Our Leadership



Marcy Axness and her husband John have been Highland Hall parents for eleven years: Eve began in Ms. McNulty’s kindergarten and is currently in the high school class of 2009; Ian began in the 4th grade, graduated from high school in ’05 and is now studying music at Oberlin College. Marcy’s previous leadership roles at Highland Hall have included Annual Giving chair, 7th-grade room-rep, various committees, and coordinator of Merrie Schmidt’s 8th-grade rafting trip.

Marcy is an early development specialist, adjunct professor at Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, and advisory board member for The Crib, a transitional home for young mothers in crisis. She writes and speaks internationally on attachment, society, and the young child, and is a leading authority on adoption and prenatal / perinatal development. Marcy has a private counseling practice in the Los Angeles area specializing in fertility and early parenting; she also trains adoption, education, and childcare professionals on new findings in early development and their implications for practice.


Tony Blake has been at Highland Hall for 11 years. He has two daughters who graduated from Highland Hall and they are both currently enrolled at Smith College in Massachusetts. Tony began his volunteer work on the Marketing and Outreach committee and then served as P.A. president for two years. He has been on the Board for six years, serving as President the past two, has served on the Finance committee and is currently a member of the Building Committee. He has served on panels for the Healthy Waldorf Schools Conference, been co-chair of Annual Giving, emceed numerous Faires, been the auctioneer for several live auctions and wrote and directed the fundraising Waldorf spoof “Suddenly Steiner” as well as being the guest speaker for the High School graduating class of 2001.

Tony has a degree in Economics and spent two years teaching elementary education in New York City before moving to Citibank where he spent six years as a loan officer. The past twenty years he has worked in show business as a Television writer/producer.

Jon Gardner has been a parent at Highland Hall for 5 years. He and his wife Lori have two children that are currently attending Highland Hall. Jon has served on various committees for Highland Hall including chairing the Development Committee in 2006. During his time with that committee, he helped work on the Strategic Plan. Jon currently serves as a Trustee on the Board of Directors for his Temple. 

 Jon has over 20 years in the Insurance industry including the last five years as owner of his own Insurance and Financial Services Agency. His business has been recognized on several occasions by the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce, including being named Small Business of the Year in 2005. Jon is very active in his community and with the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce.


Joan Newton has been teaching singing at Highland Hall for 19 years. She has two children who attended Highland Hall from Kindergarten through twelfth grade and graduated in 1997 and 2002. Joan graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor's degree in voice and comparative literature.

She taught voice privately for ten years before doing the Waldorf Teacher Training at WISC. Joan is interested in servant leadership and has completed two graduate courses in leadership at Chapman University.





Hasib Saliefendic and his wife Tracy have a daughter, Anisa, in the 11th grade, and are in their 13th year at Highland Hall and loving it. Hasib has previously served as President and vice-president of the Parent Association, and in his 5th year as a member of the Board of Trustees, he completed a year serving as Board President. Tracy has previously served as the treasurer for the Parent Association and has been elected as PA President.

Hasib has over 19 years of experience as an I.T. professional and is founder of Entoactive, an IT services company, specializing in custom application and database development for insurance and financial industries.




Mark L. Sherin, CFP, CLU has been a member of our Board since the beginning of 2005, has spent several years on the Development Committee, and has been a member of the Marketing and Outreach Committee since September, 2005. He and his wife Karen have two children. Zachary began in nursery in 2001 and is now very much enjoying the second grade and Nicholas is very busy in the Kindergarten.


Mark has been involved with a number of non-profit organizations in many different capacities, including Camp Director, Basketball Coach, Teen Advisor and Fundraiser. In addition, he has served on the Boards of the YMCA Pacific Region High School Conference, the Conejo Valley YMCA, and the Life Underwriters Association of Los Angeles. He is currently active on the Board of the Ventura County Heart Association.

Professionally, he is an advisor with Sagemark Consulting, a national financial and estate planning firm providing advice and financial products to clients that are among the wealthiest one percent of the families in the country.

       



Elinor Reid and her husband Saul Rubinek have been parents at Highland Hall for 13 years. They have 2 children at the school, Sam in the 7th grade and Hannah in the 11th grade. Elinor joined the Board of Trustees in 2003 and was recently elected to the the postion of Board  President.  In previous years she has served on the Safety committee, the Parent Education Resource Committee, and has been President of the Parent Association.

