Melissa Lang Lytle | Admissions and Enrollment Coordinator

Melissa is originally from San Diego but loves living in Seattle. Melissa has a strong background in art and handwork, as well as social justice advocacy. She takes pride in her having worked in the past as a patient advocate supporting mental health patients and domestic violence survivors in upholding their rights. Melissa came to Bright Water Waldorf through her passion for Waldorf Education with her children. Outside of work Melissa enjoys felting and working with natural fibers, as well as discovering the beauty of the Pacific Northwest with her three children and husband.

Anna Stumm | Business ADMINISTRATOR

Anna lives in the Columbia City neighborhood in Seattle with her two kids, two house bunnies, and a cat. She has spent the course of her career to use her skills of learning, creating, and maintaining organizational systems and structures in different capacities, from running Starbucks stores to creating and running a learning pod during the pandemic. 

Her passion finds joy in the details of life and on any given weekend she can be found  cooking a great meal and sharing it with those she loves, swimming, adventuring with her kids, going for walks in her neighborhood, playing board games with friends, and finding great deals at and one of the many thrift stores of the Seattle area.

Amy Vong | Teacher Assistant/Ed Support 

Amy (they/them) was born and raised in the greater Los Angeles area and moved to Seattle in 2020. They graduated from UC Irvine with a B.A in English and studied abroad at Université Bordeaux Montaigne. 

Since moving to Seattle, Amy has integrated themselves within the local organizing scene to build networks of community care. They’re on the board of VietQ, an organization dedicated to uplifting QTViet and QTBIPOC community in Seattle. They also volunteer with Eggrolls Mutual Aid, a collective that provides hot meals and survival supplies in Little Saigon - CID. 

Outside of Bright Water, Amy enjoys doing ceramics, gardening, climbing, and cooking/sharing meals for their communal household. 

BC Walker | office ADMINISTRATOR

You’ll find BC in the Admin Office, supporting our school’s daily rhythm and helping everything run smoothly. Here’s a little more about BC, in her own words:

"BC leaves no stone unturned. She believes every person has the right to experience a quality of life as a member of their community. BC values art and inclusion.

Her work in social and human services has focused on providing training and advocacy for people with IDDs.

Jennifer Beal Quinn | Teacher, Salmonberries Classroom

Jennifer moved to Seattle in 1999 and has been active in the local Waldorf community since. She has been at Bright Water since 2006, working as a class teacher, long term substitute and math and reading tutor. Jennifer has watched Bright Water Waldorf School grow from a small first grade class in the basement of a house just up the street from where she taught first grade at Seattle Waldorf School to the mature school it is today.

Jennifer holds a Master's Degree in Education, Waldorf Certificate and Public School Credential from Antioch New England Graduate School. Drawn to the vibrancy of nature in the Northwest, Jennifer loves being active outdoors in all seasons. 

Hannah Adams | Teacher, Early Childhood | Roots & Shoots

Hannah's journey in life and education spans continents and cultures. Born in Germany and raised in Alaska, she later lived on the East Coast before making Seattle her home.

Her connection to Waldorf Education began as a student and evolved into a career, leading her to become an educator in Waldorf early childhood classrooms for over a decade.

Hannah's experience includes working in a Lifeways program in Alaska and teaching at Waldorf schools in New York City and Seattle.

TRISH BONDURANT | Teacher, combined Grades one/two, Woodwork

Trish was born in Montana and grew up in Colorado. She attended the University of Colorado in Boulder and Rudolf Steiner College in California before starting at Bright Water Waldorf in 2004. She was a main lesson class teacher for 17 years before becoming a subject teacher. She has toured 10 countries by bicycle and recently fell in love with a dog. She now has a 75-pound mixed Pyrenees puppy who keeps her on her toes. She is passionate about empowering children to create things with tools.

Skye Chamberlain | Teacher, Combined Grades Three/Four

Skye Chamberlain was born and raised within the sound of the waves on the shores of Lake Michigan. She earned her undergraduate degree at University of Michigan, and in University of Wisconsin’s year abroad program through which she studied story-telling traditions in the Himalayas and met her husband Ramesh, an Indian national, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Their two grown daughters are also Waldorf graduates. Ms Chamberlain loves swimming, yoga, walking and wild places. She also loves telling stories to children and watching their eyes light up. Ms Chamberlain is a graduate of Sound Circle Teacher Training and one of the founding teachers of Bright Water Waldorf School.

