Teachers & Staff

Dr. Rebecca Bruton

Middle School Math Teacher

Rebecca grew up in mid-Missouri and attended the University of Missouri where she earned a B.A. in mathematics education and an M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction. She taught high school math for four years before returning to MU. During her time at the University, Rebecca earned a Ph. D in mathematics education, taught mathematics methods courses to future teachers, worked on research focused on mathematics teacher knowledge, and supervised teaching interns. Rebecca holds a Missouri Teaching Certificate in middle school and high school mathematics. 

Rebecca values problem-based and place-based learning that allows students to make connections with mathematics and offers applications to the world around them. She encourages student collaboration and discussion to help build a deeper understanding of mathematics. Rebecca is excited to join City Garden School as she believes in education that supports the individual student and meets the needs of the whole person. She hopes to foster a love of learning and nurture and develop knowledgeable stewards of our earth. 

Rebecca loves spending time with her husband, Jake, and their children and pets. As a family, they enjoy traveling and experiencing nature through camping. Rebecca enjoys hiking, sewing, card games, paddle-boarding, tending to her yard, and learning about plants and birds.

Rosie Campbell

5th grade teacher

Raised in the countryside of western Missouri, Rosie has had a lifelong appreciation for all-things outdoors. She moved to Colorado and stayed there for over a decade exploring, camping, and skiing in the mountains. After completing her B.A. in History and Environmental Studies at Regis University, she worked in the Education Department at Colorado’s state history museum developing environmental history curriculum and leading K-12 school group tours. She also served as a counselor and Assistant Director of a youth history camp in Colorado’s San Luis Valley for several summers. 2017 she completed her M.A. in History at the University of Colorado-Denver. That same year, she became Associate Director of an oral history center at Regis University where she directed student internships, taught oral history classes, and completed an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction Writing. 

In 2019, she began working at a Waldorf-inspired Willow Tree in Columbia, MO. It was there where her knowledge of and appreciation for Waldorf-inspired education flourished. After teaching 8th grade at a local public school in 2022, Rosie was affirmed in her belief that Waldorf education meets children's academic, mental, emotional, physical, and social development. 

Neeley Current

1st/2nd grade teacher

Drawn to the beauty, simplicity, and interconnectedness of Waldorf education, Neeley Current was City Garden School’s first Board President. Working with teachers, the board, and parents she was instrumental in transforming the vision of City Garden School into a fully operational organization. Now, as a grade teacher, she has been able to pursue her love of teaching by directly serving the children at the school.

Neeley earned a B.A. in German and Anthropology and a Master’s in Information Science and Learning Technologies from the University of Missouri. She worked for a decade at the University of Missouri College of Education, where she helped run a user-centered design lab and an educational research center. Prior to that, she was a librarian at Stephens College where she also studied dance, music, and film. She continues to learn dance & movement education from Nancy Stoy and most recently she studied storytelling from Dr. Eric Miller at the World Storytelling Institute.

Neeley loves dancing and restful time at home with her family.

Jody Frank

Assistant Kindergarten Teacher

Ms. Frank has always been very fond of the outdoors. She started her time with City Garden as a summer camp teacher in 2021. While walking through the woods and playing in the creeks at Rock Bridge State Park, she knew that City Garden was the perfect fit.

Ms. Frank has a bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri, School of Natural Resources, with an emphasis on Natural Resource Management. She has worked as an Outreach and Education Coordinator at Prairie Fork Conservation Area, where she spent many sunny days teaching children about different aspects of the environment. She very much enjoys working with children and seeing the wonder of nature through their eyes. She has spent much of her career teaching and spending time with children of all ages. 

Ms. Frank enjoys hiking, gardening, reading, and knitting. She loves to be outside with her two children, Olive and Ezra, and her husband Indi. They enjoy traveling and finding fun adventures together.

Monica Everett Frayne

Handwork Teacher

Monica Everett began her journey at City Garden in 2019 as a Summer Camp teacher, where she spent many June days romping through Rockbridge State Park, skipping rocks with our adventurous crew of children. She went on to become a classroom teacher and is now the handwork teacher. Her passion for outdoor education stems from early childhood, which she spent roaming the forests and creeks of Indiana.

Monica has a degree in Sustainable Agriculture from the University of Missouri. She went on to study and later teach at The School of Forest Medicine, a forest-based herbalism school in Oregon. While traveling through North, Central, and South America she found herself immersed in nature communion, whether it was through organic and permaculture farming, wild harvesting herbs, teaching preschool, or supporting a summer camp at an off-grid education farm. Monica also has a background in dance and music and is a homebirth Midwife.