She has had the opportunity to experience many different aspects of the school through volunteering, ranging from room rep in her son’s 1st grade and her daughter’s 8th grade , to co-chairing a winter fair to directing (with her husband) her daughter’s 8th grade play.

Elinor studied English literature and philosophy at the University of Toronto and in her spare time works in the film business as a producer and a writer.



Andrew Sapin served as vice president of the PA in 1995 and President in 1996 at which time he joined the Board of Trustees. During the succeeding 11 years he served as vice president and then President for 4 years. His service included leadership on many important committees and projects that have helped the school to gain maturity and financial stability. The Sapins have been parents at the school for the last 15 years. Their son Adam is currently a sophomore at UC Davis and their son Thomas is a member of the 11th grade class.

A partner in a local CPA firm for the last 30 years, Mr. Sapin has provided high quality accounting and tax services to a wide range of clients in the greater LA area. He is currently looking for wealthy clients who wish to pay sizable accounting fees without batting an eye.







Karen Grant has been a member of the Board for several years. She is a long time teacher in our High School and was a co-sponsor for last year’s graduating class. She and her husband Bill, have two children at the school, Kelly who is in 9th grade and Connor who is in 6th grade. She served on the Hiring committee for many years and currently is an active member of the Parent Education Resource committee.






Tiffany Harris and her husband, Quent Schierenberg, are the proud parents of Jade and Colin Schierenberg who both attend Highland Hall. Jade is in the 1st grade and in her 5th year at Highland Hall. Colin is in his first year in the nursery. Tiffany joined the Board of Trustees in 2007. She serves as the Annual Giving Chair at Highland Hall as well as serving on the Capital Campaign Committee. She is also the room rep for her daughter Jade’s class.
 
In her professional life, Tiffany serves as the co-founder and Executive Director of Shane’s Inspiration, a non-profit organization whose mission is dedicated to eliminating bias against children with disabilities through the creation of Universally Accessible Playgrounds and programs. Shane’s Inspiration has 12 playgrounds currently opened in the Los Angeles community, with another 70 playgrounds in development from Los Angeles to New York and as far away as Cambodia. Shane’s Inspiration also has three supporting programs, including an educational program currently being implemented in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Tiffany also serves on the board of Changing Perceptions, Theater by the Blind and Physically Disabled in Los Angeles.


Ed Eadon has been the Administrative Director at Highland Hall since 2002 and completed his Waldorf Administration Certificate from Sunbridge College in 2005. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Alabama and a Master’s degree in Astrogeophysics from the University of Colorado. He finished an earlier career in the military where he worked as a meteorologist and space environment forecaster. He is married to Anne LeBaron, a composer and professor at the California Institute of the Arts. They have a daughter, Yvonne, in the tenth grade.



Jazmin Ferreccio has been teaching since 1991 and has been a member of the Highland Hall community for eleven years. Her sons Marcos and Armand are in the seventh and ninth grades. Currently, Jazmin teaches Dramatic Literature to the eleventh grade and a study of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the tenth grade. She is also the seventh, ninth and eleventh grade Spanish teacher. Jazmin has contributed to the governance of our school in the capacity of High School Chair and as a member of the Hiring Committee.

Angela Dukich Karaiskos graduated from Highland Hall in 1980 and joined the faculty in 1992. Her three children, Nikolas (HH ‘06), Christopher (‘10) and Alicia (’11), are third generation Waldorf educated. Angela now works as a lead teacher in the Little Birds classroom. Angela began her work with the Leadership Team in June of 2006 after having served on the Critical Response Committee and the Buildings and Grounds Committee. She continues her work leading the Accreditation Team, the group that coordinates the required process in which Highland Hall proves its commitment to academic and professional excellence to the greater community.

Noah Williams attended Highland Hall from 5th through 9th Grade when the campus was located in North Hollywood. After getting his BA from UCSB he taught games to 6th through 9th grades while doing graduate work at CSUN. After two years in the military, he was hired full time to teach History, English, and Sponsor the new ninth grade in 1971, the year after the High School was started. He has sponsored and co-sponsored seven classes. Noah was a member of the College of Teachers, and twice served on the Board of Directors in the 1980's and 1990's. He has three children, Josh Elliott ('87), Sonja ('88), and Audrey ('90) who were "lifers". He has been on the Leadership Team since October, 2007.