Photo by Heather Daniels Pusey
Mentoring Team
Caitlin Horigan
Field Director
Wilderness First Responder, Certified Forest Therapy Guide, Wildlife Track & Sign Level II
BA Psychology, Salem State University, Graduate Certificate in Ecopsychology
Caitlin Horigan has been a mentor in a wide variety of settings in numerous countries for more than two decades. Her undergraduate studies focused on Child Development and Psychology and her graduate studies focused on Eco-psychology. She is an advocate of self-directed education and creating opportunities for deepening connection with the more than human world. Her teaching weaves together Joanna Macy’s The Work that Reconnects and Bill Plotkin’s Wild Mind model with expeditions, naturalist skills, and nature connection practices.
Caitlin has facilitated both day and residential place-based nature connection programming in the nonprofit sector, public and private schools, summer and after-school programs.
She is on a journey of connecting with her ancestral lineages. Her introduction to tracking, bird language, plant medicine, friction fire, shelter building, scout skills, homesteading and off grid living began when she worked for the Maine Primitive Skills School in 2014. Caitlin is a Wilderness First Responder, certified in CPR, and pursuing a Recreational Maine Guide license.
In 2018 she began training with Animas Valley Institute, one of the primary influences in White Ash Learning programming and has since completed Level 2 of the Wild Mind Training Program. She has also participated in Helping the Butterfly Hatch, a mentorship program for facilitators of Self Directed Education. Caitlin is committed to increasing the accessibility of programs she offers and continues to explore how to thrive in a capitalist system while creating a post-capitalist future. When she is not working Caitlin enjoys exploring the woods, following animal trails, making medicine, foraging food, creating art, running barefoot and dancing.
Moriah Helms
Wilderness First Responder, Certified Lifeguard, BA Spanish, Middlebury College
Moriah has lived most of her life in the north east and currently lives on Penobscot territory in midcoast Maine. The daughter of a woodworker and a Waldorf educator, she spent her Vermont childhood climbing trees, traipsing through fields, foraging and gardening. Moriah grew up receiving a Waldorf education and she incorporates Waldorf-inspired imaginative play, arts, and crafts into her projects. She understands, from an embodied place, the deep value of unstructured experiential outdoor learning and nurturing young people’s innate creativity.
A passion for learning languages has led Moriah to study French, German, Spanish, Japanese, and Irish at various times throughout her life. She has been enjoying learning ASL from Carrie Pierce and incorporating sign language into our daily routines, especially White Ash songs.
Moriah previously worked at The Wildwood Path in Unity, Maine, where she deepened her experience with shelter building, winter camping, friction fire, naturalist skills, medicine making, cordage, crafting, and tracing the lineages of story, song, and culture. Moriah brings exploration of her many ancestral traditions to White Ash Learning, from telling Irish folktales to celebrating the spring with a maypole.
Moriah has attended several programs with Animas Valley Institute and plans to begin the Wild Mind Training Program in 2026. Photo by Heather Daniels Pusey.
