Katie Neskey, Family
Faculty: Gina Pola-Money
Katie is currently in a huge life transition. With her partner, Larry, and their two kids, Oscar & Felix, she has been farming in rural Western Montana for the past nine years. This summer, however, they are in the middle of moving to the big city of Butte, MT, in order to have more access to community and health resources, and be able to access said resources through walking an biking, rather than hours in the car.
She has lived in Montana for 13 years but is originally from Pittsburgh, PA. Prior to MT, she lived and worked in central Asia for a few years, the USVI, and elsewhere stateside. Outside of co-running their small herb farm business, Katie's work history includes food system development, food security/access work, farmer’s market management, work with various nonprofits, grant writing, and more. Her educational background is in Psychology and Social Work, and she currently works at the MT Family to Family Health Information Center.
Katie and Larry's kiddos have special physical and mental health needs, which forms the foundation for her interest in URLEND. She says this opportunity feels like a gift and she is eager to strengthen her ability to provide confident and knowledgeable support to her children within the often disempowering healthcare system.
Her current favorite hobby is graphic design, with the primary focus of making herself laugh and others feel hugged (stickers and buttons are her #1 at the moment). She says that if anyone would like a design of their pet in space (and the like), all you have to do is ask.
Katie's preferred form of self-care is jumping into any encountered (clean) bodies of water, regardless of season or temperature.
In a fun and hopeful future, wherein time isn't such an endangered resource, she'd receive training to become a sex-positive sex educator and End of Life Doula. Katie uses she/her pronouns and identifies as queer, both in sexuality and gender.