​Daniel Aisenbrey

Daniel has taught workshops on sustainable living and gardening since 2011, including three years as the Bonnaroo garden manager. He is currently the farm manager at Abbey Fields Farm, a small urban farm in Knoxville, TN.

Xyara Asplen

Xyara grew up in a holler at the edge of the Appalachians, and after many years winding her way westward, she's firmly rooted in the Red Lick Valley outside of Berea. She's a homesteader, artisan, and wildwoods wanderer, continually enchanted by the complexities of this world and the various mythologies--including western science--through which we seek to understand it. She strives to be a voice for intact land, clean water, and thriving communities in the face of the extractive industries that threaten our home, most specifically oil and gas fracking. She's a founding member of Frack Free Foothills and sees activism as inseparable from living as part of the land.

Elias Attea

Elias (pronounced: Eee-lie-us) is all-natural born critter (GMO-free, pesticide-free) that hails from the frozen city sidewalks of Buffalo, NY and currently sulks in the mosquito-infested porches of Knoxville, TN. Currently, he is an academic specialist with K-2nd grade and a school garden manager. While he forever has dirt under his stress-bitten fingernails, he is also versed in many other art-forms and topics, including unconventional (whatever that means) approaches to mental health, divine writing, and time-inefficient morning routines.

​Rose Attea

Rose has been a dancer for 26 years and a dance teacher for 10. Throughout her performance career, she relied on yoga to help keep her body and mind balanced. She received her Pilates certification 5 years ago, allowing her to grow deeper in her understanding of body alignment. What she most enjoys about movement is that we are all on our own journey and path, we all have something very special to bring. By building up our body strength, we are helping to empower ourselves and recognize how strong we are not only in the physical but mental and emotional as well.

Andrew Bentley

Andrew is a clinical herbalist practicing in Lexington, KY. He has hunted and gathered medicine on three continents, in a variety of terrains.

Terry Black & Courtney Shaw

Terry and Courtney own Shaw Black Farm in northern KY, where they grow ginseng and other native medicinal plants. Courtney makes herbal tincture and salves that she sells on their website. Terry is a ginseng dealer in KY, farms the ginseng they grow on their farm, and consults for other people wanting to grow ginseng themselves. For more information, see www.shawblackfarm.com.

Michelle & Lotus Blair

Michelle and Lotus are a mother and daughter pair who share a love of nature and art and are determined to carry on the traditional ways as taught to them by their elders. They usually teach others one-on-one, so are excited to be teaching larger groups at Whippoorwill this year. For more information, see www.facebook.com/NaturesForgottenWhispers.

Eric Blevins

Eric is an activist, educator, and musician from Tennessee. He has practiced yoga for 12 years and Thai massage for 8. He has been learning knots as part of climb training for direct action since 2006.

Paul Borntraeger

Since his time as a student at the University of Kentucky, involved in social justice and environmental activism, Paul has striven to live a carbon neutral life. As he relocates to a 15-acre farm outside Berea, he hopes to show others some of the practical ways he's found to enjoy many everyday luxuries through the waste of our modern society.

Amanda Bourassa

Amanda is a Reiki practitioner, vegan, animal rescuer, homesteader, and DIY mother of three.

Susan Brown

Susan is the Director of Environmental Education at Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan County, KY. She holds a M.Ed. in Environmental Education from Western Washington University and a B.S. in Environmental Science from Morehead State University.

Maryl Burke

Maryl is an explorer of childhood and interested in alternative education models. She has worked in a Montessori school, but is currently providing more individual care for children that explores project-based learning, with a special interest in building relationships - both with other people and the natural world.

​Roberta Burnes

Roberta is the Environmental Education Specialist for the Kentucky Division for Air Quality. She is a certified Professional Environmental Educator and has worked as an environmental, art, and science educator for more than 30 years. She enjoys using art to interpret the natural world and is a nature journalist and illustrator, rug hooker, and fiber artist.

Kellie and Aaron Burns

Aaron has been keeping bees since 2008 and has been a full time beekeeper since 2012. He is a state certified bee inspector. Kellie has been teaching beekeeping at a Montessori school in Knoxville, TN since 2011. Together, they live off-grid and run their business, "The Burns and The Bees" out of Washburn, TN.

