Meet The NEUC Advisory Board

Skyler DuPont is a grown lifelong unschooler. They graduated in May 2019 from Hampshire College with a B.A, double majoring in Public Health and Education, and double minoring in Culture, Health and Science and Reproductive Rights. Skyler graduated from Columbia University in 2024 with a Masters Degree in Clinical Social Work, and is now returning to the lower 48 after spending two years in Alaska working in the domestic violence and sexual assault prevention and crisis response field. Skyler is best known in the unschooling sphere for their TikTok where they make videos about unschooling from the perspective of a grown unschooler, rather than a parent. Skyler is passionate about environmental justice, queer and trans rights, bodily autonomy, and liberatory education.

Julia is a grown unschooler and a long-time NEUC attendee! She is proudly Palestinian-Syrian-American, and strongly believes in community care and liberation. Julia runs Interlude Music Lessons with her brother Tony, where she teaches piano and music lessons. She is a dancer, starting the first Vermont chapter of National Water Dance. Julia organizes extensively in the Covid-cautious community focusing on connection, advocacy, and resources distribution.

Brenda is the queer parent of two trans/nonbinary always-unschooled adults. An entrepreneur and life coach (laporteconsulting.net), she’s a politically progressive artist, writer, activist, and cat-loving pagan. Brenda loves hanging out in community with like-minded folks, hosting gayborhood bonfires, playing games with people who don’t take winning too seriously, facilitating discussions, and living life in Western MA, with her wife and their sweet old kitty, Kristopher. 

Alex Patterson is a grown Unschooler who chose to start a YouTube channel (The Doctor Who Guide) rather than go to college. He is Palestinian-Syrian-American. Since 2016, Alex has made over 900+ videos on his channel culminating in his biggest video series yet: his 25-day solo trip to the UK to visit Doctor Who filming locations, meet Doctor Who actors at conventions, shop, eat, and film all over the UK, connecting with long-time "internet" friends. He also designs the NEUC website and does video editing and web design.

Terry is mom to a dynamic duo: a homeschooled/unschooled trans adult son and an always unschooled son. She's the brain behind Astrolabe Academy High School, a virtual haven for self-directed learners. Globally recognized for advocating children's rights and self-directed education, Terry thrives in lively education debates, finds solace in painting, seeks adventure in the great outdoors, and masters the art of relaxation by a crackling fire. Terry embodies the spirit of unschooling with a touch of humor and heaps of wisdom.

Tony Patterson is a grown unschooler, multi-instrumentalist, comic artist, audio visual technician, and Rubik's Cube Enthusiast. Tony has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Socially Engaged Art and a Masters of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. Tony works professionally running tech at conventions and is happy to bring those skills to NEUC.

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Rick is an accomplished crafter of duct tape, a writer of fantasy and science fiction, a novice chain mail crafter, a novice guitarist, an experimenter in digital art, and a decades-long unschooling parent. He likes to create and host trivia quizzes, help people learn things he’s attempted, and facilitate funshops. He lives in Coventry, CT with wife Deb and daughter Jess.

Kevin Patterson is the unschooling dad of board members Alex, Tony, and Julia. He is an actor and has spent much of his work life writing. He currently works as director of Facilitation and Program Development at Leadership Dynamics, Inc., helping professionals optimize their time and foster better life balance. Most recently, Kevin acted in Trad Brad, which won best short film at the Vermont Film and Folklore Festival.

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Charlie is a certified school hopper and then school dropper, having attended five different elementary schools before calling it quits. Enamored with the small and large mysteries of the world, he has found community at the Northeast Unschooling Conference and intends to stick around for quite some time.  Ever seeking to learn, Charlie’s passions include running about in the great outdoors, creative writing, and sewing. They like snow but not shoes, games but not rules, and daylight savings time (which is controversial, I know).

Violet has been involved with far more schools than she would like to admit (including a brief and inexplicable stint as a researcher at Harvard). Currently she runs a larp (live-action role-playing) club and teaches a class at Hampshire College (a school which she also attends), works as a youth programing director with a local Church, and mans the cash register at a pharmacy. You can usually find her in a tree or on a mountain although she has been recently grounded on account of her two broken wrists (update, the wrists have mostly healed).

Hello! This is my first year on the NEUC board. And 2026 will be my 3rd year attending this amazing conference. I am a lifelong unschooler, I have 2 siblings, I live in NYC, and I love it here. Some things I like to do are: being spontaneous, organizing gatherings of people, making art, activism, meeting new people, playing cat’s cradle, riding the subway, playing Set (a card game), reading, talking, singing/doing music with people, improv/acting, being in nature, and learning. I spend lots of time at my local homeschooling center, and I take various classes around the city. Thanks for reading :^)

She is a neuro-spicy mom of three, with two grown kids and one still at home and joyfully unschooled for the past 8 years. A dedicated surgical technologist on Labor & Delivery she brings a sense of calm in her patients most scary moments. Her love of travel fuels hands on learning adventures with her daughter, turning each trip into an opportunity to learn something new. In rare quiet moments she finds comfort and creativity in baking sourdough bread. 

Ian has bounced between schools constantly, before finally dropping the whole thing to focus on their interests. Since then, they have created numerous small video games, bringing in every friend they could along the way. Now they toil (excitedly) in the creative mines, both making the art for their long-term video game project, as well as writing and producing their own album. They're always pushing their limits, and seeing what else they can learn about their crafts.