Hanna Jarvinen | Teacher, Combined Grades Five/six

Hanna hails from Northern California, where she grew up enjoying both the vibrant city life of San Francisco and the natural beauty of the Sierra Nevada mountains. She attended UC Santa Cruz, focusing on community engagement and education at the local history and art museum. After graduating, she married her high school sweetheart, Brandon, and they settled in Sacramento.

While in Sacramento, Hanna felt a strong calling to advocate for children in her community. This led her to pursue a teaching credential and a master’s degree at UC Davis, where she also joined a program with Shakespeare’s Globe in London to explore how physical movement and theater can enhance literacy.

Beth Simpson | Teacher, Combined Grades seven/eight | middle school spanish

Beth grew up in a very small town with a population of ~ 4,000 people during her youth. The town is in the tri-state area of Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, and has a very strong German influence. She graduated from Indiana University-Bloomington, with a double major in Spanish and Linguistics. She then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed her Master’s Degree and her Ph.D. coursework in Spanish Linguistics. With a love of language and people, Beth has lived in Peru and Spain, and she has run study abroad and Spanish teacher-training programs in Mexico. Beth has two children of her own who have graduated from BWWS.

Robyn AndersEn | Hand work Teacher, Middle School Math & Science, Grade School Support

Robyn is an alumni parent, mother of BWWS 2014 graduates Catherine and Christine. Robyn is a Sound Circle Teacher Training graduate, with a background in the sciences and mathematics, who worked for more than 20 years at Fred Hutchinson before shifting gears to become an educator. She has most recently been working with students age 3 to 14 at Seattle Waldorf School. Ms. Anderson is also a trained Aikido sensei!

Hiromi Yonemoto | Teacher, Japanese

Hiromi was born and raised in Japan. While attending the University of Japan, she wrote a thesis about alternative education as she has always believed that education is the key to making the world a better place/ a place where there is no war. Having grown up in Hiroshima where all the children take "Peace education", a commitment of no war, the idea of changing the world for the better is an important one to her.

In 2003, Hiromi moved to the United States and attended the Rudolf Steiner College in California completing her Waldorf teacher training and joining Bright Water Waldorf School in 2005. When she is not teaching, she loves to spend time on the farm with her family and friends.

Sarah Liane Foster | Teacher, Movement and Circus Arts

Sarah Liane Foster has been teaching circus, movement, and theatre to folks of all ages since 2004 and has been teaching at Bright Water since November of 2017.

She has her BA from Brown University, trained in movement theatre and clown at the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, and studied and practiced movement theatre pedagogy at the Helikos International School of Theatre Creation.

Based in Portland, Oregon for many years, Sarah taught Circus Arts classes and camps at Portland Waldorf School and Cedarwood Waldorf School.

Shawn Miller | Teacher, Aikido

Shawn was born in Stuttgart, Germany and after living many places as a child, moved to the United States where he spent his growing up years in Ohio and Seattle. Shawn started to farm and practice Aikido in 1999, which has taken him all over the world for study and practice. As a result of this immersion, he has created multiple children’s aikido programs in Seattle, and currently sits on the board and teaches at two local dojo. For Shawn aikido is critical to teaching non- violence, social justice and cooperation by working together in difficult times and tense situations. Aikido teaches

Jonah byrne | Teacher, Strings, Orchestra, BAnd

Jonah Byrne has been playing violin for over 30 years, teaching, performing, recording, and composing in a wide variety of styles. He started playing the violin at age six when his mother inherited an old violin from her great uncle and wanted to keep a family tradition alive. Jonah grew up taking lessons and playing in school orchestras, youth orchestras and string quartets throughout his young life. He studied music composition at University of Colorado, and has been active in the Seattle music scene since moving here 15 years ago. In that time he has been a DJ at Seattle’s eclectic Hollow Earth Radio, played fiddle and violin in country bands, experimental bands, indie bands, post-rock bands, and more.