Professional Learning
for Teachers

As a classroom teacher I strove to embody empathy and compassion, inspire an awe for our natural world, and encourage students to think about the planet and all human and non-human inhabitants in their actions. I didn’t have a word for this type of teaching.  It was something I did and felt strongly about cultivating in my classroom environment. While working at a farm animal sanctuary I was introduced to the Institute for Humane Education and had a HUGE ah-ha moment, realizing what I was trying to cultivate in my classroom is humane education. After that I took online courses from IHE and then applied to the graduate program. Upon returning back to the classroom I found I had gained a strong understanding of humane education and a solutionary lens through which to view my approach to creating curriculum.  My gratitude and love for IHE is immense.

Betsy Farrell-Messenger has been in the education field for 25 years as a NYS-certified classroom teacher, middle school advisor, STEM instructor for K- 8th grades, environmental educator, and humane educator for a farm animal sanctuary, where she co-developed and taught Camp Kindness, a camp that inspires compassion towards farm animals.

She has a M.S. degree in education (pre-K through 9th grade) from the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY and in 2014 she earned her graduate certificate in Humane Education through Valparaiso University. Betsy has developed lessons for IHE and participated in the Solutionary process pilot cohort with her middle school students.  She is currently the instructor for the Solutionary Micro-Credential Program, which encourages, inspires and supports teachers in bringing the solutionary framework to their classrooms and creating the next generation of solutionaries.

Betsy lives her message of being kind and mindful of how her behaviors have an impact on people, animals, and the environment.  She lives in southern Albany County, NY and shares her home with her husband of 20 years, eleven rescued parrots, three rescued rabbits, and one three-legged cat. During her free time Betsy enjoys kayaking, gardening, and volunteering.

During my 25 years as a classroom teacher in Washington and Oregon, I gleaned the resources that inspired my work from many sources, including IHE. I strove to teach my students how the world of past and present work – in all of its tragedy, and its potential – while empowering them with the skills to understand that world, their interconnected place within it, and their responsibility to improve it. Central to my teaching was the belief that knowledge becomes the power to do good when combined with intellectual skills and compassionate attitudes. 

As I transition to a new phase of my life, I am so excited to join the IHE team as a Solutionary Micro-Credential Program Facilitator so I can guide other educators, students, and changemakers to find greater meaning and inspiration in their teaching, learning, and lives. 

I earned B.A. degrees in geography and international studies from the University of Oregon, and then attended the University of Washington, with a year of study abroad in Syria and Egypt to earn master’s degrees first in Middle Eastern Studies and then in Education.

I currently live in Oregon with my husband Scott, my daughter Emma, and our dog, Dasha. I also have a daughter, Sophia, who is in graduate school at State College Pennsylvania. I enjoy travel, gardening, hiking, camping, and playing soccer.

Angela has dedicated her career to serving young people. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Tennessee Technological University and a master’s in education from Old Dominion University, specializing in students with emotional and learning challenges. Angela has over 28 years of expereince in education as a teacher. She designed and taught award-winning programs in environmental education and established a non-profit, Full Circle Education Center, created to address the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs of students. Angela is a pragmatic visionary dedicated to redesigning K12 educational systems and instruction so they support and inspire young people to change the world for the betterment of all beings.

Angela has worked in special education, taught, designed, and written curricula for Career and Technical Education for the Virginia Department of Education, designed and taught outdoor learning and school-wide sustainability programs that won her the Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Education in 2014. She is currently serving as the Director and Lead-Teacher for Full Circle Education Center in Rice, Virginia. She and her wife live in rural Virginia where they enjoy organic gardening and a deep relationship with nature.

“To navigate the future successfully, our young people must be empowered to reengineer our human systems into sustainable and humane systems that honor and respect all life. The Solutionary Framework and approach to education offers a method to not only equip our youth with vital skills and confidence needed for reimagining and healing these systems, it also provides a way to shift the current educational pedagogy, so we inspire engaged, balanced human beings capable of redirecting humanities current trajectory.”

Shei is a passionate international Education Consultant who has dedicated two decades to teaching across Africa, Asia, and North America. Recently settling in Canada after years of global experience, Shei has honed her skills from teaching students in grades 1 to 12 to spearheading service programs. This role deepened her understanding of global citizenship, action, and community engagement and fostered collaborations with international schools, youth, educational bodies, individuals, and non-profit organizations.

