AHE Board of Directors
Mary Jo ORESTI
M.A.MARY JO Oresti has been on a journey with healing education for over 35 years. As a member of the Detroit Waldorf school faculty she served as the Program Coordinator and initial teacher of the school's Learning Support Program, a pioneer program in Waldorf Schools. As a founding member of the Association for a Healing Education, she developed and supported programs in six countries which featured Extra Lesson and other like -minded disciplines. She served as the president of AHE for many years. Currently, she is working as an instructor in teacher development courses, offers workshops and provides consulting in schools. Mary Jo has a Waldorf Certificate, Chirophonetic certificate and a Masters Degree from Marygrove College.
Renni GREENBERG
MA. Ed., T.T. ERENNI Greenberg, a member of the Board of Directors since 2018, is currently in private practice as a learning specialist, providing developmental learning support for students, and offering a gamut of related services, including assessment, program development, mentoring and professional development. Renni draws from her many years of experience as a faculty member in several Waldorf Schools, most recently at the Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School where she formed a learning support program for the elementary school. Renni also served as the Learning Resources Teacher at the Rudolf Steiner School in NYC, following more than a decade of working closely with the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School, providing student learning support and assessment. Renni was a founding faculty member of the Berkshire Waldorf High School, and in the early years of that school she fulfilled many roles, including Educational Support Teacher, Admissions, and College Advising.
Renni received her Transdisciplinary Therapeutic Educator certification through the Gradalis training in 2006, and a Master of Arts in Education degree, with an emphasis in Waldorf Remedial Education, in 2009. Renni is certified by the Orton Gillingham Academy to provide literacy instruction, and has trained with Marilyn Zecher in Multi-Sensory Math (an Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching math). She draws from multiple modalities in her work with students, including Extra Lesson, HANDLE, and Bal-A-Vis-X.
Elyce PERICO
MA Ed., TTEELYCE has been the Educational Support Coordinator since 2009 at the Hartsbrook School in Hadley, MA where she was a class teacher from 1994-2008. As an active participant in the Care Group work, Elyce felt a profound need to deepen her understanding of human development given to us by Rudolf Steiner, and further cultivated by others working with these foundational principles. She received her Therapeutic Educator certification through the Gradalis training in 2007, and a Master of Arts in Education degree with an emphasis in Waldorf Remedial Education in 2009. Elyce is also certified as an Orton-Gillingham reading instructor and as a HANDLE (Holistic Approach to Neurodevelopment and Learning Efficiency) Screener.
Betty Jane ENNO
B.S., RMT, CYTBETTY JANE has been a Waldorf Class Teacher as well as a Kindergarten Teacher at the Austin Waldorf School since 1984. She received her Certification from the AHE Student Support program in 2009. She is a Licensed Pediatric Therapist and has begun her training in Einribung ( Rhythmical Massage) and has enjoyed working as a Qigong and Yoga Instructor. She is a WECAN Representative for the TMCSR Region. She travels as a mentor, consultant, and site visitor for WECAN and early childhood and remedial programs nationally and internationally. She enjoyed her work on the Board and Teaching Staff of the Waldorf Initiative, "Seminar de las Estrellas" program. Her latest creative endeavor was consulting for the Stepping Stones Children's Museum in Connecticut in creating a Sensory/Movement room for young children.
Betty Jane has been honored to work on the Board of Directors of the Association for a Healing Education since 2009.
Connie HELMS
M.ED.CONNIE Helms, M.Ed. has been a co-director of AHE's Educational Support Program for many years. A graduate of AHE's cycle 3, she travels in North America as an Educational Support consultant and whole class screener, and also works online as a consultant and workshop presenter. Prior to running a private Extra Lesson practice in Vermont serving children, adolescents and adults, she was the Extra Lesson/Learning Support teacher at the Lake Champlain Waldorf School in Shelburne, VT. She has a Waldorf teacher certification from Antioch University New England and taught as a special educator in public schools in New Hampshire and Vermont. Connie has served on AHE's Board of Directors since 2005.
Dana FLEMING
DANA Fleming is a Waldorf class teacher turned subject teacher, working at the Great Oak School in Texas. An auditor of AHE’s Cycle 10, she hopes to help AHE with the myriad tasks involved in bringing the Extra Lesson work to as many children and schools as possible. Dana works to include healing movement in each of her German classes, from body geography to Bal-A-Vis-X. She is astonished to see the rising number of children needing Extra Lesson work in each incoming class and strives to bring them the support they need.
Robert KUSHLER
ROB Kushler is known in anthroposophical circles as “Mr. Oresti”, having been the spouse of Mary Jo Oresti for over thirty years. He is a former professor of statistics at Oakland University in Rochester Michigan (not New York, Minnesota, or California – all common mistakes), where his work included consulting and teaching activities in the automotive industry. After retiring in 2015, he has kept busy with a variety of activities, including membership in a choir, volunteering at a local community farm, and attending Oakland U basketball games. When not otherwise occupied, he likes to spend as much time as possible in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (regardless of the season). AHE is the latest in a fairly long list of organizations for which he has served as treasurer.