Jon Pertee
B.A., Evergreen State College
Jon is the owner of his own design and building company called Winter Star Woodworks specializing in small homes. He served as an AMS intern in 1983 and has helped lead field trips for the school. He is the father of Isak and Aije Pertee who are former students of AMS. Jon has done/ is doing volunteer work in the public school system, Appalachian Therapeutic Riding Center, Odyssey of the Mind, Toe River Valley Watch, and AMS workdays.

Rob Pulleyn
B.A., Sociology and Anthropology, Lake Forest College in Illinois,
M.A., Sociology, The University of New Mexico.
Rob is a ceramist and shows frequently in the region. He has been a filmmaker and tapestry weaver. He founded and was the publisher of Fiberarts Magazine and Lark Books for thirty years prior to selling his business to Sterling Publishing/Barnes and Noble. He has served on the boards for Professional Parenting and Planned Parenthood, Asheville Art Museum, and Penland School of Crafts. His daughter was involved in Camp Celo which brought him into contact with AMS. Besides his daughter, he is also a single adoptive parent to three other children.

Elley Jordan Schopler
B.A., African Studies UNC Chapel Hill 
B.S., Nursing UNC Chapel Hill
Elley is an Obstetric/Maternity nurse and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Elley's family started coming to the family work camps to help build Arthur Morgan School in 1963, and they have been members of the Celo Community since 1972. Her mother was a staff member at AMS, and she and her two sisters are former students. She has volunteered at the Health Department as a lactation consultant, with Carolina Friends School as a substitute teacher, and at the Piedmont Wildlife Center.

Bob Welsh is a retired high school English teacher who taught for 30 years in public and private schools, including Mountain Heritage High School for seven years in the 80's. He and his wife Anne were active in Celo Friends Meeting in the 80's, then moved to Black Mountain in the 90's and helped to start Swannanoa Valley Friends Meeting. He is active these days in Black Mountain as a grandfather and as a gardener.

Astra Coyle
B.A., Philosophy, Skidmore College
G.C.F.P., Feldenkrais Guild of North America
Astra has been a Feldenkrais Practicioner in private practice at the Celo Health Center for the past five years. Her work is dedicated to teaching people how to learn for themselves. Astra has worked in several non-profit settings. She managed educational workshops for a non-profit media arts center, produced and directed documentaries and managed a small fund raising company. She and her family live in Celo Community. Her step-son, Paolo, is a current AMS student.

Susan Larson
B.A., English, Kalamazoo College
M.A., English, The University of Chicago
M.A.L.S., UNCG    
Susan retired in 2008 as the Sr. Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at UNCG. In the Triad she also established and  coordinated the Duke Certificate Program in Nonprofit Management. In the mountains she was the first president and executive director of the Toe River Arts Council while serving on many nonprofit boards, including Penland School of Crafts. Larson was on the staff of Mayland Community College, heading the fundraising and public relations efforts. She is also a current board member of the Foundation for Mitchell County. Currently she is vice president of the Foundation for Mitchell County and co-leader of MainPRO, Mountain Information for Nonprofits.

May Toms
B.A., English Literature, Antioch College
M.Ed., Early Childhood Education, University of New Hampshire
Early Childhood Credential, American Montessori Society
Retired from a 24 year career in education, May has taught in both public and private schools in North Carolina, Virginia and Maine. The last five years of her teaching career were in the Greensboro Montessori School as a Primary teacher. She has been a Stephen Minister for Greensboro Urban Ministry, coordinated and hosted homeless guests through Guilford Interfaith Hospitality Network, and volunteered with Salvation Army's Daywatch and Nightwatch programs who serve the homeless that are not in shelters. May is a past board member of the Greensboro Montessori School and is currently in the Certification Program of the Servant Leadership School of Greensboro. 

Jody Pred
B.A., Beloit College
Jody is a 1971 alumnus, and from 1981 - 1984 he was also an AMS staff member. He and his wife reside in the Celo valley where he serves on the Celo Community Inc. board of directors. A skilled carpenter, Jody now boasts the position of stay-at-home father to his lovely daughter, Daisy.

Mary Ellis Gibson has taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for more than thirty years. She is the Elizabeth Rosenthal Distinguished Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies and teaches future secondary and university teachers. Among her many books are two edited collections of stories by southern women writers, Homeplaces and New Stories by Southern Women. She's now co-authoring with an Indian colleague a book on the poetry and the educational practice of the Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose experimental school at Santiniketan, West Bengal, was founded on principles much like the philosophy that guides AMS. Mary Ellis gives talks on foodways and culture sponsored by the North Carolina Humanities Council and has led many workshops for teachers. She recently started a small press, Celo Knob Press, in Little Switzerland.