In 2022, Holly Noonan founded the Crooked Forest Institute, a sustainable community and economic development project in Grant County. The inspiration for the project came from her own experience of homelessness after an illness made her too sensitive to chemicals to live in a conventionally-built home. Noonan, a masters-level social worker and functional medicine health coach, moved to New Mexico from Maine in 2016 to recover her health.
Her focus on systems-thinking and person-in-environment, and her partnership with veteran Earthen Architect Joseph Kennedy, led them to develop a suite of synergistic economic solutions that would create circumstances where small, non-toxic adobe homes could once again become housing for low and moderate income New Mexicans. By pairing a Vocational Education program with a Nonprofit Housing Developer program, Crooked Forest Institute aims to create durable, fireproof and carbon-negative neighborhoods on a local Community Land Trust.
In 2025, Noonan became a Lincoln Vibrant Communities Fellow; A fellowship that focused on research, strategic communication and leadership in the context of housing and land use policy with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Crooked Forest Institute purchased 52 acres in 2024 with no bank loan and plans to develop this land into their education campus over the next 10 years.
Joseph Kennedy
Joe is an author, educator, architect and artist. In 1999, he co-founded the organization Builders without Borders, an international network of ecological builders who advocate the use of natural, local, and affordable materials in construction. Joe authored and edited two books; Building Without Borders (2004) and The Art of Natural Building (2015). He has given more than 120 public lectures and workshops during his thirty years of architectural experience with a focus on ecological design, green building and sustainable community design.
An an educator, Joe has taught both in academic settings, most recently at UC San Diego, and in community settings, especially teaching earth-building techniques (adobe, cob, earth plasters, etc.) both in the US and internationally. He has more than thirty years of experience creating curricula and teaching both classroom and hands-on project-based courses. He is currently obsessed with turquoise and learning about the history of turquoise in the Southwest. Joe draws, paints, makes jewelry and spins rock and roll vinyl on his local radio show.
Kim Ryan, Secretary.
Kim runs a local business (the Silco Theater) and is very involved in planning local events. The modern disparity in income to housing-cost ratios led her to spend the past few years studying earth-building and practicing resource management through off-grid living. She sees the resiliency neighborhood as an ideal model for healthy communities in the present and future. Kim contributes her expertise in strategy, networking, volunteer coordination and event planning.
Marc Nevas
Marc’s professional background started with a Masters in Special Education specializing in children with emotional issues and learning disabilities.
Marc has extensive experience participating on boards of non-profit organizations. He was president of a not-for-profit Natural Food Store in New Haven CT, a Jewish Community Center in Montana, a recycling center, a clothing distribution project, a Soup Kitchen, a non-profit preschool, and a Meditation and Yoga Center. His most recent project was the construction and operation of a Retreat Center in Montana.
Good stewardship of land has become a growing focus in Marc’s career. In Montana, Marc acquired and stewarded 70 acres of forest land receiving two grants for forest improvements projects to create a healthy forest environment.
Marc now lives in Arenas Valley and has completed a system of swales and mini-infiltration ponds on the land to maximize water retention and absorption plus a 7,000-gallon rainwater collection and storage system.
Crooked Forest Institute 