Dr. John Johnson

Founder & Executive Director of Odyssey

In 1977, Dr. Johnson worked with three other educators to found Rainbow Mountain Children's School (RMCS) in Asheville, North Carolina. He continued his involvement with the school as a parent and Board member until 1991 when he returned as the Director of the school for nine years. Under his creative leadership, the school grew from a preschool to include elementary and middle school programs. Through 2006, he has served as an advisor to the school. An innovator in education, he introduced to Asheville an original curriculum focusing on multiple intelligences, student-led conferencing, service learning, mediation, and essential learning behaviors.

A catalytic figure in the on-going dialogue between science, spirituality, and healing, John has organized twenty-six conferences in support of this discussion. He was the international head of The Sufi Healing Order for twenty years and founded The Raphaelite Work, a method of healing and transformational process rooted in Sufism and updated by modern psychology and bodywork. He has shared his passion for life-long learning in teaching mysticism and spirituality in fourteen different countries.

John's degrees include a B.A: SUNY- Oswego 1970, an M.S in Education: Western Carolina University 1990, and a Th.D. Holos: Graduate Seminary, Springfield, Missouri, 2003. John is the father of three children (Aiden, 15, Alia, 22, and Noor, 30). With his wife, Angela Whitney, he co-directs Light of the Mountains Retreat Center near Asheville.
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Meg McFaddin

Assistant to the Executive Director

Meg received a B.A. in computer science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1984. After college, Meg worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as project manager and data processing coordinator. She helped create the first on-line database for the MIT library system and trained and supervised computer operations staff. After her work at MIT, Meg was a systems analyst for Fidelity Investment. Among other things she developed and delivered classroom training on Change Management System, wrote procedures for new system integration, and served on the contingency planning task force to develop a corporate-wide disaster preparedness plan. Following this corporate adventure, Meg spent ten years as the executive assistant to the CEO of Harvard Management Company, the fiscal management branch of Harvard University. There Meg managed calendar, mail, phone calls, and visitors, drafted routine correspondence, produced an annual letter describing investment results, arranged international travel, screened and responded to routine as well as sensitive press inquiries, as well as attended to a host of other responsibilities. She has recently moved to Asheville to be close to family, happily living in her new home with her cat, as she begins a new career at Odyssey.
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Pattie Frost Jones

Administrative Assistant

Pattie has an undergraduate degree from UNCA in environmental science with a focus on ecology and field biology and a masters degree in public administration with a focus on natural resource policy and environmental ethics and philosophy from Portland State University.

Pattie grew up in a rural setting, where contact with the natural world inspired her future passion for environmental preservation. Her work experiences include organizing and coordinating a recycling program for UNCA, working with nonprofit and grassroots organizations, serving as public outreach coordinator and as an activist with Greenpeace USA, and campaigning for Oregon ballot initiatives related to environmental protection.

Most recently, while working in the office at Rainbow Mountain Children's School, Pattie and her partner completed an earthship home near Marshall, NC. This five-year project truly combined her education and her experiences related to environmental preservation and low impact living, and provided the practical application of both passive and active solar technology and other green concepts.
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Arlaya Swan-Sullivan

Lead Preschool Teacher

Arlaya has lived in the Asheville area for 11 years and has worked with children for the past 15 years. Arlaya has been a childcare provider for children in her community and a home-schooling parent for her four daughters. She held a Morning Garden in her home for preschool aged children and recently was assistant teacher in the first grade at Rainbow Mountain Children's School. Her educational background has been in Waldorf Education, Multiple Intelligence Theory, Positive Discipline and Early Childhood Development. She studied with Katherine Holle at Warren Wilson College and with the Steiner Education Study Group for Teachers and Parents. Arlaya states that "joy is sharing with children the magic of discovering the natural world, storytelling, puppetry, creative play, pageantry, artful handwork, cooking and celebrations". In her spare time she can be found playing with her four daughters, crocheting rugs, reading or looking for fairies in the forest.
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Katherine Reese

Preschool Instructor

Katherine attended Warren Wilson College, North New Mexico College, and Santa Fe Community College, with a focus on psychology and early childhood education. Katherine brings depth and experience to the OCS preschool program. She was the owner and director of an Atlanta public school-approved after school program located at the Anne West Elementary School. She later worked as lead teacher at the Atlanta-based Oakhurst Cooperative Pre-school. Katherine is the mother of two daughters, Bella and Lilly, both enrolled at OCS.

