Our Team

Kelly Brown

Kelly is the owner and Director of Nurture by Nature, the LLC that designs and manages the site and educational programming at Jean’s Farm. She is also a Personal Support Worker, sharing her homesteading lifestyle and time in nature with those in need of life skills support. The former co-founder and director of Mother Earth School (year-round outdoor immersion education for ages 3-9), Portland Waldorf School’s LivingLAB program (K-12 environmental education), and Lead Administrator for the Institute of Permaculture Education for Children, her passion for nature-based education has been her career focus for almost two decades.

In 2009, Kelly earned her Permaculture Design Certificate and began to dive more deeply into related topics such as nature mentorship, survival & homesteading skills, herbalism, Rites of Passage, global indigenous history, anti-oppression theory and Theater of the Oppressed. An enthusiastic storyteller, Kelly views her love of naturalist skills such as tracking and bird language as a means of reading the stories of the landscape. 

Lia Davis

Lia is a land tender and lead caretaker of the rabbits at Jeans’ Farm.  She attended Waldorf school through 8th grade and then lived at GeerCrest Farm for two years before graduating from New Urban High School in Milwaukie, OR. At GeerCrest, Lia learned homesteading skills and earned her way to a position of responsibility with the sheep, including hand-raising one of her own. For the past decade, she has worked with Guide Dogs for the Blind puppies-in-training.

Lia currently spends half of each week at Jean’s Farm, helping with the land, animals and educational programming here. She completed a permaculture design course in 2021 and is passionate about domesticated animals & wildlife, gardening, and mentoring children in their exploration of the natural world.

Nick Ives

Nick is a graduate of Portland Waldorf High School and a lover of all things art and nature. Before joining as our arts and crafts teacher, he spent two years working with the Portland Waldorf School summer program. He has always been passionate about sharing the joys of artistic expression with children.

MEGAN ANDERSON

Megan is a native Oregonian and lover of the diverse landscapes here, but living in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2006 is where her teaching adventure began. From there her passion grew, leading to her Masters in Education from Lewis and Clark University. She has been a substitute teacher in the Portland area, led middle school and elementary summer camps, and taught grade 3 in Portland public schools as well as at Jean’s Farm. Megan’s background in education, love for the natural world and passion for Waldorf education allow her to support the students at Jean’s Farm in many different ways.

She enjoys spending time with her family, being outdoors in all the elements, gardening and taking things slow whenever possible.

Carey rogers Kulongoski

Carey grew up in Indiana focusing on outdoor ed and serving people with disabilities before earning her B.A. in Sociology and Environmental Management and then her M.S. in Social Work, focusing on childhood attachment and trauma therapy.  As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she completed trainings in trauma-informed modalities (EMDR, TFT, EFT, Reiki), and a yoga teacher training for children and adults. She has worked providing mental health therapy for families, and managed the counseling center for homeless youth in San Diego. Now a mother of three, Carey loves her time with family and at Jeans farm teaching American Sign Language (her foreign language focus in college).

Dan sloan

Dan is a member of Portland Placemaking Coalition and founded Portland Food Forest Initiative in 2022 with the intention of developing public-facing community-stewarded food forests in underserved areas of urban Portland. He owns Oregon Food Forest LLC and is a permaculture designer and consultant empowering homeowners, schools, and organizations to transition their lawns into abundant food-producing perennial ecosystems. He also works as a fruit tree pruner, nut tree propagator, food forest and environmental educator, and advocate of urban foraging. Dan has spent the last 3 years visiting large-scale rural and smaller urban agroforestry sites around the world researching applicable techniques and applying them in Portland at various demonstration sites.

Matthew Bibeau

Matt has worked in the field of garden-based education since 2005, developing and implementing school gardens and garden-based learning programs at a variety of sites, ranging from Portland Public Schools to three urban farms: Jean’s Farm, TLC Farm and Learning Gardens Laboratory. Trained in permaculture design by Toby Hemenway (2006) and in permaculture teaching by Hazel Ward and Jude Hobbs (2008), his career has encompassed applying permaculture to both landscape and educational design. Most recently, Matt received his Diploma in Permaculture Design from the Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA).

Matt teaches workshops and Permaculture design courses at Jean’s Farm and leads the land and infrastructure maintenance and development efforts. He also runs his own eco landscape company, PDX Permaculture, and serves on the boards of the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust and the Permaculture Institute of North America.

Emily Babcock

Emily’s teaching focuses on movement-based activities with an emphasis on whole-health and wellness. She has diverse experiences in education, project management, and outdoor leadership, holding positions including children’s yoga instructor, health educator in the Peace Corps, wilderness therapy mentor, outdoor adventure skills guide and environmental educator at an arboretum.

Emily is a licensed massage therapist and is passionate about healing through intuitive touch and additionally about developing the interrelated skills of learning to communicate needs, preferences and consent. In her free time you can find her rock-climbing, trail running, and biking. She also loves to cook, sing, play guitar, and learn about Pacific Northwest flora and fauna.

Silvia santana

Silvia teaches Spanish, cooking and crafting at Jean’s Farm. After earning a degree in psychology from the Universidad de las Americas Puebla in Mexico, and undertaking many trauma-informed and family-based trainings in the U.S., Maestra Silvia found the Waldorf community in Portland in 2010.

soliana gonzalez

Since childhood, art and education have played leading roles in Soliana’s life. She grew up in an intergenerational farm community, attended Waldorf school and worked as a counselor for art and wilderness awareness programs. She received a bachelor of fine arts from Tufts/The Museum School, majoring in interdisciplinary arts. She’s since worked at several Waldorf schools and initiatives and has spent many happy hours singing in choirs, bands and in women’s groups and has taught singing and art in faculty workshops. When she is not teaching, she writes and performs in a folk duo, makes art and spends time outdoors. She finds that experiences both in the studio and in the classroom are mutually enriching.

Soli feels privileged to be a part of the Jean’s Farm teaching team sharing her love of fine arts with the children.

Yasmeen Mazen

Yasmeen is a writer, doer and caretaker of living things. She is also the resident tiny home landmate.

By day, Yasmeen leads a small & mighty marketing team at a startup helping to fight consumer waste. At other waking hours, she can be found navigating/grumbling about the overly complex elder-care system, play-fighting with the pup, cooking, adventuring in the country or writing by the window.

Yasmeen believes passionately that a return to less stuff, more community and more humanity is the recipe for society’s healing and is living this vision at the farm.

Onyx baird

Onyx is a regenerative beekeeper dedicated to exploring the intersection of science, spirituality, and environmental conservation. She has a MS in Fisheries + Wildlife from Michigan State University, and has traveled the globe to study with some of the world’s leading experts in sacred beekeeping and conservation. Through merging scientific knowledge with spiritual wisdom, Onyx has pioneered a radical approach to beekeeping that prioritizes the honeybee’s highest well-being.