Our Staff
Kit Wallace, Interim Executive Director
Kit started with Smokey House Center in early 2008 as Assistant for Development, and she became the Interim Executive Director in October 2009. She has deep family ties to land conservation in the Dorset/Danby area, and an academic and professional background in forestry and environmental planning. She received her B.S. in Combined Sciences from Yale University and a Masters of Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. As co-owner of Expert Information Systems, Inc. from 1985 to 1995, she participated in environmental impact and land planning studies in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Staten Island, New York. Prior to coming to Smokey House, she worked for 15 years for nonprofit organizations, most recently as Business Manager of a progressive elementary school with a commitment to experiential learning in a natural setting. Her experiences with ecological planning, local land conservation, and hands-on learning all come together in her work with Smokey House, and she is excited to be able to contribute to the SHC mission linking youth, land and learning.
Tim Parent, Youthwork Coordinator
Tim grew up in Indiana, but has called Vermont, and especially Smokey House, his home for the past twenty years. Tim came East to attend the University of Maine and got hooked on the mountains, forests and rivers of New England. He began working with kids as a naturalist, outdoor instructor and trip leader. He led winter backcountry ski trips and guided summer canoe adventures from the Gaspe to the Rio Grande. When the time came to settle down he was led to Smokey House, where he became a crew leader in the Youthwork program. After several years of leading a crew, Tim became the program coordinator, a position that lets him work with kids, schools and parents, but still get to split wood and gather sap. Working with kids has not been the cause of Tim’s premature hair loss; that’s hereditary. In fact, Tim believes that working with kids on a farm is the best way to stay young at heart.
Jeff Scott, Crew Leader
Jeff has been a member of the Smokey House staff since the fall of 2007. The move to Vermont has been his easternmost stop on a cross country tour of work on small diversified farms that came after graduating from Illinois Wesleyan University with a degree in sculpture. Working as a crew leader in the Youthwork program has allowed Jeff to improve and expand on many skills related to farming and forestry while continuing to work outdoors. When not mowing lawns, processing firewood or tending gardens at Smokey House, Jeff spends his time engaging in a variety of outdoor recreation, most notably biking, hiking and skiing as well as gardening and cooking.
Ryan Yoder, Crew Leader
Until he was 13 Ryan lived primarily in Nepal where his dad worked with water management. The experience of living in a non-industrialized country has guided his interest in agriculture, society and sustainability, and led him to question some cultural presuppositions about what makes life worth living. He graduated from South Burlington High School in Vermont in 1994, after which he went to Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and graduated with a philosophy degree. During his college years he spent his summers working at his uncle’s strawberry farm, hang-gliding, and teaching water sports. After college Ryan moved back to Burlington where he worked in middle school special education departments. Since then he spent a couple years with the US Peace Corps in Bangladesh, worked at the therapeutic community Spring Lake Ranch in Vermont, and led student travel programs to India for Putney Student Travel, Vermont Intercultural Semesters, and Where There Be Dragons. During this time he also spent a year in Utah working at the wilderness therapy program Second Nature. Besides these jobs, and facilitated by having them, Ryan spent a lot of time travelling and trekking in South and Southeast Asia. About two years ago he started working at Smokey House Center where he currently manages the crew that takes care of the sheep.
Sue Katt, Farm Manager, and Syd, her assistant
Sue grew up in Wisconsin and got her degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin. It was her concern for environmental issues that headed her in the direction of organic farming. Sue was a crew leader at Smokey House in the early ‘90’s for 3 years, and returned in 2008 to be one of the farm managers. In the meantime she moved back to the midwest, ran her own CSA, was the Executive Director of a Community Garden Program on the shores of Lake Superior, took a several year detour into the field of domestic violence prevention, and then went back to running her own CSA for a couple of years before returning to SHC. Her greatest asset is her canine companion Syd, who is the best woodchuck patrol and ball chaser around.
Andrew Morrison, Field Studies Coordinator and Instructor
Andrew started his life in Tillson, New York. His youthful years of biking, hiking and canoeing along with one fantastic summer at camp later led to a degree in Forest Ecology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY. After graduation he had a two-year stay in Idaho where he earned a graduate certificate in Environmental Education and explored the amazing Sawtooth Wilderness Area. Andrew moved back East recently in search of good apples and became a member of the Smokey House Center staff in 2009 as a Field Studies Instructor. Along the path of life he has accumulated more hobbies than he can possibly pursue in a single lifetime, but is always open to new ideas.
Chad Virkler, Maintenance Coordinator and Carpentry Crew Leader
Chad grew up in rural Connecticut with a great desire to know how everything worked in the world around him. His community was of a “do-it-yourself” mindset where he had opportunity to be involved in many construction and repair projects. Still, Chad wanted to be a farmer and spent all available time during the grade school years helping out on local dairies. Chad obtained a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Connecticut, paying his way by working nights as an EMT for a professional ambulance. With a master’s degree in structural engineering he went to work for a design firm in Hartford, CT. Hospitals, schools, stadiums and parking garages were exciting to put on paper, but Chad found more satisfaction building his first home with more than a computer. Chad’s family moved to Vermont in 2007 to support their church. Here he returned to his true love of “getting ‘er done” as a maintenance coordinator for Smokey House. He finds great joy in expanding his own knowledge of how things work while sharing these experiences with the youth at SHC. When not at work, Chad is exploring the Vermont tradition of homesteading with his wife and six little helpers at the new home he’s built in Danby.
