Our Team
2025 - 2026 SY “Aunties” (L-R): Nora Dougherty, Jen Kane, Erika Moore
Jennifer Kaleouionalani Metz Kane
Founder & Director
Current Lead Aunty / Teacher
Jen Kane was born and raised in the Hawaiian Islands. She currently lives with her husband and six-year-old daughter in the little town of Honomu on the Hamakua Coast of Hawai`i Island. Jen spent many childhood days adventuring in the ocean with her best friend and going on night hikes around her neighborhood with a flashlight in one hand and her dad’s hand in the other. It’s these kinds of intimate moments in the natural world shared with friends and family that Jen believes led her to a career in outdoor and environmental education and her desire to create a thriving forest school program in her community.
After graduating from college Jen spent over 20 years working at various residential science camps, nature centers, state parks, national forests and marine reserves around the country, sharing her love of the natural world and gaining a bounty of experience in hands-on, experiential teaching. After three years in the Peace Corps working with youth and women in the Philippines, Jen returned home to Hawaii be with her dad for the last months of his life. While she lost her father during this time, Jen gained a new appreciation for her island home and a desire to protect it. She worked with the National Marine Fisheries Service educating schools and the public about threatened and endangered marine species; and with the Center’s for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE) managing programs geared to increasing ocean literacy and science communication. After becoming a mom Jen entered world of early childhood education. When she couldn’t find any outdoor-based programs in her area for pre-K aged keiki, she trained to become a Tinkergarten Leader and ended up leading nature and play-based programs in local parks for her daughter and other little ones in her community for three years. During this time Jen fell in love working with this age group and learned about the immense value of playing in nature to a child’s early education and social and emotional growth. She is thrilled to take the next step and offer a forest school experience, giving keiki more freedom to explore, adventure and flourish in nature and a hand nearby ready to hold and help guide them as needed.
Education
BA English, Minor in Environmental Studies, University of Oregon
MS Environmental Education & Interpretation, University of Wisconsin
Certifications and Training
Forest School Teacher, Forest School Teacher Institute
Forest School Director, Forest School Teacher Institute
Certified Interpretive Guide, National Association for Interpretation
Preschool and Parent & Child Music Classes Teacher, The Learning Groove
Project Wet / Project Wild Facilitator, Project Learning Tree
Erika Moore
Assistant Aunty / Teacher
Hello, my name is auntie Erika I live on a cacao farm in Hakalau. I have been working with children for over a decade now. I was an art teacher on the mainland, nannied, and worked at a Waldorf inspired program. It’s a joy to get to work with keiki at forest school. Outside of forest school I love creating. I am a visual artist my medium is painting. I also work with the land growing food, medicine, focusing on healing the soil by adding lots of life back into it. I have a few bee hives that support my efforts. It’s very sweet getting to share my love for growing food with the keiki on Thursdays for our`āina program.
Nora Dougherty
Assistant Aunty /Teacher
Nora is an artist, community organizer and steward of the land. Originally from the East Coast, she eventually made her way to California where she pursued art. She worked first as a metal worker creating sculptural jewelry inspired by the natural world, then as an instigator of public art collaborations through her mobile gallery inhabiting a vintage trailer, “work. shop.” Her goal was to bring art into everyday life; to instigate, support and celebrate the creative spark. She hosted campfire poetry readings and concerts in abandoned parking lots; independent film screenings at defunct train depots; and a cross-country art collaboration. These are just a few things that came about in her quest to offer a thoughtful, surprising space for art that nourishes community and defies pretension.
In 2021, on the heels of Covid 19 and the wildfires in California, Nora loaded up her trailer and dog, Handsome, and headed for the Big Island to have time with her mother, Kimball. Kimball had been living off-grid along the Hāmākua coast since 2000 planting trees, wrangling horses, shearing sheep, with too many ducks, generally being in awe of the beauty that is this island. This is where Nora has been learning how to compost, grow food, and maintain small engines for the past four years, following in the footsteps of her mother.
Soon after landing on the Big Island, Nora was lucky to meet Jenny Bach and began working as the garden teacher at the YMCA through Jenny’s non-profit, The Honeybee Education Program. This lead to working as the garden teacher at the Pa’auilo Elementary School for the two years. In 2025, she was grateful to be introduced to Hāmākua Forest School through her friend Erika. Nora is so happy to be a part of this special program - learning, exploring, and creating in nature with kids.
