Natalie Bartlett

natalie@manzanitaschool.org

Natalie acts as the Director of Manzanita’s Living Classroom program as well as being the Naturalist for 7th grade. She is an educator, artisan, gardener, and musician who has spent the last 20 years deeply immersed in land-based culture. Before her time at Manzanita, Natalie was a 10-year land steward and instructor at Quail Springs, a 450-acre off-grid education and permaculture center in the Los Padres National Forest. At Quail Springs, she oversaw and directed the ancestral skills programming, co-facilitated a recurring 3-month live-in Farm & Garden Apprenticeship, and coordinated and taught various regenerative design and permaculture courses for youth and adults. She has extensive experience in gardening, animal husbandry, natural building, food processing, wild foraging, cooking, community living, and ancestral skills. As a musician, she has studied and sung with folk music masters from Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Russia, the Republic of Georgia, Greece, and Iran. Natalie values the ever-growing collaboration of the Living Classroom and School of Lunch team, seeing a shared sense of genuine care and inspiration via the food the students grow, with SOL going out of their way to include and transform it into beautiful Manzanita lunches. This allows students to get the unique experience of seeing their hard work and tending turn into beauty and nourishment, feeding the whole community. She sees this farm-to-table feasting as rewarding and a deep pride and excitement is felt through the students and staff. Outside of school hours, Natalie can be found tanning hides, processing wild foods from the mountains, writing music, learning new crafts, and spending time on the land with like-minded dear ones.

Educational Background: Natalie holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Evansville. She also has a Merritt College Permaculture Certification, Quail Springs Permaculture Design Certification, and Advanced Permaculture Certification with Robyn Francis, as well as a UC California Naturalist Certification and California Native Plant Landscaper Certification.

Joined: 2018 (Year Five)