PEOPLE

Board ~ Faculty ~ Residents ~ Fellows

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FACULTY AND STAFF

Jacob Hundt

Director & Faculty

Jacob Hundt played a central role in the founding of Thoreau College in 2015 and now serves as Executive Director, as Board Member, as a Faculty member leading courses in literature, philosophy, and sustainable agriculture.  He  grew up on a dairy farm in the Driftless Region of southwestern Wisconsin and was one of the founding students of the Youth Initiative High School. He studied and gathered inspiration for transformation in higher education at Deep Springs College, the American University in Bulgaria, and the University of Chicago Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences, earning a BA in History and an MA in Social Sciences.  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.  Jacob is passionate about the importance of the liberal arts for our civilization and motivated to create a model that enables students to freely choose a post-secondary education dedicated to the cultivation of thinking, feeling, and willing.

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Rachel Olson

Academic Coordinator

Rachel brings a deep passion for the Driftless Region and a wealth of global experience to her role as Academic Coordinator. A longtime friend and ally of Thoreau College and the Driftless Folk School, Rachel has actively supported our community, connecting new students with our programs.

Her diverse background includes fundraising and development with Earth Regenerators in Colombia and the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, program development at the Benedictine Life Foundation and the Alzheimer’s and Dementia Alliance of Wisconsin, service as a hospital chaplain, and a long tenure as pastor in Sun Prairie, WI. Rachel’s unique blend of skills, global perspective, and heartfelt connection to our region make her an inspiring addition to our team.

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Friedemann (Friedo) Jamila-Wuerth – Farm & Labor Coordinator

Friedo was born and raised in the southern Black Forest region of Germany and went to Waldorf schools in Germany and Switzerland from 1st through 12th grade. Friedo discovered his love of working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) while providing civil service as a conscientious objector and followed his civil service by studying Curative Education in Camphill Special Schools in Beaver Run, Pennsylvania for two years. Having been inspired by meeting a young couple who were running an organic beef, sheep and pig farm, Friedo decided to join them on the farm, and began his career as an organic farmer. Community living became a vital part of Friedo’s life when the farmer couple, and another likeminded couple, plus their total of 6 small kids, moved to Osceola, WI and eventually formed Community Homestead. Friedo’s journey also led him to run biodynamic dairy farms in England and Switzerland, always combining practical skills with community living. Drawn to Viroqua’s spirit, his family settled here after their daughter attended Youth Initiative High School. Now rooted in the Driftless region, Friedo brings decades of experience in farming, craftsmanship, and education to his work as Farm & Labor Coordinator at Thoreau College and looks forward to collaborating with the Driftless Folk School.

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Liam McGilligan

Development Coordinator, Viroqua Shakespeare Festival Coordinator

Liam McGilligan is an actor, artist, scholar, and citizen from Madison, WI who first came to Viroqua as a student in the Thoreau College 2021-22 Metamorphosis Year Program. He holds a B.F.A. in Acting from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater Actor Training Program, graduating in 2020. He is passionate about the arts and storytelling as a vehicle for developing greater self-knowledge and cultivating authentic community and relationships in these uncertain times!

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Gabriela Marván

Marketing and Outreach Coordinator

Gabriela, a graphic designer and sculptor, leads the creation of communication materials at Thoreau College. Since moving to Viroqua in 2019, she has immersed herself in the local community, bringing her passion for environmental education and community events to life. Joining Thoreau College as the Marketing and Outreach Coordinator in 2024, Gabriela is dedicated to enhancing the college’s outreach efforts and fostering meaningful connections with students and the broader community.

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Nicholas WazeeGale

Instructor of Ecological Literacy and Nature Crafts

Nicholas WazeeGale is a lifelong student of the natural world, traditional cultures, and sustainability. His life is intricately tied to the Driftless landscape through foraging plant and fungi foods, hunting and fishing, tanning skins, making traditional handcraft, and obsessively observing and tracking the myriad unfoldings of the living landscape. He is a long time instructor with the Driftless Folks School and other outdoor education institutions, contracts as a professional wildlife tracker with the Wisconsin DNR, and teaches at the Kickapoo Valley Forest School. He is a certified Wilderness Guide through a year long wilderness living immersion course and holds both a Professional and Specialist Certification in track and sign via Tracker Certification North America.

