Staff Bios
Jesse Gammon
Jesse grew up in Portland and began teaching swimming lessons at the age of 14. He found joy in teaching others and sharing the experience of learning. He studied at the University of Oregon and focused on Comparative Literature and French. After graduating, he spent a year in France teaching English in a high school. The year abroad led him to continue his studies in education and complete the middle/secondary teaching program at the University of Oregon. He worked at the International High School in Eugene as a 9th and 10th grade global literature teacher. After receiving his masters in education he worked as an English teacher in Poland before relocating to southern Oregon. He assisted Miss Amy in the kindergarten during the 2008-09 school year. Mr. Gammon is currently Madrone Trail's 2nd grade teacher.
Allison Casenhiser
Allison Casenhiser grew up in northern Ohio, a daughter of two public school teachers. She attended Kent State University and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts. After traveling in Costa Rica and meeting a group of Waldorf students, education showed a much more exciting and exploratory approach. As she learned more about Waldorf education, Allison realized the caring, conscientious, and environmental awareness quality involved in the philosophy of this education. Allison attended the Eugene Teacher Education Program to become a Waldorf grades teacher. She worked at the Olympia Waldorf School as the Handwork teacher and the First grade assistant. Miss Casenhiser is currently Madrone Trail's 3rd grade teacher.
Jill Leonard
Jill Leonard grew up in Oregon in the Willamette Valley. After graduating high school she pursued studies in music as well as the French language. She studied abroad at several universities in France in cities such as Dijon, Perpignan, and Angers. While there she took many cultural classes as well as graduate courses for future teachers of French as a foreign language. In 2006 she received a Bachelors of Music from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA. This summer she graduated from Southern Oregon University with a Masters in the Arts of Teaching and an Oregon Initial I teaching license. She will be endorsed to teach French, Spanish, and English Language Development. Jill has spent time studying American Sign Language and enjoys using the signs in her teaching to help with vocabulary retention. Aside from studying and teaching languages she enjoys dancing and teaches Salsa. Other interests include studying health and preparing food as well as spending time outdoors doing various activities including playing tennis, hiking, rock climbing, running, camping, and cycling. Though she is not currently performing, she also continues her appreciation of music.
Catarina Cegin
Catarina Cegin grew up in Wheaton, IL where her family's outings inspired her love of nature and seasonal celebrations. She attended The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts. After completing this course, Catarina studied five element herbalism with a local practitioner. Her love of people and culture inspired Catarina to become a teacher. She attended Sound Circle Center in Seattle, WA (a Waldorf teacher training program) for her Foundation Year. For two years, she worked as a kindergarten assistant and in the after care program at the Olympia Waldorf School. Catarina taught in the Lifeways program at Rudolf Steiner College, which is a full day Waldorf child care program with a morning preschool. She has a Waldorf Early Childhood Teacher Certificate.In the 2009-10 school year, Catarina taught kindergarten at the East Bay Waldorf School in El Sobrante, CA.
She is delighted by the quieter pace of life and beautiful nature in Oregon. She enjoys making dolls and puppets. Catarina is the kindergarten teacher at Madrone Trail Public Charter School
Alyssum Barber
Alyssum grew up on the Oregon Coast spending most of her time playing outside. She enjoyed her time as a student at Oregon State University and Western Oregon University very much and began her teaching and coaching career in the Gold Beach Schools in 1996. She has taught and coached K-12 students during those years while pursuing continuing education courses in outdoor education and reading. She has taken several watercolor classes through the community college, was a member of the community choirs and was an actress in the Ellensburg Theater Company. She was also part of many other community activities supporting children. She and her family moved to the Rogue Valley in 2009 and bought a small farm in Central Point where they grow produce and livestock using environmentally sound practices for local markets. Waldorf education first appealed to Alyssum when she began to contemplate the movement's focus on music, arts and its careful attention to the education of the whole child in relationship to her own children's education. What attracted Alyssum as a parent now supports her love of teaching. Alyssum still loves spending most of her spare time playing outside with her husband and their two children.
Sylvie Guillet
Sylvie Guillet, known as "Madame Guillet" to the students, was born and grew up in France along with 3 brothers and 1 sister to the sound of the weaving and sewing machines of her father's small cloth factory. In France Sylvie followed in her father's footsteps, studying fibers and cloth making, but the desire to travel and see the world was stronger. She first became an exchange student and graduated from High School in Detroit, Michigan. It was there that she encountered her first charter school. Later she traveled to Africa, Europe, India and finally to the USA where she studied massage at the International School of Massage Therapy in San Francisco.
Sylvie returned to France to raise her four children, who attended a Waldorf School there. She taught craft-workshop to the parents in the school while her husband initiated and was in charge of a botanical garden nearby. After completing Montessori training in England, Sylvie followed her seed-saving husband, moving her family to India so that he could create a seed bank while she taught for 1st and 2nd grade.
Upon returning to France, Sylvie took the Waldorf Education foundation year at Avignon. Soon after, her family moved back to the United States where she continued her Waldorf studies at Rudolf Steiner College, receiving a certification in Handwork. She studied Eurythmy for a year at the American Eurythmy School in Weed, CA and taught French and Handwork at Shasta Mountain Learning Center, a Waldorf school in Mount Shasta. She presently teaches Handwork to all grades at Madrone Trail Public Charter School where she shares her love of craft with the children.
Jill Leonard
Jill Leonard grew up in Oregon in the Willamette Valley. After graduating high school she pursued studies in music as well as the French language. She studied abroad at several universities in France in cities such as Dijon, Perpignan, and Angers. While there she took many cultural classes as well as graduate courses for future teachers of French as a foreign language. In 2006 she received a Bachelors of Music from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA. She graduated from Southern Oregon University in 2009 with a Masters in the Arts of Teaching, an Oregon teaching license and endorsements to teach French, Spanish, and English Language Development. Aside from teaching at Madrone Trail she also teaches music at a small elementary school in California. Her other interests include holistic health, social dancing, preparing food and spending time outdoors doing various activities including playing tennis, hiking, rock climbing, running, camping, canoeing, rafting, and cycling.
Dara Nikolic
Dara was born and raised in Ashland. She received her Bachelors degree in Music from SOU before moving to New York City where she received her Masters in Childhood Education at the City University of New York’s Hunter College. She taught 5th grade in Harlem before having children of her own. She and her family spent a year and a half in Serbia where she taught English as a foreign language, and then decided to finally make their way back to the Rogue Valley. Dara is extremely passionate about education and music and loves to combine the two as much as possible. She feels the Waldorf approach fits very well with her own educational philosophies and is eagerly learning as much as she can to continue her development and dedication to creating a safe and loving environment in which each child is nourished in order to grow intellectually, physically and spiritually. Ms. Nikolic is currently Madrone Trail’s 1st Grade teacher.
Ms. Coull
Ms. Coull was born in Southern California and spent her childhood in the Rogue Valley. After graduating from Grants Pass High, she attended Lewis & Clark College and received a Bachelor of Arts in History. She went on to receive her Master of Arts in Teaching from Concordia University and taught in St. Helens and Southern Oregon. While taking a special education course at Southern Oregon University, she met a teacher from Madrone Trail and loved the principles upon which the school was founded. Discovering Waldorf education has enabled her to combine her desire to teach with her personal philosophies and as an educator, this has been an amazing fit.