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.
Andi Bruce - 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
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, worked, and traveled in a variety of places across the country and world. In the past few years, she has planted roots back in the Driftless Region and lives on a 4-acre homestead on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River in SW Wisconsin.
With a BFA degree in Graphic Design, she has garnered nearly 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.
Currently, Lynsey works as the Marketing + Outreach Coordinator for the Driftless Folk School as well as the Director of Brand Development (+ freelance writer) for for Inspire(d) Media. She is also a budding Herbalist.
Lynsey is a life-long learner who loves to travel + go on adventures, eat (+ cook) good food, appreciate (+ create) great art, and support the local community! (Instagram: @LindenFern)
Contact email: media@driftlessfolkschool.org
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.
Laura Poe Mathes - Circle Member
Laura is a private practice dietitian specializing in digestive health and traditional foods diets. She is also a new mama, fermentation and foraging enthusiast and lazy canoer. Originally from Missouri, Laura currently lives in the Driftless region of Wisconsin and now understands why cheese curds are a thing. (Learn more on her website: www.viroquanutritioncounseling.com and follow along on Instagram: @brineandbroth)
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.
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)