Community Bios
Cedarwood Community Biographies
At Cedarwood, our community of committed families and educators comes together to create a balanced and individualized educational experience for all of our children. We strive to demonstrate to our children daily how a small group of caring individuals can work together as a community toward shared interests and a common goal. Below are the family members and teachers who keep Cedarwood running smoothly on a weekly basis.
Irina Ly – Founder, Head of School, Enrichment Fridays Facilitator
Irina graduated from the N.A. Nekrasov Pedagogical College #1, St. Petersburg, Russia majoring in Child Development and Elementary Education. Maturing as a young adult she questioned many things about the ways she was taught. Deep in her heart, she knew there had to be a better way, and she devoted her professional career to finding this way. Irina earned a master’s degree in Elementary Education with a minor in Humanities from Herzen State Pedagogical University, St. Petersburg, Russia. For more than twenty years, she has worked as a teacher, tutor, camp counselor, program coordinator, and director in a number of schools and programs in both America and Russia. Over the years it became clear to her that the progressive approach to education was the answer. Since then, she wholeheartedly devoted her professional career to increasing awareness about experiential education among teachers, parents, and other community stakeholders. At Cedarwood Irina advises the team of teachers and volunteer parents with wisdom from her vast amount of experience.
Erica Simpson – Lower Elementary School Teacher
Hello!! My name is Erica Simpson and I am extremely excited for this opportunity to teach at Cedarwood, and can’t wait to meet everyone. I am married to Derek Simpson and we have 2 girls, Taylor and Amie. I graduated from Wingate University in 2004 with a degree in elementary education. I then went on to teach Kindergarten for 8 years at Indian Trail Elementary and then 2 years teaching 2nd grade. I then decided to stay home with my then newborn, Amie, and began homeschooling Taylor. I found out about Cedarwood through a friend when my husband and I decided to enroll Taylor back in school and was very pleased with what we saw. I am thrilled to now be a part of the Cedarwood team and looking forward to a fantastic year!!
Natallia Laneuskaya – Russian Language /Programming Teacher (Elementary), Preschool Assistant
Natallia is from Minsk, Belarus. She graduated from the Belarusian State University with a Master’s Degree in Mathematics. For several years after graduation she worked as a computer programmer, but she always dreamt of being a teacher. Natallia believed that being a teacher would allow a unique opportunity of being in the process of constant development and giving back to others. Her dream came true when she first became a Computer Science Teacher at a secondary school in Belarus. Natallia has 28 years of teaching experience at all grade levels. In addition to being a Computer Science Teacher, Natallia also taught Logic in elementary school and was
a Math and Computer Programming tutor. Natallia’s professional goals and teaching philosophy match Cedarwood’s goals and philosophy. Natallia’s professional credo can be summarized by the words of the great philosopher Immanuel Kant: The principal need is to teach children to think.
Natallia hopes to assist with forming strong personalities who can think outside of the box.
Juliia Kotenko – Community Maintenance Volunteer Chair (School Council Member), Preschool Lead Teacher
Julia’s family discovered Cedarwood when they were looking for a unique, small, progressive, connected with nature exploration, holistic educational place for their son. He started Preschool here at 3, and now he is 6 and he goes to 1 Grade. She is grateful for the privilege to be a part of a Council, team that constantly creates and implements plans for developing Cedarwood as a school and community. The year 2020 showed us how important it is to save our school and make it thriving. We think big, we generate ideas and put our hands on what we can do to make the school environment better for the kids. Everything in Cedarwood was made by parents! As your child begins to attend Cedarwood Academy, you join in as co-creator of his/her best educational experience. As a Community Engagement Coordinator, Julia builds bridges by gauging interests and needs of different people and explores ways to fulfill them.
Julia joined Cedarwood in 2017, when she was looking for a preschool for her son Roman. She gained a Master’s Degree in Social Pedagogy and Practical Psychology (Zaporizhzhya State University, Ukraine) and continued education in the Experimental Course of Art Therapy (Moscow Institute of Psychology, Russia). Julia mostly worked with adults as a corporate HR manager and Editor-in-Chief (for magazines). She came to the USA from Europe and found her place at Cedarwood as an involved parent and now as a Teacher. She says she re-discovers this place and community each year, and find more reasons to stay and grow together here, with families. At Cedarwood Preschool she found an amazing opportunity to implement and develop her perception and knowledge as a psychologist. She is a sensitive and caring person, oriented to see and feel the world of each child, to walk in his shoes. Julia enjoys being a part of the environment where children go through exploring experience, she learns how to implement the art of a child-led approach, to think one step ahead of the class and never stand in their way.
