Meet our Board

“All I’ve ever wanted is to do meaningful things in this life… To have a positive influence in the world around me.”

Lorie is an aspiring elder, future ancestor, mother, wife, daughter and friend. She is awed and humbled by life and has intimately known Death, Love and everything in between. She is the humble lead at Comadres and Casula and also serves her community as an Ordained Inter-faith Chaplain, Somatic Trauma Therapist, Somatic Scar Tissue Worker, Community Advocate, and Clinical & Traditional Herbalist.

Lorie is also the co-owner of Fazenda Compadres along with her husband Skeets. 

“We deserve!” Ana’s joy and gratitude for life is contagious and she is joyfully proud to do work she believes in with her whole heart. She is a Master Teacher in Alternative Education, a long time creator and manager for various social projects around the globe and a student of indigenous peoples and ancestral technologies. Ana is also an enthusiast of travel both within the body and around the world and passionate about human relationships and their creative potential!

She is also a mother, daughter, sister, friend, Comadre!

Human wondering. 

The very first landscape that has shaped her becoming is a lush island in a multicultural archipelago. The family name Phibel was given, which translates as "from the bridge". 

Phibel likes to connect dots, ideas, people, and spaces. To wander with curiosity on the liminal bridge from one shore of meaning to the other. 

“This season of my life is about embodying Motherhood in non-conventional ways, exploring what it means to be of service to collective care, and learning to do so from a place of joy and creativity.”

Sofia is a contemporary dance choreographer and performance artist who bravely explores the intersections of art, embodiment and transformation. She is passionately curious about the wisdom encoded within the human body and in the powers of both verbal and non-verbal communication.

She is a Portuguese Native, a single mother of two teenagers, a daughter, friend and long time Comadre.

The poetry of movement enchants Rita.
She’s walked with high zeal, in everything she’s manifested with a community spirit, in the vision of unconditional support for the common good.
Today Rita remains on duty, while she learns and lower the volume, the rhythm, the intensity and the fire.
Rita embraces the Comadres, in the sacred lineage of mutual support.

Skeets is a hard-working, life-loving optimist from Texas who is motivated by creative, yet practical solutions to the world’s problems. He is a builder and a dreamer, a poet and an a business guy, and a loved father, husband, brother, son and friend. Skeets is the co-founder of Mushroom Compadres here in the Algarve, co-owner of Fazenda Compadres with his wife Lorie and a steadfast advocate for Associação Comadres. He is honored to work on a project which has already had so much meaningful influence in the community where he lives and is continuously touched by the power of Comadres spirit, skill and Hope in Action.

These days, when he’s not working or with family, you’ll most likely find him training Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Lissy is a true OG Comadre (and Lorie’s mom!). She was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico where she had a very happy childhood. She is proud to have been married for 40 years to a good man and to have had three children who she considers amazing, kind and responsible adults. She has also known loss. Her husband died in 2012 and her middle daughter in 2013. She misses them everyday. Lissy worked professionally for nearly 40 years as a nurse, primarily in emergency medicine. She also has extensive experience in community work ranging from support of disabled communities, people affected by poverty and loss and deeply underserved communities in rural Mexico. She is a fierce advocate of helping where you can, of standing up for what’s right and for speaking truth to power. Lissy is the Comadre House Librarian and loved elder amongst our community. She has one grandson, Phoenix, who is the centre of her universe. She considers herself lucky to live close to him, to Lorie and her son-in-law Skeets and in a place where life moves a bit slower.

Wambui Njuguna is a Kenyan-American who is healing her nervous system in rural Portugal. She is a certified trauma-informed yoga and meditation teacher and you can also find her cultivating mushrooms at Mushroom Compadres. When Wambui is not teaching or growing fungi, she can often be found at the riverside with her two sons, offering fruit, honey and sweet cakes to the Goddesses Oshun and Saraswati. This is her way to disrupt white supremacist patriarchal delusion from taking root in her children’s imaginations. To work and pray for the liberation of all sentient beings, across time and space, is her North Star and she loves being able to do this in collaboration with Associaçāo Comadres.

Mattie is a man who embodies a very special and valuable mix of strength and softness. He is a true lover of Earth and Spirit and everyday he wakes up to practice what he believes in. By trade, he is a consultant for regenerative agriculture projects, a community builder and facilitator in the fields of agroforestry, men’s work and intimacy and ceremonial inner journeys. He is the co-founder of the NGO Restore Nature Foundation and a huge advocate for Comadres since our long before our material conception. He is a loved co-parent, partner, friend and son.