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 affordable housing for low and moderate income New Mexicans. By pairing a Vocational Education program with a Community Land Trust, Crooked Forest Institute aims to prove the concept that durable, fireproof and carbon-negative agrihoods on community owned land, can be developed by local communities all over the state.
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 October 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.
Joshua Montoya
Joshua Montoya works at the intersection of real estate development, construction, and financing with a focus on expanding access to affordable housing in New Mexico. His background includes real estate development, sales and marketing, adobe manufacturing, and private financing.
Joshua discovered adobe construction almost by accident during the COVID-19 pandemic. What began as curiosity quickly became a mission. Within a few years, he helped grow an adobe manufacturing operation into the second-largest producer of adobe bricks in the state.
Today, Joshua is focused on expanding access to affordable, healthy housing for working-class New Mexicans by growing a local adobe yard, developing pre-approved casita kits, and creating in-house financing solutions.
Outside of construction, he also works as a photographer and filmmaker specializing in real estate media.
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 