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Joseph Clint

Artist-in-Residence – 2026-2027

Joseph Clint graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in May 2020 with a BA in Philosophy and a minor in Greek. He then moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico to work at St. John’s College where he will soon finish an MA in Liberal Arts. Joseph became interested in Nunnian education after fixing a broken fuel pump on his motorcycle in the midst of his MA coursework. This led him to work on a cattle ranch in West Texas, and now to Thoreau College as an Artist-in-Residence. At Thoreau, Joseph will be working on a gnomology, or collection of maxims, using cyanotype and block prints.

THOREAU COLLEGE FELLOWS 

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Joshua Flippo – Farm & Labor Fellow

Joshua graduated from St. John’s College, Maryland with a Bachelor of Arts in 2026. While at St. John’s, he fostered a deep love in the Classics and discussion-based education. He was also a writing assistant, led the jazz coalition, and ran a Transcendentalist reading group. After St. John’s College, he began working at Touchstones Discussion Project, a non-profit organization which sponsors and conducts seminars in schools, community centers, businesses, and prisons. Hailing originally from Santa Cruz, California, he spent his childhood surrounded by the redwoods and the Pacific Ocean. This natural setting inspired him to become an Eagle Scout such that he could deepen his connection with nature and his community. His aim is to conjoin his interest in nature, love of service, and academic pursuits into a lifelong endeavor. This search ultimately led him to Nunnian education, which he believes cultivates the love of learning, labor, and community, necessary to lead a complete life.

 

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Jing O’Brien – YIHS Teaching Fellow

Jing graduated with a BA from Pomona College in 2025, studying both Computer Science and Politics. She was first introduced to the concept of liberal art education during her gap year, when she was part of the founding cohort of Outer Coast, a Nunnian institution in Southeast Alaska. Having grown up in a neighboring Alaskan island with a community of 2,000 people, her experience at Outer Coast transformed her understanding of what education could be and inspired her ongoing interest in alternative models of learning. At Pomona, Jing explored the intersection of her two seemingly distinct fields of study, examining how they could be understood through the lens of education. This work took shape through her research on the politics of teaching and her creation of a computer science curriculum examining the ethical implications of technology and programming. As an incoming teaching fellow at YIHS, she remains deeply committed to educational initiatives grounded in community, shared responsibility, and a sense of place.
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Nazmiye Işık Tütüncü – YIHS Teaching Fellow

Işık graduated from St. John’s College, MD with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 2026, studying primarily philosophy, history of science and the Classics. Originally from Türkiye and a daughter of two Political Science Professors, she grew up hearing about the Great Books and the philosophic life. She studied at St. John’s College so she could know for herself what these things meant, and during her sophomore summer she participated in a program of the Gull Island Institute. This was her first time being introduced to Nunnian Education, and where she learned how to cook for a big group of people and also oyster farm. Most importantly, it was here that she started thinking about what education is for, and alternative education models that emphasize small community living, division of labor and a relationship to the land. This has led her to Thoreau College, where she is excited to participate as a YIHS intern.
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Chase Van Horn – Driftless Folk School Fellow

Chase comes to Thoreau College after years of moving with the seasons, learning from the landscapes and people he encounters along the way. He has taught marine science on an island, guided backpacking trips in the wilderness, walked across Spain twice, worked with young people in camps and schools, and made homes in a succession of remarkable places. He is excited to spend the next year in the Driftless exploring the relationship between place, attention, and community, while cultivating a more rooted creative practice.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Vince Hundt

President

Vince Hundt is a native son of the Driftless Region, born and raised on a dairy farm near Middle Ridge. For nearly 50 years, he and his wife Dawn have farmed organically and stewarded the land with artistic grace at St. Brigid’s Meadow Farm, near Coon Valley, WI. During those years, they have raised a family of four children and started several successful innovative equipment businesses, including Rotochopper and Shade Haven. They have also served as key leader and supporters of several cultural organizations in the Driftless Region, including Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School, Youth Initiative High School, Thoreau College, and the Driftless Folk School.

