WHATCOM FOLK SCHOOL INSTRUCTORS

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These bios are in alphabetical order by first name:

 

ABE LLOYD

Abe grew up in Bellingham and holds a Master’s Degree in Ethnobotany from the University of Victoria.  He has been studying plants and foraging for two decades and shares his more recent foraging experiences in his Wild Harvests blog (http://www.arcadianabe.blogspot.com)

 

ALICIA WILLS

Wearing many hats, Alicia is an avid and experienced gardener, administrative services consultant, community organizer and a long-time student of sustainable practices.  In her spare time, she practices collage as an art form and a means of self-exploration.

 

BOB SCHOBER

Bob is a longtime handyman and woodworker who moved recently to Bellingham from Pittsburgh, PA.  Bob has been building and tinkering since he was a kid and now runs his own business building furniture and fixing problems in people’s homes (Note: Bob absolutely will not solicit any work from any class attendee at any time). He is a licensed contractor in Washington state.

 

BRYAN ROLLINS

Bryan has been practicing yoga for six and a half years, working with children, adults, & seniors in the Northwest.  His specialty is one-on-one sessions, adapting the practice to whatever modifications are needed to make your yoga accessible. www.bryanyoga.com

*Certified Yoga Instructor, 500-hour.  07/2011.
*Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher (RCYT-95 hour) , 06/2011.
*Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200 hour) ,  08/2009.”

 

CARRIE LEWIS

Carrie has always wanted to create her own space, grow her own food, and have a smaller footprint on the earth.   She completed an apprenticeship with Cob Cottage Company in Oregon in 2010. Through CCC, Carrie was trained to build with cob and straw bale, as well as make and apply earthen plasters, paints, and floors. Carrie has experience constructing and cooking in earthen ovens.

She has worked with different builders in the PNW creating structures and yard/garden spaces. With an aim to create sustainable spaces, they sourced materials from their own land, and gathered items within the community that would otherwise be heading to a landfill.  Carrie’s goal, through natural building, is to empower people to create spaces that are healthy, sustainable, and affordable.

Malora Christensen will be an Assistant, Apprentice and Cook for this two day workshop.

 

CELT SCHIRA

Celt is an experienced gardener, seed saver, cook, and college instructor.  She teaches folk skills and blogs about food and gardening for Transition Whatcom.

 

CHRIS WOLF

Chris Wolf is a Certified Permaculture Designer and is especially passionate about cooking, living in community, and making what she needs out of what other people might throw away.

Chris Wolf has spent the last 15 years studying human beings, the Earth, and how they interact.  She has been gardening, farming, and homesteading for about 5 years.  Chris is certified in Permaculture design and has helped many people from Bellingham to Seattle design their small or large property to provide more of their own food and other needs.  She has lived and worked at Inspiration Farm, and also learned from Michael Pilarski and Doug Bullock.  One recent project of Chris’s was helping a group of 60 children at a grief camp design and plant a food forest.  She currently lives and homesteads at Riverhaven.

Riverhaven is a 22-acre Permaculture-based homestead on the Nooksack River near Lynden, WA.  We strive to provide as much of our own food and energy needs as possible, and teach these skills to people who want to learn.

 

CINDI LANDRETH

 Cindi Landreth is VP of A-1 Builders and manages their design division — Adaptations.  A residential designer for 22 years, her heart is all about building relationships and community.

 

CINDY BROOKS

Cindy Brooks is a former Evergreener with a BA in very Liberal Arts. She is a certified NLP Coach, hypnotherapist, LMP, and NVC practitioner in private practice for over 23 years in Bellingham.  Cindy works with clients to define optimal health, create and maintain a personal wellness strategy, and enhance quality of life.

Cindy has worked with individuals and groups to design and implement strategies for maintaining a healthy diet and exercise plan. This involves an evolutionary process of letting go of attachments and old patterns, creating desirable alternatives, and the energy and momentum to stay engaged in the process until it becomes a new habit.

 

CORINA SAHLIN

Corina homesteads in the beautiful Upper Skagit Valley, where she grows a huge organic garden, milks goats, and home schools her three children.  She has taught people the art of cheese making and goat husbandry for several years and loves it when people call her after participating in one of her cheese-making workshops to proclaim that they made a great wheel of cheese themselves.  Corina has taught cheese-making classes for several years now, and they are very popular.  She also was a professional cheese maker at a small-scale organic cow dairy.

Corina Sahlin has been raising goats on her beautiful homestead in the Upper Skagit Valley, where she grows organic vegetables and fruit, makes cheese, homeschools her three children, and teaches workshops on cheese-making, fiber art, goat husbandry and wilderness skills for children.