“LAKE” aka Lisa Quatrale
Wilderness First Aid, Certified Forest Therapy Guide, Graduate Certificate in Art Education
BS Architecture, Pennsylvania State University, Master of Architecture, Yale School of Architecture
LAKE was raised by The Woods, The Cranberry Bog, The Climbing Trees, The Brook, and The Pond in Connecticut, where as a child she led hiking expeditions in the forest with the intention of getting lost. Though she still gets lost, she also finds her way. Named by a lake in Maine called South Pond, she has come full circle back home to the woods where she was raised to share what she experienced as a child. With the support and inspiration of the more-than-human world and the Wabanaki land that she lives on, LAKE works to heal the human and more-than-human relationship by nurturing nature ecology, inner ecology, and community ecology—in the field and forest and around the table—through forest therapy guiding, the way of council facilitation, forest tea ceremony crafting, practicing Shamanism, designing educational experiences, photographing nature, vegan cooking/baking, and designing community meals. The gift LAKE brings to children is seeing their true nature and nurturing that nature. Like children, she holds a sense of curiosity and wonder when it comes to understanding the world. This curiosity keeps her on an endless path of growth. She sees herself as a guide who nurtures individual growth by creating consensual, spacious, safe, deep, and inspiring learning experiences where all can thrive and bloom. LAKE has worked with young adults and youth in various programs using project-based, place-based, and experiential educational approaches—as a Field Instructor in a wilderness therapy program in the mountains of North Carolina; as an Architect/Educator/Curriculum Developer and a Kayak Instructor in the wilds of NYC, and as an Elementary Art Teacher and an Undergraduate Architectural Studio Instructor in inner-city Atlanta. She has also been trained in Wilderness First Aid and CPR, Compassionate Communication, Leave-No-Trace Principles, and Non-violent Crisis Intervention. A lover of stories and with several ideas for children’s books up her sleeve LAKE looks forward to finding time and space for writing as well as learning more about her ancestral Mi’kmaq roots and imagines sharing these interests, among others, in her educational offerings.
Kyla Windbloom, RN
BS Nursing, University of Maine
Bio coming soon!
Alexis Mullen
Wilderness First Aid
BA Earth and Oceanographic Science, Bowdoin College
Alexis (she/her) is deeply committed to the work of healing the relationship between humans and the animate more-than-human-world. She believes that disconnection from the living world is at the root of our intertwining environmental and social crises. This is what fuels her desire to guide people of all ages as they deepen their relationship with nature.
Born in Tacoma, Washington and raised in Washington, Minnesota, and Iowa, Alexis was encouraged to play outside in her youth and spent countless hours with the land developing her curiosity and adventurous spirit. She moved to Maine/Wabanakik in 2019 to attend Bowdoin College, and it was here that she fell in love with storytelling, the large scale interconnected movements of our earth and solar systems, and movement/somatics. She also became insatiably curious about human relationships with the animate world. These passions infuse into all that she does. She graduated in 2023 with her Bachelors degree in Earth and Oceanographic Science and Dance.
As a mentor with White Ash, Alexis is excited to continue working with youth in educational settings and creating space for people to deepen their relationship with the earth. She has worked formerly as an outdoor trip leader with Bowdoin’s Outing Club (3 years), trail kids leader with the Loppet Foundation in Minneapolis (2 seasons), and as a water safety instructor/lifeguard (4 years). She believes in each being having sovereignty over their education, and that we learn most authentically when we call in the living world around us as our teacher.
Alexis is committed to decolonial embodiment, a deep respect of cultural practices, cross-cultural trust building, and the return of land and resources to Indigenous peoples. She plans to integrate Wabanaki studies into her role as a mentor at White Ash, in collaboration with Wabanaki community members.
Through somatics, Alexis realized that our physical and energetic movements are manifestations of our relationships with ourselves and the living world around us. She is very curious about how we as people might realign our movements into reciprocity with the world. Alexis is deepening her relationships with the living world through learning and practicing somatics, plant medicine, and ancestral earth-based living skills. She is on a journey of connecting with her ancestral lineages, and believes in the power of recovering and remembering forgotten ancestral earth-based practices through prayer and ceremony.
As an aspiring outdoor educator, I deeply appreciate the thought and care that the staff community brings to our collaboration with one another in creating the inspiring and intentional experience that is White Ash Learning.
Program Support
Ray Lightheart
Operations Coordinator
Adult and Infant CPR
BS Elementary Education, University of Maryland, MS in Early Childhood Education, Northcentral University
Ray Lightheart brings a rich background in both administrative support and hands-on mentoring to White Ash Learning Cooperative. They have over a decade of experience working in Waldorf programs deepening their passion for holistic, nature-centered education, most recently as the Lead Teacher in an Early Childhood Classroom. Ray also operated a licensed family daycare for three years while their own children were small, gaining invaluable experience creating nurturing, child-led environments. During that time, Ray earned a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and continues to enjoy engaging in professional development. They also completed RIE Foundations, (Resources for Infant Educarers) a sixty-hour program exploring Magda Gerber’s Educaring Approach. With years of experience supporting childcare centers behind the scenes and leading youth in outdoor programs, Ray is dedicated to fostering a welcoming, well-organized space where young people can explore, grow, and connect with the natural world.
