We are proud of our multi-talented and well-credentialed high school faculty. These uniquely gifted individuals and the work they do with our students make our high school program extraordinary.
HUMANITIES
Tracy Trefethen, English
Tracy has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Arizona State University. Her poetry and creative non-fiction work has been published in national literary magazines such as Salon.com, Antioch Review, and the New Virginia Review. She has been an Artist in Residence for the Arizona Commission on the Arts and a Writer in Residence for Oregon Literary Arts, Inc. Tracy also received a 2003 Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship for creative non-fiction. She has taught extensively at the high school and university levels.
Tracy began her life as a musician, then became interested in visual arts, receiving an undergraduate degree in painting. Then she fell in love with poetry and writing and has pursued that path since. She is working on a partially autobiographical collection of essays entitled “Middle Sound” focused, she says, “on those crucial adolescent years when childhood is shed and teens find their own beliefs and direction.”
Tracy has attended many conferences at Rudolf Steiner College in Sacramento. Her son attends PWS, and she’s currently experimenting with biodynamic agriculture on her home plot, enjoying working with the forces and rhythms of nature.
Dr. Christopher Zinn, History and English
Christopher grew up in Pine City, NY, and was educated at Georgetown University and at New York University, where he received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature. He taught Humanities and American literature at Reed College, directed the college’s American Studies program, and was Fulbright Senior lecturer in Turkey in 1993-94. In May 1997, he was appointed Executive Director of the Oregon Council for the Humanities, and continued in that position until 2006. He has also taught cultural history at the Oregon College of Art and Craft, and he lectures and writes frequently on American literature and culture. He has served on a number of non-profit boards, including the Federation of State Humanities Councils, the National Advisory Board of Imagining America, and the Community Music Center. He began his tenure at PWHS in 2007 and attended the Rudolf Steiner Institute in 2007 and 2008, as well as Rudolf Steiner College in 2009. He currently serves on the Oregon 150 Commission and on Friends of Chamber Music. His wife Nathalia King is Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College. Their two sons attend PWS.
Jeffrey Levy, Drama, English, and History
Jeffrey was raised in Indiana, and he holds BA and MA degrees from the University of Michigan, and an MFA from the University of California, San Diego. For twenty years, he taught and managed three theaters at California State University, Northridge, and was the executive director of the Teen-Age Drama Workshop. He has written over twenty plays and musicals, performed as a mime and avant-garde artist, and participated in the mythopoetic men’s movement. He is a graduate of Antioch’s extraordinary Waldorf High School Education program held at the High Mowing School in New Hampshire. He has been a faculty member at PWHS since its inception in 1999. His youngest of three daughters graduated from PWHS in 2008. He has directed over 12 productions at PWS including the musicals Into the Woods, the Fantasticks, and Fiddler on the Roof. Gardening, puppetry, reading, and home repairs fill many of his out of school hours with challenge and delight.
SCIENCE AND MATH
Philip (Buzz) Poleson, Mathematics and Physics
Buzz studied at the University of Oregon, University of California, Berkeley, and Portland State University, where he completed his BA in 1988. Before joining the high school faculty in 1999, Buzz had 12 years of public school teaching experience. At Lincoln High School, he taught math in the mainstream and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, and coordinated a Talented and Gifted (TAG) program. He has completed three years of Waldorf HS Teacher Training in New Hampshire.
Growing up in Northern Idaho and Eugene, Oregon, Buzz was influenced towards math by a mathematician grandmother and uncle, and towards the circus arts and billiards by his grandfather and father. He has worked as a journeyman carpenter, martial arts instructor, touring juggler, and billiards teacher at the professional level. He lives with his wife, Patricia, and they are the parents of two PWS alumni.
Wade Cavin, Life Sciences and Math
In 1979, Wade received his Bachelor’s degree in biological science from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois with a focus in physiology and neurosciences. Since then, Wade has worked in research and applied science, both biological and chemical. Following college, he worked for an environmental consulting company in California overseeing hazardous and radioactive wastes at the University of New Mexico and then at environmental laboratories in New Mexico and Colorado.
Wade completed Waldorf teacher training in New Hampshire in the summer of 2002. His independent study includes the understanding of the adolescent and the development of scientific perception according to Goethean principles. As part of his interest in the role of perception in understanding phenomena, he received a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico in 2000. Wade has been at PWHS since 2000, teaching sciences and math, and coaching tennis.
Rich Hatfield, Science, Math, and Wilderness Program
Rich teaches with the vision of inspiring wonder in the natural world. He brings a diversity of experiences to our school, including work as a research scientist, outdoor environmental educator, NSF Fellow, and expedition trip leader. Prior to coming to PWHS, he was head of the Science and Math Department at the Lake Champlain Waldorf School in Vermont.
