Staff and Board

When the forms of an old culture are dying, the new culture is created by a few people who are not afraid to be insecure.

Rudolf Bahro

Meet our Dedicated  Staff

Jenny Finn (she/her)

Executive Director (jenny@springhouse.org)

Jenny Finn has designed structures that foster vitality in people, communities, and organizations for nearly 30 years. She holds a Ph.D. in Sustainability Education and is a co-founder of Springhouse. Jenny Finn’s research, mentoring, and teaching invites people to strengthen the relationship they have with themselves in order to serve the world with greater clarity, courage, compassion, and creativity. Her work has taken many forms including non-profit leadership, trauma and hospice care, chaplaincy, clinical private practice, community-building through the expressive arts, and education. Jenny lives on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her husband Andy and their many furry friends, and she is the mother of Andrew and Lizzie. She loves riding the Peloton bike, swimming, spending time with family and friends, and watching a good British mystery.

Sarah Merfeld Stabler (she/her)

Head of School (sarahs@springhouse.org)

Sarah moved to Floyd in 2017 to get involved with Springhouse’s adult programming and became a full-time staff member later that year. She has always been interested in thriving and enjoyed studying religion at Colorado College. Before coming to Springhouse, Sarah studied permaculture design at Quail Springs Permaculture; completed an 18-month sustainable agriculture fellowship with the Allegheny Mountain Institute in 2016; and worked in the field of garden-based education. In 2021, she completed a master’s degree in Ecological Design Thinking at Schumacher College, where she loved meeting people from around the world and exploring where theory and practice meet. Currently, she is the Head of School at Springhouse, where she leads Springhouse’s school programs and helps support our School Founders cohort. In addition, she leads Sacred Dance and loves working on Springhouse’s sustainability efforts alongside dedicated teenagers.

Carolyn Reilly (she/her)

Development Director (carolyn@springhouse.org)

Carolyn is a courageous lifelong learner, wife, and mother of four who has worked in the nonprofit arena for over two decades. Her work has spanned church communications and worship design, teaching step aerobics and pilates at the YMCA, as well as community organizing to protect the natural environment. Carolyn also has experience in co-creating an intergenerational family farm focused on regenerative practices and connecting people to nourishing, whole food. On staff at Springhouse since August 2019, she serves full-time, showing up wholeheartedly in the growth and development of the organization. Carolyn has a huge heart for community, specifically in connecting and empowering people to cultivate wholeness and deepen their relationships - with themselves, each other, the earth, and the divine.

Sarah Piper Pollock (she/her)

Sourced Press Director (sarahp@springhouse.org)

Sarah Pollock, a director, artist, and mentor, leads Sourced Press, the Springhouse print shop. With expertise in a variety of artist mediums, including letterpress printing, she shapes creative experiences in the print shop, mentoring, on the dance floor, and beyond. She has been serving nonprofits for many years with a focus on environmental restoration and conservation, rites of passage for international youth, dance, and youth mentorship. She is certified in Forrest yoga, is a SomaSource practitioner, and has a degree from Clark University in Global Environmental Studies. Currently studying Transformative Learning Communities at Antioch University, she has focused her master’s thesis on professional development for educators. Hailing from Colorado, she finds solace in nature, often wandering forests, cold plunging, and sketching tree roots.

H. Leopold (they/them)

Digital Media Manager & High School Staff (h@springhouse.org)

H has worked with diverse populations of young learners both in the public school system and alternative educational settings. They have experienced the learning environments of “failing” schools - where three-quarters of the learner population receive free or reduced lunches - and schools in which learners speak over 50 different languages and have relocated from countries all over the globe. After realizing the limits of the U.S. public education system, H left their 5-year teacher education program a year early, graduating with a degree in Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies with minors in Elementary Education and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Upon receiving their diploma, they immediately left the town of their undergraduate university in pursuit of a more vital way of educating and learning. Now, after more than 8 years of immersion in and the co-creation of Springhouse’s educational approach, H, a queer trans educator, is deeply committed to the work of changing culture through education and media.

H first started volunteering at Springhouse in 2015 while they were still in college, and they have been involved in various capacities ever since. Currently, they mentor teens; facilitate courses on Love, racial inequity, America’s hidden history, and a critique of American culture; teach yoga; and curate and oversee Springhouse’s digital media. If you happen to catch H outside of Springhouse, they may be experimenting with film photography, studying Sanskrit as part of their master’s degree in yoga studies, or helping co-organize events for the local queer community.

