Our Team
Leticia Gonzalez (Letty) has been working with children on the main island, Puerto Rico, and in Vieques as a teacher, guide, and community outreach leader over the past 14 years. Letty knows her calling to change the world is through working with children! She believes every learner has a special gift to share with the world and is inspired to create a unique learner-directed environment. She is committed to her position as Lead Guide and Deputy Headmistress to work with learners firsthand and to help coach new guides at Green School- Acton Academy Vieques. Her outgoing and upbeat personality is contagious and relatable to young people.
Letty has also worked in the hospitality, service, veterinary, and public service industries including with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). She is the founder of SOMOS, an after-school humane education and art program through Our Big Fat Caribbean Rescue (OBFCR).
And she is the proud mother of three, Christopher, Alondra, and Christian, and aspires to challenge them to discover their individual callings.
Érica Boulogne is director of Oasis Vieques, a non-profit organization that offers educational workshops in diverse topics and matters relevant to Vieques. Érica got her degree in Education in 2007 and founded a primary school that same year. She remained as its director for 8 years.
Ms. Boulogne is recognized in Vieques as a community leader, regarded for the special way in which she works with children.
An entrepreneur, she started and has been head chef at Arenamar since 2003. Érica has devoted herself to agriculture, social activism, Bomba classes, food preparation and home remedies prepared with medicinal plants.
Facilities Maintenance Engineer
Tomás Fuentes is a native Viequense entrepreneur, an experienced sailor, chief engineer/first mate, a general contractor – builder, and foremost the proud father of Milan Matteo and Taleia, and husband to Jennifer Smith. He obtained Associate of Electrical Technology and Associate of Plumbing & Heating Technology prior to obtaining his license as a general contractor in 2017.
After five years living in Florida, working under the strict Miami Dade County building codes as a foreman, he and his family sailed back to his beloved native home. After the destruction of Hurricane Maria in 2017, he and his wife started their second small business, a successful construction company.
He is a spirited outdoorsman, infinite tinkerer, a man of few words, and is most happy out on the water. Tomás contributes to the Escuela Verde team in all aspects of Facilities Maintenance and New Construction projects.
Jennifer Smith is a self proclaimed “adventurer at heart” with many different interests and creative pursuits in life. She is part entrepreneur, part USCG captain (100-ton master) and sailor, part surgical veterinary nurse, and most importantly mother to Milan Matteo and Taleia.
After obtaining an Associate of Science in Vet Technology followed by a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science she went on to work for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at their headquarters in Washington, DC. Life in a cubicle didn’t suit her gregarious personality so she returned to veterinary medicine specializing as a surgical nurse. Over the next decade, she worked as lead surgical nurse at two of the largest specialty teaching hospitals in the US. In 2012, Jennifer met her future husband Tomás in Vieques, Puerto Rico and fell in love with him and his tiny native island of Vieques.
She founded her first company in 2015 in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico after obtaining her USCG captain’s license. In 2017, the catastrophic hurricane Maria destroyed their nautical tourism business, their home, and left the island they call home in ruins. Her resiliency, optimism, and determination helped them recover from that chapter and go on to rebuild not only that business, but two others as well.
Her inspiration to start an alternative school in Vieques stems from her own lacking experience in the public school system. That poor experience led to a rather delayed self -discovery of her potential in life and the discovery of her profound love of learning. Determined to give her children a very different experience in education, she embarked into comprehensive research deep into education models. That journey led her to the Acton Academy network and the vision to bring something outside the box to the magical island of Vieques.
“We intend to create a unique, bilingual, environmentally friendly, intentionally diverse, joyful and open-air campus for our local youth to be inspired to be life-long learners at GREEN SCHOOL- Acton Academy Vieques.” -Jennifer Smith 2021
Born in the desert in the Valley of the Sun, Kristin ventured from Phoenix, AZ to Massachusetts to pursue her bachelor’s degree in Politics and Media Technology at Mount Holyoke College. Upon completion, she lived in Boston and worked in internet development. In her early twenties Kristin began scuba diving which set a trajectory change in her life. Kristin attended the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Miami for a master’s degree in Marine Policy. During her time in Miami, Kristin worked for the NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center National Marine Fisheries Service. Once she completed her master’s degree, Kristin returned to Massachusetts to pursue doctoral research at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in Human dimensions of Marine and Coastal Ecosystems.
During her time at UMASS, Amherst Kristin visited Vieques, PR and it was love at first sight. When Kristin finished her doctoral coursework, she moved to Vieques in the fall of 2007. It was the beautiful environment that enticed Kristin to Vieques initially; however, the community is what has kept her here for so many years. Their mutual love of scuba diving brought Ronny Fields and Kristin together, and in 2015, Hollis Reef came into the world and, as children do, modified his parents’ priorities.
Now, Kristin is excited to provide an alternative type of education for her son and the community. We cannot possibly anticipate all the challenges the next generations will face ;however, encouraging student-driven education will equip them with tools to tackle what may arise. A large aspect of the curriculum at the Green School Vieques is to help foster an appreciation for the natural world the privilege of living in Vieques affords our learners and encouraging their environmental stewardship. As a certified boat captain, scuba instructor and science diver, Kristin is looking forward to bringing her expertise to support her son and other learners in the community. Please consider having your learner join us on our adventure.
Laura lived on both US coasts and in between as a child, then settled into Vanderbilt University for her undergraduate studies in the College of Arts and Science. After being awarded the highly competitive Walter Wattles Fellowship at Lloyd’s of London, Laura worked in the aviation insurance industry in New York City. Deciding to follow her calling into the world of education, Laura returned to Nashville and earned her Master of Education at Peabody College. This led her to her work at the Oklahoma Arts Institute, creating fine arts education programs for teachers and talented high school students. Laura married Jeff Sandefer and is the happy mother of Sam and Charlie and step-mother to Taite. It is the inspiration of these children that led Laura and Jeff to co-found Acton Academy. Her greatest hero is her mother who was a Master Teacher. Her wisest mentor is her father who sent her off to college with two words of advice: “Be curious.”
