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Meet the Founders

Sandy Schultz Hessler, Founder

Tom Adams, Co-Founder & Farmer

Sandy Hessler sitting in an Adirondack chair in the meadow at sunset
Dragonfly Lane

For forty years, Sandy followed a version of the American Dream (P&G brand manager, Harvard Assistant Dean, co-founder of Imagitas (a marketing services company that sold to Pitney Bowes), professor of leadership/entrepreneurship/social marketing, mom of beloved children, global adventurer.

By every measure, a full life. And yet something essential had gone quiet. The spark, as Sandy puts it, didn't feel very sparkly anymore.  So she went looking — not outward this time, but in. Over the course of a decade-plus inner journey, Sandy pursued advanced degrees in the human sciences, earned coaching and facilitation certifications, studied with shamans and wild guides, and sat with wisdom keepers whose knowing lives not in books but in bodies and in the land. Slowly, what she had long understood in her mind began to melt into her being.What she discovered is what she now teaches: success and aliveness are not the same thing. Easy to acknowledge. Profound to embody.

Sandy founded Dragonfly Lane as an expression of that knowing — a place and a practice for leaders ready to stop performing their lives and start inhabiting them. This is her calling. And this, she believes, is exactly the work this moment in history requires.

Tom Adams has spent his life building things — companies, systems, teams, and now, quite literally, a farm.

His early career was the stuff of the American playbook: engineering degree, MBA, culminating in the CEO seat at Tronox, a global chemical company operating across multiple continents. And then, like so many high-achieving leaders, he found himself asking the question that success alone cannot answer: Is this all there is?

What followed was not a crisis but a calling. Tom stepped away from the corner office and toward something harder to name but impossible to ignore — the work of finding his own soul. That search led him to co-found Alpha Home Healthcare, where he spent years building a network of companies dedicated to human dignity. It was purposeful, meaningful work — and it changed him.

After selling those businesses, Tom turned his attention to what he loves most: mentoring leaders and helping people build things that last — including a working farm in the Teton Valley. Tom brings to this work the grounded presence of a man who has done his own inner work and knows firsthand what it costs — and what it opens.

He is also, for what it's worth, the reason the farm actually runs.

Co-Creators

Portrait of Kat Smithhammer

Kat Smithhammer

As the founder of “Leadership at Play”, Kat approaches life with curiosity, creativity, and awe. She is passionate about individuals and teams fulfilling their deepest longings and manifesting their potential.

Kat has worked with diverse audiences ranging from NASA Shuttle Crew members and Google leaders to federal land managers, nonprofit executives, and community leaders. Known for inspiring people to be their best while creating environments of trust and contribution, she helps build common understanding to move forward together.

Kat lives in the Tetons with her husband and can often be found exploring the backcountry by foot, bike or skis, soaking in remote hot springs, dipping in an alpine lake and simply just being.

Portrait of Paige Barrows

Paige Barrows

Paige is an intuitive healer and academic mentor. Her work spans 23 years coaching adolescents in mathematics and ushering students through academic rites of passage. She delights in helping her clients connect with their innate brilliance, confidence, and self-compassion. In addition, Paige brings soul wisdom to clients seeking to connect with higher guidance through her Oracle readings. Her PhD work focuses on emerging states of consciousness and communication with one's higher self. In her free time, you'll find her communing with nature and her kitties. 

Liza Millet

Liza is an experienced financial/business development professional, passionate about building and entrepreneurship and helping people find their abundance.  She has worked with over 200 startup businesses on strategy, marketing, fund raising and business development.  Before moving to Jackson, WY, Liza spent 12 years on Wall Street on the investment side of the business.  She currently works at Income Focus Portfolio Management, a Registered Investment Advisor.  She is the co-founder of Silicon Couloir, a Jackson-based 501c3 whose mission is to nurture entrepreneurship in the greater Teton region.  She co-founded the Silicon Couloir Angel group.  She serves as a board member and angel investor.  She has an MBA from The Wharton School of Business and graduated from Dartmouth College.

The Farm

For Dreamers, Leaders, and Teams of all shapes, and sizes.

Nestled on 28 acres of rivers, streams, woods, and meadows, Dragonfly Lane offers a peaceful retreat. Wander our trails, sit by the streams, listen to the aspens, and marvel at the birdlife. Nature is our greatest teacher—come reweave your connection to it.

The creek winding through the meadow in early morning light
Two Adirondack chairs in the snow beside the frozen pond under a burning orange sunset

Farm Details

How do we learn to live fully… to engage the whole of us for our most vibrant health, relationships, creativity, success?  At Dragonflyln.org, whether just staying at the guest house, participating in a program, or linking in from afar on a zoom workshop, the power of connection to our senses, each other, nature & the stars; the expanded awareness of our potential, and the synergy of our kinship awaken new possibilities for our health and our thriving future.  We can’t wait to welcome you.

Load video: Location and land — Sandy Hessler looks out over the valley at sunset, with aerial views of the creek winding through the meadow and the Teton foothills beyond

Visit Us

Whether you’d like to visit the farm, join a meal, take a cold plunge in the river, or sit beneath the stars, we’d love to welcome you.

Join our community of seekers, leaders, and nature lovers. Let’s create a future of vitality, connection, and joy—together.

A curious alpaca leaning in toward a feed bowl held out by a visitor
Hens roosting together on a perch inside the chicken coop
A beekeeper in a white suit lifting a frame covered in honeybees from a hive

Relax into the Retreat that Awaits You.

The guest house living area with a cowhide rug, writing desk, and stairs to the loft

Lodging

Let the rhythms of nature restore you. Stay in our guest house (minimum two nights) and wake up to mountain sunrises, fall asleep to the call of great horned owls, and enjoy fresh herbs, vegetables, eggs, and flowers from the farm. With four bedrooms and two lofts, it’s perfect for families, friends, or colleagues. We’re happy to curate your ideal Teton experience.

A guest bedroom with a king bed and tall windows letting in morning light
Aerial view of the Dragonfly Lane farmhouse and outbuildings with the gravel drive curving through the meadow
The guest house living room with a lofted sleeping area and windows onto the meadow
Bird feeders in the meadow with cottonwoods and the Teton range in the distance
A guest bathroom with a soaking tub and rain shower beside a bank of windows
The barn at Dragonfly Lane in autumn with golden cottonwoods along the fence line