About Steven & Elissa Rookey

Steven Rookey,Co-Director, brings a broad range of professional and life experiences to each student he works with. He has spent the last twenty-four years involved in alternative education initiatives.

Steven has an extraordinary range of experience working with teens and young adults at various levels of risk. This includes literally thousands of hours leading workshops and group facilitations; many multi-day group retreats into the wilderness; over fifteen years as a Wilderness First Responder; a stint as a drama instructor putting on full productions; full training as a Waldorf teacher; teaching fifth grade at the Sandpoint, ID Waldorf School; primary Counselor and base-camp Co-Coordinator for a wilderness intervention program; Program Director for an emotional growth boarding school; Program and Operations Director for a residential treatment center for American boys in Sonora, Mexico; and previous to founding Ventures in Peace, a Peer Group Leader and Senior Life Skills Manager at the Monarch School.

Before being called to work with teens, Steven successfully managed fine dining restaurants in Spokane, Washington, where he was born and raised.

 

Elissa Rookey, Co-Director, also has a myriad of work and life experience. Having grown up in Alexandria, Virginia, she graduated from Skidmore College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, Early Childhood Education and Studio Art. During and after her college career Elissa studied in and traveled around Australia as well as working as a nanny and home school teacher for a prominent family living on a sailboat in the Caribbean Islands.

Elissa has also traveled extensively around the US and Europe. She has lived in the Northern Idaho/Western Montana area for eight years during which she has been a substitute teacher, run a non-profit organization to help underprivileged children go to school in Nepal, been the Secretary of the board for the Foundation for Human Rights Action and Advocacy, owned a successful pizza business, taught pre-school at the Sandpoint Waldorf School, and worked as a life-skills instructor and college counselor at the Monarch School, an emotional growth boarding school for "at-risk" teenagers.

Steven and Elissa are parents to two daughters, Kendall (age 19) and Grace (age 4) and son Cairn (age 1). They are both licensed to deliver the Avatar Course ®, a powerful personal development program that is offered in 71 countries around the world. They have extensive mountain hiking, skiing, sailing, gardening, dancing, and cooking experience. They love interacting and sharing their experiences with children and adults of all ages.