Grade School Faculty

Mary Ellingson: Grade One Teacher

Mary was born in Bloomington, Indiana. She spent her early elementary years living on Washington’s Long Beach peninsula and still feels a strong tie to that area. Later in elementary school her family moved to Tacoma where she spent the rest of her childhood. Diverse interests in college led her to Fairhaven College within Western Washington University, where she designed a concentration in “The Development of Personality.” After graduation, she joined the Waldorf Foundation Year program in Eugene, OR. She then completed the Teacher Training program at Antioch New England Graduate School, where she received a M.Ed., Elementary Teaching Credential and Waldorf Certificate. Mary served as Lower Grades Assistant, then as Class Teacher for the class of 2013 in grades one through eight. She begins with her new fist grade class in fall 2010.

Carolyn Harris: Grade One Assistant

Carolyn was born in Haight Ashbury, San Francisco, the year before the "Summer of Love".  She spent her grade school years living in an adobe home and running through the sagebrush of the deserts of New Mexico. During her high school years she skied in the mountains of Utah and was an exchange student for a year in Austria. She attended Smith and Dartmouth college where she studied literature, poetry, and psychology. During her college years Carolyn ran four marathons.  After college, her studies and interest in Joseph Cambell and Carl Jung led to a master's degree in psychology from Antioch University in Seattle. Carolyn's love of nature, cultural celebrations, and the creative, healing curriculum of Waldorf education led her to receive her Waldrof teaching certificate from Sound Circle in 2009. Carolyn is married and has two children attending the Seattle Waldorf School. 

Wim Gottenbos: Grade Two Teacher

Born and raised in the Netherlands, Wim earned a masters degree in education and worked as a public school teacher before becoming trained in Waldorf education. He was a class teacher at the Brabant Waldorf School in Eindhoven, where he took two classes from grades 1-8 and 1-6. He also worked as a remedial teacher for several years, and was process manager for all remedial work in the school. In 1996, he earned degrees in Remedial Teaching and Intern Pedagogical Management. He moved to Seattle to join our school in 2000, where he has taken two classes from grades 4-8 and 5-8, and for several years was the chair of the college of teachers. He has taught adult education and mentored teachers in the Seattle area, as well as in Czechoslovakia, Toronto and Vancouver BC. He is married to Nettie Fabrie and enjoys keeping bees.

Sara Canady: Grade Three Teacher

Sara Canady was born in San Francisco and later moved to Denver, Colorado where she spent most of her school years. She attended Pacific University in Oregon and Indiana University in Bloomington, earning a B.A. in Modern Languages and her M.A. in Applied Linguistics. After teaching English as a second language in China and at colleges in the U.S., Sara left teaching to begin raising her own family. Sara completed the Sound Circle Teacher Training in 2007. Her four children attend Seattle Waldorf School.

Kate Golden: Grade Four Teacher

Kate is a graduate of Kenyon College with a B.A. in Sociology. She received her teacher training at Antioch New England Graduate School and has been a Waldorf class teacher for 16 years. In addition to Waldorf teaching, Kate is interested in handcrafts, singing and world travels. She is married to Claude Golden and has two children, both fine examples of the benefits of a Waldorf education.

Kristen Rice: Grade Five Teacher

Kristen Rice grew up in the Midwest, mostly in Michigan and Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and a Secondary Teaching Certificate. Kristen received her Waldorf teacher training at the Waldorf Institute in Detroit, Michigan. She has taught as a class teacher at several different Waldorf Schools including the Santa Fe Waldorf School, the Rudolf Steiner School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School in Viroqua, Wisconsin, and most recently, the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs in New York. Kristen has been class teaching for the past twenty years. She is a wife and mother of four children, and she enjoys her family, backpacking, guitar, yoga and solitude.

Susan Brudi: Grade Six Teacher

Susan was born and raised in a small town near Berkeley, CA. She spent her childhood playing in the creeks and waters of the bay, and riding horses and milking goats with lifelong friends on a large ranch near Sacramento, CA. She attended colleges in California, Colorado and Oregon where she earned her B.A. and M. Ed. degrees in bilingual and elementary education. Susan has taught grades 1-5 in Seattle public schools, worked as a Kindergarten assistant at the Bright Water School, and earned her Waldorf Teaching Certificate from Sound Circle Teacher Training. Susan is married to a "second generation" Waldorf school graduate from Stuttgart, Germany, and their three sons now attend Seattle Waldorf School.

Mark Perry: Grade Seven Teacher

Mark was born and raised in Seattle. He received his BA in English for Secondary Education, with a history minor, from the University of Washington. He lived and worked in Europe for five years, and spent one year in Eurythmy School at Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland. Mark spent his time as a professional actor in Seattle throughout the eighties. After working in the Seattle and Edmonds public schools, he joined our faculty in 1995, graduating the 2003 eighth grade.

Britt Urquiza: Grade Eight Teacher

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.