Picture of Kate and Ada Kerman with Ada's daughter

Kate Kerman

  • Mediator
  • Trainer
  • Educator
  • Mentor

Kate's mediation career

  • trained as a mediator in 1988 through Friends Mediation Services in the Philadelphia area.

  • active mediator as a faculty member at The Meeting School, where mediation and restorative discipline is used in a small alternative school community.

  • trained as Cheshire Mediation parent/youth volunteer mediator in fall 1996 and began volunteering on parent/youth cases.

  • joined the staff of Cheshire Mediation in the winter of 1999, and acted as the Coordinator of Youth Programs until August 2010. This included coordinating the parent/youth mediation program and the Peer Mediation Program at Keene High School, as well as conducting trainings for other schools in the area.

  • has taught conflict resolution skills to children and adults of all ages.

  • trained further through a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialty in Peaceable Schools from Lesley University in 2007.

Phoenix Farm Learning Center

In 1996, Kate and her husband Ed established The Phoenix Farm Learning Center and have lived there with up to 7 teenagers, children and young adults at a time in an informal farm community setting designed to give young people an opportunity to develop their skills and learn to live well with others. In that time, Kate has assisted 5 teenagers to graduate high school through individualized home schooling programs, and has helped older young adults find ways to follow interests and passions ranging from veterinary technology to carpentry and fiber crafts.

Experience

  • directed several peace camps at the farm since 2004, when a multi-generational group has gathered for a week to learn, play and create community together.

  • taught conflict resolution and done conflict resolution work with Keene Housing authority and Winchester's E.L.M.M. Center summer camps.

Current life

After suffering a serious house fire in 2007, Kate, Ed and family and friends built a First Day Cottage, where Kate and Ed currently live with their daughter Ada and two grandchildren, a dog and a cat. Their daughter Hannah lives in a room in the barn with 2 dogs, a cat, a ferret, a rat, and frequent boarders and foster dogs, while pigs, sheep, goats, ducks, geese, chickens and guineas occupy other outbuildings.

In the fall of 2010, Kate left Monadnock Family Services to expand Phoenix Farm Learning Center's Talk It Out program for conflict resolution facilitation and education.

Memberships

Picture of Ed Kerman - click to go to the Degree Confluence Project

Ed Kerman

Librarian

Ed graduated from Kalamazoo College in 1970 with a degree in Political Science. He continued his education at the University of Chicago, where he got his library degree in 1971. From then until 1983, he worked at the Fremont, Michigan public library. At that time he quit to research early Quaker history. In 1984, he took a job at the J. Lewis Crozer library in Chester, Pennsylvania as the children's librarian. In 1988, he moved to The Meeting School, a small Quaker boarding school in New Hampshire, as faculty member and houseparent. In 1996, he left The Meeting School and took a position as a cataloger for Yankee Book Peddler. Since 1996, he has worked at Dublin School, another small New Hampshire boarding school, first as a tutor and then in the school's library.

Ada Kerman

  • Web designer
  • Computer trainer
  • Social media consultant
  • Mother
  • Advocate for social change

Ada runs Kerman Enterprises, a small business which aims to make it easier for people and computers to get along. Currently, her main interest is in farming. She also offers tutoring on computer use and web design.

Hannah Kerman

  • Pet sitting
  • Pet boarding

Hannah was homeschooled through eighth grade. For high school, she attended and graduated from The Meeting School, where she worked on the farm. By now, she has over 20 years' experience with farm animals. She has lived with and cared for cats, dogs, ferrets, rats, hamsters, snakes, rabbits, birds, fish, and guinea pigs. She runs a pet-sitting business, Phoenix Pet Care.