The Team Behind Simplicity Parenting
Kim John Payne - Executive Director
Kim John Payne is an award winning author who has been quietly and passionately working to help tens of thousands of people give voice to the feeling that something is not okay about the new normal of overwhelm that so many people are now experiencing. He offers do-able ways to realize the hopes and values we all have for ourselves, and build deep connections with our children that gives families resiliency and simple joy.
A consultant and trainer to over 230 U.S. independent and public schools, Kim John Payne, M.ED, has been a school counselor, adult educator, consultant, researcher, educator and a private family counselor for twenty seven years. He regularly gives key-note addresses at international conferences for educators, parents, and therapists and runs workshops and training’s around the world. In each role, he has been helping children, adolescents and families explore issues such as social difficulties with siblings and classmates, attention and behavioral issues at home and school, emotional issues such as defiance, aggression, addiction and self-esteem and the vital role living a balanced simple life brings.
He has also consulted for educational associations in South Africa, Hungary, Israel, Russia, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, Thailand and China. Kim has worked extensively with the North American and UK Waldorf educational movements. He has served as Director of the Collaborative Counseling program at Antioch University New England. He is the Director of the Simplicity Project a multi media social network that explores what really connects and disconnects us to ourselves and to the world. Together with his team they have trained around 1200 Simplicity Parenting Coaches and Group Leaders around the world. Kim is the Founding Director of The Center for Social Sustainability, an organization that has trained thousands of teachers, parents and students in the Three Stream Process that gives social, emotional and behavioral support to children who struggle in the school environment.
In addition to authoring the #1 Best Seller Simplicity Parenting© . Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier and More Secure Kid, published by Random House Penguin in 2009, he also authored The Games Children Play, (1996) published by Hawthorn Press ,The Soul of Discipline (2015 Random House/Penguin), co-authored Whole Child Sport™ How to Navigate Child & Youth Sports™. and Being At Your Best When Your Kids Are At Their Worst (Shambhala Press 2019) Waldorf Games Handbook for the Early Years (Hawthorn Press) 2021, Games Children Play II (Hawthorn Press 2022) Emotionally Resilient Tween and Teens (Shambhala 2022). His books have been translated into 27 languages.
He has appeared frequently on television including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox; on radio with the BBC, Sirius/XM, CBC & NPR and in print including being featured in Time Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Parenting, Mothering, Times Union and the LA Times.
Kim strives to deepen understanding and give practical tools for life that arise out of the burning social issues of our time. He lives on a farm in Ashfield, Massachusetts with his wife and two children.
Kim John Payne
Executive Director
Kim John Payne is an award winning author who has been quietly and passionately working to help tens of thousands of people give voice to the feeling that something is not okay about the new normal of overwhelm that so many people are now experiencing. He offers do-able ways to realize the hopes and values we all have for ourselves, and build deep connections with our children that gives families resiliency and simple joy.
A consultant and trainer to over 230 U.S. independent and public schools, Kim John Payne, M.ED, has been a school counselor, adult educator, consultant, researcher, educator and a private family counselor for twenty seven years. He regularly gives key-note addresses at international conferences for educators, parents, and therapists and runs workshops and training’s around the world. In each role, he has been helping children, adolescents and families explore issues such as social difficulties with siblings and classmates, attention and behavioral issues at home and school, emotional issues such as defiance, aggression, addiction and self-esteem and the vital role living a balanced simple life brings.
He has also consulted for educational associations in South Africa, Hungary, Israel, Russia, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, Thailand and China. Kim has worked extensively with the North American and UK Waldorf educational movements. He has served as Director of the Collaborative Counseling program at Antioch University New England. He is the Director of the Simplicity Project a multi media social network that explores what really connects and disconnects us to ourselves and to the world. Together with his team they have trained around 1200 Simplicity Parenting Coaches and Group Leaders around the world. Kim is the Founding Director of The Center for Social Sustainability, an organization that has trained thousands of teachers, parents and students in the Three Stream Process that gives social, emotional and behavioral support to children who struggle in the school environment.
In addition to authoring the #1 Best Seller Simplicity Parenting© . Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier and More Secure Kid, published by Random House Penguin in 2009, he also authored The Games Children Play, (1996) published by Hawthorn Press ,The Soul of Discipline (2015 Random House/Penguin), co-authored Whole Child Sport™ How to Navigate Child & Youth Sports™. and Being At Your Best When Your Kids Are At Their Worst (Shambhala Press 2019) Waldorf Games Handbook for the Early Years (Hawthorn Press) 2021, Games Children Play II (Hawthorn Press 2022) Emotionally Resilient Tween and Teens (Shambhala 2022). His books have been translated into 27 languages.
He has appeared frequently on television including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox; on radio with the BBC, Sirius/XM, CBC & NPR and in print including being featured in Time Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Parenting, Mothering, Times Union and the LA Times.
