Staff Community

Alex Freilich

PRESCHOOL &
SCHOOL AGE

Alex has lived the majority of his life in the Pacific Northwest, and has spent years learning from the land, observing the patterns and cycles that exist here. He is a graduate of the Evergreen State College with a focus in Natural History and Agriculture. He is passionate about permaculture and developing better relationships with the land around us. Alex is inspired by the curiosity and openness of children. He in turn seeks to inspire young ones to look closely, tread lightly, and act compassionately.
​Wilderness First Aid Certified

Veronica

Veronica has worked in education, outdoor education, and queer youth programs for many years. She is passionate about plants & young people, and brings theater and magic to her teaching approach.  Veronica is a guest instructor and consultant.

Allan Davis

PRESCHOOL &
​SCHOOL-AGE 

Allan finished at The Evergreen State College where he studied the deep human connection to the environment.  He is a guest instructor and consultant. 

 He is also studying with Wilderness Awareness School in their 9-month long animal tracking intensive. 
​​Wilderness First Aid Certified

 Teen Programs

Nina Carmichael

PRESCHOOL

​Nina Carmichael was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She is a graduate of The University Of Washington with a BA in Community Psychology and a Minor in Education. She has actively worked in childcare since 2006 as well as volunteering, facilitating, and mentoring in several child/young adult centered programs such as: Girls Rock, Passages Northwest, Seattle Tilth, Youth in Focus, The Children's play garden, Islewilde (circus/art performance camp) and multiple k-5 classrooms. She believes that it is vital to have change in location and context from larger institutions in which we participate/exist in for our over all health and well being. Nina is deeply passionate about the process of learning and unlearning as a form of healing. Developmentally she feels it is crucial to have connection with the natural world and that if relationship to self, others, and the environment can happen simultaneously it is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves.  Nina is a substitute and a consultant.
​Wilderness First Aid Certified

Silvan Jay

PRESCHOOL &
SCHOOL AGE

Silvi has spent his life living in the south Salish Sea pursuing art and ecology. Since graduating from The Evergreen State College in 2010 with a major in Forest Ecology, his love and understanding of the plants of the Pacific Northwest has grown exponentially. Pursuits have included ever-developing study in the realms of herbalism, ecosystem restoration, permaculture, European folk magic, foraging, fermenting, and various primitive skills. Most recently, Silvi has become passionate about basket weaving and making plant fiber cordage. He has been teaching and volunteering with the Native Plant Salvage Project since 2011, and has been building and managing a community permaculture garden in east Olympia since 2012. He believes deeply in nurturing the innate wisdom in children, and fostering deep personal connections with the animate natural world in all people.

Colton MacKenzie

CONSULTING

Colton is a mycologist, agriculturalist, permaculturalist, musician, carpenter and trickster. 

 Colton offers enthusiasm, playfulness and imagination to their teaching approaches. 
He is a guest instructor and a consultant.

PRESCHOOL

Carly Martin

PRESCHOOL &
SCHOOL AGE

 Carly Martin grew up around the suburbs of Philly, PA and moved to Olympia in 2014 to obtain a Bachelor’s degree at the Evergreen State College where she has been studying political
economy, U.S. imperialism, and public health within an anti-racist/ anti-oppression framework.

Carly came to us through TESC. Carly completed a 10-week internship/ Independent Learning Contract with Acorns at Evergreen, studying the accessibility of free-schooling/ unschooling, exploring
how alternative forms of education can be used as a tool for liberation for children and communities as a whole. She has worked in preschool settings for the past 4 years, has been a nanny for the past three years, and has experience as camp counselor at an overnight camp in
California for ages 9-16, leading kids on backpacking trips, as well as co-creating/ co-counseling a farm-to-table teen camp.

Meet our Admin

Heather McKenna

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR &
​CO-FOUNDER, CREATRESS​

Heather is an incredible community-member, dedicated partner, loving parent and inspiring teacher. Heather initiated the formation of ACORNS initially to create a space for her child and others in the unschooling and homeschooling community who were seeking inclusive, alternative approaches to education outdoors. She recognizes that education and liberation happen through community, relationship, life experience and enduring curiosity. Once the process began, Heather began to imagine something even bigger!

Since then, Heather has been working long and diligently to make this dream happen; reaching out to community members, experienced individuals, potential partner organizations and networking this manifestation into reality. Spinning the web. Creatively drawing on her past experiences with 15+ years in commercial banking, business, and a degree with Evergreen, she is putting her skills to work for a cause that she believes in, seeking alternatives along the way from the systems of oppression and other social constructs that don’t serves us.
Wilderness First Aid & CPR Certified

Kendra Öbom

​CO-FOUNDER​ and CONSULTING

Kendra is descended from predominantly Swedish, Norwegian, Scottish and Danish ancestry. They are proud to continue a lineage of queerness within their family lines. Their patrilineage came to 'Washington' as loggers, landing on Duwamish territory.  Their matrilineage arrived on traditional Niimíipuu territory as settlers. They are interested in learning to better embody 'settler responsibility' as a settler descendant seeking to contribute to the restoration of Indigenous Sovereignty. 

They have worked in outdoor ed for 16 years, including working as an adventure guide for Costa Rica Rainforest Outward Bound. More recently, they have worked as program director, instructor and trainer at BOLD & GOLD outdoor leadership programs  (previously Passages Northwest) leading backpacking trips in the North Cascades, teaching after-school rock climbing, directing girls' leadership camps and providing support for queer youth. 

Kendra is most enthusiastic and curious about restorative community, and education models that focus on relationship. They have studied at the Hawthorn School of Plant Medicine, and hope to participate this spring in the Living Wild Hunter-Gatherer immersion program. 

 They will be leading a 'Restoring Youth Rites of Passage' two-week intensive this Summer with Rite of Passage Journeys, and hope to incorporate rites of passage and council practices into the work they do. 
Click Here to go to their website. 
Wilderness First Aid & CPR Certified