Melinda Murphy Satrun
Preschool Director & Lead Teacher, Preschool
Melinda teaches our half-day morning preschool in the Bell Flowers classroom. She is a Chicago native who was brought up in the midst of midwestern forests and international art. She came to Colorado for her undergraduate degree in studio art/ business and returned to Chicago for the next decade to receive a Masters of Art in Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the Art Institute of Chicago. Inspired by her love of education, the outdoors,and working with children, she returned to the Colorado mountains focusing on art education. She earned a second Masters Degree in Elementary Education, and then her ECT Director certification. Melinda is thrilled to be part of the Mountain Phoenix Community School in Wheat Ridge and the wonderful young lives of children.
Carly Fridlich
Lead Teacher, Preschool
Carly Fridlich teaches full-day preschool in the Mountain Dandelion classroom at our Wheat Ridge Campus. After graduating from State University of New York at New Paltz with a Bachelors in Psychology and a Minor of Art, Carly decided to move to Colorado. She taught at Front Range Waldorf School in Lakewood, CO for two years, one year in the nursery and another in a mixed age kindergarten. Carly has completed her Early Childhood Waldorf teacher training at Sunbridge Institute.
Joy Wegs
Lead Teacher, Preschool
Auntie Joy is so excited to be working at Mountain Phoenix Community School! Her husband and she have just recently relocated their young family back to the Front Range from Grand Junction Colorado. They have two beautifully vibrant boys, Aizik (8) and Ember (3). Aside from tending to her family, she has also recently started (with the help of many) a Waldorf-Inspired Mixed Age Kindergarten in Grand Junction called River Canyon School. She just graduated from the LifeWays of North America program and is now a Certified Power Yoga Instructor!! She has a pioneering heart, a love for natural foods, and finds joy in the outdoors.
Jamie Little
Lead Teacher, Preschool
Jamie joins the Early Childhood Program this year after teaching Second Grade last year at our Wheat Ridge Campus. She is a life long learner and believes in fostering compassion, mindfulness, creativity and a love of learning in all of her students. She has lived in many different states and was teaching 2nd grade in South Florida at a small Waldorf School before joining us in beautiful Colorado. She attended a Waldorf School for fourteen years, has a B.A. in psychology as well as her Colorado Teaching License. When she is not in the classroom she is in the kitchen or the garden. She loves to write, make art, knit, ride her bike, and create new kinds of pie.
Laura Childers
Lead Teacher, Preschool
Laura has been involved in Waldorf Education for about 18 years, beginning at the Waldorf School of Orange County where she was a parent. In addition to initiating a biodynamic CSA, as well as gardening and eating organically at home, she also volunteered and contributed original artwork, performed puppetry and participated in acting, set decoration and painting, as well as costume making for class plays and eurythmy performances at the school. She sang in choral groups for festivals, contributed photography, watercolor paintings and graphic design for yearbooks, and participated in several committees, alongside teachers and fellow parents.
Laura completed her Waldorf teacher training with a specialization in Early Childhood from the Waldorf Institute of Southern California, where her practical knowledge of the Waldorf curriculum was deepened by understandings of Steiner’s pedagogical indications for education from a teacher’s perspective. She loves to quote another class parent, who says the following of their family’s own experience, “Waldorf education is great for children, but it’s even a better education for parents!” Midway through her teacher training, she began teaching full-time at Journey school, one of the first Waldorf charter schools in Southern California, and taught a mixed age Kindergarten there for 5 years.
In addition to her Waldorf training, Laura has a BA in Organizational Management from Ashford University. She has worked in a mixed-age Nursery and taught Kindergarten at two Waldorf initiatives, working as pedagogical chair for the Board of Trustees for both schools. While taking a course for experienced Early Childhood teachers called “Nurturing the Roots”, she visited and fell in love with Colorado and learned about Mountain Phoenix! Miss Laura is thrilled to be here, and hopes to “nurture the roots” –helping Mountain Phoenix grow and thrive as the Waldorf impulse for education is realized in a public school setting.
Karen Bailey
Lead Teacher, Preschool
Karen is the lead teacher in the Sky Lark classroom in a full day kindergarten and preschool program. Karen was born in Tennessee and lived there until a few years ago when she moved to Colorado for the first year of the Sound Circle Eurythmy training. She then worked at Shining Mountain Waldorf School and Boulder Waldorf Kindergarten. In 1989, she started a Waldorf-inspired preschool in the school building she was living in and renovating, teaching there for ten years. Besides four college degrees, Karen has teaching certifications in Waldorf and Montessori methods. Karen has two adult children and is looking forward to becoming a grandmother someday. She loves little children, childhood and the magic of the Waldorf kindergarten. Karen is also an artist and designer, establishing Elemental Art three years ago with a public sculpture commission in Alexandria, Virginia, which can be viewed at www.elementalartcolorado.com. She loves dancing, hiking, gardening and making things.
