Meet Our Team

The teachers, facilitators, and key assistants that keep everything running.

Anne Rock

Co-Director, Lead North Star Program Facilitator

Anne is a mother of two, life-long nature lover, and folk herbalist. She was home educated most of her school years, and has worked extensively with children for over 15 years. Her educative passions are nature based and child-led, with the hope of inspiring the next generation's bright future.

Anne enjoys living a holistic lifestyle; gardening, foraging, cooking nutritious meals and preparing herbal concoctions for her friends and family. She deeply loves sharing the magic of plants with all.

One of her greatest aspirations is building and surrounding her family with wholesome community, and she is thrilled to be sharing that reality through New Earth Traditions.

Julianne Aumen

Co-Director, Lead North Star Program Facilitator

Julianne is a mother of four, passionate about maintaining a space of holistic well being in which her children and others can learn, grow, and thrive. She desires to cultivate community not only through friendships between children, but also through support and connection between parents and caregivers.

Julianne is a life long creative and an avid sourdough baker. Her favorite activities to guide are cooking, gardening, and all variations of creative expression including knitting, sewing, wet & needle felting and more.

Most of all she loves to inspire children to come to their own conclusions and think outside of the box.

Kat McCaughern

Lead Starflower Facilitator

Kat is a mother of two, a longtime educator, and a passionate garden steward. With over a decade of experience guiding preschool-aged children, she brings a gentle, grounded presence to her work and believes deeply in the power of child-led, hands-on learning.

She finds joy in her home garden, watercolor painting with her children, and hiking with her husband and their two dogs. A lifelong lover of the arts, she is always exploring new ways to express her creativity.

Kat is inspired by the curiosity, excitement, and wonder children bring to each day and is honored to join the New Earth Traditions team, where learning grows as naturally as the seeds we plant together.

Rachel Lopez-Cerrato

Lead 5-7s North Star Program Facilitator

Rachel is a mother, artist, and educator with a deep commitment to honoring her ancestors and our mother earth.

Rachel's pedagogy is informed by a rich spritual and creative foundation, with a background in the arts and training in Indigenous Mexican Traditional healing, Waldorf Education, Handwork, and Anthroposophy. As a loving steward of little people, she builds connection and trust through reverent and magical experiences with nature, beauty, and community.

She brings years of experience leading programs in early childhood and handwork from a nature centered and Waldorf inspired approach.

Michelle Smith

Playgroup Lead

Michelle is a lifelong teacher and now a proud new mother. She just finished her 10th year as a kindergarten teacher in a public Waldorf charter school and is now ready for new adventures with her son.

Working with young children has always brought Michelle great joy. She believes that early childhood is a crucial stage of development that deserves reverence, compassion, and love. Creating warm and meaningful relationships with the children and families in her care is essential to her.

In 2018, Michelle earned her WECAN Waldorf Early Childhood Teacher certification. That same year, she also completed a life changing internship at Green Meadow Waldorf School in Spring Valley, NY.

As a teacher, she strives to create a rhythmic and health-giving environment for young children and families through storytelling, music, art, and practical activities.

In her free time, Michelle is a photographer and traveler who loves nature and taking in all that is around her. She enjoys singing, needle felting, learning and playing instruments, reading, writing, drawing, gardening, and baking with her family.

After joining nature playgroup last year, Michelle instantly fell in love with New Earth Traditions and knew she had found a special place for her son to grow. She is so grateful to have found this special place and looks forward to all the wonders that will unfold together in the New Earth Traditions community.

Heather Bodin

Starflower Assistant

As a mother of two with a heart attuned to the rhythms of nature and the natural world, Heather has been a lifelong advocate for hands-on, joyful, nature based learning that is connected to the world around us. She joins our community with nearly two decades of experience teaching children of all ages in non-traditional education settings.

As a former homeschool mom and founder of a nature-based learning cooperative, she has extensive experience guiding children through lessons in nature, history, science, art and literature through the use of seasonal stories, handcrafts, and outdoor explorations that awaken wonder and imagination. Heather brings warmth, creativity, and reverence for childhood to her work.

When she is not in the classroom, you’ll find her in the garden, painting, camping and hiking with her family and two Labrador retrievers, or traveling the country with a goal to visit every National Park in the USA.

She is thrilled to join the New Earth Traditions community and help nurture a space where children can grow in confidence and curiosity as they explore new ideas and create meaningful connections.