Meet Our Community
Patricia Webb, BSN, MA
Founder, Teacher, Nurse, Program Designer & Lead Facilitator
Julie Knapp
Artist, Teacher, Healer, Program Associate
Carol Brooks
Artist, Curator, Program Associate
Our Board of Advisors
Kathy Evans-Palmisano
Dana Naughton
Larry Patrick
Jeffrey Ritchey
Scilla Warhaftig
Blaire Willson-Toso
Patricia Webb, RN, BSN, MA
Patricia has worked in the healthcare industry for over 30 years – as a nurse, a patient educator & staff trainer, a health writer & presenter, and as a private practice administrator. She’s at home in the worlds of tertiary medical care, outpatient mental health, corporate and community healthcare. Teaching has consistently been central to her nursing practice and to her work as a writer, both in & beyond the field of health.
Patricia is also a narrative artist who understands how stories translate into vicariously lived experience, from which people derive meaning and thereby explore possibilities for action in their own lives. Patricia focuses her work in the fertile watershed realm where instructional design intersects with narrative ways of understanding experience – and with artistic ways of testing & expressing those understandings.
Encountering the power of horse-human communication & relationship herself as an adult, Patricia has studied equine-assisted learning through both published research and hands-on practice for a decade. In 2003 & 2004, she studied on-site at the Monty Roberts International Learning Center in southern California, where she logged over 200 hours of study & practice in nonviolent ground-training of horses. She has also studied on-site with Linda Kohanov, Chris Irwin, and Koelle Simpson in various regions of the U.S.
In 2007, Patricia committed herself to full-time doctoral work through the Pennsylvania State University in the Adult Education Program, one of the top-ranked academic programs on adult learning in the world. Patricia has presented papers at professional conferences in her field at the state, regional, national, and international levels, and has published widely outside academia. Now in the dissertation phase of her studies, she is able to re-devote energy to collaborative work with her colleagues through the Learning Shire. Her intent is to expand its reach from southwestern Pennsylvania, where she founded this work, to a wider variety of clients in the Pennsylvania region and beyond.
For additional information, you may click to download Patricia’s Curriculum Vitae.
Julie Knapp
Julie has worked in the health field for over a decade in a variety of private practice settings involving both complementary and traditional approaches to care. She is a trigger-point myofascial release therapist & neuromuscular re-education practitioner in Pittsburgh, and has been a guest instructor for several courses at the School of Pain Management there, where she previously completed her own training.
Julie is also a gifted visual artist, having attended the Carnegie Mellon University’s pre-college fine arts program in her teens, where she was awarded several scholarships. Having grown-up in a family of musicians, artists, and teachers, she has devoted much of her life to helping others through community involvement in the arts, youth mentoring, equine-assisted program work, and supporting the self-healing journeys of family & friends, as well as her clients. Julie also has an abiding concern for religious reconciliation and focuses a portion of her work on bringing together people of different faith traditions, to enhance mutual understanding and to support spiritual unity.