Rich grew up in western New York, and received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Vermont. After working as an environmental educator in Oregon and Colorado and then studying wolf and grizzly bear habitat in the Northern Rockies Ecosystem, Rich attended graduate school at San Francisco State University. He completed his Master’s Degree in Conservation Biology while studying pollination biology and plant animal interactions in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. While in graduate school, Rich also worked as a National Science Foundation Fellow, mentoring teachers and working with students in the Mission District of San Francisco. Backpacking, distance running, cycling and exploring the trails of forest park with his young daughter help to balance his work as a teacher.
Amalia Parecki, Math
Amalia was born and raised in San Francisco. She studied at University of California, Berkeley, and San Jose State University where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering and her pilot’s license. She worked for Lockheed Missiles & Space Systems as a satellite operations engineer and for IBM as a software analyst and as a Certified Kitchen Designer for over 15 years.
Amalia moved to Portland with her growing family and enrolled her children at Portland Waldorf School. After several years volunteering on Parent Council and the Board of Trustees, Amalia began teaching music classes in the lower school. Amalia was instrumental in founding PWHS in 1999 and later expanded her teaching schedule to include math courses. She also coordinates the Foreign Exchange program. Amalia has attended the Micha-el Institute as well as many conferences on Waldorf education and administration. All three of her children attended PWS from kindergarten through grade 12.
FINE ARTS
Patricia Lynch. Painting, clay modeling, drawing, and printmaking
Patricia was raised in New England, and she attended Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore. She later received her Bachelors of Fine Art from Pacific Northwest College of Art here in Portland. Patricia’s eldest daughter was in the first PWS kindergarten class in 1982. Her three other children also attended PWS, one of whom graduated from the high school. Patricia began her career with PWS as a kindergarten assistant, then worked to develop the handwork program, which she then ran for seven years. She was the first full-time College Chair, a position she held for two years. She was hired to develop the high school and served as High School Coordinator during its early years before teaching high school art full time. Additionally, Patricia served PWS as a board member for many years.
Patricia attended the Rudolf Steiner Institute in Maine each summer for ten years, as well as numerous teacher conferences and workshops focusing on pedagogy, anthroposophy, painting, conflict resolution, and Waldorf high school education.
John Walsh, Ceramics
Jack brings 35 years of experience working with clay to PWHS where he teaches ceramics to grades 9-11. After growing up in Maine and studying art there, Jack moved to Alaska. There he taught art to students from kindergarten through high school during the winters and worked as a commercial fisherman during the summers. Inspired by Scottish artist Andy Goldsworthy, Jack combined his interest in the outdoors and in art to found an environmental art program at the high school in Homer, Alaska; for this he was honored by the Orion Society as a master teacher. Jack also received a Christa McCullough grant to start a program using indigenous, local material to fire pottery, and he built the first wood-fueled kiln in a high school in the US.
After twenty years in Alaska, Jack moved to Oregon, where he settled down to create wood-fired pottery. His pieces are in private and public collections around the world, and he was the only potter from Oregon to have work selected for the International Wood-Fired Pottery Exhibition in 2004.
FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Sophie Kirscht, German
Sophie was born in 1975 in East Berlin, Germany to parents who are both physicists. She grew up in the outskirts of East Berlin, in a then-socialist country, the German Democratic Republic. In 1989, at the age of 14 Sophie became witness to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The reunification of Germany posed major social and economic changes. The school system was completely ‘reformed’ and the ideologies changed.
In 1991 Sophie’s father accepted a job in Salem, Oregon, where Sophie finished high school. In 1993 she moved to Portland, and, after studying at PSU, worked as an interpreter and translator. In 2000 Sophie taught German at the Berlitz Language School to adults and children, where she discovered that she greatly enjoyed teaching.
Sophie came to our school in 2002, and worked as an assistant in the Rose Kindergarten for two years. During 2004-2005, Sophie taught German at PWS to Grades 1 to 12. Sophie is now enrolled in the Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program, specifically for German, at the Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, California. She and two other Waldorf High School German teachers are currently developing a German curriculum for Waldorf High Schools. Sophie lives in Oregon City with her partner, Kevin, and their son Hans.
Fernando Rojas-Galvan, Spanish
Fernando has extensive experience teaching Spanish on the college level as well as in middle and high schools. He has a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from University of Portland, a secondary education degree from the College of Santa Fe and an MA in Spanish, Chicano Studies and SW History from University of New Mexico.
Born in Michoacán, Mexico, he grew up in a Spanish-speaking household in Hood River, OR and brings a deep knowledge of bilingual and bicultural perspective to his teaching. He and his wife, who is a speech pathologist and Spanish teacher, have three children. Fernando likes to hike, bike, fish, and do long distance running. A one-time bull rider in rodeos in New Mexico and Arizona, Fernando now plays the role of the bull in his living room to the pleasure of his four-year-old son, Nazerio.
