Liz Beaven, EdD, has been involved in Waldorf education for 40 years as a class teacher, school administrator, adult educator, researcher, writer, parent, and grandparent. Born and educated in New Zealand, she began her journey in Waldorf education at the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City then spent 21 years at the Sacramento Waldorf School as a class teacher and school administrator. She received a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of California, Davis in 2011. She served for a short period as President of Rudolf Steiner College in California and was Provost of the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco before taking her current position as the Executive Director of the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education. She has been actively engaged in the expansion of Waldorf education in the US into public schools from the early 1990s. Liz is a member of the Ideal Learning Round Table, a national advocacy group, a participant in the Waldorf Associations Working Group, and participates in international research on Waldorf education.

Heather Church is the Co-Director of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN), Heather has many years of experience as an early childhood teacher, teacher trainer and adult educator. She serves as a member of the Council of Anthroposophical Initiatives (CAO), the International Teacher Educators Forum (ITEF) and the IASWECE Teacher Trainers’ Group. Heather lives in Gores Landing, Ontario, Canada.

Vernon Dewey has been serving as a class teacher and faculty chair at Mālamalama Waldorf School since 2022. Previously, he taught at The Denver Waldorf School for 14 years, including serving as Education Director for the 2021-22 school year. He was a founding member of DWS’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity Committee, working to deepen and fulfill Waldorf education’s social mission organizationally and in the classroom. He also teaches Grade 7 In Gradalis’s Teaching as an Art program and its teacher training program. He received his Waldorf Teaching Certificate and Master’s in Education from Antioch University of New England in 2010.

Douglas Gerwin, himself a Waldorf graduate,  is Executive Director of the Research Institute for Waldorf Education (RIWE) and mentor of Waldorf high school teachers across North America. A teacher of history, literature, German, music, and life science at the university and Waldorf high school level since 1983, he is author/editor of eleven books, as well as numerous articles and webinars, on Waldorf education and anthroposophy. In 1996 he launched a new training for Waldorf high school educators at the Center for Anthroposophy in Wilton, NH, a program he directed for a quarter-century. Over the years, he has also served on the Leadership Council of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) and as a member of the international Hague Circle. He received his Ph.D. in phenomenology and depth psychology from the Graduate School at the University of Dallas.

Michael Holdrege is a native of Colorado. He completed his Waldorf training in Stuttgart, Germany and then taught at the Rudolf Steiner School in Vienna, Austria for seven years, followed by an additional seven years as faculty and board member at the Institute for Goethean Studies in Vienna. Michael returned to the US in 1990 to work as Faculty Coordinator of the Anthroposophical Society in America. In 1994 he helped found the Chicago Waldorf High School, where he taught until 2019. He currently teaches at the Waldorf Teacher Institute in Chicago and at Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program in Wilton, NH.

Holly Koteen-Soule was a Waldorf Kindergarten and Parent/Child educator for 24 years. She was a founding faculty member of Sound Circle Center in Seattle and continues to teach and mentor in the SCC Early Childhood Teacher Education Program. She served on the WECAN Board for many years and gathered together a group of experienced EC colleagues to form the WECAN Early Childhood Research Group. She has been a member of the PSC since 2007.