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, rite 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, they spent two years working with the Portland Waldorf School summer program. They have always been passionate about sharing the joys of artistic expression with children.
Carolina Rhodes
Carolina is the Spanish immersion teacher at Jean’s Farm. She was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil to Korean parents, who themselves had immigrated to Paraguay years earlier. They moved to the States when she was eleven, where she grew up in the border town of El Paso, TX. With a multilingual background, she attended the University of TX focusing on art and linguistic studies, where she was given the opportunity to assist her professors in teaching Latin and Mesoamerican Art History.
After having moved between NY, SF & LA with an ever growing family, they were called to the Pacific Northwest for its natural beauty and quality of life for children. It was here in Portland, where her first child was attending Cedarwood Waldorf School, that she became really excited and inspired by all the beauty and depth that Waldorf education has to offer. She has taken a few Lifeways workshops and looks forward to taking more in the future.
Carolina likes to always be learning new things, especially alongside her three kids. Lately, she has been enjoying basket weaving, gardening, drawing animals and roller skating.
Matthew Bibeau
Matt has worked in the field of garden-based education since 2005. A graduate of Portland State University’s Leadership in Ecology, Culture & Learning program, Matt’s work has focused on the development and implementation of school gardens and garden-based learning programs in Portland Public Schools, as well as the development of three urban farm sites, Jean’s Farm, Learning Gardens Laboratory and Tryon Life Community Farm. Trained in permaculture design by Toby Hemenway (2006) and in permaculture teaching by Tom Ward and Jude Hobbs (2008), Matt’s career has focused on applying permaculture to both landscape and educational design. He serves on the board of the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust and is a veteran coordinator of the City Repair Project's Village Building Convergence. Matt co-teaches a Permaculture Design Course with Ridhi D’Cruz, and is a program leader for Nurture by Nature.
Matt leads the land and infrastructure development and maintenance work at Jean’s Farm, is the lead teacher for all boys mentorship groups and shares his skills with the children that attend the educational programming. He also teaches Permaculture at Portland Community College and runs his own eco landscape company.
Emily Babcock
Emily is the co-teacher of Jean’s Farm education programs and aspiring conservation leader with diverse experiences in early childhood education, project management, and outdoor leadership. She has held positions as an educator in many forms, including Children’s Yoga Teacher, Health Educator in the Peace Corps and Environmental Educator at an arboretum. Her personal intention is to lead a life that is harmonious with nature while applying her passion for bringing people closer to themselves and the earth through intentional experiences.
Through her work tending to (and living on) the land at Jean’s Farm, Emily is exploring permaculture, eco-psychology, regenerative farming, and grass-roots solutions to climate change. 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.
Megan Anderson
Megan is a native Oregonian- a lover of Oregons landscape from the ocean, mountains, valleys, high desert, wild rivers, and most everything in between. Living in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2006 is where her teaching adventure began. From there her passion grew which led to her Masters in Education from Lewis and Clark University. She has spent the majority of her teaching career in grade three and previous to that was a substitute teacher in the greater Portland area, and co-lead middle school and elementary summer camps. Now she teaches at Jean’s Farm on Mondays and Fridays throughout the school year.
Megan has always been a lover of the natural world and since having children has become passionate about Waldorf education. She enjoys spending time with her family, being outdoors in all the elements, gardening or taking things slow whenever possible.