ELAINE
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Elaine grew up in Southern California and, after attending undergraduate school in Oregon, she moved to the East Coast in her early twenties. There she discovered contra dancing, playing fiddle in the contra dance band, whitewater canoeing, gardening, and early American antiquities. After earning a master’s degree in American Folk Culture, she moved to Hartford, Connecticut to be the director of education at the Mark Twain House Museum, a position she enjoyed for a decade.
Deep down though, she wanted to do more to help people at a fundamental level. In searching, she discovered her greatest vocational passion—teaching reading and writing to adults with dyslexia—and became the first director of a research-based adult reading clinic. After completing her PhD, she moved to the mountains of Colorado to join the faculty of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs as a reading professor. In the beautiful Rocky Mountains, she learned to alpine ski and renewed her love of hiking and backpacking. She hiked the Haute Route in Switzerland, climbed Mt. Rainier and Mt. Kilimanjaro, and completed the 500-mile Colorado Trail. Although she retired in 2017, she continues to mentor teachers, present at conferences, and volunteer for the International Dyslexia Association. In that capacity, she developed Accreditation Standards for international partner organizations while on sabbatical in Kuwait. While consulting in Santa Fe, she searched the web for cohousing communities and discovered Sand River! Visits to this community revealed environmentally conscious architecture and landscaping, easy access to outdoor recreation and world-class arts, and, best of all, vibrant and diverse individuals within a nurturing village—a home for new beginnings. Elaine is deeply honored to own the former home of Neils Borch, a visionary who was instrumental in creating the community of Sand River Cohousing. |