Pre-K Teachers
Courtney Fincher
Preschool Director and Team Teacher
Courtney Fincher is the Director of the Odyssey Pre-Kindergarten program. She values the opportunity to nurture children through the rapid growth of early childhood. She believes it is never too early to instill the concepts of self knowing, communication, compassion, and community.
She strives to support the children in her care in developing self-confidence in balance with interdependence. It is her goal that children leaving her class will have a core understanding of themselves and the skills that will serve them in every aspect of life. Courtney values working in a school where children can experience the developmental spectrum from early childhood through high school.
Courtney holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of West Virginia and has extended her coursework in the field of Early Education. She carries her love of service, psychology, and healing arts into her relationships with the children. In harmony with the Odyssey vision, she sees a bright future for the children she teaches today, and looks forward to seeing what will happen as this special community grows.
Courtney is engaged with the Early Education Community in a variety of ways. She serves on The AB Tech advisory committee for their Early Education program, is a NEXT Emerging Leader participant, and a graduate of the Early Childcare Directors Institute. In 2015 she was awarded the National Recognition for Childcare Excellence.
Shirley Rotolo
Preschool Team Teacher
Shirley has her degrees in Early Education and Birth to Kindergarten, and has years of experience working with children. When she’s not at Odyssey, she loves gardening, painting, reading, and writing poetry. “As part of the Odyssey family, I’m very excited by all the creativity and family-oriented environment.” She believes that children should be nurtured, and have every opportunity to explore, create, and self express.
Julia Christgau
2nd-8th Grade Drama and PreK Teacher
Julia Christgau is an actor, musician and teaching artist born and raised in New York City. She began teaching part time to support a budding acting career and loved it so much that she decided to complete her BA in Early Childhood Development and Education. She quickly became drawn to the theater arts as a way to enhance learning and wrote her thesis on its positive influences in the classroom. Her drama class for 2nd-8th graders will use improvisation and imagination-based play to guide her students through the essential lessons and intrinsic magic that exist in the theatre. This year, she will also be working with the pre-school team as sub for those going on maternity leave. She’s thrilled to be a part the Odyssey Community and working with such bright and creative spirits!
Charmaine Mills
Preschool Team Teacher
Charmaine is from the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. She moved from West Virginia to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she attended art school to study film. She later went on to work on several productions after college. During college, Charmaine worked with children at Smith Memorial Playhouse and Playground helping to advocate the importance of play in the development of children in a safe and inclusive environment.
Charmaine moved back to West Virginia in 2015, where she worked as a Teacher’s Assistant at Winwood Children’s Center. She worked with pre-k children readying them for kindergarten under the Cadence Education curriculum. Charmaine moved to Asheville in October of 2017 and is loving the beautiful mountain landscape of the city. In the evenings Charmaine teaches and trains in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. She has been training and competing in jiu-jitsu for 5 years and loves it. Charmaine is happy to be with Odyssey School and looks forward to learning and growing with the wonderful people here.
Derek Towle
Preschool Team Teacher
Derek Towle has worked in lived in Asheville for the better part of the past 14 years and has worked in human services for the past ten years. He’s spent the last handful of years working with homeless families and individuals. Derek has a two year old daughter named Maya who he enjoys taking out to the mountains every chance he gets.
Derek has B.A. in Literature with a concentration in creative writing from UNC-Asheville. He has four years of experience working with children in a variety of behavioral health settings. Odyssey felt like the right fit for Derek because he loves the boundless curiosity children possess. He cannot imagine a better way to spend his time than to facilitate their explorations.
Lydia Hearne
Preschool Team Teacher & Ceramics Instructor
Lydia Hearne teaches in the pre-kindergarten class at Odyssey and also offers middle and high school ceramics classes. She grew up in the mountains outside of Asheville, where she spent much of her childhood exploring nature, expressing her love of nature through art, and being with her family. She brings her passions for the natural world, for family, and for the beauty and creativity of childhood, to her work at Odyssey Community School. She says of her experience, “I loved my childhood, and I believe that every child deserves a happy, safe environment to explore their own sense of self, of creativity, and space to figure out how to interact with others in this life.”
Lydia attended Earlham College, in Indiana, where she received her BA in Fine Art, with a focus in Ceramics. She later completed Haywood Community College’s program in Professional Crafts. “It feels very natural for me to be here at Odyssey,” says Lydia, “and to be able to feed the two main passions in my life, having the opportunity to work with young children and also to work in clay, offering others the chance to explore such an amazing and captivating medium.
