Faculty

Deirdre Esther O'Dwyer is a UC Santa Cruz alumna and a Montessori-certified educator, with a research background in the neurology of child development. She starts her days early — rising at 4:30 am each day — to bring her passion for secular humanism, Jewish culture, and child-centered learning into every class she teaches.

Originating from the melting pot of San Francisco, Deirdre deeply values her multicultural roots by taking pride in being simultaneously Jewish, Irish and Japanese. She cares for her father at home and shares her life with her husband, two dogs and three cats. Beyond the classroom, she is also an independent artist, weaving creativity and curiosity into every part of her work and life.

I grew up in a secular Jewish family (both my parents were atheists, as was my paternal grandmother) in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, and moved to Seattle in 1976 when I was 22 years old. Although I had no formal Jewish education as a child, I have always been interested in Judaism, especially its history. I like to say that my temple was the Overbrook Delicatessen, to convey that we were cultural Jews with the ritual of eating smoked fish on Sunday morning, dabbling in Yiddish repartee with the staff, and dropping some shekels in the tzedakah box for Jewish defense.

I've been teaching at Mitzvah Secular for over a decade years, and am a graduate of the Leadership Program at the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism. This ordained me as a Madrikh (Hebrew) / Vegvayzer (Yiddish) / Guide to officiate youth B Mitzvot.