Kendra is an experiential educator and communications strategist currently wearing many hats in the early growth phase of Headwaters. A multi-founder and longtime alternative education enthusiast, she is actively building and stewarding the school’s operations, communications, and growth systems while helping shape the long-term vision. She brings a variety of experience leading teams and designing strategies that help mission-driven organizations root and rise on a shifting planet.

Across more than two decades in education, Kendra has taught, designed curriculum, and led programs in higher education, community-based learning environments, and alternative education spaces. Her work is grounded in relational, experiential pedagogy and the belief that strong learning environments are built through trust, responsiveness, and clear systems of care. This work informs her approach at Headwaters, where climate literacy, embodied learning, and systems thinking are woven into daily practice. She brings deep experience supporting learners and educators through moments of transition, complexity, and growth - capacities that are especially critical in the early life of a small, evolving school.

Kendra’s leadership experience includes overseeing academic programs, managing staff and faculty, building schedules and curriculum frameworks, stewarding organizational growth, and holding responsibility for day-to-day operations in dynamic institutions. She is skilled relationship-centered leadership: reading group dynamics, supporting regulation and motivation, and making thoughtful adjustments in real time. This ability allows Headwaters to remain agile during periods of constant change while staying anchored to its values, culture, and vision.

A committed climate advocate, Kendra co-founded the environmental nonprofit DeCarbon DeKalb, where DeKalb County residents organize for climate mitigation and adaptation at a hyper-local level. She produces community education and engagement events across the region, including the annual Earth Day celebration Earth Fest, and contributed to clean energy transition work as Campaign and Events Manager at Voltus, a climate technology company supporting industrial and commercial energy flexibility across North America.

A teacher at heart and by training, Kendra is former faculty at Northern Illinois University, where she served as Head of Movement Training for the School of Theatre and Dance and built curriculum for more than forty courses. She also served as Associate Director of the Gately/Poole Conservatory, growing engagement and programming by 400% over a seven-year tenure while training early- and mid-career artists from around the world. Her background in somatic movement education -including specialization in Williamson Physical Training Technique - deeply informs her understanding of how humans learn, regulate, and grow through embodied experience.

Raised on Florida swampland by way of New York City, Kendra now lives in DeKalb with her husband, son, twin orange tabby cats, and a tiny urban farm. Her interests include nonfiction, permaculture, home electrification, community living, and holding steady hope for a climate future in which we choose care, creativity, and collective responsibility.