Dr. Leah Bayens is a lifelong Kentuckian. With a background in agrarian, literary, and cultural studies, she helps participants at The Berry Center Farm and Forest Institute unearth the living legacies of culture and agriculture. Her courses bring to life history, ecology, literature, and cooperative leadership through immersion in rural landscapes. Leah’s courses blend hands-on study in forests, pastures, and rural communities with a deeper understanding of agrarianism as “a way of thought based on land." Participants learn to:

—practice neighborly rural leadership

—identify their places in agrarian lineages

—orchestrate cooperative farming systems

—understand and value working landscapes

—foster cultures that support good farming

Leah’s work is grounded in fascination with and commitment to place, which she is sharing with her son and partner in and around Port Royal and her family’s home place in Alum Springs, Kentucky.

From his early days in Oklahoma onward, Rick Thomas has found solace in the seasonal rhythms of farm life. Despite its challenges, he enjoys learning from and living a farmer's experiences with nature: cultivating fields, nurturing forests, and working alongside draft animals. As faculty at The Berry Center Farm and Forest Institute, Rick combines his hard work ethic with experiential learning opportunities in forestry techniques applicable to farmers of all scales. As well, he provides vital skill workshops for using mixed power systems—animal traction as well as mechanized equipment–for small- and mid-scale farming operations and woodland management. Rick and his wife, Dr. Perry Thomas, practice all these good things at their Hope Hill Farmstead home in Henry County, Kentucky.

Planted and rooted in Henry County, Kentucky, Shannon Boyd found early connection to farm and community life. Many geographies and typographies later, she continues to help unite people and place as the Program Coordinator of The Berry Center Farm and Forest Institute. Shannon supports learners with:

— Registration
— Onboarding
— Participation
— Post-Program connection

She is available to answer registration and program questions, provide further information, and share the Farm and Forest Institute’s story and offerings at events, conferences, and gatherings. As one who loves books, food, farming, good care of land, good care of people, and so much more—Shannon always welcomes conversations and finding common ground around such things.