 

CYNDY SHELDON

Cyndy studied with Gestalt founder Fritz Perls, organized  the original Gestalt Institute of San Francisco in the 60s, where she taught for over 25 years, as well as in Europe, Australia and Canada. She has classes in Seattle and Bellingham and is currently working on a book of Gestalt practices. Inspired to follow her bliss in search of a more spiritual orientation, she worked among the Navajos for 15 years, which has deepened her appreciation of Gestalt’s timeless understandings, some of which are key in Navajo traditions.

 

DAIMON SWEENEY

Daimon Sweeney teaches EFT, or Emotional Freedom Techniques – a way of relieving life-limiting conditioning, which comes in many flavors, through classes and workshops monthly in Bellingham and Mt. Vernon. He’s used and studied EFT for 12 years, in addition to decades of using a wide range of other self-development techniques. He has created several effective EFT tools. More info at: www.EFTSettings.com/welcome

 

DANIEL SOLOMONS

Daniel was a private student of Madame Gao Fu, a Master Tai Chi instructor from China. He has taught and studied Tai Chi for more than 20 years.

EMILY FARRELL

Emily Farrell, MA, LMHC, has training and experience in: Nature awareness practices (Jon Young, Wilderness Awareness School), work with Joanna Macy (Coming Back to Life), core shamanism, 30 years experience with meditation; numerous wilderness quests; and a lifetime of loving nature.

She is a psychotherapist with 25 years of experience, and has a wholistic psychotherapy practice in Bellingham.  She has facilitated many meditation classes, circles, ceremonial activities, and retreats over the years.  She has studied core shamanism in the Foundation for Shamanic Studies with Leslie Conton and Sandra Ingerman.  She has studied with native elders, and has undertaken numerous solo wilderness quests.

Emily is also an avid organic gardener, has studied permaculture, and is a member of Transition Whatcom’s Operating Group.  She believes that re-rooting ourselves in affection for place is a key part of the process of creating a vibrant future.

 

HEIDI M. HAWKINS

Heidi M. Hawkins is a highly regarded and experienced teacher of subtle and sustainable technologies, including medicine, mysticism, and meditation. Heidi completed acupuncture school in 1994 and furthered her study in Chinese Medicine through an in-depth exploration of Qigong.

 

JANICE SHEPHARD

Rag-rug-making and amigurumi is a result of my lifelong interest in sewing, art, and crafts–particularly in areas that revive or reclaim ancient skills–and a desire to reuse and/or recycle as much as possible.  I love learning and sharing what I have learned, and have experience teaching children and adults. Other classes I have taught include calligraphy, Chinese brush painting, and ballroom dance.

 

JOE CUDNIK

With over 30 years experience, Joe Cudnik envisions culinary arts as a form of artistic expression. He has a degree in Hospitality Management from Henry Ford Community College, 5 years managerial experience in the restaurant business, and apprenticed with chefs such as Yamuna. His vegetarian cooking classes in Bellingham and elsewhere are an oasis in the frazzled fast-food morass of modern culture.

 

JUDY LAUB

Judy has been creating jewelry and small objects for the last 25 years, selling her work in galleries across the United States.  Judy has advanced knowledge in hand fabrication processes, which means things constructed by hand versus cast pieces.  She is a hand fabrication metalsmith, constructing pieces from sheet and other multiple forms of metals available.  She has taught at Pratt Fine Art Center in Seattle.

 

JOLEEN KELLEHER

Joleen Kelleher is a nurse and life coach in private practice in Bellingham. She has studied homeopathy with Grant Bently, in India with Rajan Sankaran, in England with Misha Norland, and is currently finishing her studies for homeopathic certification at the Seattle School of Homeopathy.  Her heart’s focus is helping people create and integrate sustainable changes in their health and well being.

 

KAT BULA

 Kat is a performing and teaching fiddler/multi-instrumentalist/music theory nerd.  She helps adults, teens and tweens who want to have more fun playing music but aren’t sure where to start or feel stuck.

 

KATHRYN FENTRESS

Kathryn is a transpersonal psychologist with 40 years of experience with individuals, couples, and families. She has taught at the University of Montana, Salish Kootenai College, University of Colorado, Boulder Graduate School, and Naropa University. She has also worked in Indian country for over 20 years. She is currently in private practice in Bellingham and is a consultant to the Lummi and Upper Skagit Tribes. Her website is www.kathrynfentress.com

KRISTA ROME

Krista Rome has 10+ years experience with year-round gardening, food preservation, habitat restoration, and primitive skills; and is the director of the Backyard Beans and Grains Project. She has studied the edible, medicinal, and utilitarian uses of Pacific Northwest native plants for over 15 years.

