Jenn uses she/her pronouns, she comes to us with over 10 years of experience working in Enrollment Management at the Chicago Waldorf School. She and her husband currently reside in...Read More

Indra Lively-Hatcher (pronouns are she/her/hers) attended the Olympia Waldorf School grades five to eight and worked at OWS for the past five years; the last three as an assistant ...Read More

Melissa (Missy) Byrne uses the pronouns she/her/hers. Missy has been a teacher in the Waldorf discipline for sixteen years, and she earned her teaching certificate from Arcturus Ru...Read More

Kelly Quesada (pronouns are she/her) is a cellist and educator based in Chicago. Active as both an orchestral and chamber musician, she has been playing in professional ensembles f...Read More

Heather La Riviere (pronouns she/her) is a native of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania and grew up in an Army family. She earned a BA/MA from the University of Chicago with general and spec...Read More

Sharla Paul (pronouns she/her) holds the new Director of Administration role as part of Urban Prairie's 2019-20 governance restructuring. A founding board member, Sharla has a deca...Read More

Nisreen joined the Board in the Fall of 2018 and has been a member of the City Garden-Urban Prairie community since 2014.  Her background is in Finance and she started her career ...Read More

Aimee Krall-Lanoue has served on the Board of Trustees since 2018, most recently leading Urban Prairie's governance task force. She has been parent in the Urban Prairie community s...Read More

Dan Galat started playing violin when he was 7 years old. 7 years later, he began teaching violin. 12 years and many thousands of hours practice after that he graduated with mult...Read More

Catherine Francis joined the Board in June 2017 and is a member of the UPWS Facilities Committee and AWSNA Committee Chair.  Catherine has spent her career working in child welfa...Read More

Shannon is a career nonprofit executive working across sectors specializing in campaign fundraising, strategic planning, and board development. As such, she got a ring-side seat fo...Read More

Megan Rotko (pronouns are she/her/hers) teaches the class of 2025. Megan began teaching English as a Second Language while living in Chiapas, Mexico between 1995-1999. She returned...Read More

Mathew Riendeau (pronouns are he/him/his) is the class teacher for the class of 2020. He trained at Arcturus Waldorf teacher training program in Chicago. Before coming to Urban Pra...Read More

Amanda Poll (pronouns are she/her/hers) teaches the class of 2025. She grew up in New Albany, Ohio, where she first discovered her love of working with children while coaching sw...Read More

Ms. Pearl (pronouns are she/her/hers) is an experienced Waldorf teacher with an extensive background in science and math, as well as music, performance, and writing. Andi teaches t...Read More

Mr. Kress (pronouns are he/him/his) began his professional acting and musical career at the age of 16, while attending Curie Metro High School in Chicago. Highly influenced by his ...Read More

Erica Moriarty (pronouns are she/her/hers) strives to offer families an introduction to Waldorf education in a warm, creative space for parents/caregivers and their children. Erica...Read More

Adriana Kondrat (pronouns are she/her/hers) is a Chicago Waldorf School graduate and studied at Arcturus. She was the Assistant Director and Co-Founder of the CWS Summer Camp. She ...Read More

Angela Kiefer (pronouns are she/her/hers) was our first class teacher, completing her first eight-year teaching cycle in 2017. This year, she is contributing significantly to our s...Read More

Sophie Baumgartner (pronouns are she/her/hers) attended the Chicago Waldorf School from kindergarten through 12th grade, graduating in 2005. She earned a BA in Political Science an...Read More

Xuefen (Glenda) Ding (pronouns are she/her/hers) is a native of Lanzhou, in northwest China. Ms. Ding was a college professor for ten years and taught foreign languages at a global...Read More

Candace Choma (pronouns are she/her/hers) received her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education from Washington University in St. Louis. Upon graduating, Candace became the foun...Read More

Megan Cather (pronouns are she/her/hers) started at Urban Prairie in 2017 as the 4th grade class teacher and continues to teach the class of 2022. Megan received her BA in Spanish ...Read More

Liz Avila (pronouns are she/her) currently teaches the class of 2026. Liz joined the teaching team at UPWS after working in the Chicago Public Schools, both as a classroom teacher ...Read More

Hannah Avellone (pronouns are she/her/hers) currently teaches the class of 2023. She received her BA from Bard College and her Waldorf teacher certificate from the Arcturus Rudolf ...Read More

Prior to being hired as Director of Operations and Finance, Peggy (pronouns are she/her/hers) served as our School Administrator, Chair of the Urban Prairie Board Finance Committee...Read More