Julie Liddle, Program Director
Julie brings three decades of experience working with children and developing early childhood programming to her role as program director at Eastern Ridge. She worked as an art therapist in special education for almost a decade, and then specialized in early childhood art.
For the next 17 years, Julie focused on creating and facilitating a parent/child art program and curriculum for toddlers and preschoolers which naturally evolved into a nature-based art program.
This is what brought Julie to Eastern Ridge at its inception in 2014, to serve as the school’s Art Director. She held this position for four years before taking on the broader role of program director.
Julie believes that even in this role, creativity and connection are the driving forces that guide her. She uses materials from art and nature to facilitate group cohesion among children, parents, and staff. Her always open office “door” is a key ingredient in her belief that being present, sharing experiences, and listening well are the best ways to support, nurture, and grow the community as a whole.
Julie received a master’s degree in art therapy from George Washington University and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Cornell University. She is a mom to two unique young adults who continue to teach her that parenting in hindsight is far easier than parenting in the moment, which gives her lots of empathy for the parents of preschoolers and their daily challenges.
She and her husband have recently taken to kayaking and especially enjoy visiting the Shenandoah River whenever they get a chance.
Krissy Sheets, Bookkeeper/Office Administrator
Krissy grew up on Kent Island, MD, and earned a business degree from Salisbury University. She moved to NOVA after college and spent most of her career in corporate accounting in the healthcare industry. Seeking a lifestyle and job change, she joined Eastern Ridge in 2018.
Although not in a hands-on position with the students, she can relate to the experiences they have at Eastern Ridge and what it will mean to them later in life. She had a childhood of playing at the neighborhood beach after school, spending hours in tree forts, making mazes in cornfields, trying to physically keep up with an older brother… that play is part of her best memories and she loves to be outdoors, especially on the water.
Krissy lives in Ashburn with her husband, Steve, their two young adult sons, Grant and Dylan, and the beloved family yellow lab, Sophie. When not at Eastern Ridge, Krissy works with her husband at his family business. She enjoys traveling, flower gardening, home improvement projects, watching football and baseball with her guys, and has recently joined the pickleball movement.
Celeste Jordan, Assistant Teacher
Celeste was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, where she earned a BA in English literature in 2016. Upon the birth of her nieces, and realizing she had a profound interest in the development and complexities of young children, she took a child development class in 2017 and was instantly hooked.
She began working at her college campus as an assistant teacher in a two-year-old classroom while earning an associates in child development.
In 2020, Celeste moved across the country to join her now-husband in Virginia, and began working as a lead teacher for ages 2-3 at an Early Head Start. In October 2023, Celeste joined Eastern Ridge as an assistant teacher and has been ecstatic to share natural and sensory-rich activities with the children, as well as facilitate and nurture their minds and emotions, with a holistic approach to learning.
When not at Eastern Ridge, Celeste enjoys drawing and writing comics, cooking, baking, hiking, and spending quality time with her husband and her little dog Clementine.
Jordan Pfenninger, Assistant Teacher
Growing up in rural New Jersey, Jordan grew a deep connection to the outdoors from an early age. This connection—fostered through summer camp, family camping trips, and an unbridled curiosity for the world around her—drew her to find meaning in sharing the natural world with others.
Jordan attended Warren Wilson College and, in 2023, earned a bachelor’s degree in Outdoor Leadership. While in college, Jordan participated in the craft program and thoroughly enjoyed learning about making with natural materials in disciplines such as blacksmithing, woodworking, and fiber arts. She is passionate about natural dyeing, and would love to someday plant her own dye garden.
Since then, Jordan has been honing her skills in the outdoor education field with children of all ages across a variety of different outdoor activities. Outside of school, her favorite activities include paddling the Potomac, camping with her partner and dogs, and creating art of all kinds!
