Early Childhood Faculty
Red Rose Kindergarten Lead Assistant
Sasha Ebrahim
Joined SWS 2018
“My goal as a teacher is to help build a classroom community where each child feels welcome, where they discover a sense of belonging and significance,” says Sasha (she, her). A graduate of California State University, Fresno, Sasha received her degree in Liberal Studies with a focus on early childhood development and, subsequently, her California Multiple Subject teaching credential. From 2005 to 2014, she served a teacher and program director at an educational therapy center in the Central Valley, specializing in literacy development and support for students with dyslexia and other learning differences.
In 2015, believing deeply in its philosophy and seeing a great need for its principles in both school and home settings, Sasha became certified as a Positive Discipline Parent Educator. She found a home in Waldorf education because it values the importance of the development of the whole child and the deep inner work of the teacher.
Sasha enjoys spending time with her husband and two children, connecting with family and friends, engaging in home improvement projects, and exploring Sacramento’s many outdoor activities.
Red Rose Kindergarten Lead Teacher
Margarita Hawk
Joined SWS 2004
Born in Mexico City, Margarita emigrated to the United States more than 30 years ago and has been a Sacramento Waldorf School Kindergarten teacher since 2013. She taught gardening and Spanish, and sponsored the High School Class of 2009, before embracing early childhood education. Margarita is an accomplished doll-maker and traditional crafter/artist, and has led numerous workshops for our community on subjects such as día de los muertos (Day of the Dead), parenting, early childhood development, and doll-making.
Prior to joining our school, Margarita taught multicultural awareness in the public school system, and Kindergarten, Spanish, and Handwork at Camellia Waldorf School. She also taught Kindergarten at Davis Waldorf School and led the summer early childhood program at Rudolf Steiner College and the weekend early childhood program at the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training. She has trained Waldorf teachers globally, most recently at Instituto Hamilton in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Margarita has a BA in Administration from Escuela Internacional de Turismo, Mexico City, and a Waldorf Teacher Education Diploma from Rudolf Steiner College. In addition, she has taken Waldorf teacher training courses in Spanish, parenting, and early childhood education, and is a Drug and Alcohol Prevention Programs Trainer. The mother of three sons, all Sacramento Waldorf School alumni, Margarita enjoys spending time with family and participating in school activities.
White Rose Kindergarten Lead Assistant
Natalia Kosareva
Joined SWS 2021
After the birth of her son, Natalia’s (she, her) family lived in different countries. She describes that period as an exciting experience of immersion in different cultural traditions, during which she was able communicate with many new people from other backgrounds. When her son was four years old, Natalia started looking for a school for him. She says, “When I first stepped into a Waldorf Kindergarten class, I realized that I wanted to stay there forever, and I started working there as an assistant.”
Natalia loves being with children and developing both professionally and personally. She teaches at Sacramento Waldorf School because the Waldorf philosophy aligns with her worldview, and she believes that Waldorf education helps parents raise healthy children who can think for themselves, empathize with others, and build a better world.
Natalia’s teaching philosophy is to take care of the essential people in life, our children, with love and reverence. In her work, she supports the healthy development of the physical body in the first seven years of life and aims to help families develop a sustainable rhythm at home. Natalia’s professional goals include more deeply understandinging the nature of the child, studying curative education to enhance her work with children and families, and pursuing a master’s degree in teaching and education.
Natalia studied dance at Moscow State University of Culture and Arts from which she received both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. She has additional training in Child Development and Early Childhood Education from American River College, is enrolled in a Waldorf education training program, and has completed level one of “Making Sense of Children: Developmental Science in Practice,” a course from the Neufeld Institute.
Natalia lives in Carmichael with her husband and son, who is a student at Sacramento Waldorf School.
Parent-Child Program Teacher
Ann Elizabeth Landgraf
Joined SWS 1988
Ann (she, her) spent 30 years as a Kindergarten teacher and now serves as Parent-Child Program leader. She has completed coursework in art and psychology at Sacramento State College, in early childhood education at American River College, and general coursework at Rudolf Steiner College. A 50-year resident of Fair Oaks, Ann enjoys pottery, painting, drawing, and gardening.
She appreciates teaching with others and sharing the developmental picture of the growing child, as well as embracing a spiritual approach to education. Married for 49 years, she has two children and one grandchild. Ann believes every child is born with gifts that need nurturing. She says, “Rhythm, reverence, and repetition are healthy for each of us and important for the young child to experience.”
Rosebud Preschool Assistant and Rosebud Aftercare Lead
Rozzlyn Sovereign
Rozzlyn Sovereign came to be a Waldorf teacher because she saw in this way of working and learning a way to help people change themselves, the world, and its social structures. “Through Waldorf education, we can stress the importance of social and emotional wellness, interpersonal relationships, justice, equity and an openness for the changing world to come,” she says. This careful tending to relationships and the power positive relationships have informs the nurturing presence she brings to the preschool. “I believe every single child is in the right place at the right time, and that they are meant to be with me if they are.
I strive to meet every single child where they are at in their life journey and to be present with them. Seeing the child in their fullest potential, not relishing in their faults.”
Rozzlyn has an AA Social and Behavioral Sciences from Folsom Lake College, a BA in Sociology from Humboldt State University, and has compelted Early Childhood units and the Emergent Curriculum: Learning Through Play program with Melissa Pinkham. An alum of the first public Waldorf school in California, she says that she loves to teach in a Waldorf school because of the focus on nurturing children.
Having grown up in a working class, poor neighborhood, Roz grew an appreciation at an early age for different cultures and ways of being. “Having a low socio-economic status growing up has granted me a perspective where I feel I can value relationships more than material items.” She sees the value of Waldorf education extending to everyone in the classroom, and she especially appreciates the opportunities for study and individual growth she has experienced as a teacher and as student of an anthroposophic self-development. “I keep working to constantly be self-reflective so I can truly work with the child in front of me the way they need me to,” she says. Combining her early life experiences encountering differences and hardship with the joy and soul nourishment experienced as a teacher has helped her to become who she is with the children in Rosebud. “Waldorf education allows for a soul-level connection between the student and teacher which has transformative potential. I appreciate the deep acknowledgement and expectation for the teacher to continue inner work to better serve the children and the community.”
White Rose Kindergarten Lead Teacher
Eloisa Rodriguez
Joined SWS 2005
Before joining the White Rose Kindergarten at Sacramento Waldorf School, Eloisa (she, they) worked as a Kindergarten Assistant and Gardening teacher at Cedar Springs Waldorf School and spent time as a Kindergarten teacher at East Bay Waldorf School. She holds a Waldorf Early Childhood Teaching Diploma.
Eloisa enjoys listening to music, rural living, vintage vehicles, family road trips, and camping.