Sarah De Jong, Crew Leader
Sarah was born and grew up in Belgrade, Maine. At 16, she moved to the White Mountain School in Bethlehem, NH. The outdoors are everywhere in the Whites, and learning to rock climb and snowboard opened her nature eyes. A high school opportunity venturing to Nicaragua and the Grand Canyon was thrilling and the start of an interest in exploring new destinations. Vermont came next, deciding upon a new mountain range: Green. Sarah considered Poultney home for five years while attending and graduating from Green Mountain College. Majoring in Sociology/Anthropology, interning at Rutland County’s Women’s Network and Shelter and the love of helping people pointed her in the direction of Smokey House Center. In 2009 Sarah was a summer crew leader and then stayed for the 2009-2010 school year as the driver for the SHC “Bus” which transported crew members from school to Smokey House and then back home. During the summer of 2010 Sarah was a crew leader once again.
Laura Stade, Full Season Agricultural Intern
Though Laura spent many of her childhood years in Mississippi, Alabama and Canada, she did most of her growing up in southwestern Virginia, right in the heart of the Blueridge Mountains. She stuck around long enough to get her degree in history from the University of Virginia. As it turns out, not being able to get a job after graduating in the midst of an economic recession ended up being a blessing in disguise. Laura went into survival mode and decided learning to grow food was one of many fundamental skills that she needed to learn in order to be more self-sufficient in such uncertain times. She moved to Hancock, New Hampshire to get her hands dirty at Daloz Farm where Laura realized farming would be a lifelong passion. Laura came to Smokey House Center this past May to begin her first full-season gardening internship under the guidance of good folks, all of whom make up a wonderfully supportive and fun community. Though she is headed out west for the skiing months, Laura plans on returning to New England to farm in the 2011 growing season where she would be happy to settle up for the long haul.
Updates on staff who have recently moved on:
Mark Raishart, Farm Manager
Mark is currently the Forestry Instructor at Stafford Technical School. Smokey House won’t be the same without his hard work and great sense of humor. Mark will continue consulting on an as needed basis for a while to help us keep our farm enterprises running smoothly.
Mark started at Smokey House in the spring of 2005. He began his career at SHC as a Farm and Forestry Crew Leader, and he became a farm manager in 2006, overseeing the livestock, forestry, and hay operations on the farm. Mark has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont. After college, he worked in Alaska’s Kenai National Wildlife Refuge; he returned to Vermont to work as a commercial beekeeper and Christmas tree farmer. Mark enjoys being in the forest and spending as much time as possible with loyal companion and Smokey House greeter, PJ the yellow-haired curly tailed dog.
Catie Terhune, Crew Leader
Catie is currently working at Poultney High School. Her smiling face and helpful energy is greatly missed. She will continue on as part of the community for the fall at least, helping out with weekend chores and the like.
Catie found her way to Smokey House five years ago while she was in college in North Carolina. As a Bonner Scholar, she was faced with the necessary task of finding a summer internship. After growing up in VT, Catie knew that this was where she would love to return. A combined love of gardening and working with teenagers brought her to Smokey House Center for a temporary, garden intern position. However, the beautiful mountains and wonderful people kept her there. After quickly becoming attached to the landscape and friends she had made, she decided to transfer colleges to stay in the area. Catie graduated from Green Mountain College in May 2009, with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Religion. 2010 was her second summer working as an agricultural Crew Leader at SHC. In her free time Catie can be found working in her personal garden and experimenting with different recipes for preserving the harvest (her most popular are pickled garlic scapes). She is also busily planning her wedding for this fall; the setting is–of course–Smokey House!
Pam Garceau, Office Manager
Pam recently took a job at Tinmouth School — their gain, our loss. Luckily for us she will continue to come a few hours a week to help with bookkeeping tasks.
Pam grew up in Carlstadt, New Jersey and attended the East Rutherford High School. In 1970 she started as a file clerk with Dr. Scholl Mfg, moving up to billing clerk and then keypunch operator. When she left Dr. Scholl’s she joined the team at Toyota Motor Sales as a keypunch operator. She was promoted to Data Room Supervisor and then to Car Distributor. As a car distributor, she worked as a customer relations liaison to 110 dealers in the tri-state area. After 26 years with Toyota Motor Sales, Pam said good-bye to friends and family and moved to Vermont with her husband, Dan. In July of 2007 Pam joined the Smokey House team as the office manager. If you ask her what she enjoys most about her job, her answer will be socializing with the students.
Nate Williams, Field Studies Instructor
We miss Nate’s fun teaching style and great energy. Last we heard, he was on his way to Burning Man. We hope to hear from him to see how it went.
Nate is our newest addition to the Smokey House staff. He grew up in East Schodack, NY, where he spent his time either on the soccer field or in the woods, both of which are still passions of his today. Nate found his way to Vermont by taking classes at Castleton State College, eventually earning a Master of Arts in Education. Both his passion for the outdoors and his enjoyment of teaching youth have led him here to Smokey House. As a field studies instructor he hopes to share the connection that he has to nature with the students, instilling in them an appreciation and love for their natural world that will last a lifetime. When not at Smokey House, Nate spends time hanging with his nephew Forrest, attempting to play harmonica while his dog Oliver “sings”, snowboarding through the trees, or kickin’ the soccer ball around.