Monica is grateful to have found a home in Missouri and at City Garden. She loves exploring the world through the lens of wonder and beauty with the children. In her free time she is often studying, gardening, hiking, and making music or nature-based art.

Micha Frayne

Woodworking Teacher

Mr. Frayne has worked with wood in one form or another for as long as he can remember: wooden spool tractors, rubber band and clothespin pea-flingers, walnut shell creatures and marble mazes led up to scrapwood go-carts, refinishing furniture, and building tree houses. 

He learned a lot about tools and wood by watching and helping his Dad and Mr. Binnette, a Quebeqois master carpenter, build an addition on the family house — a project that stretched through almost all his years in grade school. Since then, Mr. Frayne has sharpened, refurbished, and up-cycled antique hand tools, remodeled three houses, and fashioned musical instruments, bookshelves, boxes, wooden spoons, jewelry, and knitting needles. 

While he appreciates the value of a good electric drill driver for some jobs, most of the time, he prefers to use only his hands and old-fashioned non-electric hand tools. Learning to work with these noble tree and plant fibers in this most intimate and direct way means learning to listen and respond to what they have to teach us. This is a lifetime journey with many rewards. Mr. Frayne hopes to inspire in students an appreciation for their beauty and value, and to pass on some of the respect and gratitude he feels for these immeasurable gifts from the plant world!

Ali Freeman

Aftercare Teacher

Ali Freeman has almost a decade of teaching in kindergarten and first grade.  She graduated from University of Central Missouri with a double major in Early Childhood and Elementary Education.  

After having her son in 2018, she decided to step away from the classroom to be a stay-at-home mama to her son (Lochlan).  During that time she found her creative energy and started her own small business, Eclectic Ali Design; where she combines her love of walking the creeks and designing one-of-a-kind art with the treasures that were left behind.  

Ali loves this new opportunity to step back into education as the Friday Aftercare teacher, time spent with children and being one with nature...a place she is so happy to be.  She is excited to get her feet wet again and grow in an environment that fosters a love of learning through nature-based opportunities.   

Madeline Good

4th grade teacher

Madeline Good grew up in Indiana within a family of educators before graduating from Vanderbilt University with a B.S. in elementary education and child studies. She taught both third grade and eighth grade mathematics in Missouri public schools while earning her M.Ed. in educational leadership as well as her principal's certification. After five years in the classroom, she left teaching and entered a full-time PhD program at the University of Missouri studying educational policy, where she fulfilled both teaching and research assistantships during her studies. She will be completing her dissertation over the next two years, which focuses on how educators understand teacher expertise.

Outside of education, Madeline most loves spending time with her family and friends, especially outdoors! She also loves to read, exercise, attend concerts, and listen to podcasts. Madeline is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to teach at City Garden, as it has given her a chance to re-enter the classroom in a student-centered educational environment that values the mind, body, and spirit of children every day.

Emily Harryman

3rd grade teacher

Emily has always felt a call to care for others through teaching, and the holistic and integrated approach of Waldorf education piqued her interest several years ago. She holds a degree in Early Childhood Education from Rasmussen College and has been an educator for more than a decade. Emily has nurtured and taught children from infancy through high school in various settings before finding her way to City Garden in 2020. Emily led the school’s forest-based afterschool program at Camp Takimina and the summer camp program at Rock Bridge State Park. She is delighted to now fulfill her role as class teacher. 

Emily strives to create a loving and nurturing environment for all students, encouraging the children in her care to use their intuition and individual talents to better the world. Having grown up exploring the woods and creek beds of mid-Missouri, Emily has a deep love and respect for the beautiful land where we hold our outdoor school. When she is not teaching, you can find Emily hiking and foraging in the woods, working in her garden, and spending time with her partner and their bunnies.

Hailey Jackson

Administrative Assistant

Hailey Jackson is originally from Columbia and the rural areas surrounding it. She is the maker behind The Traveling Bee, a local small business she operated for six years. This experience fostered a true passion for all things business, specifically how different organizations operate and what she could do to help. Hailey is currently completing her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at Columbia College. 

She loves nature and can be found hiking all of Columbia's beautiful trails with her husband (Josh) and son (Rowan). Also a City Garden parent, her son Rowan is a Kindergartener who has blossomed here with a deep love for his friends, teacher, nature, and art. City Garden has reaffirmed her belief in a magical childhood and what community truly means. She looks forward to serving this community and helping City Garden grow! 

Jordan Johnson

Head of School

Jordan Johnson graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a BSW in Social Work. She has obtained a teaching certificate in Elementary Education through the American Board, and graduated from The University of Missouri with a Master's degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. 

