Woolman Staff
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Dorothy Henderson, Head of School After raising four children, getting a PhD in Nursing from the University of Michigan and teaching for five years at the University of Washington in Seattle, Dorothy left the University and traveled for a year with her husband Doug in their Volkswagon van. She arrived at Woolman in the year 2000, seeking a life more in harmony with her commitment to mindfulness, nonviolence and simplicity. Here at Woolman she has found that life. She enjoys walking, swimming in the Yuba, making her own clothes, being a part of the lives of her children and grandchildren, sharing Nonviolent Communication with anyone, and riding the train. |
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Coleman Watts, Program Coordinator Coleman has worked at Woolman since 2006, in a variety of roles. Over the years he has taught Peace Studies class, where he founded the popular student documentary projects, he has overseen shared work and sustainability projects, in which he designed and built the campus solar panel systems, bike library and a number of other green building projects, he has managed Woolman's information technology -- creating the new website, database, and campus wireless infrastructure, and he currently serves as the Program Coordinator, in which role he developed the new intern program and teen camp. |
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Vanessa Teran, Admissions Associate Originally from the strawberry fields of Oxnard, CA she relocated to Northern California in support of grassroots and international struggles. She strongly believes to walk on the ground of her own being, her passion stems from linguistics, philosophy, mesoamerican art and technology, guerrilla digital filmmaking, photography and indigenous people's rights. At Woolman she hopes to speak to students who are seeking to follow a dream for social movements, seeking to transform their educational path and build their self-consciousness and awareness. |
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Estrella Acosta, Advancement Director Born in Big Sur, California, Estrella spent her formative years immersed in communal living. Decades later, after living all over the American West, she is thrilled to be back in Northern California with her twelve-year old son for another round of living in community at Woolman. She went to high school in a tiny wheat-farming town in Northern Idaho then moved to Albuquerque to be part of the Latin American Studies program at the University of New Mexico. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Literature from Lewis & Clark State College. Her loves: Literary non-fiction—especially travel epistles, documentary film and radio, hiking, trail running, snow-boarding, car camping, road trips, swimming holes, hot springs, great wine, great food and live music. |
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Emily Zionts, Global Issues Teacher Over the past decade Emily has shown that she is deeply committed to the promotion of global-wide positive political, social, and educational change. Each of her experiences in North America, Central America, Asia, South East Asia, and Africa have significantly enhanced her perspective as she learned, volunteered, traveled and taught. Most recently, she is proud to have earned a Masters of Peace Education (education for inner awareness, humane relationships, global citzenry, and planetary stewardship) from The United Nations Mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. Teaching Global Issues (since 2009) and Peace Studies (since 2011) at Woolman has been an excellent blend of her academic, employment, and life experiences. She also loves playing in rivers, improving her photography skills, playing mandolin, general silliness and spending time with her dog named Banjo and partner, Red. Emily's favorite part of this job is truly seeing the power and potential of youth as peacebuilders! |
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Jacob Holzberg-Pill, Environmental Science Teacher Raised in the woods of New England, Jacob joined the Woolman community with Masters degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Yale School of Forestry. As a dedicated place-based educator, Jacob has taught nature awareness, wilderness survival, ecological restoration, team building, and service learning, in a variety of places across the United States and abroad. Jacob's environmental science class blends traditional academics with hands on learning and field based exploration. Jacob is excited by Woolman's unique integration of ethics, academics, religious practice, communal life, and daily work all connected through the larger themes of social justice and sustainability. You can usually find him harvesting in the garden, building compost, climbing a tree, or down at the river. |
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Doug Hamm, Maintenance Supervisor With the exception of two years at Scattergood, a small Quaker school in Iowa, Doug's education, kindergarten through college, took place in his hometown, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Coming from a family of educators, it was not surprising that Doug took to teaching. Perhaps it was his abiding interest in the theological challenges that his Quaker heritage posed that led him to doing the vast majority of his teaching in the more democratic atmosphere of the "alternative community school" movement. One of the things Doug enjoys sharing with others is an enthusiasm for Permaculture, exploring all the diverse possibilities and permutations. One of his most favorite activities at the Center is the week of Summer when Family Work Camp occurs. The odd moments of the day often find Doug engrossed in one of his several musical instruments. |
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Malaika Bishop, Garden Manager & Educator Malaika holds a BA in Environmental Studies and dance from Oberlin College and has traveled the world studying grassroots activism, globalization, and ecology. She has been an organizer and educator for over 15 years working for environmental health, justice and community self-reliance. In 2001 she co-founded the People's Grocery, an organization working to find creative solutions to the food needs of West Oakland by building a local food system and a local economy. She now serves on boards of People's Grocery and the BriarPatch Cooperative and works to support equitable regional food systems. Malaika is a recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service, she was chosen by Utne Reader, San Francisco Magazine and Organic Style Magazine as a young visionary and environmental leader. Malaika's life goal is to create positive change through love and service. |
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Jared (Red) Feola, Kitchen Coordinator/Maintenance Staff After spending four years exploring outside the US, teaching, traveling, volunteering and learning about permaculture and sustainability, Red feels right at home at Woolman. A community member since 2009 he strives to continue learning the skills necessary for becomming self sufficient. Red's passions include spending time outdoors, hiking at the Yuba, playing music and soccer, and enjoying the satisfaction of a hard day's work. |
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Grace Oedel, Farm-to-Table Program Coordinator Grace cannot believe her good fortune in ending up in a place that so perfectly combines her passions for teaching, farming, social justice, and eating. Raised a Quaker, Grace graduated with a BA from Yale University in Religious Studies with a focus on religious communities’ environmental activism. She worked in Kolhapur, India for a workers’ rights organization, and then decided to pursue social justice work closer to home. She grew involved in the food justice movement, and worked on a small urban farm as a farm manager and educator. She studied cooking on the line in restaurants and spent her free time experimenting over the stove and in the soil. At Woolman she is thrilled to be developing a more integrated Farm to Table program, teaching Garden Class for students, a cooking class for interns, and moving the sourcing of the food in the Woolman kitchen towards being as local and sustainable as possible. |
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Casey Selden, Camp Co-Director Casey first went away to summer camp when she was 8 years old. She's never looked back. She has been working at different camps on both coasts of the U. S. for 14 years now and at Quaker wilderness adventure programs for 11. In between these summers, she's earned a bachelors degree in Geography and Geology from Mary Washington College, spent 3 years working as a teacher naturalist and director for an outdoor education program, traveled and lived abroad and most recently spent two years as the Education Manager at a Children's Museum. She has been co-directing Sierra Friends Camp since it's first summer, in 2005. Casey counts among her camp-related skills a passion for building communities, expertise in the artform of getting dirty and a gift for cooking gourmet food over a camping stove. When not at camp, she lives in San Francisco. |
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Katy Schutz, Camp Co-Director Katy grew up in Virginia, where she attended Charlottesville Friends Meeting. Her deep life growth has been through her time as a camper and her 15 years working for Quaker summer camps. Her involvement began in the Baltimore Yearly Meeting camping program, and she has brought that experience to her years of co-directing Sierra Friends Camp since its beginning in 2005. Katy has lived in California since 2002. She was a "naturalist educator" for four years in coastside environmental education programs. Katy recently received her Masters of Education from the University of California Santa Cruz, and teaches 4th grade in Pescadero, California. Katy loves all aspects of camp, especially the joyful singing, the unconditional love and utter goofyness of camp. |