Meet The Team

Founder

Susan Macdonald

Susan, she/they, is a mother and psychotherapist in private practice in Sebastopol, CA.  She has been passionately studying children and their well being since her adolescence when her own mother,  a psychologist, co-founded a center in Los Angeles to treat children with attachment difficulties and special needs.  Susan spent a decade studying infant and early childhood mental health and has worked in preschool settings as a teacher and as a mental health consultant to programs serving young children.  She currently treats adolescents and adults in private practice.  She believes that self directed education is one of the keys to mental health and wellness for many children.

Founder, Director & Facilitator

Jessica Seevers

Jessica, she/her, started her journey in childcare in 2005 after taking Early Childhood Education classes to become a preschool teacher. She left education and went on to help raise over a dozen children as a nanny in Sonoma County and later, Los Angeles County. In LA, she volunteered her free time to start a local Buy Nothing group, plant swap group and local neighborhood group. Those groups grew and thrived under her stewardship and continue that way today under the direction of the people she trained. After a decade in the Pasadena area, she relocated to Sebastopol in 2022 where she fell in love with self-directed education, thanks to Susan Macdonald. Jessica loves to learn alongside the children, build community, study herbalism, make medicine, ferment, garden, cook, paint, and play in the desert. She is fluent in hyperbole and sarcasm.

Founder & Facilitator

Rose Herr

Lizzy Rose, she/her, discovered the concept of self directed learning while on her travels abroad during her junior year of college. Raised in conventional schooling, by the time college came she was feeling burned out and missing her sense of purpose. Studying the state of our environment in the college setting was disheartening; so she left to seek to learn how to create change on the local level through gardening, homesteading, building, and self sufficiency. During the pandemic, she found a wonderful community to thrive where she learned to build her own cabin and garden. She has experienced how self-directed learning enriched her life and provided her with a sense of fulfillment and purpose. She is passionate about young people learning how to inhabit this world with confidence and in a way of their choosing, one that honors autonomy. She loves to ride her bike, hike, garden, practice yoga, sing, make music and art, and learn ancestral skills!

Secretary & Photographer

Lu Woolsey

​Lu is a thirteen-year-old learner at Shine. She has been homeschooled nearly all of her life, and attended a private learner group from the ages of six to eleven. In her free time, she is a competitive cheerleader, dancer, and writer. She loves music, dancing, reading, football, games, and her friends. Her jobs at Shine include secretary of all meetings, photographer, and the community’s SHUT UP-er.

Entertainer & Photographer

Isla

Isla is a ten-year-old learner at Shine. She has been homeschooled for three years. In her free time she likes doing gymnastics, art and playing with her friends. Her jobs at Shine include entertainer, second photographer and communities. She dislikes annoying people. She likes art, her vlog, music, friends, nature, volleyball, games, slime and family.

Queen of NO

Karter

Karter will write this bio when she returns from vacation