Kim strives to deepen understanding and give practical tools for life that arise out of the burning social issues of our time. He lives on a farm in Ashfield, Massachusetts with his wife and two children.
Katharine Payne - Administrative Director
Katharine has been our Center’s Administrative Coordinator for eighteen years.
Her constant partner in life has been her cello, which she began playing at the age of nine. She studied at Bates College, Maine, where she double majored in German and Music.
After completing her teacher training at Emerson College, UK, she became a class teacher at the Hartsbrook School, Hadley MA and following that a Handwork/Art & Craft and Music Teacher at the Hawthorne Valley School, NY. When out of the office she still managed to find time to teach private cello lessons.
She lives with her husband Kim and their two daughters on a farm in Ashfield, MA.
All things green and flowering seem to spring from her garden. She regularly dreams of galloping her horse Dakota over the fields.
Katharine Payne
Administrative Director
Katharine has been our Center’s Administrative Coordinator for eighteen years.
Her constant partner in life has been her cello, which she began playing at the age of nine. She studied at Bates College, Maine, where she double majored in German and Music.
After completing her teacher training at Emerson College, UK, she became a class teacher at the Hartsbrook School, Hadley MA and following that a Handwork/Art & Craft and Music Teacher at the Hawthorne Valley School, NY. When out of the office she still managed to find time to teach private cello lessons.
She lives with her husband Kim and their two daughters on a farm in Ashfield, MA.
All things green and flowering seem to spring from her garden. She regularly dreams of galloping her horse Dakota over the fields.
Nora Hidalgo - Group Leader Coordinator
Nora graduated in Mexico City as a Biochemical Engineer and was dedicated to science until life presented her with her first son. When her second son was born, Nora and her husband Victor discovered Waldorf education. She became an early childhood teacher and, later on, a school coordinator in Mexico. The family later moved to Santa Rosa, California, where Nora taught Spanish as a foreign language at a Waldorf school. During that time, she undertook her second teacher training, now for the grades, and eventually taught grades 1 through 12. From her experience, she adapted a method to teach languages through storytelling and wrote a book titled "Tell to Teach."
Nora began teaching parenting classes in 2000. When she met Kim in 2007, she immediately connected with the Simplicity Parenting movement. She became a certified Simplicity Parenting coach in 2018 and joined the Simplicity Parenting team in January 2023 as the Group Leader Coordinator.
Because she loves food and health, she also trained to become a health coach, specializing in functional nutrition. If she's not responding to your emails, she might be in the kitchen preparing her special concoctions or possibly some Mexican specialty for her family.
She has run 4 marathons and practices yoga every morning. She loves taking long walks in the woods with her husband and their three rescued dogs.
Nora Hidalgo Group Leader Coordinator
Nora graduated in Mexico City as a Biochemical Engineer and was dedicated to science until life presented her with her first son. When her second son was born, Nora and her husband Victor discovered Waldorf education. She became an early childhood teacher and, later on, a school coordinator in Mexico. The family later moved to Santa Rosa, California, where Nora taught Spanish as a foreign language at a Waldorf school. During that time, she undertook her second teacher training, now for the grades, and eventually taught grades 1 through 12. From her experience, she adapted a method to teach languages through storytelling and wrote a book titled "Tell to Teach."
Nora began teaching parenting classes in 2000. When she met Kim in 2007, she immediately connected with the Simplicity Parenting movement. She became a certified Simplicity Parenting coach in 2018 and joined the Simplicity Parenting team in January 2023 as the Group Leader Coordinator.
Because she loves food and health, she also trained to become a health coach, specializing in functional nutrition. If she's not responding to your emails, she might be in the kitchen preparing her special concoctions or possibly some Mexican specialty for her family.
She has run 4 marathons and practices yoga every morning. She loves taking long walks in the woods with her husband and their three rescued dogs.
Ramzi Nakhleh - Technical Coordinator
Ramzi graduated from Hampshire College in 2008 with a degree in Sculpture and Creative Design.
He met Kim while while working as a free-lance website developer in 2013. Since then Ramzi grown into his position as the technical coordinator for Simplicity Parenting and has played a key role in redesigning and maintaining the Simplicity Parenting website.
When he's not working, Ramzi is an avid artist, food enthusiast and loves spending time with his 9lbs miniature dachshund named Sophie.
Ramzi Nakhleh
Technical Director
Ramzi graduated from Hampshire College in 2008 with a degree in Sculpture and Creative Design.
He met Kim while while working as a free-lance website developer in 2013. Since then Ramzi grown into his position as the technical coordinator for Simplicity Parenting and has played a key role in redesigning and maintaining the Simplicity Parenting website.
When he's not working, Ramzi is an avid artist, food enthusiast and loves spending time with his 9lbs miniature dachshund named Sophie.
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