Jordan taught fourth grade for four years. She also served as a student advocate, managing and documenting behavior and intervention plans. As a classroom teacher, Jordan has always been a proponent of arts and outdoor education. She loves that she now gets to work within the CGS community to expand our nature-based Waldorf approach to educating and nurturing children and make this style of learning accessible to more children.

Nicole Knapp-Weber

Head Middle School Teacher

Born and raised in Florida, Nicole spent ample time outdoors all year round. She graduated from Furman University with a double major in Biology and English and earned her Master of Arts in Teaching from Columbia College. She has a Missouri Teaching Certificate in Middle School Science. When her two daughters were little, Nicole found Waldorf education and steered her career path toward it. She helped establish City Garden School in 2013 with a group of parents who also wanted Waldorf education for their grade school children. In City Garden's first five years, she taught grades 1, 2, and 3 and served as the Director. In 2018, she moved to Hawaii, where she taught grades 1 and 2 at the Honolulu Waldorf School and served as the Grades Faculty Chair. 

Nicole loves the Waldorf curriculum for the way it teaches students to think creatively, expand their capacities and skills, build their social and emotional selves, and foster responsibility for others and the world. She loves that each lesson is meaningful and connects to an overall theme for the year. She also loves the outdoors and has been bringing children outside for over 18 years, seeing firsthand the joy, love, wisdom, and peace it brings to her students.  Nicole likes to spend time with her family when she's not teaching. She enjoys hiking, camping, reading, and swimming.

Pamela Martinez

Spanish Teacher

Pamela Martinez Aranda is originally from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Comparative Literature and Spanish from San Francisco State University. Having been involved in the teaching of bilingual education for almost 15 years, she has taught Spanish at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School in Georgia and the American School of Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco, Mexico.  

Additionally, she has taught English as a Foreign Language to elementary school students, college students, and migrant communities in California and Mexico. She has taught and tutored Spanish at San Francisco State University, MiraCosta College, and PS826 Valencia in California. 

Pamela speaks Spanish, English, and French, and believes in the value of a multilingual and multicultural education for students' holistic development. She creates immersive language lessons to teach foreign languages in an interactive and fun way that enriches students' academics and daily lives.

Through City Garden’s Waldorf educational philosophy, she seeks to enrich students' souls, with a deeper affection for Spanish-speaking cultures and a better understanding of our world.

Molli Nichols

Head Kindergarten Teacher

Molli is a skilled educator with almost a decade of experience as a public school teacher in Missouri and a drive to bring her talents to City Garden School’s kindergarten program! She has four years of experience in early childhood education, and as an educator, she strives to support her learners in developing a sense of community, independence, and empathy. 

She loves being a part of the City Garden School Community because it allows her to marry her passion for education with her love for nature, animals, and the environment. She is looking forward to helping the kindergarten program grow and flourish!

Dr. Suzan Schuetz

Aftercare Teacher

Raised in southern Missouri's forests, rocks & rivers, Suzan has long valued the benefits of involvement with the natural world and outdoor play. 

She earned her BS in psychological sciences from Columbia College and her Master’s and Doctoral degrees at the University of Oklahoma in Community Counseling & Counseling Psychology, respectively. Leading outdoor adventure therapy groups ignited a passion for facilitating group cohesion & personal growth through natural challenges. Suzan has taught and counseled people for 20+ years and is highly driven to share the outdoor world with others. 

Joining City Garden School in 2021, Suzan found a magical matchup of her whole-person approach to learning, her belief in the natural world as a guide, and her emphasis on nurturing body, soul, and spirit with CGS's principles. She is awed by children’s creativity and wonder and cultivates these through play.

Suzan can be found in & around compost piles, worm bins, or soap batches when not at CGS. She might also be in the wilderness on a camping/ hiking/tree climbing adventure, probably with her son, Elijah. Otherwise, she is taking nature photos, gardening, experiencing live music at a local venue, riding her motorcycle, or curling up with a book.

Katy Shaffer

Student Support & Friday Games Teacher

Katy Shaffer began her work with City Garden School in December of 2021, stepping into the role of Interim Director.

Katy graduated from Columbia College with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Minor in Elementary Education. She is a certified 1st through 6th grade teacher with Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. She taught 5th grade at a private school in Columbia for three years before having her two babies. After becoming a mother, Katy began exploring alternative education opportunities. She started working at, a Peace in Nature Education preschool (Little PINE). Through the outdoor education experience, she was witness to its incredible effect on children. She is passionate about the success and scope of City Garden School and supporting the students and staff for years to come. She is grateful to have found City Garden School when she did!

Outside of school, Katy enjoys spending time with her two young children and her husband, Josh. She enjoys reading with her kids, doing chalkboard art, and staying in touch with Mother Nature and the Moon.