Katherine is an avid fan of yoga and the outdoors. For seven years, Katherine worked as a group and individual yoga instructor at various facilities in metro Atlanta. She was a team leader of America Hiking Society volunteer work service to Kenai Fords National Park in Alaska. In pursuit of social justice and the love of travel, Katherine volunteered in building a health clinic in rural Kenya, and a school in southern Costa Rica.
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Erika Elliot

Preschool Instructor

Erika, a native of Peru, graduated from the University of Peru majoring in Communication Sciences and Theater. In Peru, she performed on several television programs and in live theater. Erika has lived in Asheville for several years, and during this time, has provided four different families with quality childcare.

A particular passion of Erika's is sharing her culture and language (a very pure form of Spanish) with children. At OCS she provides "mini Spanish moments" with our pre-school students each day. Other outlets of Erika's creativity are puppetry, and singing and dancing with our pre-school students.
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Megan Burns

Preschool Instructor

Megan Burns teaches our newly established three year olds’ program. She graduated from Rosary College with a degree in Elementary Education and Sociology and then worked for an organization called Family Matters. As Program Coordinator of the after school care program, Megan had the freedom to create enriching activities for children grades K-6th. These activities offered experiences in the arts and sciences, including theatre, and helped foster a connection to the greater community and the natural world. At Family Matters Megan received extensive training in Non-Violent Conflict Resolution, Positive Speaking, and Choices and Consequences methodologies. Megan embraces these ideas and fosters them in her own life and with her first grade and preschool daughters.

After leaving Family Matters to start her own family, Megan embarked on a journey of studying herbal medicine at the Chicago College of Healing Arts. Before coming to Odyssey, Megan was a teacher at the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine. She feels enriched by her connection to the plant world.
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Esmee Dorf

Preschool and Preschool After-school Teacher

Esmee has lived in California, Mexico, Montreal, and New York. Studying in English, French, and Spanish, has enabled her to connect with many cultures. Esmee's background in dance and understanding of the body led her to a rewarding career as a massage therapist, and she learned and applied many forms of healing techniques. She then studied sociology at Concordia University in Montreal and this, she feels, enhanced her world view. Working at Odyssey has furthered her understanding of the human experience through the eyes of children. Esmee looks forward to the challenges and rewards that childcare education has to offer.
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Mary Virginia Bunker

Kindergarten/First Grade Teacher

Mary Virginia is deeply committed to providing high quality education for young children. Mary Virginia has over twenty years of experience in holistic, experiential teaching. Her gifted teaching skills are most apparent in her ability to help children learn the appropriate use of personal power and discover their place in the hero's journey. Mary Virginia inspires the young student's awe of life, in part, by weaving mythology into daily lessons. The magical environment of her classroom and her talented story-telling have inspired many students and parents to say that they wish they could go back to kindergarten.

Mary Virginia has extensive experience applying developmentally appropriate educational theory to the classroom environment. She has repeatedly demonstrated her ability to effectively monitor, record, and communicate information about children to parents, school personnel, and resource professionals. A graduate of Loyola College of Maryland (Bachelor of Elementary and Special Education), Mary Virginia has also earned a Masters of Appalachian Studies from Appalachian State and a Masters of Library and Information Science from UNCG. She currently is a candidate for a post- masters degree from the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Samata Amy DeCori

Kindergarten/First Grade Teacher

Samata has a BA in Elementary Education from Warren Wilson College. With eight years of experience in working with children and two and half years as a first grade teacher assistant at Hall Fletcher Elementary School, Samata came to OCS initially as a pre-school and after-school program instructor. She has also worked as a counselor in the Odyssey Adventures Summer Program. In addition to teaching, Samata co-founded Sangita Devi, a kirtan group that meets weekly to share in devotional sacred music.

It is Samata's passion to create a loving, fun and open environment in which children will learn and grow.
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Edie McDowell

Second/Third Grade Teacher

Edie brings a wealth of experience to OCS! Edie attended Mars Hill College and received a B.A. in English with an Art minor in 1983. Edie performed graduate study work towards her Master of Arts degree in English, at Wake Forest University, with a Fellowship awarded August 1989 and renewed August 1990. She holds a North Carolina State Certification to teach English, grades 6-12 and Academically Gifted, grades K-12.

Edie's teaching experience is bi-coastal, having taught in both Washington State and North Carolina for over 24 years. In recent years, she taught at Hanger Hall and at Maccabi Academy, both in Asheville, as a writing teacher at Owen High School, and as a self-contained 6th grade classroom teacher at Madison Middle School. Her talents are not limited to teaching. Edie served as a curriculum consultant, and as a Librarian/Secretary for the Education Department and Curriculum Library at Mars Hill College. Edie also has experience as the Director of The Academically Gifted Program at New Hope Elementary School in Chapel Hill and as the Gifted Education Coordinator & Head Librarian at Evergreen Academy in Bothell, Washington.

