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Megan Haas was born in Ridgewood, NJ, educated at the Green Meadow Waldorf School, in Spring Valley, NY and Earlham College. In the early 1990’s, in Asheville, NC, where educational options were sparse, Megan worked to bridge the gap between home schooled children, culture and socialization, by founding her first entrepreneurial venture, The Front Porch School, a 2 year educational program for 11-13 year old, home-schooled girls, that served the dual purpose of rounding out their education while providing the girls with a social atmosphere. At ‘the Anti-Finishing School,’Megan and her co-worker, Kate Hyde, taught art, literature, music, dance, math, cooking, and sewing, and how these subjects all directly relate to each other. Megan drew on the Asheville community of artists, doctors, musicians et al to guest lecture, and teach. During this time, Megan also opened ‘The Gourmet’s Daughter’, a small neighborhood catering company, and toured twice throughout the Southeast, playing rhythm guitar for square and contra dances.
Front Porch School, Asheville, NC.
In keeping with her Waldorf education, Megan studied Eurythmy, in West Sussex, England, in 1995, and then in 1996, moved to Seattle, WA and started Calliope Consulting, through which she continued to teach home schooled children, privately and also at the Edmonds Cyber School. At this time, Megan also
wrote food and theater reviews for The Stranger, danced and playe
d the fiddle in sessions all over Ireland, and Seattle, and devoted her time to running a small publishing company, Educare Press, for four years. |
Dancing with The Chieftains at the Chateau San Michelle Winery, WA
Megan joined forces with pioneering inventor/mechanical engineer, Steven Villegas, in the Spring of 2000 to form The Utilikilts Company. As co-founder, Megan helped to build and support the framework and the foundation of the company from its inception, by employing the same level of principles, that guide her own life, thus creating a common understanding and a bond throughout
the company's world-wide community of customers.
Megan Haas and Steven Villegas |
Through determination, and killer instincts, Megan was able to change the focus of the utilikilts media onslaught, successfully towards the company's innovative business practices and away from the phenomenon of being shaped into a fad or a trend. The Utilikilts Company is now the largest, and most imitated kilt company in the world today.
Megan helped the company win The Mayor's Small business of the year award and the Better Business Bureau's, innovative Business Practices of the year award by creating the Northwest Kilt Exchange, which redirected the goodwill, and resources of the Utilikilts customer community by trading labor at Seattle non-profits, for kilts.
Megan planned and executed the Utilikilts Anniversary Gathering, and Forum, a two day, fully participatory event to which all Utilikilts customers and affiliate organizations around the world were invited. She was responsible for the Utilikilt being exhibited at both the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in NYC, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Megan Haas and Steven Villegas at the opening for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Braveheart Men in Skirts Exhibit. |
From 2005 to 2006, Megan stepped away from the Utilikilts Co, to travel, live, and work with other companies, internationally, before formally christening Vivaleap, a consulting company which helps businesses, communities and individuals understand the myriad of resources and services that they can provide and partake of while trying to pioneer their life and work. Vivaleap is a one woman company, but works as a collective network through many associates who are doing groundbreaking work in corporate, social, and cultural spheres. Megan collects and connects resources even while sleeping.
Megan’s intentions as with all of her endeavors, are to follow her instincts, often at the expense of challenging widely established norms. Megan released a CD of lullabies, 'Aural History,' in 2005. You can listen to it here. She continues to sing, dance and play the fiddle whenever the opportunity arises.
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