Alyona Harp – Maintenance Coordinator
Alyona is from Ukraine, but also lived and studied in Germany for seven years. Speaking four languages fluently (German, English, Russian, and Ukranian), she has a bachelor degree in Foreign Language Education from the Higher Education Institution Kharkiv University of Humanities “People’s Ukrainian Academy”, and an associate degree in German and Slavic Language Education from Heidelberg University, Germany. While studying in Germany, Alyona also gained six years of experience working with children in preschool environments. Alyona originally came to Cedarwood in 2012 in search of a preschool for her son. She wanted a place where he could be free to explore in nature, learning through play in a multi-age environment. In addition to fostering a rich multilingual environment at Cedarwood, Alyona began individual tutoring in 2015 based on the needs and interests of each child. “I look at each child to see what he likes, then I see what I can give him in a way he will enjoy. For instance, one child only seemed interested in sharks, so all of our math and reading lessons were based on a book about sharks. Before long he was counting to 100.” In 2016 Alyona decided to try a new career in real estate and continued to be involved at Cedarwood in a new role of Maintenance Coordinator and Marketing Support. Alyona’s two children attend Cedarwood.
Marina Shanefelter – School Age Assistant and Dance Teacher
Marina is a well-known person in the Russian-speaking community of Charlotte. She represents the face of Russian-speaking community at most cultural festivals. Marina came from Estonia, where she received her education: 10 years of ballet academy, 4 years in the ensemble of modern dance, and 5 years of learning Flamenco and Russian-Gypsy dances. Marina can teach any kind of dances and she is really good at it.
Kristi and Curt Rigney
Kristie is an Associate Enrichment Fridays’ Teacher and Chair of our School Council and a Hospitality Coordinator.
Kristie does not like to speak about herself, and she is a true treasure for our community. Kristie is involved in several aspects of the community. You can count on Kristie if you need to find a really cool STEAM project, coordinate a fieldtrip or an event, and even to collect detailed paperwork for a grant, to name a few.
Curt is our At-Large Council Member. He works on an important task: creating a proposal for the school expansion based on our envisioned plans and desires.
Miriam Ciscato – Middle School Teacher
Miriam is originally from The Netherlands but grew up in St. Lucia and Indonesia, partially home-schooled and attending international schools. After graduating high school she went back to Europe to obtain her bachelors of education majoring in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL), knowing that she could work anywhere in the world with this degree. She moved to Italy where she met her husband and together they moved to Mexico for eight years. Later on, with their three sons, they lived in Hong Kong and Mainland China before finally moving to and settling in the USA. Over the years, Miriam continued to follow her passion for child development by studying Play Therapy, Healing through Nutrition, Dyslexia Tutoring and Phonics. Meanwhile she’s worked as a teacher is different settings, such as Spanish/Italian/Dutch/ESL teacher at language institutes, therapist and tutor of children with special developmental needs, dyslexia screening and OT assistance, and lead preschool teacher at an international school. The last few years here in Charlotte she’s been substituting and obtained certification as a Medical Interpreter (English/Dutch/Italian/Spanish). She is enthusiastic to be working at Cedarwood because it completely aligns with her philosophies on the developmentally appropriate teaching of the whole child, believing that children need to be heard, given freedom within natural boundaries, and taught that they can make the ‘right’ choices in all circumstances through intrinsic motivation rather than following rules out of fear of punishment. This position also allows her to tap into what actually always happened to be her own academic strength in math and (physical) sciences as opposed to languages.