Joan Candolino

Joan has been teaching workshops at Earthskills festivals (Rivercane and Falling Leaves) for 20 years. She made her first tipi in 1990. For more information, see sweetwatertipi.com.

John Capps

John is a passionate devotee of whole, healthy, real foods and the benefit they have on our bodies, minds, communities, and environment. He has been teaching fermentation workshops for the past year or so, and has been studying food preservation for many years. Other skills and interests include: urban and rural farming techniques, wheel-thrown pottery, photography, home brewing, and inspiring a sense of love and community in others. For more information, see www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=529704492 or www.facebook.com/TheCulturedCrock.

Tasha Carina

Tasha has been a work-trader at the Whippoorwill Festival for three years, as well as other skill share gatherings across the US, where she has been inspired to live, grow, and learn in more sustainable, authentic, and compassionate communities. She has been learning about, making, and selling hand-bound journals for the past year, and is excited to share her love of this simple art with others. For more information, see @mamawhistlewolf on Instagram.

Colleen Casey

Colleen has been teaching fiber, fermentation, and fine arts for the past 20 years.

Miranda Coonrod

Miranda has been following her fibery heartstrings from a very young age. This has led her to spin countless miles and connect threads to make a whole in every way imaginable: from weaving to felting, crocheting to knitting, and naalbinden. She shares this inspiration and passion all over the southeast and sells the resulting creations under Wild Bergamot Hand Crafts. She is based in Madison County, NC, where you can find her sleying reeds, walking twills, and vigilantly watching her fell.

Dave Cooper

Dave is the founder of the Whippoorwill Festival, and has been an environmental activist for the past 25 years. He was a founding member of the anti-mountaintop removal mining group Mountain Justice and led a speaking tour called the Mountaintop Removal Road Show from 2003-2011.

Hannah Sue Cooper

Hannah Sue grew up in Hazard, KY, and currently lives in Cincinnati, OH. She studied at the John C. Campbell Folk School and Stage Bridge Performing Arts School in San Francisco. She has been telling at the Appalachian Festival in Cincinnati for over 10 years and has taught at churches, schools, and clubs. For more information, see www.facebook.com/hannah.s.cooper.92.

Jessica Dean

Jessica is an Instructor of English and a Writing Tutor at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, TN. She is also the owner and operator of Clay Halo Farm & Kitchen, a market garden. She is a graduate of the Bread Loaf School of English in Middlebury, Vermont, and it was there she developed an appreciation for creating and cultivating, words and place, education and advocacy.

Jason Drevenak

Jason has been teaching wilderness and primitive skills for 23 years. He is a member of the Society for Primitive Technologies, President of the North American Bushcraft School, veteran wilderness medicine provider, and student of Cherokee basket-maker Nancy Basket and archaeologist Dr. Errett Callahan. He travels the East Coast, teaching all forms of friction fire, traditional archery, hide-tanning, and stone tool production at primitive skills events. He and his master naturalist wife are third generation homesteaders on a 138-acre farm in West Virginia, where they manage the North American Bushcraft School and promote sustainable living practices. For more information, see  www.northamericanbushcraftschool.com.

Joel Dufour

Joel was raised on an organic farm in Southern Indiana and used garden tools more than he cares to recall...but still gardens organically at his off-grid home in Central KY, where his family employs a solar cooker for much of their warm-weather cooking. He owns Earth Tools, a solar-powered business offering high-quality gardening tools and equipment. For more information, see www.earthtools.com.

Doug Elliott

Doug is known for his lively presentations as well as his broad, practical, scientific, and cultural knowledge of the area's many wild plants and animals. He has been a featured storyteller at the National Storytelling Festival. He has lectured and performed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and conducted workshops for the Smithsonian Institution. He has led ranger training sessions for the National Park Service and guided people on wilderness experiences from down-east Maine to the Florida Everglades. He was named harmonica champion at Fiddler's Grove Festival in Union Grove, NC. He is the author of five books and many articles in regional and national magazines, has recorded a number of award-winning albums of stories and songs, and is occasionally seen on PBS-TV and the History Channel. For more information, see www.dougelliott.com.

Matt Ellison

Matt holds a BS in Biosystems Engineering from the University of Tennessee. Since starting his renewable energy career with ARiES Energy, he has designed and installed over 170 kW of solar PV and holds the NABCEP PV Installation Professional Certification. He and his wife are currently developing plans for their future off-grid homestead in east Tennessee.

