About Us

Founder

Victoria Redfearn Cave, M.Ed., graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education and received her Masters in Education Leadership from Mary Baldwin College. In 2014, she received the award for the top student in the Graduate Teacher Education Program where she focused her thesis on assessment processes with adolescents. For over 25 years, Victoria has been teaching music, movement and choral studies to children. Victoria has taught primarily in independent schools in Washington, DC and Charlottesville, VA but has also been a choral director at the Levine School of Music and the Kennedy Center’s Washington National Opera.  She has served multiple roles in various schools, from department chair, co-curriculum director, admissions officer, scheduler, committee member, parent and board member. Victoria is a national and international presenter and teacher trainer. She has written articles for the Orff Echo on creative movement topics for children. She lives in Charlottesville, VA where she is the Learning Village Arts Department Chair at St. Anne’s-Belfield School and is the Artistic Director for Mosaic Children’s Choir. 

Guest Faculty

Kathleen Dubovsky is the founder and owner of Interwoven WellnessTM a Holistic Health Coaching practice. She is a Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and a Reiki Practitioner. At the core of Interwoven WellnessTM is the belief that each of us already knows what we need in order to live healthy, balanced and fulfilled lives. It is Kathleen’s strong belief that by nurturing a healthy dialogue with our bodies, we can reconnect with our intuitive selves and find inner balance and healing through clean eating, stress management, meditation and exercise.

Prior to Kathleen’s becoming a health coach, she spent 23 years in education as a classroom teacher/team leader/new teacher mentor and Department Chair of History for grades pre K – 8. Kathleen worked with at-risk preschool children and families, taught in public elementary school and private elementary school systems, and co-taught a graduate course, ‘Inquiry in the
Arts’ at Mary Baldwin College.

The insights she gained while on her own personal health journey, combined with her 23 years of experience working with children and adults in education, and her extensive training from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, are woven together and enable her to truly understand the effects of stress on today’s teachers and administrators as well as the school community as a whole.

From her many years of first-hand experience, Kathleen believes that teacher burnout and chronic illnesses can be prevented if teachers and administrators are given the tools, and permission to practice daily health care. In her talks with educators, Kathleen addresses ways to begin that healing journey by focusing on 3 key elements:
1. How to nurture a health dialogue with one’s body and understand one’s food cravings;
2. Why creating a self-care routine is not selfish and must be a part of one’s daily routine;
3. How to create a Vision for one’s personal and professional life and ways to take daily action steps that get one closer to that Vision.

http://www.interwovenwellness.com

J. Robin Albertson-Wren has been teaching elementary age children for over ​20 years in the private school sector in Charlottesville, Virginia. She is a classroom teacher, author, workshop leader and public speaker. Her passion is teaching mindfulness techniques to executives, educators, parents, adolescents and children. She has presented “Mindfulness in Schools – Educating and Empowering Our Children” to many local, statewide and national audiences. Her focus at the 2019 Marigold Retreat was on
self-care and awareness, during which participants enjoyed centering breathing techniques, the exploration of habits, mindful listening in conversation and deep relaxation practices.

Albertson-Wren has received her mindfulness training through Mindful Schools, having completed a year-long certification course with 100 other people across the globe. She is currently teaching full-time and in addition, is a mindful instructor at the Contemplative Sciences Center at UVA. Her book Mindfulness for Kids teaches 30 fun, engaging activities to help build awareness, develop resiliency and deepen compassion.

To purchase a signed copy, you can connect to her website, MindAwake.

ElizaBeth McCay In a career spanning over 35 years, ElizaBeth has been a teacher, principal, head of school, and professor in settings ranging from preschool to graduate, public and private, urban and rural. She served for 13 years as a public school principal in two Title I preschool/elementary schools and seven years as Head of School (and preschool music teacher) in an independent preschool/elementary school. ElizaBeth has also taught at the university level, working with novice and aspiring school leaders at two public universities. ElizaBeth began her career teaching students with special needs for seven years in a public middle school, following a year teaching adolescents with severe special needs in a private therapeutic school setting. She travels annually to Tegucigalpa, Honduras where she partners with a bilingual school to support students, teachers, and administrators. ElizaBeth earned a Bachelor’s degree in special education and early childhood education from Wheelock College in Boston, and a MEd and PhD from the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education. She cherishes time–and finds renewal–with family, faith, music, art, nature, and children.