Bailey Garwood, MA
Educator, Creator and Owner of Route 317

Bailey envisioned a career incorporating service, education, and creative elements. Her participation in study abroad in college ignited a curiosity for community and the unspoken connectedness humans share. Bailey is formally trained as an educator; she earned her B.S. in Agriscience and Natural Resources and M.A. in Teaching and Curriculum from Michigan State University. (Go Green!) Bailey began her career in Career Focused Education in 2010.

Ever the life-long learner, she’s always been adamant about being a model of self-exploration and professional growth. This desire to push herself has taken her on many adventures, allowed her to cross paths with industry leaders, and put her at the table with inspiring change-makers. 

As her professional network grew, the work that continued to pull at her heart felt constricted by the walls of a classroom and much more intended for those who sought perspective shifts and living a life of exploration. Route 317 was born out of Bailey’s introspective pondering, healing journey, and by embracing the gifts she hadn’t considered to be her most impactful attributes.

Bailey is a Certified Facilitator of Mindfulness-Based EcoTherapy. She is passionate about the ways nature, art, and recreation impact our psychological well-being. Her love of plants, creative projects, connection, and community engagement brings dynamic options to clients both individually and in the workshop space.

A Personal Connection:

Connection is the most powerful component of my journey. Considered through various lenses across the landscape of my life, it has been the most consistent theme present at every step.

Connection has been a life-saving medicine in dark times of fear, shame and doubt. It is the hope I hold onto and the lantern with a never-ending flickering that guides another step forward. It’s the most poetic and paradoxical part of my personality and what’s been positively reflected back to me time and time again. I don’t always know the reason or the answer, but woven somewhere into the discovering will likely always be connection. 

Connection is in my life and work in many ways and forms.

• Connecting with others - being able to relate and find commonalities at a human level. 
• Connecting in a way that unveils parallels and applies knowledge across situations.
• Connecting the dots, as in points on a map in which we build the journey of education, career, health and social interaction, ultimately creating the GPS pathway of our lives.

Connection is my superpower; it's my word. Over and over again it appears in my life as the secret code to remind my soul to breathe. Connection is why I came here, it's why I stay here and it's where my heart's work remains.

In gratitude and connection. Cheers!

- H. Workman