Staff and Educators Bios
Colleen Paul-Hus
Founder & Head of Education
“We founded the Academy together out of a need to better connect as a family. We are here not only to create a magical place for learning, but also to respect and support the entire family unit.” Colleen Paul-Hus, mother to four children, has worked in education for the past 7 years, through volunteer work, co-chairman of the board at the Waldorf School of Palm Beach and teaching gardening and practical arts to children.
Gabriele Beland
Administrator
As a focused innovator, Gabriele Beland makes things happen. She has devoted her life to exploring the frontiers of our human possibilities, which translates into her passion for a new model for education. Our children are ready! She uses her background in marketing and communications to bring the full potential of the PARC to fruition.
Geli Alvarez
Lead Instructor / Art Coordinator / Nature Survival Instructor
Nominee for the most creative teacher award! Geli Alvarez worked with children with disabilities, impoverished communities and homeless children in Venezuela and Brazil. He is a Visual Arts teacher with 10+ years of experience in art therapy. Husband and father of three, he is the epitome of resourcefulness.
He survived 5 days and 5 nights across the Florida Straight at the young age of 16 years old, when he left his homeland of Cuba to come to the United States.
Since then, he has had to survive quite a few experiences, including a jaguar sniffing him up and down in the Brazilian Amazon, close enough to raise all the hairs on your body. He brings an enthusiasm to basic nature survival to the students of The Academy at the PARC as he attempts to convey all that he has learned through training and personal life experience.
Gina Parani
Enrollment Coordinator
As a mother of four children, Gina Parani strives to exalt childhood by nurturing the creativity and wonder inherent to us all. She trusts that children lead us in how to best support them in developing their chosen lane of genius. She enjoys working with the land in a reciprocal way to provide nourishment and healing, and believes it’s every human’s birthright to do so. Gina brings her experience facilitating nature-based learning pods, rites of passage ceremonies, women’s circles, mother-daughter circles and Waldorf-inspired homeschooling to support the Academy students and staff in carrying out their vision.
Lexy Morris
11 to 15 yo Learning Guide
Lexy Morris is an educator here at the Academy at the Parc. She is a University of Central Florida student, educator, and a born and raised Sebring native. Her biggest goal is to help her students grow mentally and emotionally into beautiful, well-rounded young adults. Lexy worked with middle schoolers as a tutor for advanced children for the last three years, and her arrival to this new learning environment has only improved the children’s willingness to learn.
Katrynna Morris
8-10 Learning Guide
Mother to 1 year old Jack, Katrynna Morris has been married to her high school sweetheart, Patric, for 5 years. As a Sebring native who loves this town so much, she moved back here last year to be closer to family and friends. She is so grateful to help guide these beautiful students through their learning journey and to ultimately be a part of this pivotal and magical new model of education. Katrynna has 6 years experience working in the public school system as a 2nd grade teacher.
Emma Smith
5-7 yo Learning Guide
Teaching a nature based curriculum is what inspired Emma Smith to take on this role at the Academy, since she knows just how good nature is for children. It creates positive memories and deeper connections with nature. She sees the confidence and independence that her students gain from taking the learning outside. Emma is inspired by the love she sees for our school and nature in each child! Emma’s background is as a nursing assistant, specialized in elderly care.
Leah Hagen
Lead Garden Instructor
Leah Hagen was born and raised in Central Florida, her captivation with nature has not just been a love but a way of life since childhood. At the PARC, she helps to cultivate the property so it can act as a living teacher and fruitful display of abundance for all that come to learn and visit.
Specialty Teachers
Wendy Jackson
Fermentation Instructor
Wendy Jackson grew up in rural Minnesota on a “Little House on the Prairies” style homestead. She opened 3 restaurants from scratch, and completed studies in plant-based nutrition. She created a 10-week nutritional lifestyle course, which helped people successfully reverse cancer, MS, and diabetes. She purchased the business, Perfect Pickler and began a lifetime study of gut health and fermentation.
Then Thrive for Good invited Wendy to Kenya, Africa, to teach fermentation at their organic gardening center. This continued until Wendy was hired as content creator to work with a team to create an online course for the extreme poor all across the globe. This curriculum included organic gardening, nutrition education, herbal medicine, leadership skills and income generation. Today she lectures abroad generating partners to join in the effort to end poverty by educating the extreme poor on becoming self sufficient.
Wendy has a love for all traditional skills, and a passion to teach all people a simple, self sufficient lifestyle.
Jake Curtis
Woodworking Instructor
Jake Curtis is a carpenter that specializes in custom work. He loves creating and working with wood, making things come to life. He has 10+ years of experience and is excited to have the opportunity to share that with the next generation here at the Academy! Jake is also a husband and a dad to five and together you’ll find them building projects and adventuring as a family. He’s looking forward to the journey ahead in woodworking class!
Ki Harrison
Leather Work Instructor
Ki Harrison is a custom leather worker with 35 years of hands-on experience. He has discovered a burning passion for teaching the ancient craft and is regularly invited to share his knowledge and techniques all over the state of Florida. If you are curious or interested in this lost art, please feel free to come and talk with him when you have the chance. It is an education looking for a home.
Jordan Thomas
Blacksmith Instructor
Jordan Thomas has been forging since 2002, professionally as part of a team in a large shop from 2004-2020. Most of his experience is in architectural work; entry gates, stair and balcony railings, lighting elements, furniture, and fireplace accessories. He enjoys doing smaller work such as candleholders, cooking implements, and tools.
Jordan has been a member of the Florida Artist Blacksmith Association (FABA) since 2002 and has made some of his most enduring friendships through that organization. Many people were very kind and helpful to him when he got started. He began teaching and demonstrating around 2008-2009 and found that he enjoyed it very much. It gives him great joy to share the craft as it was shared with him, and to be a link in the chain of metalworking knowledge passed along through millennia.
Ashley Look
Wooden Spoon Carving Instructor
Ashley Look is the wooden spoon carver behind Of Grain and Grain.
She’s been an avid woodcarver for 8+ years and committed to the craft after discovering the profound pleasure of creating something by hand. When she’s not helping others get more out of life’s simple pleasures, she’s enjoying the taste of adventure, sailing as a chef for the tall ship community. She splits her time between land and sea and has found no better joy than sipping fresh coffee in the morning sunshine with a piece of wood and knife in hand.