Our Staff

Head of School

Megan Patterson

While working on her graduate degree in Ecological Teaching and Learning at Lesley University, Megan Patterson discovered the Forest School model of learning and development. After teaching in public school settings all over the world for several years and conducting extensive research on the Forest School model of education, she knew this was the type of learning environment she wanted for her own son.

As part of her graduate thesis, Megan formed a group of passionate community members who came together to develop Worldmind and bring the forest school movement to the Greater Denver Area.

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Program Director & Homeschool Enrichment Teacher

Caroline Griesel

Caroline holds a bachelor’s in Zoology with Entomology focus from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She has combined 6 years experience in education, including teaching children’s English classes in Japan, and being a para-professional in public schools. She also spent some time in Ecotourism, researching ecological relationships between ants and sea birds, and guiding kayak tours to the research site. A childhood fishing and combing the beaches of Galveston, Texas inspired her to ensure a lifelong connection to nature and self-discovery through nature is possible for everyone.

Caroline is an amateur naturalist and adventurer, who loves curating her collection of rocks and minerals, stargazing, and bushcraft.

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Head Preschool Teacher

Ellis Chase

Ellis grew up in Virginia and received her bachelor’s degree from Elon University in Psychology. An interest in human development led to working with individuals with sensory disorders, eventually inspiring her to work towards a teaching license and master’s degree in Education from the University of Richmond. During graduate school, Ellis worked in public schools and preschool environments, opening her eyes to the importance of facilitating social and emotional development as a foundation for learning. These experiences inspired her thesis research, which confirmed the positive, social effects of positive affirmations, yoga, and breathing exercises for preschool-aged students.

Over time, Ellis’ connection with the natural world and passion for early childhood education merged as she discovered the Forest School model of learning. She loves learning with her students and believes it is essential to engage our younger generations with compassion and wonder for our environment while fostering self, community, and ecological awareness.

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Lead Preschool Teacher

Cheyenne Stokas

Cheyenne was raised in the mountains of Taos, New Mexico, and spent her free time camping, skiing, hiking, and swimming with her family. These early adventures, instilled a deep love for the outdoors. Growing up, Cheyenne found that she was dyslexic young and after struggling in a traditional school setting, moved to small, alternative classrooms, where she found success in learning.

Since moving to Denver in 2011, Cheyenne has earned her B.A. in Fashion Design, worked as a seamstress, and fallen in love with rock climbing. She has always loved working with children. She has taught skiing to children ages 3-5, worked as a teacher’s aide, and been a nanny. She is excited to put her energy into fostering the inherent curiosity of our students, through learning in the outdoors, creating community, and developing social-emotional skills.

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Preschool Teacher

Xaelel Allen-Caballero 

Originally from Upstate New York, Xaelel (Shylel), received her bachelor’s in Environmental Science and Psychology from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. She knew from an early age that being in nature had of positive effect on her mental health and well-being. Intrigued to learn more, she decided to continue her education focusing on how the natural world was formed, in the hopes to learn more about sustainability and stewardship. Continuing her studies, she became increasingly passionate about combining her love of nature with her love of understanding the human mind and body. This is where she learned and fell in love with the Forest School model and the emphasis it has on free play and positive improvements nature has on sensory development in young children.

She started her career in education teaching a SPLASH course on ‘Earth Art’ at MIT and later as The Assistant Schools Manager for an environmental education program in NY. She has done extensive research on agricultural water pollution, spent a year researching native bat species in Massachusetts, and spent five months conducting fieldwork in geology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, NZ.

Xaelel is passionate about being a forever learner in life and views education as a multidimensional platform that houses immense opportunity for both the student and educator. She is continuously learning from her students every day and believes that allowing children space for creativity and wonder in the outdoors can facilitate learning about natural systems, promote ecological ethics, and inspire leadership in life and for the environment.

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K-1 Teacher

Justin Way

After returning home from one of his trips abroad, Justin decided to return to graduate school and earn a master’s degree in Early Childhood and Childhood Education. While there, he began to question the methods and structures utilized in the traditional American classroom. In doing so, the concepts of nature deficit disorder, nature and forest schools, and nature Rx began to take root as solutions to many of the flaws the traditional school system exhibits. Then, after moving to Denver with his wife, Jillian, and working in DPS for a year, Justin moved to position with the city of Aurora where he developed, coordinated, and taught a nature-based program for overlooked and underserved youth, families, and communities in Aurora and East Denver. Now, he is excited and ready to fulfill his dream of working in the nature school setting with a great school such as Worldmind Nature Immersion School.

In his personal life, Justin enjoys traveling, hiking, birding, spending time with his wife, family and friends, playing guitar, reading, climbing, and doing yoga. Justin tries to live a vibrant and balanced life full of fun, happiness, and love that he hopes his students feel every day. Happy trails!