Johnny Faulkner

Johnny is a former archaeological technician in the Red River Gorge and organizer of Living Archaeology Weekend, held in the Gorge each September.

Katie Gardner

Katie is deeply fascinated by the things no-one wants to talk about. This has both informed her career choices and inspired her activism. As an RN, she quickly realized that she was well suited to the peaceful, powerful, and sometimes taboo work of hospice. She has spent the last 8 years caring for dying patients and their families. Her passion for community education about difficult subjects continues as an activist with Frack Free Foothills, Kentucky Heartwood, and Safety on the Line.

Tracey Gilbert

Tracey is an educator at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, TN and owner of The Front Porch, a junk store/community center, in Cosby, TN.

Bill Gordon

Bill has over 40 years of experience teaching as an environmental educator and "nature detective." He is the founder/director of High Adventure Wilderness School. He has cruised and raced over 40,000 miles of ocean, been featured on Kentucky Educational Television and in the Kentucky Everyday Heroes books, and has received numerous awards for his teaching, works, and volunteerism. He has a passion for teaching outdoors, canoeing, sailing, birdwatching, writing, and wilderness adventures. He lives off-grid in the eastern Kentucky woods near Red River Gorge in a homestead he built surrounded by organic gardens and orchards, numerous ponds and streams, and thriving forestlands. He quietly tries to be a living example of what he teaches. For more information, see www.highadventurewildernessschool.com.

Jeff Gottlieb

Jeff, MS (in Biology), has been a naturalist, outdoor educator, and primitive skills instructor for over 30 years. He works with school groups, nature centers, museums, scout troops, and summer camps, builds full-sized wigwams and longhouses, and replicates primitive tools and artifacts for display. His areas of special interest include fiber arts, flintknapping, basketry, edible and utilitarian plants, and nature awareness. He travels widely in the eastern U.S. teaching at rendezvouses, gatherings, and historic fairs. He has written a how-to manual on building wigwams and an instructor's manual entitled Teaching Primitive Skills to Children. His new book on natural fibers and ropemaking is available directly from him. He can be reached at [email protected] or at 245 Red Dog Lane, Whittier, NC, 28789.

Tim and Tatum Green

Tim and Tatum, aka TRG Squared, are from Knoxville, TN. Tim teaches special education and Tatum is a birth doula. They both love to grow things and also have fun fermenting. Very hot peppers are their specialty and they have created some very tasty sauces. Their family believes in sustainability and one aspect of that which Tatum loves and has a lot of fun with is cloth diapers. Gone are the days of pins and plastic pants...adorable diapers that really work well are here!

Robbie Guggenheim


Robbie is a permaculture enthusiast who has gardened for around a decade. He has a degree in Agriculture/Forestry and is finishing a degree in Environmental Management at the University of Florida. He is the VP of Reserve Park, a 4-acre community garden/food forest citizens organization, and has founded multiple other organizations. He has lead Fieldtrips to Farms to almost every major farm in Alachua County, FL. For more information, see www.facebook.com/groups/FieldtripsToFarms.

Elet Hall

Elet is an extreme athlete and outdoorsman, intern with the North American Bushcraft school, and ambassador to the Bay Area Lyme Foundation. Growing up in the mid-Atlantic Appalachians, he built a close relationship for himself through wilderness exploration and play. He now travels the country by motorcycle and coaches, trains, and teaches.

Mat Hansen

Matt has been migrating around learning and teaching about applied wilderness and how it relates to community since he graduated as an educator from Warren Wilson College eight years ago. He has learned at skill share gatherings and from master craftsmen. He has worked as a preschool teacher, camp counselor, aid, and fisherman. He mostly lives in the woods, fishes often, travels to teach, and is looking for other folks to do long-term wilderness immersions.

Karena Harmon

Karena has worked in the holistic health field for over a dozen years and is a certified herbalist, holistic nutritional consultant, medicine maker, yogini, and Reiki practitioner. Her current joys are being in nature and helping people empower themselves by improving their health while being surrounded by the Appalachian Mountains she now calls her home. For more information, see www.harmonydawnwellness.com or https://www.facebook.com/harmonydawnwellness/.

