Julia Belgrave

President and Grades Lead Teacher

Julia founded Perseid Collective in 2019 -- an initiative that began, at first, to simply provide a homeschool community for parents who were spiritually striving.

Julia, and her husband Beau, have two children and both were students of Three Cedars Waldorf School in Bellevue, WA for a few years. Julia was involved in a new Waldorf school initiative but began to feel called to homeschool. Experiencing the incarnation of her own children through the lens of Waldorf pedagogy has deepened her understanding of anthroposophy and is a continuous renewal of her own self. She walks the path of learning with her children and, in turn, heals her own experiences of education.

Julia holds a BA in English and Creative Writing from Seattle University and a Certificate in Technical Communications from Bellevue College. She is the Senior Editor of Wise Cosmos Educational Initiative -- an organization providing access to content across many fields of anthroposophy. In addition, she is the President of the Issaquah History Museums, a non-profit she has been involved with for over 10 years.

Julia and her family reside on a wooded 1.25 acres in the middle of suburbia, tending chickens, growing food, and experiencing nature’s magic. She is spiritually inspired by Rudolf Steiner, the divine Sophia, and all women working to heal themselves.

Erica Swedberg

Board Vice-President and Early Childhood Lead Teacher

Erica is a mother of two children who keep her busy learning about herself every day. Homeschooling has brought joys, challenges, and opportunities for a growing understanding of how to bring more Soul into life.

Erica holds a BS in Nursing from the University of Washington. In the Fall of 2020 she began working towards becoming an International Board Certified Lactation Counselor (IBCLC). With her background as an RN, and as an avid gardener, Erica has an innate sense of care, and love for Life.

Through Heartfull World Foundation Erica has volunteered with a domestic violence shelter, teaching meditation to their community. She also worked for the same foundation as the program coordinator to further bring these gifts and knowledge to the under served.

Erica holds hope for the world, hope for humanity, and hope for change as a clear and driving force for living. With this hope in her heart, she strives to learn something new every day.  This is why Erica joined the board of Perseid Collective – to learn something new, bring hope to others, and enrich the lives of families. She finds spiritual guidance and enrichment from the teachings of Savitri, founder of Heartfull Meditation, The Mother, Sri Aurobindo, and every master whose mission it has been to bring more Light and Love to this planet.

Natalie Cielle

Board Secretary and Early Childhood Lead Teacher

How to sum up a life-in-progress? Natalie is a lifelong student of embodied spiritual living as a force for social transformation. What a sentence. She finds enormous joy working with children to keep them connected to their natural state of wonder and wholeness.

Her background is in Psychology and Yoga. She completed a BS in Psychology with a minor in Philosophy from University of Washington in 2005, where she was actively involved in social justice organizing. After realizing psychology research was not her calling, she co-founded an awesome Seattle-based nonprofit, Yoga Behind Bars in 2007. She was the first Executive Director until 2013 when she stepped into the wild world of motherhood. Natalie still co-facilitates their Trauma-informed Yoga Teacher Trainings and is helping create a Youth Yoga Toolkit for incarcerated youth (a pairing of words that should not exist).

Natalie’s yoga lineage is Purna (integral) Yoga and Heartfull Meditation. The purpose (and why she is so into it) is to merge the spiritual with the material. Evolution and revolution. She is relatively new to the world of Waldorf, but the philosophy seems deeply attuned to this work. She teaches every week, including kids yoga. Her teachers, Aadil Palkhivala and Savitri, have gifted her with a rich well of tools that she draws from daily and loves to share, especially with communities that are disproportionately harmed by our current unjust systems.

Natalie is a product of the US public school system, but decided early to homeschool her daughter for many reasons. Her current vision for an ideal way to do so is an intuitive Waldorf-inspired, yoga-infused, social-justice-centered, nature-immersed way. Meeting other families with complementary visions and co-creating this homeschooling collective together has been a beautiful experience. Building community, or “re-villaging” (as one of her mama friends calls it), is one of the central ways she believes we can support the flourishing of kids, families, communities, and our planet. And it starts by wanting it and showing up.

Lisa O’Connell

Advisory Board Member

Lisa O’Connell is a board member of Eastside Community School, a Waldorf school in Bellevue, WA. She holds a BA in Psychology from Bastyr University. She believes wholeheartedly in being in service to others and has been in a variety of ways, from working in end-of-life care to working with the mental health population. She currently works in the field of addiction as a Chemical Dependency Counselor.

After the birth of her son, Lisa began exploring how best to serve children. That question, in and of itself, led her to Waldorf education which she believes is the best approach to serve the individual child.

Lisa brings to Perseid Collective her vast knowledge of anthroposophy, esotericism, and the work of Rudolf Steiner. She believes in supporting impulses that hold a knowing of the underlying spiritual at work - those that “bring spirit into matter.” Lisa is inspired by many spiritual masters including Rudolf Steiner, Imre Vallyon, Eckhart Tolle, and a Course in Miracles.