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2nd-3rd Grade Teacher

Lauren Savelle

Lauren is native to Huntsville, AL where her passion for the outdoors began at a young age. She followed her brother and father into the East Tennessee mountains and along the Appalachian Trail for backpacking trips; eventually converting from a Silver Awarded Girl Scout to a Venture Scout, and eventually to a Boy Scout of America registered to work in the Conservation Department at Philmont Scout Ranch, near Cimarron, NM, for 5 seasons. Here she learned the fine art of backcountry trail construction in a position where she would get to teach the visiting scouts the highlights and importance of sustainable trail-building and then lead them in the physical work themselves. At Philmont, her love for the backcountry only grew and grew. She has worked with other esteemed student-volunteer-run agencies such as the Student Conservation Association in the Blue Ridge Parkway National Park, the Youth Conservation Association on the US Forest Service Uncompahgre Plateau outside of Grand Junction, CO, as well as a maintenance worker for Cherry Creek State Park.

Working in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains at Philmont was what made Lauren know she wanted to move out west after she got her Bachelor’s of Science in Biology and Geology from the University of South Alabama in 2012. She has worked over two years in Denver Public Schools since then as a member of the Math Fellows Program at Johnson Elementary and at Montbello High School. Both schools were in underserved areas of Denver and presented a unique opportunity to work closely with students who may have not had the individual attention we were able to give them had we not been there. The Math Fellows Program truly is what sparked Lauren’s love for teaching math in a small group, student-focused, question-driven environment. Worldmind has an incredible philosophy that Lauren is excited to implement where she will get to share her love for the outdoors in her everyday math class! She has also had the honor of working with middle-schoolers at STRIVE Westwood and many other DPS schools with The Cottonwood Institute, which works with an older age group than Worldmind, but operates in a very similar Forest School model. This includes overnight camping trips and student-led action projects! She has also led an after-school, student-led STEM program for elementary students in Broomfield.

In her free time, Lauren plays a 1968 Gibson electric mandolin, as well as the piano, bass, and about any other instrument she can get her hands on. She plays in a local band, Paranoid Image, and is looking forward to the day when live shows are being played again! For listening, Phish and Little Feat are definitely her favorite bands. She has a sweet, darling baby cat named Blaze Fuego who is the love of her life in competition with her boyfriend James. For now, she feels extremely blessed and stoked to be working with your children to go outside their minds and play!

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3rd-5th Grade Teacher

Amy Snodgrass

Amy holds a master’s degree in Secondary English Education and a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. She began her career in education by volunteering with creative writing programs in Oregon School for the Deaf and Oregon State Penitentiary. She worked as an assistant teacher in Dallas, Texas before finding her home in Denver, where she spent four years teaching fifth grade reading. In addition to English Language Arts, she has experience teaching music, creative writing, and art. Amy is a proponent of the Forest School model because she believes the best education fosters curiosity and confidence in learners. She is passionate about project-based curriculum design that fosters strong habits of discussion through both shared readings and choice texts.

She spends her time reading, practicing yoga, playing cooperative board games, hiking, writing poetry, and illustrating comics and graphic novels.

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Administrative Assistant

Tori Price

Tori is from Atlanta, GA and moved to Denver at the beginning of 2020. She received her bachelor’s degree from Furman University in Psychology and is passionate about mental health and the positive effects that nature, art, mindfulness, and yoga have on the well-being of humans — no matter the age.

Tori has worked with children of all ages since 2004 and began her teaching journey in 2014 through managing a children’s art studio. Since then, she has taught as an assistant teacher in two preschools, led the youth program at a community art center, and taught drawing classes to children in after-school programs. She also spent 5 years volunteering and working as an administrative assistant and art teacher with a non-profit that provides art therapy-based programming to impoverished and homeless children around the world; she has had the honor of creating and leading empowering art experiences for children in both Atlanta and in Ethiopia.

Tori loves bringing nature, mindfulness, and social & emotional learning into her art curriculum to help expand the minds and hearts of children, guiding them in building confidence, curiosity, imagination, self-esteem, and self-expression, and helping them to see the unique beauty in themselves and in the natural world around them.

In her personal life, Tori enjoys creating and selling her nature-inspired paintings, leading mindful art experiences for women, practicing and teaching yoga, and spending time outside to appreciate the wonders of our natural world.

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Child & Caregiver Assistant Teacher

Xiaolan Chen

Xiaolan moved from Tennessee to Colorado 5 years ago. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Material Engineering, and worked as an engineer and patent specialist in industry for 3 years.

Xiaolan joined Worldmind as an assistant teacher in the Child & Caregiver program in Golden. She is the mom of a boy and a girl who attended Worldmind at City Park. Xiaolan has spent most of her time at home to take care of the kids. She loves thinking and always seeks opportunities to study which education model is the most beneficial for young kids. After seeing her kids thriving over the past year, she was inspired and excited about the Forest School model of education. This motivated her to join this great Worldmind team.

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