DFS Staff + Circle Members
What is the DFS Circle?
Members of the DFS Circle represent the folk school's governing body. Comprised primarily of volunteers passionate about community, self-reliance, traditional skills, and the Driftless Region, the Circle meets regularly to steer folk school programming and planning.
Jacob Hundt - Executive Director
Jacob Hundt grew up on a dairy farm in the Driftless Region and was one of the founding students of the Youth Initiative High School in Viroqua. He studied at Deep Springs College, the American University in Bulgaria, and the University of Chicago. Since 2004, he has worked as a trained Waldorf high school teacher and guidance counselor at Youth Initiative High School and was a founding board member and instructor of the Driftless Folk School. Currently, Jacob is Director and faculty member of Thoreau College, an emerging microcollege inspired by Waldorf education, Henry David Thoreau, Deep Springs College, and the Scandinavian folk high school movement. He lives on a 10 acre farm near Viroqua with his wife Sofya and 4 children.
Contact email: jacob@driftlessfolkschool.org
Lynsey Moritz - Marketing & Outreach Coordinator
A Decorah, Iowa native, Lynsey Moritz has lived, studied, worked, and traveled in a wide variety of places across the country and world. Over the past several years, she has planted roots back in the Driftless Region in SW Wisconsin. Lynsey has over 15 years of design, marketing, social media management, and community outreach experience. She strives to use her knowledge and skills to work for smaller, local brands and organizations that she believes in and that align with her personal ethos.
Lynsey is a budding herbalist and homesteader with a passion for sustainable living. She is a lifelong learner who loves to travel & go on adventures, eat (& cook) good food, appreciate (& create) art, and connect with & support the local community!
Contact email: media@driftlessfolkschool.org
Andi Reisdorf - Registrar
Andi is a professional mycologist, avid wild food forager, and amateur rockhound with a green thumb and a love affair with the natural world. She has a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies with a focus on environmental sustainability and social justice. She also has a master’s degree in biology with a focus on mycology, the study of mushrooms and other fungi. Her master’s thesis represents the first published study examining the spread of non-native golden oyster mushrooms in the United States. After spending 4 years as a scientist in the San Francisco Bay Area’s biotech industry, the Wisconsin woods have called her home to focus on the transfer of cultural knowledge and traditional skills.
Contact email: registrar@driftlessfolkschool.org
Chase Van Horn - Fellow
Chase comes to the Driftless Folk School and Thoreau College after years of moving with the seasons, learning from the landscapes and people he encounters along the way. He has taught marine science on an island, guided backpacking trips in the wilderness, walked across Spain twice, worked with young people in camps and schools, and made homes in a succession of remarkable places. He is excited to spend the next year in the Driftless exploring the relationship between place, attention, and community, while cultivating a more rooted creative practice.
Contact email: chase@driftlessfolkschool.org
Nicholas WazeeGale - Children’s Programming Coordinator
Nicholas is a lifelong student of the Natural World, traditional cultures, and sustainability. His life and livelihood are deeply tied to the Driftless landscape through foraging plant and fungi foods, hunting and fishing, tanning skins, making handcraft, tracking wildlife, and closely observing all manner of natural phenomena. He makes his living as an educator with the Driftless Folk School, Thoreau College, the Kickapoo Valley Forest School, and through his own offerings and feels that Natural World education offers our wayward species essential guidance, grounding, and reality during these complex modern times. His qualifications for teaching and guiding in the wilds include a year long immersive wilderness living course, decades of living closely with the Driftless landscape, and professional and specialist certifications in reading wildlife track and sign through Tracker Certification, Cybertracker North America.
Instagram: @naturalnuances
Substack: rogueecology.substack.com
Anneka Baird - Circle Member
Anneka Baird is a master craftswoman based in Wisconsin's driftless region. Baird maintains a practical curiosity about the technological foundations of life as we know it-- foundations which have often been obscured in layer upon layer of successive technologies. Baird is an MFA graduate of the University of Iowa Center for the Book, a sitting board member of the Midwest Ox Drovers Association and a persistent student in the school of experience.
Steve Carrow - Circle Member
Steve was raised on a farm, but only came back to the land a few years ago, when he and his wife “retired”. They have been planting hundreds of trees, and are transitioning their farm acreage to a permaculture based arrangement, which will be a many year project. Acquiring self-reliance and the various homesteading skills gives them satisfaction, and they are steadily making our lives more sustainable.
Brandon Ciancio - Circle Member
Over the past decade, Brandon has immersed himself in self-sustainability, environmentalism, and holistic health, which eventually brought him to the Driftless Region. Here, he continues to learn about the role humans play as keystone species in maintaining ecological balance. By exploring soil-building practices and sustainable food systems, he is beginning his journey toward understanding how nourishing the land can lead to— a better world for all.
Rock Hancock - Circle Member
Rock is a fitness and wellness professional. He specializes in natural movement with an emphasis on play and strength. He is an aspiring homesteader and is attempting to rewild his life with his wife and two kids. You can learn more about his work at www.strengthplaynature.com or follow him on instagram @strength_play_nature
Jon Passi - Circle Member
Jon Passi is an educator and advocate for alternative energy and sustainable technologies. With over 30 years construction experience, he moved to Viroqua in 2006 in order to build an alternative energy, well- insulated, off-grid home. He utilized photovoltaics and batteries for power, an efficient wood stove, and passive solar for heat, solar for water, and radiant floor heat, and a windmill to pump water. Now that the house is done, he cuts wood, designs and installs PV systems, creates poems and music, and tries to live light on the land.
Laura Poe Mathes - Circle Member
Laura is a holistic gut health dietitian with over 17 years of experience in the world of fermentation and whole food cooking. She is the founder of Rest, Digest and Heal, an online course and community dedicated to offering knowledge and support through the gut healing journey, with a special focus on stress and its effect on digestive health. She is an author, speaker, and teacher on traditional cooking skills, nutrition and more (but she really loves to nerd out about all things fermentation!). Laura is also a mother, homesteader with her husband in the Driftless area of Wisconsin and a lover of nature, movement and laughter. Learn more about Laura at www.viroquanutritioncounseling.com and follow her on Instagram @the.crunchy.rd!
Julie Tomaro - Circle Member
Julie has been sewing and crafting for most of her life, though more recently her journey has lead her to take these skills into the world of sustainability and reaching towards zero waste. Through sewing her for herself and her community she has found a new platform to empower others reaching for those goals themselves. Julie is currently the owner of Blue Bobbin Studio in Viroqua. (Website: www.bluebobbinstudio.com // Instagram: @bluebobbinstudio)