Maritza Rodriguez, Lead Teacher
Maritza was born in Mexico, where she studied architecture. She worked for 22 years in that field and then worked for two years as a math teacher in a public high school. She later taught art and design at a private Catholic school. She and her husband (of more than 30 years!) have lived in the U.S. since 2005. She started at Eastern Ridge’s predecessor, Discovery Woods, in 2008 and joined Eastern Ridge when it was founded in 2014.
Maritza truly loves working with our youngest students, and is particularly inspired to collect forest artifacts like leaves, twigs, and rocks with the children to inspire painting and art. She also enjoys teaching them songs and stories in Spanish. She especially loves how her children explore and discover new things, and watching their faces when they finish a project that they’ve worked on for a long time. Maritza and her husband, Jorge, have two adult children and two grandchildren.
John Mehlenbeck, Assistant Teacher
John brings a rich and diverse background to Eastern Ridge. After spending 20 years as a dedicated stay-at-home father, John returned to the workforce with a renewed passion for nurturing young children and supporting their development through nature, creativity, and community.
John holds degrees in psychology (BS), nursing (BSN), and studio art (BFA), and has worked as a mental health specialist, pediatric nurse, third-grade teacher, and family photographer. Across all of these roles, his focus has remained constant: supporting children and families with empathy, curiosity, and care.
A lifelong lover of the outdoors, John grew up exploring forests, rivers, and wildlife preserves, experiences that shaped his deep connection to the natural world. He brings that same wonder and respect for nature into the classroom, encouraging children to learn through hands-on exploration and imaginative play.
Vanessa Michalec, Forest Guide and Community Engagement Coordinator
After growing up in Florida and later moving to Tennessee, Vanessa graduated from the University of Tennessee with a BS in wildlife management. During her college years she worked as a nanny and frequently found herself sharing her affinity for the outdoors with the children in her care.
This, in turn, sparked Vanessa’s curiosity about the connection between spending time in nature and its impact on child development. This curiosity led her to Eastern Ridge where she started as a substitute and aftercare teacher, which ignited her enthusiasm for supporting children’s creativity, exploration and emotional and physical development in a nature-based preschool setting.
Vanessa joined us as a permanent full-time Assistant Teacher in 2024 and stepped into her new role in 2025. In 2026, she completed level one of the Nature-Based Teacher Certification through the Association for Nature-Based Education.
Outside of Eastern Ridge, Vanessa can be found cooking, volunteering at the National Aquarium, and taking care of her plants and pets.
Louisa Stetekluh, Lead Teacher
Louisa joined the Eastern Ridge teaching team in January 2023 but is a long-time local. She was raised in Falls Church, graduated from George Mason University with a BA In psychology, and raised her daughters in Arlington, Virginia.
For nearly 30 years, Louisa has worked in cooperative preschool environments. The preschool age is the foundation of a child’s educational journey, so the cooperative model of a teacher working side by side with the parents in the classroom setting was a very special time in her career. Building a rapport with the parents and being part of their family’s early milestones are treasured memories.
During these three decades, Louisa has also made the principles of Dr. Becky Baily’s Conscious Discipline central to her philosophy and approach to supporting preschoolers through their social emotional development. She can be seen seamlessly guiding children through conflicts and struggles with a calm ease that supports problem solving, skill building, and face-saving all at once.
Louisa’s recent journey in her career is embracing the outdoor model. For the past three years this has provided a new energy and inspiration for her to continue her love of teaching young children. Louisa holds a Level Three Nature-Based Teacher Certification from the Association for Nature-Based Education. Eastern Ridge provides the perfect backdrop for Louisa’s wealth of experience with young children coupled with her enthusiasm for bringing her creativity and adventuresome spirit into our nature-based setting.
Louisa had raised three daughters that have gone off and flown the nest and is a proud new grandma. Louisa’s favorite pastimes include cooking, gardening, sewing and walking with friends … and road trips too, especially to Richmond to see that grandbaby.
Halys Vowles, Lead Teacher
Halys is originally from Leeds, England and has lived in the United States since 1991. She graduated from Thomas Danby College in 1988 with an NNEB in Early Childhood Education and spent the earlier part of her career traveling the world as a professional nanny.