Kyla Windbloom, RN
Organizational Process Consultant
BS Nursing, University of Maine
Kyla brings decades of experience in facilitating small groups and structuring new organizations to her work strengthening White Ash’s processes, structures, policies, and facilitating internal communication. She also brings this experience to facilitating group decision-making and workshops on a variety of topics in the midcoast area and beyond.
Though she is happiest with a cat on her lap, and surrounded by family, Kyla is passionate about exploring the ecosystems that include her home. On any given day you may find her examining lichen on a little-used trail, processing nettle fibers, or making lotion bars scented with weeds that grew near her house.
Celia Whitehead
Garden Coordinator
BA Anthropology and Hispanic Studies, Connecticut College, Infant & Adult CPR/First Aid
Celia Whitehead enjoys doing grounds work and mentoring to support White Ash, in addition to her work teaching classes at the Waldo County YMCA and hosting at Cedar Grove Sauna. Celia brings a wide background of interests and passions to White Ash including tending gardens and plants, storytelling, music, boating & knot tying, crafting, yoga, carpentry & general handiness. She weaves her relationships with all beings through learning and sharing the names and stories of the plants and animals we share our homes with.
As a public school student from Bath, ME Celia learned a lot about how to follow instructions and seek perfection. She’s been re-learning what learning can feel like ever since. When working with others, Celia wonders: What if success means feeling ignited with curiosity? What if success looks like feeling connected and in relationship with the whole world around and within yourself?
Mea Starr Tavares
Grounds Caretaker
A bodyworker and practitioner of community care, Mea supports White Ash Learning through tending the collective body of the physical space. In their time at White Ash they can be found in the everyday rituals of cleaning, food prep and site care, supporting the baseline from which people and programming can thrive.
As a practitioner and interwoven human, Mea’s commitments to land, people and the wild alive hold both learning and unlearning as deep values. They live and practice in the embodied learning/unlearning edge of what it is to be in relationship; with the unceded Wabanaki land they live and practice on and with, with the legacies of harm and healing that are woven through the lineages they carry in ancestry and in practice, with people in all of our intersections of identity and lived experience, and with the pulse of liberation that lives and breathes through every interconnected life.
When not at White Ash, Mea can be found holding trauma-informed bodywork sessions with humans and the occasional horse in their practice Hallowed Well in Stockton Springs and at the Waldoboro Inn, holding monthly Yoga Nidra for Collective Care practices via Zoom, or volunteering in the clinic on the 4th Sunday of the month with the Midcoast Community Care Collective at the Rockweed Center. Or perhaps performing on a local stage, or out canoeing with their shipwright, wood crafting, partner for whom boats are a love language.
Guest Mentors
Alexa Michelle
Mixed Media Guest Mentor
Bio coming soon!
Armonie Cohen-Solal
Wilderness First Responder, CPR, Graduate of The Ecology Learning Center
Armonie Cohen-Solal graduated as valedictorian and class president from the Ecology Leaning Center, a public charter high school with a focus on place-based education. She was also awarded the Community Leader award in her senior year. While at the ELC she took college courses in environmental science, English, and psychology through UMaine and assisted with Wilderness First Aid training for students. Prior to going to school at 16, she had been unschooled her entire life and has participated in many self-directed nature-based programs. She has worked her way from participant to mentor. When not working at White Ash, Armonie assists with the operations of Ancestral French Soaps, a family business. She also plays the fiddle and has been singing since she could make noise, and sings whenever she gets the chance, including while rowing and sailing on Belfast Bay.
