Meet Our College of Teachers

Tina received her undergraduate and law degree from the University of Connecticut. She practiced corporate law for several years, but found herself yearning to be involved with Waldorf Education. After leaving the law firm, she led parent-child playgroups, and helped build a private Waldorf school in Weston, Connecticut. She also developed an early childhood program at Desert Marigold School in Phoenix, Arizona and became a Waldorf class teacher. Her family moved to Austin, Texas in 2006, to join the Austin Waldorf School community.

Tina enjoys family time, horseback riding, camping, and knitting.

Caterina (or Caty), a Waldorf alumna and daughter of a Waldorf teacher, joined Austin Waldorf School to teach Spanish. She started her career as a Classroom teacher in the public system in Dallas.

After working in International Schools in Germany and Brazil for a while, Caty became a Waldorf mom and a Waldorf teacher. She also worked in the Language Department at Rudolf Steiner Waldorf School in Sao Paulo Brazil.

Caty brings her love for traveling, cultures, and languages in all her classes.

Ani Hanelius Phillips attended Austin Waldorf School from kindergarten through Grade 12, graduating in 2001 as part of the first graduating class of the High School. She then attended Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where she graduated in 2005 with a degree in Human Development and Social Relations and a double Minor in Spanish and Education. While at Earlham, she thoroughly enjoyed playing collegiate level basketball, performing in multiple musicals, and singing in the campus Gospel Choir. After college, she lived internationally for five years, first working with adults with disabilities in a Camphill Community in Cape Town, South Africa; then studying Anthroposophy at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland; and finally co-founding and running a social entrepreneurial training for young international change-makers in Järna, Sweden, called the Youth initiative Program (www.YIP.se) currently in its thirteenth year.

Upon returning to the States in 2011, she quickly found her way back to Austin Waldorf as a basketball coach and substitute teacher, and later joined the faculty as a Class Teacher in 2013. Her years in the classroom were fulfilling and inspiring and she is proud to have been able to teach the Class of 2025 in their early years. During that time, she married her husband, Joseph, and together they designed and built their beautiful home in South Austin where they live with their five children, Fin, Willa, Sadie, Ezra, and Arlo. Ani enjoys caring for and working with young children in her home, baking, being in nature, writing poetry, singing, and being in water.

Dawn Harrienger grew up in England and Australia, where she attended Waldorf schools. She holds a degree in Music and a postgraduate degree in Education. She trained as a Waldorf teacher in Michigan and then joined Austin Waldorf School as a class teacher in 1983, taking a class through eighth grade.

Dawn also led two classes from middle school through eighth grade, and has served in various other capacities in the school, including music teacher.  Currently she teaches German to the students in grades one through eight.

Dawn enjoys camping, hiking, spinning, knitting, and pottery.

Kate Moran has been involved in outdoor education since 1992. She received her Waldorf Teaching Certificate from the Waldorf Institute of Southern California and has been teaching movement in Waldorf Schools for 15 years.

Kate is a Level III Spacial Dynamics Graduate and mentors movement teachers worldwide.  She uses Spacial Dynamics in her teaching as well as outreach in Hands in Peace Festivals and therapeutic work. Kate holds a Level III Junior Olympic Archery Instructor Certification as well as Yoga Certification. She brings all this knowledge and passion as well as her love for dance and play.

Fonda has been teaching at the Austin Waldorf School since 2003. She began as a parent, became an assistant in the kindergarten, and then in the handwork program. She completed her Waldorf handwork teacher training at Sunbridge College in New York, in 2001. Currently she teaches handwork to the students in grades four through eight.

Both of Fonda’s children are graduates of the Austin Waldorf School. In her free time, she enjoys spatial dynamics, felting, and spending time with friends and family.

Chava received her BA in Religious Studies from Arizona State University and did graduate work in the field of Linguistics at UC Berkeley, where she received a TESL certificate. Before finding Waldorf Education, she was an ESL teacher at Newcomer High School and City College of San Francisco, as well as at a bilingual kindergarten in Thailand. Chava received her MEd in Waldorf Education from Antioch University.

When not teaching, Chava can be found spending time with her husband and two daughters, traveling, and rooting for the Red Sox.

Shizu started her career in early childhood education in Japan.  Before she joined the Austin Waldorf kindergarten faculty in 2020, she had been a kindergarten teacher at Japanese schools for over 10 years in both US and Japan.  She also worked at Waldorf Saturday Japanese Kindergartens in NY as an assistant teacher before moving to Austin.

She worked in various fields such as investment banking and consulting before becoming a teacher.  She obtained her BA in Early Childhood Education at Tokyo University of Social Welfare in Japan.  She attended the Waldorf Early Childhood Teacher Education course at Sunbridge Institute in New York and obtained her Waldorf Early Childhood Educator Certificate in Summer 2022.  She had been a Waldorf parent since her first child joined the Waldorf Saturday Japanese school in 2003.

Shizu’s hobbies include Hula, Japanese calligraphy, and traveling