Raegan Zolper Olszyk Loheide

I grew up and continue to live in the Catskill Mountains along a tributary creek formerly flowing into the Esopus waters, now the Ashokan Reservoir. The Esopus people of the Munsee speaking Lenape Native Americans stewarded these lands long before my ancestors migrated to Turtle Island, and I am blessed and honored to live and contribute to this ‘Land of Many Fish.’

In 2026, I’m studying peace education and transformative justice while pursuing a Masters in Arts from Teachers College, Columbia University, and I plan to continue restoring the riparian barrier in my backyard and cultivating an agroforestry permaculture.

Raegan: Distinctly not the former president’s spelling, nor the middle sibling antagonist from The Bard’s King Lear
Zolper: My mother’s ‘maiden’ name, hailing from her father’s German ancestry. My Papa’s family immigrated from Eastern Europe and Tipperary, Ireland in the late 19th century.
Olszyk: Inherited from maternal Polish family who immigrated to the Americas in the early 20th century.
Loheide: As a baby, my father was adopted into this Germanic lineage, though his DNA supposedly links to Ukrainian roots.