Officers

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Jennifer Hamilton, BSN, RN, Death Midwife  

Jennifer has been a practicing private-duty nurse for 20 years, with a primary focus on Hospice care.  She is a founding member of Fairfield Cares and is devoted to the development of effective and creative modalities to enhance quality of life, cradle to grave.  

Jennifer has a palliative care service called Thresholding Palliative Care,  dedicated to death education and end of life care since 2012.  Jennifer has also been involved with cultivating grief-support programs and developing death/dying rituals for individuals, families and her community.  She travels throughout the USA providing these services as well as locally. 

Married for 44 years, she is the mother of two adult children and a grandmother.  She has lived with her husband on their horse/sheep farm for 40 years in southern Jefferson County. 

James Wilson, M.S., U.S. Air Force Veteran  

James is an award-winning Non-commissioned Officer of the U.S Air Force with six years of honorable service and Craftsman level certification in atmospheric physics and meteorology. During his time in service, James advised NASA on two space shuttle launches and was awarded Non-commissioned Officer of the Year in 2011. 

James has experience with non-profits, and he is a Business Development Fellow with the Silicon Valley Academy (SVAcademy), where he consulted with the former VP of Operations at Hewlett Packard. James is a proud father to an amazing son. He has lived in Fairfield since 2013. Currently, he’s an entrepreneur running a digital marketing agency, and he specializes in the Human Design system. 

He holds two bachelor's degrees in Atmospheric Physics and Consciousness and Human Potential, in addition to a Master of Science in Information Technology (IT). 

Michael Porter is the CEO of Birdwatching Dot Com, an e-commerce business, founded in 1986,  that specializes in selling products, such as binoculars,  to the birding community.  

He is also a founding member of Fairfield Cares.  

He was the Vice President of Marketing for LISCO, a local ISP in Fairfield, Iowa,  and helped bring optical fiber Internet service to Fairfield, making it  one of the first small towns in America with this level of high-speed service.  

He serves on the Trustee Board of the Fairfield Public Library.  

He has a BA in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. 

Diane Porter is a founding member of Fairfield Cares.  

She is president of Birdwatching Dot Com, an e-commerce business founded in 1986. She and her husband Michael created and maintain the website Birdwatching Dot Com.

She taught in California public and private schools, as well as in special education facilities for adolescents and adults with disabilities. In Iowa, she has taught courses in birdwatching through Indian Hills Community College, the Audubon Society, and the Sierra Club.  

She is interested in sustainable human culture and preserving the natural environment. She has written many articles on birds and natural history for national publications. Besides birds, Diane is passionately interested in native plants and propagating local-ecotype prairie wildflowers.  

She has a BA in Creative Writing from Pomona College, Claremont, California.

Martin Brett is the owner of Vastu Partners LLC, a co-developer of North Campus Village, a community of over 180  homes on the Maharishi International University campus. Vastu Partners is now exploring co-housing for a future development, which would offer an important new option for elders in Fairfield.

Thomas Brooks is the Vice President of Operations at Maharishi International University – involved with all areas of Higher Education Administration for 40 years.  

CEO of Dean Draznin Communications, a global public relations firm that represents companies, organizations, and thought-leaders from diverse fields and points of view—spanning healthcare, technology, education, politics, publishing and the arts.

Shelley has served since 2006  in the capacity of home health care nurse for SunnyBrook Home Care. From  1986 to 1990 she was a nurse and patient educator at  MAMC, Washington D.C. She acted as a medical-surgical nurse at the University of Rhode Island from 1981 to 1986.

Sandra Kelly is the Director of Sacred Sun Ministries, a 501 (c) 3 public nonprofit.  During the past 25 years, Sacred Sun has developed relationships with various community organizations that assist people people locally and nationally with their needs, including food stamps, rental assistance, insurance, healthcare, in-home care. Sandy is still assisting people with end-of-life care and hospice

Steve Langerud is the Executive Director of the Mayflower Community in Grinnell, Iowa — a continuing care retirement community with 280 residents in independent living, assisted living, and memory support. Additionally he has operated his own consulting firm since 1995 and served clients in education, government, business and industry, as well as non-profit organizations.