Faculty and Staff
Honna Austin
Honna Austin joined our faculty in the spring of 2008 as our Orchestra Director. She received her B.F.A. degree from Northern Illinois University in Violin Performance and Painting. While at Northern, Honna studied under the world-renowned Vermeer Quartet with Mathias Tacke and Shmuel Ashkenasi. She went on to receive her M.F.A. from Cornell University and her Suzuki Teaching Certificate from Ithaca College under Stanford Reuning. Honna has taught privately for over twelve years.
Bruce Cooper
Bruce Cooper teaches 7th grade at Four Winds. He has seven years teaching experience as a grades teacher at Waldorf schools in Minnesota and Illinois. A student of anthroposophy for almost 20 years, Bruce first studied Waldorf education in Boulder, Colorado with Rene Querido. Bruce has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Colorado. Currently, he is completing his Waldorf Teacher Certification at the Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Education Program in Chicago.
Mari Cooper
Mari Cooper came to Waldorf teaching because of her love for the arts, history, and world cultures. In college, she majored in Religious Studies, with a concentration in Anthropology. She received her B.A. in Religious Studies from DePaul University. After college, Mari pursued a career in natural healing and became a certified massage therapist. Shortly after the birth of her first child, she discovered Waldorf education. A few years following the birth of her second child, Mari began her training at Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Teacher Training Program. In 2003, she became a certified Waldorf teacher and began teaching, first as an Early Childhood teacher and later as a Grades teacher. Mari joined Four Winds Waldorf School for the 2009-2010 school year where she began with the third grade. She is currently the fourth grade teacher. In her spare time Mary enjoys playing music, crafting, and spending time with her family.
Barbara DuRocher
Barbara DuRocher has been involved at Four Winds since its inception in 1994 as a parent, board member, faculty member, and enrollment director. This year she has stepped into the grades program and has taken up teaching in our first grade. With a Masters degree in Public Administration, she worked in university administration for eight years before finding her way toward teaching Parent-Child classes. She has trained at Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Education Program in Chicago and at Sophia’s Hearth Early Childhood Training Center in New Hampshire. Barbara is currently working on her Waldorf Certification at the Great Lakes Teacher Training Program in Milwaukee.
Nanci Elf
Nanci Elf has been a member of Four Winds Waldorf parent community since 2003 and joined the faculty in 2011 as the third grade teacher. She completed her Waldorf Teacher Certification at Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Education Program in Chicago in 2010. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in education with majors in Art Education and Special Education, and is a certified Learning Behaviors Specialist. Nanci enjoys woodworking, sewing, drama and the visual arts, and has served as a co-leader for the Shooting Stars Camp Fire USA youth group in Lombard for fourteen years.
Marianne Fieber
Marianne Fieber, Administrator, joined our faculty in 2006 as the first grade teacher. She joined Leadership Council in 2007 and was elected Faculty Chair for the 2008-2009 school year. As of November 2009 she has been working as full-time administrator. Prior to this, she worked as the high school coordinator for the Chicago Waldorf School and earned an M.S. Ed degree in Waldorf School Administration and Community Development from Sunbridge College in New York. With a B.F.A. degree in Theatre from the University of MN Duluth, she initially spent many years performing, writing and producing in small theatres in Chicago. In 1998 she completed a Foundation Year of Anthroposophical Studies at Emerson College in Forest Row, UK which led to joining Moving Word Theatre. With them she performed at numerous Waldorf Schools throughout Europe and North America. In May 2008, Marianne completed her Waldorf Teacher Certification with Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Education Program in Chicago, IL. She continues to teach the Theatre/Drama class and the Administration course for future teachers at Arcturus.
Karen Hays
Karen Hays has over 16 years experience as a Waldorf educator and is one of the co-founders of Four Winds Waldorf School. She holds a B.S. degree from Rutgers University and earned her teaching certificate from Elmhurst College. She recently received her Waldorf Remedial Early Childhood certificate from Gradalis Institute. Karen founded the Parent-Child program in 1997 and in 1999 became lead teacher for the three-day kindergarten. In 2001 she became the Sunrise Garden two-day transitional nursery program teacher while also teaching music at Four Winds.
John Keeney
John Keeney joined Four Winds as the teacher of its first grades class in 1997, and is now guiding his second class through the grades. He received his Waldorf certification from the Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Education Program in Chicago in 1998, and since then has served as an instructor there in choral singing and other subjects. John studied music and political science at West Virginia University, and luthiery at The Apprentice Shop in Spring Hill, Tennessee. He is an accomplished artist, musician and actor, and currently serves on the Cultural Arts Commission of the City of West Chicago.
Brenna McLachlan
Brenna McLachlan has joined the Four Winds Waldorf School faculty as the first grade teacher for the 2010-2011 school year. She assisted Naomi Studebaker in the Sunrise Garden preschool kindergarten class during the 2007-2008 school year. In May, 2010 Brenna completed her Waldorf Teacher Certification from Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Program in Chicago, IL. She has demonstrated her confidence and comfort in front of students through a wide range of student-teacher opportunities teaching Physics and Language Arts. Before teaching, Brenna received a degree in massage therapy and has been working as a massage therapist for eight years. She is the mother of four, three of which are currently enrolled students at Four Winds Waldorf School.
Carlene Mogavero
Carlene Mogavero has been lead teaching in our early childhood/kindergarten classrooms since 2005. A founding parent of Four Winds School, she has served in many teaching and supporting roles since its beginning in 1994. Carlene completed her Waldorf Early Childhood Training Certification at the West Coast Institute in Vancouver, Canada. She has also completed her foundation year at the Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Education Program in Chicago and explored therapeutic methods in Waldorf early childhood at Gradalis Institute in California. She brings love for and an intuitive understanding of the needs young children to her work. She has served as Early Childhood Faculty Chair and is currently serving as the Faculty Chairperson.
Parvaneh Shidnia-Smith
Parvaneh Shidnia-Smith joined our faculty in 2002 and currently spearheads the Social Inclusion Coordinating Group at Four Winds. Parvaneh has her M.A. in Clinical Psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology and has worked in various mental health roles for many years. She has completed Foundation Year classes for teacher training at Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Education Program in Chicago and is a recent graduate of Kim John Payne’s Waldorf Collaborative Counseling program.
Maryla Sikora
Maryla Sikora has served as lead teacher in one of our five-day Early Childhood classrooms since 1999 and has assisted in other early childhood Waldorf programs since 1993. Maryla has earned undergraduate degrees from the University of Nicolas Copernicus, Poland (Economics) and the University of Illinois at Chicago (Communication Design). She has also taken Foundation Year courses at Rudolph Steiner College and earned her Early Childhood Teacher Certification from Sunbridge College, Spring Valley, New York.