AHE Board Members
Mary Jo Oresti - President
Jeff Tunkey - Vice President
Peter Chin - Secretary
Joan Treadaway - Treasurer
Gerry LoDolce
Connie Helms
John Greene
Becky Rutherford
Elyce Perico
AHE Advisory Board
Ingun Schneider
Balazs Tarnai, Ph.D.
Ross Rentea, M.D.
Andrea Rentea, M.D.
Diana Hughes
Mission Statement
• Advancing the quality of
education, care, and health
• To bridge the expertise
between the medical profession, art therapists, and remedial
professionals in the service of healing.
• To foster remedial education
with the pedagogical principles of Waldorf Education.
• To deepen and further the
study of human development as described by Rudolf Steiner and
to incorporate appropriate modalities of mainstream
methodologies.
• To facilitate cooperation and
exchange between therapeutic educators, classroom teachers,
caregivers, parents and individuals trained in curative
education.
About AHE Courses & Programs
We are in our 20th year of offering
professional development programs worldwide, and have certified
10 program cycles with over 400 participants. These teacher
education programs were initiated by AHE as a direct response
to educators who wished to understand and assist students with
different learning styles in their classrooms. The
curriculum is based on developing our observational capacities
and increasing our understanding of the causes and challenges
that children meet as they find their place in life. Course
content is primarily derived from the works and influences of
Dr. Rudolf Steiner, together with current research that
promotes a developmental curriculum. The Association for a
Healing Education is currently involved in four world wide
certificate programs for Educational Support teachers and
parents. We also sponsor numerous workshops and
conferences. As much as possible these programs are
organized in conjunction with local organizations or
institutions. Current programs are being offered in the
United States, Canada, Ireland, Brazil and Spain.
Our board members, consultants and
members represent a wide variety of professional expertise
in Waldorf methods, remedial approaches, art therapy and
medical interventions. While many mainstream educators adhere
to tutoring as the main focus of practice, our mission is to
promote a developmental approach for the whole child which is
aligned with the works of Rudolf Steiner and other more recent
theorists and practitioners.
About the AHE Board Members
Mary Jo Oresti has found that
teaching children and adults has taken her on a remarkable 30
year journey in Waldorf Education. Currently, her activities
involve coordinating and instructing in five teacher
development programs in the U.S. and abroad, consulting in
schools about remedial programs, and some private work with
children. She also serves as the president of AHE.
Mary Jo has a masters degree from Marygove College, a
Waldorf Teaching diploma, and has studied Chirophonetics.
Jeff Tunkey teaches both Extra Lesson
and Physical Education at Aurora Waldorf School, near Buffalo,
NY. He was a member of the core group that founded AWS. The
school’s unique movement program incorporates traditional
games, life sports and team sports, weekly tumbling/gymnastics,
and whole-class developmental movement based on the Extra
Lesson. Students have three or more periods a week of this
program (in addition to two periods of Eurythmy). Jeff is a
graduate of the Spacial Dynamics inservice training, and made
the transition to teaching 14 years ago. His website is
www.movementforchildhood.com
Peter Chin's Waldorf class teaching
experience spans more than 20 years. At the University of
Miami, he majored in Secondary Education and English
Literature. He completed his Waldorf Teacher Training in
1975, and began his career as a class teacher in Denver,
Colorado. Peter graduated from the Waldorf Remedial Teacher
Training Program in 2001. He then served as a class teacher and
the educational support teacher at the Waldorf School of Santa
Barbara and held this position for several years before
relocating to Florida where he is currently a teacher at the
Sarasota Waldorf school.
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© copyright 2010 AHE
rev. 2/20/2010
Joan Treadaway, a teacher consultant
and mentor for over 45 years, has a private practice, Childhood
Consulting Services, in Prescott, AZ, in which she works as a
Waldorf Remedial Therapist with children and young adults, and
counsels parents. A consultant to several Waldorf schools, Joan
lectures widely on themes of childhood today. She has also
worked extensively in administration and community development,
advising boards, parent groups and school administration. She
is very involved with the work of the Anthroposophical Society
in America as a member of the Western Regional Council, and of
the General Council.
Connie Helms, M.Ed. has been working
with children for thirty years. She has taught as a special
educator in public schools and as an Educational Support
teacher at the Lake Champlain Waldorf School in Shelburne, VT.
Currently she has a private practice near LCWS doing Extra
Lesson with children, adolescents and adults. She is an
education consultant, workshop presenter and a teacher in adult
education. Her website is
www.balanceinchildhood.com. Connie has been an AHE board
member since 2005.
John Greene, Executive Director of
the Rudolf Steiner Institute, has
been a Waldorf and Curative Education
teacher for over 18 years. He is
the former administrator at Sunbridge
College in New York. John and
his wife, Penni, are currently
involved with a life sharing program
in Great Barrington, Massachusetts,
which promotes social change
through local associative
partnerships. He has been an AHE board
member for two years.
Gerry LoDolce has taught at Kimberton
Waldorf School for 31 years. He took three classes 1 to 8 and
for the last four years, along with teaching Physics and
Chemistry and Earth Science, has carried the Extra Lesson work
in the lower school. As a member of AWSNAís
Pedagogical Advisors Colloquium he has and continues to teach
and mentor Waldorf class teachers. Gerry is a graduate of
Spacial Dynamics (IS3) and is currently enrolled in the Level
III training. He is also a 2006 graduate of the Sunbridge
College Waldorf Remedial Teacher training and has been a member
of the board of AHE for two years.
Becky Rutherford joined the AHE board
in 2009. She holds a certification in curative education, a BFA
and MS in Art Therapy, as well as state certification in
special education. She has been working with children and
adolescents with a variety of special needs for thirty-five
years, both in conventional and anthroposophic settings. She
also is an experienced Waldorf classroom teacher and adult
educator. Becky also is an adjunct faculty member of the
M.S.Ed. program in Waldorf Remedial Education at Sunbridge
College, has been chair of the K-12 faculty at Camphill Special
School.
Elyce Perico earned a degree in Flute
Performance from the Univ. of Miami in 1983, and played
professionally in the Miami area. She then became, for 13
years, a Class Teacher at the Hartsbrook School in Hadley, MA.
An active participant in Care Group work, Elyce felt a profound
need to deepen her understanding of the picture of human
development given to us by Rudolf Steine, and cultivated by
many others since. In 2009 Elyce received her Master of Arts in
Education degree, with an emphasis in Waldorf Remedial
Education. Presently she is the Educational Support Coordinator
at the Hartsbrook School.