Jennifer Ferrara – Lower Elementary School Teacher
Jennifer Ferrara is a recent transplant from Florida where she holds teaching certificates in the areas of Primary (Prek-3rd); Exceptional Student Education(K-1) and Reading(K-12). She graduated from Florida State and Nova Southeastern University majoring in Child development/Family relations and Psychology. Having been trained in the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program Jennifer served as a lead teacher through her school’s IB accreditation process. She participates in grant review seasonally with Florida DOE Office of Public School Choice. Jennifer’s teaching experience has been in public charter schools and small school development while employed as a substitute, classroom teacher, mentor, student services coordinator/ese specialist and interim principal.
Over the years, her other joy has been supporting families in maternal child health/adult education in birth centers, public health and clinical practice before relocating to Gaston County with her husband. They have three children, ages 23, 20 and 9. Prior to joining the Cedarwood community in 2019-2020 as a substitute and Art Teacher, she was homeschooling her youngest, Salem. Jennifer wholeheartedly embraces a developmentally appropriate, holistic approach to life long education, weaving inquiry and projected based learning approaches throughout.
Lucas Ciscato – After School Acting and Filmmaking Teacher, Enrichment Friday Assisting Teacher
Lucas Ciscato gained his expertise in the field of acting and filmmaking by spending the past 4 years in theater classes, taking professional online courses on filmmaking and story writing. He has acted in five shows. He also works at his church as part of the tech crew, and films the online church services. Lucas serves as the President of the Videography and Photography Club and Video Producer for the International Thespian Society at Providence High School
Dr. Stephanie Landry – Upper Elementary School Teacher.
“Some people are born to be teachers. Stephanie is one of them.” – said one of the parents from the cohort of elementary students that Stephanie’s taught during the covid epidemic.
Dr. Stephanie Landry completed her Bachelor of Music Degree from Appalachian State University, a Master of Music Degree from The University of Alabama (Roll Tide), and a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has been tutoring and teaching students for over ten years since she began studying at ASU. This past year (2020) she tutored a close set of students through the pandemic who attended school in CMS. She is very passionate about teaching and helping every individual student with their specific needs. Currently Stephanie is pursuing an online certificate from NASM for Personal Training and she is an active bodybuilder. I has two awesome Greyhounds that she calls her children. Her significant other has three dogs. Their family of five dogs keeps them active. Stephanie has many talents. She is well versed in educating students of all ages. We are delighted that Stephanie joined our team.
Stacey Rosebrock – Lower Elementary School Assitant Teacher
Stacey is thrilled to be a part of Cedarwood’s learning community! She lives in Tega Cay, SC with her husband, their 18 year-old son, and daughter who will be a senior at Clemson this year. Stacey received her Masters of Arts in Teaching Secondary English from the Citadel, SC. Her teaching career encompasses many educational philosophies and perspectives. She has taught middle school in the public school system and homeschooled her two children up to high school. During their four years at a homeschool co-op, she taught Latin, English, Writing, Journalism, Art, History, and Literature. She also enjoyed directing four school plays there. She created and taught summer art camps in the Tega Cay community, and enjoyed working at Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens as the Education Registrar. For the last three years, Stacey taught online ESL classes to many wonderful children in China. Stacey loves being with children because they invigorate her soul and teach her valuable life lessons. Stacey loves being in nature for some of the same reasons.
Yurou Ma – Preschool Assitant Teacher
Yurou is a mom of two children. She is passionate about child development to facilitate children’s experiences that embrace their natural curiosity of learning and support their emotional development. From volunteering in her children’s schools, Yurou is taking it to the next level as she embraces the professional path of working with children.
Yurou holds Bachelor’s degree in mathematics. She has a few talents: she is a level 8 pianist (for those two do not know there is a total of 10 levels) and she is a native speaker of the Mandarin language.
Sydney Jarrell – Elementary and Middle School Assistant Teacher
Sydney completed her BS in 2021 with a major in Psychology and a minor in Spanish from Wingate University. After graduation, she earned her certification to become a registered behavior technician (RBT). As an RBT, she’s very passionate about being able to create special bonds and make therapy a fun experience! She also is working towards her Masters Degree in the Counseling and Development Program at Winthrop University. She recently moved to Fort Mill, SC where she now resides as a graduate student and dog mom of a rambunctious, yet adorable puppy.
During her free time, she loves cooking, watching TV, and soaking up the outdoors! She’s eager to be a part of the Cedarwood family, as her spiritual mindset and love of nature pairs well with this school’s principles and core beliefs.