Austin Hollis

A lifelong woods-wanderer, Austin informally teaches traditional skills wherever he finds himself; however, his ultimate career goal is to teach these kinds of topics through his own outdoor school. He is a Masters of Teaching graduate student at the University of Louisville and has a BA from Transylvania University (where he founded and led The Outdoor Adventure Society of Transylvania or T.O.A.S.T.). For more information, see facebook.com/austin.l.hollis.

Rae Jones

Rae is an organizer for Showing Up for Racial Justice 865 and a middle school math and science teacher at Nature's Way Montessori School in Knoxville, TN.

Carol Judy

Carol is a Rural Leadership Development Network Fellow recipient, founder of Mountain Made Mountain Ways, participant in United Nations Grass Roots Women World Conference, and a proud Appalachian Root Digger. She has been associated with the Clear Fork Institute and the Woodland Land Trust for over 15 years and is a hero and lifeline for youth.

Tod Kershaw

Tod has been living at Wildroots for ten years and practicing the things he teaches just about every day. He has taught at Rivercane Rendezvous and Firefly. Also, he was on the Daily Show in 2008.

KY Hempsters (Alyssa Erickson and Kirstin Bohnert)

Kentucky Hempsters is an educational duo dedicated to exploring the history of hemp in KY. Through events, online engagement, and endeavors through their parent company, United Hemp Industries, they offer insight into the nascent industry by shedding light on their state's hemp heritage and culture. For more information, see www.kyhempsters.com.

Kim Lauch

Kim is a native Nashvillean, mother of four, yogini, and an internationally featured Radiant Child Yoga teacher. She is compassionate about facilitating the growth of love in the mind, body, and spirit of all living things. She was called to yoga in 1999, and has since followed her path leading her to found OM DOME and RELAZENSHIPS. She is a dedicated practitioner of Vinyasa, Hatha, and Kundalini Yoga, as well as a teacher and workshop presenter.

Cheng Liu

Cheng is currently in acupuncture school. She leads meditation and healing circles and also practices Thai massage. She consider herself an activist for emotional well-being - committed to healing our relationship with ourselves, with one another, and with the Earth. For more information, see blog.logicgirl.com.

Sarah Longstreth

Sarah owns and runs Good Stead Farm in Michigan. On a little over 5 acres, she grows over 100 different varieties of Certified Organic vegetables, herbs, and cut flowers as well as raises grass-fed lamb, organically fed, pastured, heritage pork and organically-fed, pastured hens and ducks for eggs. For more information, see www.goodsteadfarm.com.

Saro Lynch-Thomason

Saro is a ballad singer, folklorist, illustrator, author, and social activist from Asheville, NC. Her passion for traditional music, people’s struggles, and Appalachian traditions has called her to perform, teach, and produce media that tell the stories and songs of America’s social history. For more information, see www.sarosings.com.

Martin Mudd

After taking a degree in astrophysics and computer science from Williams College, Martin taught high school math in the Delta region of AR where he came to understand the radical difference between conventional schooling and true education. He moved back to KY to study physics, fall in love, and develop his own approach to holistic self-cultivation. He currently resides in Lexington, doing restoration carpentry and educational consulting. For more information, see adventureunschool.org.

Blake Newton

Blake earned a MS in Entomology from the University of Kentucky in 2000. He has been a 4-H/Youth Extension Entomology Specialist at the University of Kentucky since 2000.

Andrew Ozinskas

Andrew is a clinical herbalist, professional wildcrafter, and teacher/student of the natural mysteries. He is based on his family homestead in Owen County, KY and in the highlands of WV. His teaching experience includes the Appalachian herbal intensive for Bastyr University, laboratory phyto-chemistry studies, mentorships, and courses on the subject around the US.

Nicholas Penn

Nicholas is a songwriter and musician in Lexington, KY. His professional work is in the health foods industry through The Weekly Juicery, and he is the director of the non-profit Local First Lexington. He believes that we have the power to create for ourselves the world we want to live in, and is working hard to build a better future for myself and my community. For more information, see
nicholaspenn.com or facebook.com/nicholaspennmusic.

John Phillips

John works as an artist, musician, and maker in Knoxville, TN. He spends his time doing woodwork, blacksmithing, making knives, and playing hillbilly music and is often found teaching at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts as well as other wild crafting events.

