Keynote Speakers
Keynote Speaker: Cynthia Aldinger
Cynthia founded LifeWays North America in 2001. Co-author of the book Home Away From Home: LifeWays Care of Children and Families, Cynthia has lectured and presented internationally, directs trainings and seminars across the United States, and is an Adjunct Faculty member at Rudolf Steiner College in California. She served fourteen years on the board of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America, is a member of the National Association for Family Child Care and a supporter of the Alliance for Childhood. A former Waldorf Kindergarten teacher, Cynthia received her Waldorf teaching certificate at Emerson College in Sussex, England. A mother and grandmother, Cynthia’s passion is the preservation of the playful spirit of childhood and helping to create home-like environments that provide the comfort, security and activities found in a healthy home.
Keynote Speaker: Faith Baldwin Collins
Faith is founder/owner of Joyful Toddlers. She firmly believes that we can increase our enjoyment of young children dramatically through concrete actions and by changing the lens through which we view them. She finished the LifeWays Early Childhood and Human Development training in 2003 and has been working with young children, families, and daycare providers ever since.
After teaching the toddler class for several years at Boulder Waldorf Kindergarten in Colorado, Faith teamed up with her mother, Rahima Baldwin Dancy (author of You Are Your Child’s First Teacher) to open the Rainbow Bridge LifeWays Program for children ages 1-5, in 2007. She moved to London, England in 2011 with her husband, although she still returns regularly to Colorado to teach and do coaching visits. In addition to coaching, consulting and teaching classes through Joyful Toddlers, Faith also teaches at the LifeWays trainings in the Rocky Mountain region.
Joya Birns, Waldorf Educator, and Cindy Brooks, MFT, are co-authors of Parenting with Spirit, a guide to family discipline inspired by insights from the Waldorf world and from the fields of psychology and neuroscience. They have been co-leading parent circles and parenting workshops in northern California since 2004. For more information see 
Thea Blair is a mother of a 17-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, a Waldorf teacher, and a Pediatric Massage Therapist. She operated a successful pre-school out of her home where she observed the amazing results of touch in resolving children’s emotional stress. She now teaches for LifeWays and Rudolf Steiner College, mentors teachers and parents, conducts workshops, and campaigns tirelessly for the return of healthy touch to our culture. She lives in an intentional community on a small farm in Nevada City, California. 