Tyler Pierce “Dirt”
Wilderness First Responder, CPR
Tyler Pierce (“Dirt”) grew up playing in the mucky, mossy lowlands of Duwamish territory. From there he sprang out and crossed the continent a few times, lately making home inside the lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy. His work history includes cooking and hospitality, organic farming, carpentry, and traditional Japanese landscaping. He is also passionate about hiking, climbing, the written word, bicycling, tending houseplants, yoga, and sacred geometry. He is perpetually working on listening and exercising compassionate communication skills. His favorite pastime is playing the drums and he has had a lifelong love affair with music of all styles. Dirt loves spending time around the curiosity and natural excitement of young people and is happy to have the opportunity to facilitate learning and growth within the self-directed model. He is looking forward to pursuing continuing education in wilderness studies and Self Directed Education as well as learning ASL.
Jesse Ash Newcomb, LMHC
MA Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Expressive Arts, Lesley University
Graduate Certificate in Ecopsychology, BA Sociology, Beloit College
Ash is a licensed mental health counselor, creative, and earth-loving being with training and experience in using the expressive arts, embodiment, and nature connection to support people and fostering relationship with themselves, others, and the natural world. They especially love supporting people of all ages in recognizing their own magic and bringing that into the world and feel passionate about creating spaces where people feel welcome to bring their whole selves to explore, create, and connect with themselves and others. They are passionate about supporting and listening to young people, the natural world, and the elements and wisdom inside each of us. Ash has been doing self study and attending workshops related to plants and herbalism for 10 years and loves spending time in the natural world and deepening their connection to, and learning from, all that is alive. They have experience working as a nanny for many ages, a camp counselor for teens of all genders, along with other youth support and empowerment work. They currently work as an individual and group therapist for all ages including several adolescents. In addition to the rivers, trees, and plants that have been teachers to Ash, they have been a participant and assistant with the Wildwood Path program in Unity, Maine, trained with the EarthBody institute in ecotherapy, have a certificate in Ecopsychology from the Pacifica Graduate Institute, have participated in several programs through the Animas Valley Institute, and assisted with the Rising Moon program last year. They also have a Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Expressive Arts Therapy from Lesley University and have trained with the Internal Family Systems Institute. Ash enjoys making art, singing, writing, movement, time outside, and spending time with good people laughing or talking about the hard stuff. They believe that part of creating a world that is best for all of us includes each deepening our relationship with the natural world inside and outside of us, and that being in touch with joy and creativity are important parts of creating sustainable futures.
Leigh Seeleman
Wilderness First Responder, BA Environmental Studies, Biology Concentration, University of Pennsylvania
I grew up on Lenni-Lenape land with my parents and grandparents who joined me in wandering up brooks, marveling at crickets, lightning bugs, chickadee, black eyed susan and dandelion. My love for the wild and my grief for environmental destruction led me to the concrete jungle of Philadelphia and the tropical forests of Costa Rica and Nicaragua to study environmental science.
While living in Philadelphia I supported students to connect with nature through teaching in a variety of settings including on a sailboat with Philadelphia CitySail, with Philadelphia Outward Bound, Girl’s Leadership Camp, Environmental Education Camp, and in classrooms and afterschool programs. I also began to study and play at creative movement, song and music-making, wilderness awareness, women’s blood mysteries, rites of passage guiding, urban farming, herbalism, dreaming practices, massage therapy and healing arts. Participating in Niyonu Spann’s Beyond Diversity 101 curriculum gave me tools for the ongoing life-work of uprooting systematic oppression and taking actions toward creating a culture of equity.
I enjoy tending plants, weaving story, poems, performance art, song, music and dance, praising the wild ones in nature and giving my heart to the story of collective liberation. I love creating spaces for young people to be free, curious and connected with the wild within and around. I have a professional healing arts practice in the midcoast area and Philadelphia offering massage, bodywork, energy healing, mentoring & dreamwork.