Deanna Riggan

Deanna attended Warren Wilson College where she taught salve-making classes, led walks in the herb garden, and assisted students in researching herbs for their healing. Since graduation in 2011, she has been apprenticing and studying organic farming and herbalism. In 2015, she graduated from the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine as a certified holistic herbalist. As part of her gardening business, Momma Dee's Remedies, she teaches classes in people's homes. She has also taught at the Grange Community Center in Henderson County. For more information, see www.mommadeesremedies.com.

Roots of Progress: Organic Soil Solutions

Roots of Progress started with the idea and desire to help improve food production conditions around the world. From humble beginnings, co-owners Logan Lawson and Steven Rink apprenticed in the techniques of worm farming with Randy and Lisa Marsh of Master Organic Soil Solutions. Handling over 200 worm bins for 40 hour a week, they have witnessed the incredible results of worm castings and biochar in soil beds. For them the healthiest soil, happiest customers, and brightest community come first and foremost. For more information, see rootsofprogress.com or www.facebook.comnd/rootsofprogress/.

Diane Satterfield

Diane has a lifelong interest in the paranormal, strange phenomena, and spirituality and has developed her storytelling within her Appalachian cultural context. She not only has a drive to relate her own experiences, but also wish to provide a safe, non-judgmental space for others to relate the same. She is following in a long family tradition of personal storytelling that has roots in her Appalachian ancestry.

Jim Scheff

Jim has been a forest advocate since 2000 and the Director of Kentucky Heartwood since 2008. He has a BS in Biology, MA in Environmental Science, MS in Biology/Applied Ecology, and has taught introductory biology at several universities.

Chris Smith

Chris coordinates first aid at the festival and has taught this workshop at three previous Whippoorwill Festivals. As a Forest Council member of Kentucky Heartwood, he spends a lot of time hiking in remote locations. He has worked as an EMT in Rockcastle County, KY, where he now works as a nurse in the Emergency Department. The opportunity to teach Wilderness First Aid represents a converging of these interests and he hopes to be able to empower people to feel safe and comfortable exploring wild places.

Sarah Smitha

Sarah is the owner and teacher of Candy Mountain Music in Lexington, KY, an independent children's musical play program that was voted the 2016 Favorite Music Program by Lexington Family Magazine. She has been working with children for 9 years and teaches weekly classes and workshops as well as festival workshops. Her teaching method is personal, engaging, and steeped in mindful- and nature-based learning philosophies such as Montessori, Reggio, and Waldorf. For more information, see www.facebook.com/candymountainmusic.

Lacy and Brenda Thomas

Lacy and Brenda have hosted over 200 star parties over the past 20 years, sharing their love of the night sky. Lacy has also been making birdhouses for 25 years and has led numerous workshops on a variety of topics. For more information, see www.facebook.com/Coops-D-Villas-184197458282092.

Leah Van Winkle

After having been a student of yoga for over five years, Leah completed her teacher training at the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts in a style of hatha yoga that focuses on developing non-judgmental self-awareness and compassion for self and others. Her current teaching style emphasizes flowing between poses with a connection to breath, mindfulness, and engagement with sensory experience, and connecting her students to their own sense of inner guidance and support.

Liane Ventura

Liane is a community herbalist who is self-taught, mentor-led, and workshop-learned. She is currently a student at Warren Wilson College, working on a BS in Biology. Before going back to school, she spent time working on organic farms in both urban and rural settings. She believes in radical self-reliance and the maintenance of health through lifestyle choices and earth-based approaches. She looks forward to holding space at the Whippoorwill Festival for conversation surrounding herbal remedies and integrating plant medicine into our lives.

Heather Warman and Aaron Koch

Heather and Aaron of SUP Kentucky both have over 10 years of experience in the field of stand up paddleboarding. For more information, see www.supkentucky.com or www.facebook.com/supky.

Jake Weinstein & Lissa McLeod

Jake and Lissa are experienced circus arts teachers and performers. They teach and perform aerial arts and circus at Dragonfly Aerial Arts and One World Circus in Knoxville, TN.

R. "Zack" Zachary


​Zack is a teacher, counselor, storyteller, and bard. For more information, see www.healingloveinstitute.com.
The Whippoorwill Festival - Skills for Earth Friendly Living
July 13-15, 2018
Lago Linda Hideaway, Beattyville, KY (location and weather)​​