MOVEMENT
James McCarter, PE and Athletic Director
James was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and attended Syracuse University in New York on an athletic scholarship (baseball), where he studied photojournalism. After extensively traveling the world while serving twenty-two years as a photojournalist in the Navy Seals, he was introduced to Waldorf Education and worked for the last seven years as PE teacher and AD at the Honolulu Waldorf High School. His family includes his wife Shanti, a former Waldorf High School Humanities teacher, and their son Keali.
MUSIC
Corey Averill, Strings and Orchestra
Corey was born in Salem, Oregon, and moved to Lake Oswego in 1974. He received a bachelor’s of music degree from Portland State University in 1993. Corey spent his formative years studying music at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA, and the Congress of Strings in Detroit, Michigan. Corey has taught cello at Clark College in Vancouver and in the Lake Oswego School District, and music at Catlin Gable, before coming to PWS in April 1999. Since 1989, Corey has operated a music performance business, Duo con Brio.
At PWS, Corey, teaches strings, orchestra, and 11th grade music history. Corey’s family includes his wife Michelle, and a son and daughter, who both attend PWS.
Michelle Averill, Chorus
Michelle studied music privately since the age of seven. She attended Portland State University on a full four-year scholarship, studying with Ruth Dobson and Dr. Bruce Browne and receiving a Bachelor’s of music degree in vocal performance. She has performed in such works at Saint-Saen’s Christmas Oratorio, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Faure’s Requiem, and many others. Prior to teaching at PWS, she was an assistant choir director in her church and taught voice privately, which she continues to do. She currently performs with Belle Voci, a woman’s vocal ensemble.
Michelle began teaching choir at PWS in 1999 and currently teaches choir to grades 5-8 and the high school, as well as grades 6-8 band. Michelle’s son and daughter both attend PWS.
Marion Van Namen, African drumming
Born near Rotterdam, Holland, Marion comes to the High School with a degree in Anthroposophical Music Therapy acquired in the Netherlands, in addition to 15 years playing piano, 10 playing the cello, and a lifetime of singing. Marion is now working on her American certification in Music Therapy at Marylhurst College. Marion has made her own cello and a number of flutes. She also leads a wildly enthusiastic community choir at PWS.
APPLIED ARTS
Katherine Pomeroy, Fiber, book arts
Katherine was born in Philadelphia, moving with her family to the Portland area in second grade. She lives with her husband and their two dogs. Her grown sons are both PWS alumni. Katherine studied fine arts at Portland State University with a concentration in drawing, weaving, and ceramics. Later, she continued at the Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, where she studied weaving, textile surface design and natural dying. Katherine completed the three-year Waldorf Teacher Training Applied Arts Program at Sunbridge College in Spring Valley, New York in 1998. She currently serves as a part-time faculty member at Rudolf Steiner College in both the handwork and high school teacher training. Katherine has taught at PWS since 1994.
Katherine’s interests include gardening, bookbinding, printmaking, and playing the piano. Handwork, crafts, and the homely arts have been a centering thread running through her life. She enjoys the opportunity to share both her practical experience and her love of the activity with the students at PWS.
Tom Myers, Stone, metals, woodworking
Tom was born in Portland, Oregon in 1952. Following high school, he and his father moved to Alaska and purchased a commercial fishing boat. After skippering his father’s boat for two years, he returned to Portland and built his own 38-foot boat and sailed back to Alaska to fish for the next two years. At that time he also was the vice president of the United Fishermen of Alaska and on the board of directors of the SE Alaska Fisherman’s Co-op. Tom then apprenticed for four years as a boat builder and became foreman of SE Alaska’s largest shipyard. He returned to Portland in 1979 and opened a custom woodworking shop which he now runs part-time.
Tom started as a woodworking teacher at PWS in 1992 as a volunteer and joined the faculty the following year. He received his certificate in Applied Art from the Life Form Studio at Sunbridge College, New York. He teaches applied arts in the lower grades and in the high school various specialty applied arts such as copper-smithing, blacksmithing, stone carving, and marquetry. Tom and his wife have two children who are both PWS alumni.
STUDENT ASSISTANCE
Luc Schloss, Student Assistance Coordinator
Luc Schloss was a Waldorf student himself at the Princeton Waldorf School in New Jersey. He obtained a Bachelor of Education degree from Eugene Lang College and a Master’s Degree in Psychology and Counseling from California Institute of Integral Studies. Luc spent two years on staff at Summerfield Waldorf High School in California teaching Humanities and facilitating a young men’s group. Most recently he has been working at Portland’s Crisis Hotline and building a private counseling practice. His wife, Sonja is a graduate of PWS. They have two children, Ava and Flora.