Jason Millis Chandler
Founding Mentor
Wilderness First Responder, Maine Master Naturalist, Registered Maine Guide, BA Philosophy, Vassar College
I grew up following my imagination in cliffy spruce woods, roaming tide pools in rocky sandy shores, kayaking in my father’s hand-built boats, marveling at the sky, role-playing in games and on stage, seeking acclaim where I could find it, and sometimes obeying my mother and picking sweet peas and strawberries in the garden above a peninsular harbor in Small Point, ME. I learned inextricably from a young age that all life on earth is both completely amazing and in danger due to our human actions. As soon as I could, I got out of school and walked from Maine to Georgia on a footpath popular even in the gruesome yet budding 21st century. I found myself soon back in classrooms at the dream-realm of Vassar college and studying abroad in Tibetan communities, reveling as an outsider in language and old culture, glimpsing some of the faces of active genocide. Sickened by grief on my return, and emboldened by the practices of living outdoors, I sought life outside of the U.S. for some perspective that might help me, help us. I lived as a student, outdoor educator and Peace Corps volunteer in Armenia for two years. I taught at Chewonki. I led teenagers on expeditions along the coast of present Wabanaki land, to the mountains on foot, and into northern Maine and Quebec in that magnificent indigenous technology the canoe.
Then, somehow lost and wild and longing, I met Caitlin Thurrell and she asked me for a walk in the woods. I gave her a bowl carved of Apple wood. After nine years of study and the practice of farming, she was returning to Ladakh in the Himalayas to live. She said she was going alone. I wanted more than anything to be with her, and through some grace she finally said yes. We split our lives now between a small village there through a gorge above the Indus named Dar, where we help grow barley and wheat and take sheep and goats to the mountains, and coastal Maine where we have recently made a small cedar and straw and clay cabin we call home. Receiving and remembering such incredible gifts in life, I want to pass the best I can along to the coming generations, knowing that all we can do is prepare and practice for the unknown.
Caitlin Thurrell
Founding Mentor
Wilderness First Responder, BA Human Ecology, College of the Atlantic
I grew up a little queer in queer family among the foothills and waters of central New Hampshire, Abenaki Territory, mostly inside of doors and books. Only at last I turned outward to bring attention to rest (as it does still) in the greater-than-human world of root, leaf, and flower, track and skin and hollow bone. When I was eighteen I left high school and worked hard, supported by my parents, to earn money to travel to India.
The experiences of those ten months changed and opened many things in my mind and heart, including a beginning of my own journey understanding interdependence, suffering, whiteness, colonization, and capitalism, and also a deep hope that humans can live a different way, bringing more beauty and less harm. In the spring of that year I spent one month in Ladakh, returning then to the US with powerful desire to go back someday with more ability to be useful. Following this wish I left Brown University for the island called Mount Desert in English, Wabanaki Territory, to study Human Ecology, weave apprenticeship in sustainable agriculture with field natural history, art making, and wisdom-tradition philosophy. Finding work then as farmer and educator on a peninsula called Chewonki in corruption of its original name, I was given the office of Sunrise and came to love the mudflats and salt marshes, spartina and mink tracks in heavy clay. After these nine years training, I began to feel prepared.
Jason and I met and fell in love that year, traveled down the Kennebec River from its headwaters to the sea, and then continued our journey to the Northern Himalaya. Through volunteer teaching at the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) we met Chondol and came home with her to her village of Tar in Sham, western Ladakh, where apricot trees bloom in springtime over two-thousand-year-old fields of barley. In this village of thirteen households and many elders the strength and labor of our young bodies felt helpful, and we could learn some of the labors and songs of making life in this high altitude desert.
So far in my life I have served as reader and writer, quiet woods-walker, farmer (apprentice, journey person, and practitioner), teacher of soils, wood, forests, mountains, and waters, cooking on fires, and song. I strive to be a mindful student of solitude and death.
I love dancing and making art with natural materials, song, human and draft powered grain, vegetable, and medicine cultivation, and silent mountain sitting practices of attention. Being with young people out of doors, playing or working or sitting quietly watching and learning brings great joy and hope.