born in Chelan, Washington where she lived on an apple orchard for 16 years before her family moved to the Seattle area. Throughout college she studied Spanish, music and drama, and graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in Sociology. Britt graduated from the Sound Circle Teacher Training Spring of 2005. Britt loves to dance, sing, knit, and eat ridiculous amounts of Thai food.

Tiffany Towles: Handwork Teacher

Mrs. Towles received a BA from the University of Washington is Costume Design in 2000. She pursued her sewing and design skills through her Organic Cotton Clothing business. Tiffany taught sewing to children for a few years while raising her daughter Harmony. In 2004 she began her Waldorf Teacher training with the Amethyst Class at Sound Circle Teacher Training. During this time Tiffany was the Handwork Assistant at Seattle Waldorf School bringing much of her own creativity into the classroom. In June of 2007 Tiffany graduated from the teacher training and accepted the position as the Handwork Teacher at SWS. Tiffany is delighted to share her creative gifts with the students.

Mari Riksheim: Handwork Assistant

Mari Riksheim co-owns a day spa in Kirkland and has been a licensed massage therapist for two decades. She has been a real estate agent for the past several years, and is in her second year of Waldorf teacher training at Sound Circle Center. She is married, has a daughter at SWS, and enjoys yoga, massage, walking, going to the beach, boating and spending time with family and friends.

Bonnie Freundlich: Eurythmy Teacher

Bonnie Freundlich has a BA in English Literature from Kenyon College, an MA in Creative Arts Therapy from Hahnemann University, and a Eurythmy Diploma from the Eurythmeum Stuttgart. She has taught Eurythmy at Whidbey Island Waldorf School for eight years, at Seattle Waldorf School for two years on a part-time basis, and this past year at the Santa Fe Waldorf School. Bonnie has also taught adult courses and has performed extensively.

Elaine Klansnic: Physical Education Teacher

Elaine was born in Barstow, California, in the Mohave Desert. She was raised in Everett, Washington, where, as a tomboy, she was the fastest runner. She attended Everett Community College, and received her BA from Central Washington State College in Secondary Education, majoring in PE and minoring in Recreation. She has completed a five-year training in Spatial Dynamics. Her daughter and her son graduated from SWS. Mrs. Klansnic has been named “the nicest person in the world” by our students.

Michael Kline: Practical Arts Teacher

Michael was born near Philadelphia, PA, and spent most of his school years in a suburb of St. Paul, MN. He studied art there, in Duluth, MN, and finally Madison, WI, where he earned a B.S. in Art degree in 1985. It was in France, at the monastery of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, that Michael met and married his wife, Geraldine. Together, they moved to Stourbridge, England, where he completed a Waldorf class teacher training course. Later, he pioneered the Practical Arts program for grades six through twelve at the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs, NY, and taught a variety of main lessons in grades six through nine over eight years, including a five-month period at the Vancouver, B.C. Waldorf School in 2004. The Klines moved to Seattle in 2006 where, along with teaching, Michael continues to develop his work as a visual artist.

Gretchen Matis: Grade School Assistant

Gretchen was raised in Phoenix, Arizona. Ever since high school, she wanted to be a teacher. In college, other interests like photography led her down a different path, and she graduated with a B.A. in Communication from Arizona State University. She worked in advertising and married in New York, became an editor/designer in Houston, and directed children’s programs at the High Museum in Atlanta. It was there that she and her husband became therapeutic foster parents and she renewed her interest in education. A dear friend told her, “If you are a teacher, you are a Waldorf teacher,” and handed her a stack of books on the subject. She was sold on page one. She graduatedfrom the Waldorf Teacher Training Program in Eugene, Oregon, and became the teacher for Seattle Waldorf School’s Class of 2005 from first through fourth grade. She later taught first and second grade at Bright Water School in Seattle. Now, in the in-between times, she pursues a writer’s life. Her two daughters attend Seattle Waldorf School.

Iris Kulasic: Middle School Assistant

Iris was born in Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She spent a carefree childhood exploring the town streets, parks and alleys, and befriending other children, stray cats and dogs. The sudden outbreak of war turned the whole family into refugees and the unstoppable current of that time brought her to Croatia. Iris, 15 years old, tried to attend high school, but was turned away. She accepted an offer from a US peace-promoting organization and came to Chestnut Ridge, NY, where she lived with an American host family, and attended and graduated from the Green Meadow Waldorf School. Later, she graduated from Brown University with a double major in History of Art and Visual Art. She then worked as an assistant to the Bosnian Ambassador to the UN, and after a few years decided to focus on education. While studying for her masters in Education and Pedagogy, she taught for three years in a Bronx public school. Looking for further challenges, Iris then taught for a year in Philadelphia, then returned to New York to teach Art in a Chinatown public school. After arriving in Seattle, she pursued her longtime wish to learn the ways of a Waldorf teacher at Sound Circle Center and the Seattle Waldorf School. She teaches art and select morning lesson blocks at the grade school.

Michael Rice: Educational Support – Therapeutic Teacher

Michael grew up in Wisconsin, and graduated with a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Michael worked as a carpenter for a number of years, then completed his Waldorf Teacher Training at Sunbridge College in Spring Valley, New York. He then returned to Wisconsin, and taught a class from Grade 1 through 8 at the Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School.

During this time, Michael completed the Remedial Teacher Training program from the Association for a Healing Education, and began part time support work in the school in addition to his Class Teacher role. He then moved to the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs, developed an Educational Support program there, and graduated a class from Grades 6 through 8. Michael loves to play music, run-bike-swim, and go on dates with his wife Kristen.