Halys is delighted to share her knowledge and experience working with young children and many different families over the years with the Eastern Ridge community and is thrilled to be part of the Chipmunk family. She brings great warmth and steadiness to the children in her care (and their parents), so children can feel safe to explore and take risks, while being introduced to the simple bounty of nature that is all around them.
Halys has also studied jewelry design at the Corcoran School for the Arts in D.C., and she enjoys making jewelry in her spare time. Her creative touch is evident in the way she weaves art-making into the children’s days that reflect their discoveries about nature and the world around them.
Halys also likes to garden, restore furniture and travel. She contributes her abundant knowledge and energy for gardening to the Eastern Ridge garden curriculum for all students, and her vision and knowledge helps inform the ongoing transformation of our landscape into natural learning environments ripe with native species.
She is proud mom to two teens and one young adult, who she has successfully raised to be able to cook excellent dinners for her. In 2025, Halys completed level one of the Nature-Based Teacher Certification through the Association for Nature-Based Education.
Alison Gardner, Social-Emotional Support Specialist
Dr. Gardner is a licensed clinical child psychologist who has been dedicated to supporting the social-emotional needs of preschoolers for more than 20 years. She and her husband opened their McLean psychotherapy practice, Nurture Child and Family, in 2015. Previously, she worked with Family Compass, a group psychotherapy practice located in Reston. While there, Dr. Gardner co-led a monthly preschool directors’ forum and gave many preschool trainings on topics related to supporting children emotionally and behaviorally in the classroom setting.
Dr. Gardner was an Assistant Clinical Professor of Clinical Psychology at George Washington University from 2012 until 2016. She completed her internship with the Fairfax County Community Services Board’s Infancy and Early Childhood Program in 2002 and continued with the team through 2004.
Dr. Gardner grew up in Pennsylvania and received her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. She earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology (a university-based program jointly sponsored by Eastern Virginia Medical School, The College of William and Mary, Old Dominion University, and Norfolk State University).
Azure Lea, Substitute Teacher and Monday Aftercare Support
Children, nature and art have always been the three big passions in Azure’s life, and Eastern Ridge gives her the opportunity to weave them together.
After decades of teaching elementary visual art in homeschool, public school, and private school settings, Azure knew that in order to have children fall in love with and care for our planet, she needed to work with younger children outside in nature.
The magic of nature brings her into a state of awe which she also sees in preschoolers. As one who lives with and cares for her 98-year-old father, being with preschoolers brings welcome balance to her life. Azure feeds her adventuresome spirit with frequent trips in her kayak, her love of plant diversity with time in her large vegetable garden, hiking in the forest, and her need for community and civic action through participation in a dance tribe and a climate action group. Azure hopes to bring her spirit of wild wonder to the young people who are our greatest hope for a transformed world.
Caden Mitchell, Part-time Aftercare Support and Substitute Assistant Teacher (Seasonal)
Caden has a long history with the Ridge as one of our original students plus several summers as a teen volunteer here. After spending his early years at Discovery Woods and Eastern Ridge, Caden has been actively involved in programs at The Living Earth School in Charlottesville, VA where he continued to develop his passion for nature-based education, wilderness survival skills, and leadership. Now a high school senior, Caden has his sights set on a future career as an Outdoor Educator and credits his early experiences in nature-based preschool as foundational to these goals.
Liliana (Lili) Seng, Part-time Aftercare Support, Floater and Substitute Assistant Teacher (Seasonal)
Lili has served as a teen volunteer at Eastern Ridge for the past three summers as well as at events throughout the school year. She is a rising high school junior who applies her natural creativity and warm, gentle nature to everything she does, from studio art and ceramics, to fingerpainting, gardening, and fostering sand and water play with preschoolers. Lili aspires to be a clinical social worker where she can apply the skills of compassion, empathy, and connection that she practices with the children at Eastern Ridge.