Sue Noble

Vice-President

Sue Noble is the founding Executive Director of Vernon Economic Development Association and manager of the Food Enterprise Center in Viroqua. She is passionate about supporting creative thinking, developing new projects and nurturing opportunities for learning.

Sue joined the board in August of 2022 and is currently serving as Vice-President of the Board.

 

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Liam McGilligan

Treasurer

Liam McGilligan is an actor, artist, scholar, and citizen from Madison, WI who first came to Viroqua as a student in the Thoreau College 2021-22 Metamorphosis Year Program. He holds a B.F.A. in Acting from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater Actor Training Program, graduating in 2020. He is passionate about the arts and storytelling as a vehicle for developing greater self-knowledge and cultivating authentic community and relationships in these uncertain times!

Hal Bergan

Board Member

Hal Bergan is a member of the Thoreau College Board of Directors. He is married and his son, daughter and grandsons live in the Driftless Region. Hal is strongly committed to the Thoreau College approach to study, work and life as an alternative to the large institutions that are at the center of traditional post-secondary education.

Hal’s work experience includes acting as a senior policy advisor to Wisconsin Governors Lucey, Schreiber and Earl. He also served as the Director of Wisconsin’s Unemployment Insurance program. His private sector employment included work as a process improvement consultant and as a client support leader for a software company serving public sector agencies. Hal has ventured into the literary world, working as a literary agent and publisher of high-quality baseball art, despite facing challenges in that field.

Benjamin Bernard-Herman

Benjamin Bernard-Herman

Board Member

Benjamin Bernard-Herman is the 2023-2024 Thoreau College Scholar-in-Residence. He is a PhD candidate in cultural anthropology at the University of Illinois–Chicago, where his research focuses on agriculture and ethics. At Thoreau College, he has taught classes on environmental anthropology, social and political theory, ethnography, and academic writing. While serving as the scholar-in-residence, Benjamin is conducting ethnographic research with farmers across the Driftless region for his dissertation, which explores the role of small-scale farming as a spiritual and ethical practice. When not teaching or working on his dissertation, Benjamin enjoys hiking through the Driftless, growing and cooking his own food, and snuggling with his cat, Asal.

Dan McCarren

Board Member

 

Jacob Hundt

Board Member

Jacob Hundt played a central role in the founding of Thoreau College in 2015 and now serves as Executive Director, as Board Member, as a Faculty member leading courses in literature, philosophy, and sustainable agriculture.  He  grew up on a dairy farm in the Driftless Region of southwestern Wisconsin and was one of the founding students of the Youth Initiative High School. He studied and gathered inspiration for transformation in higher education at Deep Springs College, the American University in Bulgaria, and the University of Chicago Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences, earning a BA in History and an MA in Social Sciences.  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.  Jacob is passionate about the importance of the liberal arts for our civilization and motivated to create a model that enables students to freely choose a post-secondary education dedicated to the cultivation of thinking, feeling, and willing.

Arwyn Wildingway

Board Member

Arwyn Wildingway teaches gardening and greenhouse management as the director and leading light of the Thoreau’s Garden Greenhouse enterprise . She is a mother and step-mother of five young adults, partner of artist Frank Wildingway, and long-time employee of the Viroqua Food Co-op. Before moving to Viroqua in 2004, she was a carpenter, market gardener, and homeschooler on a central Pennsylvania homestead. Loving all plants, she has started the Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School garden, initiated the building of the attached PRWS greenhouse, and helped PRWS take over running the Growing for Good greenhouse and spring garden center, before transitioning this enterprise to the stewardship of Thoreau College. As a Wisconsin Master Gardener for over 10 years, her passion for sharing plant wisdom has actualized in hundreds of hours of community service. Ask her a plant question, and watch her light up!