The Person Behind NatureKin

Meet
Jacqueline
Poole.

Twenty years of working with children. A lifetime spent in nature. One deep belief that the two belong together.

Photo coming soon

Grounded in experience.
Guided by purpose.

Jacqueline Poole has spent more than twenty years showing up for children — in daycares, classrooms, behavioral health settings, and community programs. She has been an assistant, a specialist, a teacher, a program associate, and for five years, a director of children's programming.

But long before any of those titles, she was a child on a trail. Swimming in a lake. Fishing at dawn. Sitting quietly in the woods learning to listen to something larger than herself. She grew up understanding that nature wasn't something you visited — it was something you belonged to.

"It is my teacher, my friend, my kinship. I am Nature and nature is me."

NatureKin was born from the intersection of those two lives — the professional who has guided hundreds of children through challenge, growth, and discovery, and the person who has always known that the natural world is the greatest classroom there is.

What Jacqueline loves most is the moment a child works through something hard and feels the pride of having done it themselves. Not because someone told them they could — but because they did. That moment of genuine capability, of real confidence earned through real experience — that's what NatureKin is built to create, over and over again.

She meets your child exactly where they are —
and walks with them toward who they're becoming.

After twenty years of working with children across daycares, classrooms, behavioral health settings, and enrichment programs, Jacqueline has developed something that can't be taught in a course — the ability to truly see a child.

She can recognize a child's learning style within the first few sessions and meet them there — without forcing them into a mold. She knows when a child needs a gentle push and when they need space to work something out on their own. She can draw out the quiet ones who have so much to say, and thoughtfully channel the big energy ones into leadership and purpose. And she has a gift for connecting each child's natural strengths to real, meaningful work — so they don't just feel seen. They feel capable.

20+
Years working with children
5
Years as Children's Program Director
4
Roles across education & behavioral health
1
Belief: nature and children belong together
Why NatureKin

This isn't a program.
It's a conviction.

Children don't need to be entertained. They need to be trusted — with real work, wild places, and a community that believes in what they're capable of. When you give them that, they surprise you every single time.

Inspired by Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots and the Green School model of Bali, NatureKin is Jacqueline's answer to a simple question: what happens when children are raised to feel genuinely connected to the natural world — and genuinely responsible for it?

Ready to grow something
real together?

NatureKin's Fall 2026 season is forming now. Spots are limited to 15 per age group — join the waitlist to be first in line.

Join the Waitlist →