Edie's daughters, Emma and Ellie, both attend OCS. In her free time—usually before the first rooster crows—Edie can be found running or lifting weights. She also enjoys summer afternoons at the Odyssey pool with her family.
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Sue Ross

Fourth/Fifth Grade Teacher

Sue is a graduate of Wake Forest University with a B.A. degree in English, and of Salem College where she received an M.A.T. degree in Elementary Education. While attending Wake Forest, Sue spent a semester studying in Venice, Italy and became infected with the travel bug. Sue has taught in international schools in Morocco, Vietnam and Zambia, and has taught on native soil as well in Hickory and Forsyth County. She lived and worked in England (selling table cloths) and Italy (teaching English). She has worked as a specialist in the areas of reading and academically gifted education, has taught high school English, and has experience with assorted combinations of 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades. Sue also enjoys working with students who are in the process of acquiring English.

Sue hails from the wilds of upstate NY, where she grew up surrounded by fruit orchards, woods and Lake Ontario. At age 10, she decided to become an author and part-time social worker. She enjoys writing, reading, photography, and travel, among other things. Sue was a newspaper copy editor in a previous life. She is thrilled to be living in Asheville and enjoys looking at the mountains every day.
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Chynna Avery

Assistant Teacher for 2/3 and 4/5

Chynna is very excited to return to Odyssey this year. She has a bachelor's degree in Art Education from Ohio State University and has taught using a hands-on approach for 8 years. Her past experience includes working as a kindergarten teacher at The Goddard School in Columbus, Ohio, cultural arts teacher for The Children's Museum of Manhattan, and K-4 assistant teacher at The Little Red School House in Manhattan. She is also the designer of Chynnaa: Contemporary Body Adornment, her beaded jewelry business. In her spare time she loves to travel, garden, read, and hike through the beautiful mountains of WNC.
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Kalyan Volpe

Assistant Director
Middle School Homeroom, Science, and Math Teacher

Kalyan states that education is both his chosen vocation and his passion. He teaches primarily by guiding, inspiring and encouraging his students to unfold and embrace the unique and divine natures that reside within each of them. He is committed to a life of self-realization and service to humanity, and is a dedicated family man.

Kalyan served as a head teacher at PSOLI in Merrick N.Y for five years. During his tenure he and a co-teacher taught classes of 13 to 19 students employing teaching methods that were holistic, child-centered and experiential. He also served as the Head Teacher at Interac in Fukuoka, Japan where he was responsible for the recruitment, training, and assessment of 15 teachers. Kalyan aided in curriculum planning, resource development, designed and led cross-cultural training seminars, and taught English as a second language. He has his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Connecticut, and his M.A in Education from Goddard College in Vermont. His masters' thesis focused on the design of holistic elementary schools, and included extensive research into various teaching methodologies and techniques.
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Isaac Clay

High School Homeroom and Middle/High School History Teacher

Isaac is a graduate of UNC-Asheville with a BA in History. Upon graduating, Isaac entered the teaching profession at Asheville High School, where he taught both honors and standard world history. While teaching at AHS, Isaac served on several committees addressing such issues as student behavior, freshman transition, and senior exit projects. He also created and implemented lessons for an upper-level current events elective.

Isaac grew up in a large family on the coast of South Carolina, and his interest in working with young people began in the third grade with the birth of his younger brother, and has matured through his work in camps, retreats, and schools across the country and the world. Isaac spent two years in India, where he guided the physical and educational journeys of study-abroad participants, focusing on religion, history, service, and cross-cultural interaction. Upon his return to Asheville, the desire to return to the classroom emerged with the goal of infusing education with a deeper sense of community and personal responsibility. Isaac encourages a passion for truth, discovery, and personal growth in his students. In his spare time he can be found in his garden or on his skateboard.
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Laura Bell

Middle/High School Language Arts Teacher

Laura holds Illinois social sciences, language arts, and middle school endorsements. At the Floyd T. Binns Middle School in Culpeper, Virginia, where she worked prior to coming to Odyssey Community School, she participated in a number of projects. She was a member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools committee for school improvement in the area of curriculum. Laura created Standards of Learning practice tests for English content. She collaborated with a special education teacher to plan lessons for different learning levels in language arts and history. She led the "Battle of the Books" team!

On a more personal level, Laura's great passion is dance. She was a premier competitive highland dancer for many years and competed in many states as well as once in Scotland.