As a bilingual educator holding a Master’s degree, Shei boasts a rich background in the International Baccalaureate system, having taught the Primary Years (PYP), Middle Years (MYP), and Diploma Programme (DP). Besides being a consultant, she is an active member of the International Baccalaureate Educator Network (IBEN) and undertakes various roles such as an MYP Innovator reviewer, mentor, workshop leader, school visitor, and, more recently, designing resources for The Festival of Hope. Shei is the co-creator of Serve Cerabral, co-founder of Be The Change by Orenda Learning, and part of the CBK Associates team. 

Shei deeply believes in the transformative power of well-being and mental health, a belief deeply rooted in her practice as a meditation and sound bath practitioner. Through her gentle guidance, she creates spaces where learners can find peace and healing, reminding us all of the serene strength that lies within the practice of being present.

Learn more about Shei’s work at https://www.sheiascencio.ca/

Gitanjali believes everyone deserves access to quality education that empowers them to thrive and build a more just, sustainable world. She is an experienced high school social studies educator whose passion for social change pulled her to work beyond the classroom in community, nonprofit, and higher education.

Today, through her consultancy Gitanjali Learning Design, she specializes in designing and facilitating Education for Sustainable Development, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals. She collaborates with incredible organizations, like the Institute for Humane Education, to make civic education and systems change accessible to more people. As a Solutionary Teaching and Learning Facilitator, Gitanjali is excited to engage educators and youth in designing and running projects that transform their communities through the Solutionary Framework!

Gitanjali is indefatigably inquisitive. Her academic journey, including a B.A. in Peace and Justice Studies from Tufts University, a PGCE in Secondary Education from the University of Sunderland, and an M.Ed in Education Policy, Research, and Administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, reflects her commitment to continuous learning. She draws inspiration and joy from nature, family adventures, kitchen experiments, and her Filipina rescue cat, Mahatma Charlie.

Location-Based Solutionary Coach in Germany and in Kenya

As a class teacher in lower primary school, I believed I was a great teacher. Of course, I strove to uphold everything I knew to be right. In 2015, I applied for a job that I didn’t get, but the experience led to an encounter that ushered me toward the blessing of Humane education. Humane education opened my eyes to see my work through its own humane lens. Though I practiced compassion as a religious principle, I gained a deeper understanding of what exactly education should and must do to make empathy, compassion, and respect for people, animals, and the environment a normal way of life other than something one has to strive to have. For this reason, I decided to pass on what I have learned to as many teachers as possible.

Among many other professional development achievements, Susan is a qualified early childhood educator and a certified humane education specialist. She is also a solutionary educator and has partnered with IHE as a coach for the Solutionary Micro-credential Program (SMP). Earlier in her teaching career, she taught in primary schools, both national and international curriculum, and worked in an animal welfare organization where she taught animal welfare to children in Kenya and trained teachers on how to incorporate humane education in their lessons. Currently, Susan resides in Germany where she works as a private education consultant as well as in integration work with African immigrant families. During her free time, she enjoys reading about African history and cultures and listening to music.

I never wanted to be a teacher. As a college student, I watched my classmates effortlessly identify their future careers in finance, tech, and medicine while I struggled to imagine a professional future. I wanted to do something creative, non-monotonous, and fulfilling. That meant that teaching was out of the question. During a summer internship in Lima, Peru at a nonprofit that supported the rights of domestic workers, I was asked by the director to take over the organization’s English classes for the summer. On my first day, I asked the women in the class why they had enrolled in an English class. One woman told me she desperately wanted to help her teenage daughter with her homework. Another said she loved the movie Titanic, but only had access to it in English and wanted to understand why she loved the film so much. A third said she wanted to help girls in her village access more opportunities than she had. That’s when it hit me—I realized that education had the simple and profound power to give people access to their deepest dreams, to allow them to engage with the world in more meaningful ways, and to help build a future where dignity and opportunity are available to all. As it turned out, teaching was the most creative, least repetitive, and most fulfilling thing I could ever do.

After fully embracing teaching, Rene earned her M.Ed. through the Boston Teacher Residency. She taught English and ESL in Boston Public Schools for 10 years. There, she developed outdoor education and restorative justice programs for immigrant high school students. Throughout her teaching career, she has focused on developing interdisciplinary, student-led projects that encourage young people to explore their local communities and form connections to nature. Before joining IHE, Rene also co-founded Girls Rock Chicago, a music education organization, and served as the executive director of Nature Links for Lifelong Learning, providing nature-based continuing education for adults with disabilities across the state of Maine. 

Rene lives with her wife and three children in Brooklin, Maine, where she enjoys sailing, building furniture, and playing the banjo.