Krista has gardened organically for 15 years, in urban and rural places of all soil types. Her focus is on year-round gardening, season extension, and growing staple crops and storage crops. She has lived in Whatcom County her whole life, with a focus on sustainability. She has been trialing dry legumes and grains in Everson for 4 years and sells seed and teaches others how to grow their own staple crops as well. She taught primitive skills for two years, with a focus on edible, medicinal, and utilitarian uses of native plants. Krista has been preserving food for over ten years, and is an experienced canner. Her current preservation focus is on fermentation and other traditional methods that do not require fossil fuels or electricity. Krista worked with farmers for a year in a remote Zambian village in the Peace Corps in 2002-2003.

 

LAURITA WHITFORD

This class is taught by a team of Master Gardeners who have been giving workshops in the community over the past 4 years.  The team coordinator is Laurita Whitford who has been vegetable gardening for 39 years.  Mary
Carlson has been vegetable gardening for 12 years, Alice Wales has been gardening for the past 40  years, and Jane Johnson has been vegetable gardening for the past 3 years and has had many years of experience with ornamental gardening. The entire team is available most sessions and provides a rich experience for participants.

 

LEE LEMAR

Lee LaMar is a spiritual coach and teacher, and has been studying ashtanga yoga for over 20 years.  In that time he has traveled the vast inner landscape of “Union with God” and has emerged with the knowledge and experience necessary to help others cultivate a productive and rewarding spiritual life.  His loving and compassionate style creates classes and workshops that are not only enriching, but fun and rewarding as well.

Lee LaMar is also a long time musician and has been honing his hand drumming skills for 13 years.  He is a member of the Circle of Rhythm who put on regular community drum circles in and around Bellingham.  He has drummed around many roaring campfires with many drummers of all skill levels.  This has allowed him to pick out the best fundamentals for teaching beginning drummers what they need to get good quickly.  He loves to share drum magic wherever he can.

 

LORI ERBS

With a Masters degree in Library and Information Sciences Lori Erbs integrates holistic living with intellectual and spiritual awareness. Initiated into the Gaudiya-Madhva-sampradaya, she has embraced the path of Bhakti Yoga since 1985, facilitating workshops, gatherings and individualized outreach. She has also taught Bibliographic Instruction at Whatcom Community College and trekked throughout sacred sites in Mayapur and Vrindavan, India.

 

MIALEE JOSE and DANIEL SOLOMONS

Daniel and Mialee write and facilitate workshops that help people relieve stress and live more easily on the planet. Daniel asks key questions that lead to unexpected insights and solutions. Mialee is a natural at helping people tap in to information that’s just under the surface. Together, they provide a focused conversation space where relaxation, new ideas, and thoughtful planning can occur.

 

RENE LAVENTURE

Since 1996, Rene Laventure has expanded her Ph.D. in Guidance and Educational Psychology with training at The Institute for Deep Ecology, Animus Valley Institute, The Foundation for Shamanic Studies and NOLS Wilderness First Aid Certification.  She has worked as a teacher and therapist and for the past 15 years has facilitated workshops in eco-psychology, deep ecology and voluntary simplicity.  She currently leads groups on self-reflective nature journeys and retreats, helping them to reconnect with the wisdom of their deeper selves and the deep wisdom of the natural world.  After many travels to Bellingham during the past 15 years, she is happy to finally call Bellingham home.

Renee has developed and taught classes and outdoor workshops and retreats in eco-psychology for the past 15 years.  She has worked with small groups, spiritual communities and students in The Western Pennsylvania Field Institute.  Rene is an environmentalist, a past board member and educator at the Rachel Carson Homestead, and co-founded a grass roots group: The Front Porch People-a group committed to the environment, community and sustainability. They developed and facilitated various workshops and published a bi-monthly newsletter on environmental topics.  All these activities were in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Rene has also worked as a psychotherapist for over 12 years and am in the process of starting a practice in Bellingham.

 

RICK DUBROW

Rick Dubrow has owned A-1 Builders since 1976.  His specialty is existing structures: adapting them, altering them and optimizing their useful life expectancy.

 

SANDRA LOEFFELMANN

Sandra is passionate about the aesthetic qualities of naturally dyed historic fibers and the application of natural dyes in modern design. She is a native of Austria and holds degrees in fashion, fiber arts, and anthropology. She has been teaching natural dyeing, painting with natural dye extracts, felting and surface design to children and adults for the past 12 years in Europe and the US.

