Who We Are
Jessica Zander, M.S. Ed., Founder and Executive Director of Helping Friendly Farm, has spent the past 20 years using her knowledge of special education along with her intuitive nature to help scores of individuals with special needs enhance their confidence, self-modulation, and overall happiness.
Jessica started teaching through AmeriCorps, working as a special education teacher in the South Bronx. During her tenure in the Bronx, her students jumped an average of 2 grade levels per year in reading and writing, while gaining confidence and self-advocacy skills. After working at a mental health based school in Manhattan for a year, Jessica moved to TEAM Academy in Newark, NJ, as the Learning Specialist and Special Education Coordinator. There, she co-lead a team to create a cohesive special education program for the growing network of KIPP schools in Newark. In 2010, Jessica completed a transformative training in Yoga for the Special Child®, adding yoga teacher to her resume.
After moving to California, Jessica launched yoga and meditation programs in two schools for children with special needs in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she worked with the Silicon Valley Down's Syndrome Network, as well as private clients. Jessica has conducted multiple professional development sessions for teachers at schools in NJ and CA. She has presented at the National KIPP Schools’ Special Education Conference on the benefits of yoga for the brain. Jessica has also been featured in the book, Yoga for the Special Child ®, and has served as an editor for the revised edition. In addition to her written work, she co-produced Sonia Sumar’s, Soul to Soul mantra album. Since moving back to the east coast, Jessica has integrated her love of animals and passion for gardening with her professional expertise to create the inclusive environment that is Helping Friendly Farm.
Amy Pinder, MA, CCC-SLP is a certified speech-language therapist with over fifteen years of experience working with individuals with autism and other neurodevelopmental differences. She has experience assessing and treating children and adults with diverse communication challenges in a variety of educational and clinical settings using a developmental, holistic, approach that spans cognitive, linguistic, sensory, motor, social, and emotional domains.
Amy incorporates joyful, regulatory, and play-based movement like yoga and circus arts into her practice to motivate clients to engage, explore, increase capacities, and effectively communicate through meaningful, experienced based activities that promote mindfulness and overall wellbeing. She holds certifications in the DIR/Floortime model of intervention, Masgutova Neurosensorimotor Reflex Integration (MNRI), Prompts for Restructuring Oral Motor Phonetic Targets (PROMPT), Holistic Circus Therapy, Grounded Kids Yoga, and Mindfulness Education.
Amy is the founder of Circles of Communication, a private practice that offers integrative speech language therapy and alternative education programs in Central New Jersey. She is also the Executive Director of Accessible Festivals, a non-profit organization dedicated to making recreation and leisure accessible to all abilities through training, consultation and direct service, and the co-founder of Inclusion Festival, the nation’s first and only sensory-friendly music and wellness festival designed to include and accommodate all people.
Amy’s work is centered around the belief that inclusion and accessibility benefits all members of society, and that both individual and systemic changes are critical for true acceptance, understanding, and inclusion.
She is thrilled to bring that spirit of inclusivity to the board of Helping Friendly Farm.
Helene Korn, OTR/L is the owner and director of Kornerstone Kids, a private occupational therapy clinic in Florham Park NJ that evaluates and treats children ages 0-18. Helene has been practicing occupational therapy since 1998. At the start of her OT career, Helene worked at two of the leading rehabilitation hospitals in the New York Metropolitan Area. There, she was the leader of the Vision Team and a part of the Traumatic Brain Injury Team. She was responsible for training a staff of 40 occupational therapists, as well as educating and facilitating collaboration between professionals including neurologists, pediatricians, neuro-ophthalmologists, developmental optometrists, physical therapists, and speech therapists. Helene has presented at numerous conferences throughout the Northeast. She has worked with the New York City Board of Education, as well as public schools throughout New Jersey. Helene has also worked in private schools for children with autism spectrum disorders, developmental delays, and cerebral palsy. For the past ten years, she has operated a private practice treating children with special needs, including challenges such as sensory processing disorder, developmental coordination disorder, fine motor difficulty, handwriting and pre-writing difficulty, visual perceptual deficits, behavioral challenges, learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorders. She holds advanced certifications in vestibular dysfunction and the Yoga For the Special Child method. She has received extensive specialty training in visual deficits and sensory processing disorder, and is excited to put her expertise in occupational therapy to work on the advisory board of Helping Friendly Farm.