Lucia Mello was born and grew up in Brazil with a large family of 7 siblings.  They loved to camp together, hike and explore Nature, swimming in rivers and on the Atlantic Ocean.  She spent a lot of time with her large extended family of uncles, aunts and cousins. She trained as a Waldorf teacher in São Paulo, Sunbridge Institute in NY and completed her Masters in Special Education at Bank Street College on NYC. She has been a Waldorf Early Childhood Teacher since 1989, having started at the Rudolf Steiner School in NYC and then in 2001 moved to Portland OR with her family. For the past 11 years she has been teaching at the Portland Village School, a Public (Waldorf Inspired) Charter.

Lucia is dedicated to bringing to her work the richness of multicultural storytelling, puppetry and the celebration of festivals of many cultures, with an awareness that all differences are essential to our lives. She weaves in a therapeutic tone into her teaching (with puppetry and a great emphasis in therapeutic movement). Teaching with a sense for Equity and Social Justice has also been in the forefront. Lucia loves exploring Nature, hiking, camping, biking and bird watching.

Workshop: Finding Courage to Recognize Racism