She also played the snare drum in a bagpipe band in Illinois. She loves highland games and went to Canada a few years ago to watch the North American bagpipe championships. Her father was from Scotland and most of her paternal family still lives there.
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Teshale Engliz Byan

High School Algebra, Physical Science and Phys.Ed. Teacher

Teshale was born in Ethiopia and attended Addis Ababa University, studying civil engineering for four years. In 2006 he moved from Ethiopia to attend Warren Wilson College and graduated with a B.A. in Mathematics. Teshale is a second generation Byan to graduate from Warren Wilson, as his father was a student there in the early 1970's. Teshale's eight years of experience as tutor of mathematics, chemistry, physics and science, his job as a resident assistant at Warren Wilson, and his status as a sibling in a family of seven children yield an natural segue to a teaching career, as confirmed by the high praises of our middle school students. Teshale has also worked as a counselor in our Odyssey Adventures Summer Program.

Teshale is our co-teacher of physical education and wellness, and is our soccer coach. His love and mastery of soccer is a source of great joy for him. Teshale played soccer for several clubs in Ethiopia, for Addis Ababa University, and on the Ethiopian national soccer team. He also played for Warren Wilson College.
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Maureen Matthews

High School Assistant Teacher

Maureen received a doctoral degree in chiropractic medicine from Sherman College in 1983. She practiced as a health care provider from 1983 - 2000 and then decided to enter the profession of childhood education. Prior to arriving at Odyssey, Maureen worked at Rainbow Mountain Children's School and The Mountain Area Child and Family Center. She has merged her passion for nature, landscaping, horticulture, and floral design, with her scientific and health background to support the development of learning environments emphasizing human-nature symbiosis, harmony, and mutual empowerment. Maureen has presented for the Western Regional Early Childhood Conference on Music and Movement. She presented at the Smart Start Regional Conference on Childhood in Peril—The Necessity to Reconnect Children to the Natural World. She is a member of the "Presence and Practice" program at the Center for Education, Imagination, and the Natural World.
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Lucia Bertini

Kindergarten through 10th grade Spanish and Phys.Ed. Teacher

Lucia is a native of Ecuador and co-teaches PE and wellness. She received her B.A. at the Universidad Poltitecnica Salesiana, Quito, Ecuador in 2002. In 2004, she received a Masters in New Technologies Applied to Education from the Universidad de Alicante, in Barcelona, Spain. Integrating Howard Gardner's multiple intelligence approach with hands-on, experiential education, Lucia taught ESL, reading and writing, and Spanish grammar at the elementary level in Quito. Lucia's approach to teaching Spanish at the earlier levels is through games, projects, and sports.

Lucia loves the outdoors and physical activity. Lucia brings her experience as a competitive soccer and volleyball player in Ecuador to OCS as a soccer and volleyball coach. She is passionate about hiking and camping and has climbed several peaks and volcanoes over 15,000 feet. She has practiced and taught Pilates, yoga, and aerobics for many years.
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Melinda Morse

Art Instructor for Fourth through Tenth Grades

Melinda graduated from UNC-Asheville with a B.A. in Literature and Language. She continued her education at Mountain Phoenix School for Art in Flat Rock, North Carolina where she studied for 2 1/2 years under Jean Lindabury and Asheville's famed Vadim Bora. Melinda's experience includes two years as an assistant teacher at the Child Development Center in Jackson, Tennessee, at which time she attended to special needs children who represented a wide range of developmental levels. She also served professionally as a volunteer counselor on the HOPE unit at Park Ridge Hospital.

Melinda has lived in the Asheville area since 1986. She especially loves working with life drawing, and enjoys teaching others to see the beauty of the human form. She has spent many hours volunteering at her children's schools serving as a board member, chairperson of the school's visioning committee, and as assistant teacher for the OCS middle school. She has two sons, Tristan and Ethan, both enrolled at OCS. She has been a dedicated wife and mother since 1986. Melinda is drawn to sunlight, water and trees and can often be found hanging out with kids laughing, singing and dancing!
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Robert Fochler

Elementary/Middle School After-school Teacher

Robert, Odyssey's certified elder community member is seventy-one years and counting. Robert views his duties as his "true heart-dharma" and fourth career. In the 1950's Robert was a manager for Western Union Telegraph. From there he moved to take on managing a small town radio station in Western New York. His third career was as a CEO of two different Chambers of Commerce in Western New York. After spending three years with Mary Virginia Bunker in a Kindergarten setting as a Foster Grandparent, Robert received his North Carolina Early Childhood Credentials from AB Tech and worked a year at the Irene Wortham Center's childcare center prior to coming to OCS.

An avid tennis player, Robert hopes to offer tennis coaching at OCS. He is a nature lover, and enjoys chopping firewood for his stove and hiking to the many WNC waterfalls.
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