Roxanne Greenberg (she/they)

Facilities Manager & High School Staff (roxanne@springhouse.org)

Roxanne is a kinesthetic learner and values hands-on learning and the importance of living connected to the land. She is interested in how slowing down and turning inward can help us observe and become more conscious of how we move through our external environments. She believes in the body's innate wisdom to heal and transform and is passionate about supporting others in cultivating resiliency, learning from differences, and working to restore what needs repair.

Chris Wolf (he/him)

Finance Manager & High School Staff (chris@springhouse.org)

Chris grew up in a Camphill community in Pennsylvania and attended the Kimberton Waldorf School. He followed an interest in cheese-making to a farm in France and then went on to earn a B. Sc. in Agricultural Economics from McGill University. Before settling in Floyd, Chris led canoe trips in the Canadian wilderness, taught English in the Republic of Georgia, and worked in food and farming in various capacities. Chris is currently in an ongoing psychodrama training based in Hudson Valley, NY. He is committed to service and interested in social forms that encourage authenticity and honor wholeness. Chris wears many hats at Springhouse. You might find him updating spreadsheets, writing checks, and reconciling bank statements in his role as Finance Manager. You could just as well find him leading teens in a new song or guiding a course in one of his many areas of interest. The breadth that each day holds is one of the reasons Chris loves his work with Springhouse.

Ian Stabler (he/him)

Sourced Press Shop Manager & High School Staff (ian@springhouse.org)

Ian Stabler is an artist, woodworker, and natural builder from Denver, Colorado. In 2013, he graduated from Colorado College with a degree in Studio Art. He completed his Permaculture Design Certificate from Quail Springs later that year and spent the next two years as a natural building apprentice at Aprovecho Sustainability Institute in Cottage Grove, OR.

Ian has a deep appreciation for the natural world and humanity’s place within it, and he uses his art as an access point through which to delve deeper into our environment and himself. He loves farming, homesteading, traveling, and teaching. Ian believes that art in education can be as expansive as the learners who participate in it as well as in the potential for art to teach us depth within ourselves and the world around us. Ian loves old things that carry the marks of hundreds of hands, student watercolors of dragons, and the satisfaction of a well-built stair.

Meet our Board of Trustees

Chuck Peters (he/him)

Board Chair

Chuck lives in Twisp, Washington, close to his two grandchildren (of six) who live in the United States. After thirty years working in corporate management, leading large organizations such as Amana Refrigeration and small start-ups such as Breakthrough to Literacy, Chuck’s last six years have been focused on generative education, particularly effective literacy environments for children ages 3-11. Generative learning environments enable both the leaders and the learners to maintain their wholeness and agency. For more background on generative education see https://bit.ly/2LSAjz2
While also active in leadership positions in many community organizations such as United Way, chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, and Junior Achievement Chuck has focused on education with 10 years as chair of Foundations in Learning, 27 years on the Coe College Board of Trustees (3 as Chair), 26 years on the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business Board of Advisors, several years on the board of the Belin-Blank Center at the University of Iowa, and three years as the Chair of the Board of Advisors for the University of Iowa College of Education.

Kim O'Donnell (she/her)

Board Member

Kim O’Donnell is a retired Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Judge. Prior to becoming a judge, she served as both a public defender and a prosecutor in Richmond, Virginia. During her legal career, she served on the boards of various non-profits, including the Richmond CASA program, the Prison Visitation Project, and the YWCA of Greater Richmond. She has also served on the Advisory Board of Visitors for Mary Baldwin College and was a member of the McArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice. In addition to her undergraduate and law degrees, she has a Masters in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University.

Paul Haluszczak (he/him)

Board Member

Paul stumbled upon the world of learner-centered education after quickly realizing his original career choice as a data analyst was a path of comfort rather than one of joy and fulfillment. Determined to pivot and ignore his degree in Economics, he launched a website with writing samples and began looking for work in non-profit communications. He was soon hired by Education Reimagined where he is now the Director of Digital Communications. Currently, the road is Paul’s home. Along with his partner, Morgan, and dog, Milly, they travel around the country in search of great hiking, great boondocking, and, if all goes well, a great community they will be ready to call a more permanent home.

Tatiana Alba (she/her)

Board Member

Tatiana is in the process of getting her bachelor degree from Berea College. She was born in Kansas City but considers Floyd to be her home. A Springhouse Alum, Tatiana has used the skills she has gained from her time at Springhouse to build a better world, one connection at a time. She enjoys spending time in nature, connecting with family, and playing the fiddle.