Coming from a long family tradition of textiles, it was a natural transition to the Academy of Fashion and Trade in Vienna, from which Sandra graduated with honors in 1992. Sandra moved to the U.S. to deepen her skills and understanding, studying both Fiber Arts and Anthropology at the University of Oregon, where she graduated from in 1997. During this time, a love for the historic and aesthetic qualities of natural dyes and felted wool developed, which soon turned into life-long passions. Returning to Europe, Sandra traveled, researched and studied felting with local felt masters including István Vidák and Mari Nagy from Hungary.  She moved back to the U.S. in 2004, working closely with Earthues in Seattle, where she was involved with natural dyes in the areas of research travel, color matching, design, and teaching. An expert in the historic and contemporary applications of felt and color, Sandra has taught natural dyeing, painting with natural dye extracts, felting, and surface design in Europe and the United States.

 

SANDY LEVEY-LUNDEN

Sandy Levey-Lunden’s unique style of coaching has helped over 30,000 people in North America, Sweden and the UK heal their past negative beliefs.  Her special brand of coaching has helped clients reconcile with their spouses, rekindle relationships with absent fathers, renew loving, permanent connection with domineering mothers and re-establish productive, rewarding careers.

Sandy Levey-Lunden has been a life coach and counselor for over 30 years.  She teaches 16 different classes and workshops, and has helped thousands of people during her professional career.  More information can be found at her website, www.sandylevey.com

 

SONJA MAX

Sonja’s enthusiasm for creating salubrious culinary delights stems from a deep connection with the natural world, her fascination with the biochemical effects of diet and lifestyle on optimal health, culinary training from acclaimed chefs, and a decade-long career in graphic design. Sonja, Registered Dietitian, has a private nutrition counseling practice in Bellingham. She has a Master’s in clinical nutrition from Bastyr University and completed a dietetic internship at Oregon Health/Science University and the Main Course culinary program in Seattle.

 

STEVE SAHLIN

Steve grew up in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, where he observed primitive skills first hand.  He never lost his fascination with these skills and knowledge that allow people to live close with the earth.  He has been practicing and teaching these skills to children and adults in  the wild.

Steve has survived years in the urban jungle before putting down roots in the backwoods Upper Skagit. Steve has been making traditional long bows for seven years. He has made lots of kids’ bows and several adult bows and has used a wide variety of tools and techniques.

 

SUSAN WILLS

I  have a diverse list of skills, gifts and talents. and have worked in a teaching capacity many times over the years in the form of classes, forums and workshops. I love the natural world, gardening, foraging and creating art with found objects. I am also inspired by how others see the world and am myself a life long learner.

 

TIM BAGLIO

Tim Baglio is a licensed acupuncturist and owner of the Bellingham Chinese Herb Pharmacy. With 15 years of experience in Kungfu and Taoist Qigong, Tim is excited to share these fundamentals with everybody!

 

TIM FLORES

Originally from Wyoming, Tim Flores has been an outdoorsman from the moment he could walk.  Tim has been an outdoor adventure guide and environmental educator for 15 years, and has shared his love for nature all over the United States.   For the last six years, Tim worked as a naturalist and adventure sports guide for Southern Illinois University’s Touch of Nature Environmental Center.  Here he taught environmental conservation and ecology studies, wilderness survival and primitive technologies. Since childhood, Tim has studied Native Cultures and their technologies from all over the world. Tim has been actively enrolled in Homeschool University for 12 years. He now calls Bellingham home.

He has taught campfire cooking and fire making for the fifteen years he has been guiding.  In the last 2 years while teaching primitive friction fire in wilderness survival classes, he developed a sustainable fire making and cooking method using all natural products.  He has been a cook at a food coop for 3 years, and is well versed in local food use, organic foods, organic gardening and folk technologies. He strives to create zero waste in his own life and has learned through his own cooking methods ways to use food byproducts with little composting.  He has also been hunting and fishing his entire life, and has cooked countless meals on fires and backpacking stoves, and has many simple techniques to conserve energy and time while cooking outdoors.

 

WALTER HAUGEN

Walter Haugen grew up on a dairy farm in southern Minnesota and worked as a migrant worker in the Pacific Northwest for 8 years. He holds a master’s degree in biological anthropology and has teaching experience at the college level. He has been growing sustainable, beyond organic produce and grain in Whatcom County for 8 years. Walter grows about 65% of what his family eats.