Bay Area Staff

Mia has been mentoring children and adults internationally for over ten years. Originally from Finland, Mia is a world traveler who finds a grounded sense of home in the wilderness no matter where she journeys. Passionate about sharing a deep connection to nature, Mia has taught environmental education in several California schools, lead wilderness excursions for a diversity of age levels, spearheaded community education projects and been active in the international scouting movement on three different continents. Mia has a teaching credential in California and Nevada, holds a BA in art from Bowdoin College, completed a 2 year intensive nature awareness training at the Regenerative Design Institute and is permaculture certified.

Kevin, formerly trained as a writer and filmmaker, has been learning the ways of a naturalist for 10 years.   His knowledge includes edible wild plants, natural healing, traditional and raw food nutrition, permaculture, fermentation, sustainable gardening, and nature awareness.

A Wilder who likes to go on Ranger expeditions, you can find him in his garden, wandering the hills, on his computer, or connecting kids and grown-ups to the natural world. You can check out his blog at feralkevin.com.

Casey was born and raised in Berkeley, growing up fishing off of the Berkeley Pier and honing his building and design skills at Adventure Playground. In the summers attending and then later working for a camp called "Emandal a farm on a river" as a CIT and then camp counselor. Casey has roamed the earth studying Boat building, Permaculture, Primitive Skills, and Martial Arts. Casey has since led many teen adventure camps, combining hard skills, and creative problem solving to build team awareness and self-confidence. He has worked as an independent shipwright for about 7 years. Recently he has found the ability to combine these two passions. Casey graduated from the RDNA program at the Regenerative Design Institute last June, and now teaches boat building to youth and adults and leads overnight sailing/camping expeditions that have a primitive skills and nature awareness focus.

John Dale Westling or simply J.D. has been enthusiastically exploring the natural world since it or he began. With artistic imagination and conservative practicality he is fond of alternative transportation and has traveled all over the country. J.D. holds a B.A. in Wildlands Ecology, is Wilderness First Responder certified and skilled in sailing and marine ecology.

He has a profound interest in watershed systems, forestry and forgotten land-use practices by first nations people. "There is little more important to me than a child understanding this natural world".      

Willow loves exploring the outdoors with kids, and is grateful for the opportunity to see the world through their eyes. Her connection to nature has always been an incredibly inspiring and healing experience, even while growing up in the inner city of Chicago. She has worked as a wildlife biologist, naturalist, and environmental advocate. She has a degree in Conservation Biology and a certificate in Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has completed various other trainings in the field of nature awareness and primitive skills. Her greatest adventures include canyoneering, trekking through the Himalayan Mountains, whitewater rafting, and raising her beautiful son. At home Willow can be found digging in the garden, creating healing salves, practicing qigong, and of course, playing with kids.        

Once a native of North Carolina, Kiea now shares her authentic passion and respect for life in Northern California. She has traveled around the world, gaining an appreciation for how people live and play in other cultures. Kiea received a B.A. in Community Studies at UCSC, is completing a Masters in Education at Sonoma State, and has participated in countless professional development courses in between, such as a Permaculture Intensive, a year of tracking and survival skills with Institute of Nature Awareness, and inner explorations through Ecology of Leadership. Over the past ten years, she has worked on conservation biology projects tracking desert tortoises, taught at a residential outdoor education school, and created an environmental education program for a local elementary school. Currently, you might find Kiea digging in her garden, collecting honey from her bees, exploring trails on Mt. Tam, or surfing at a nearby beach.

Spencer grew up spending his weekends and summers exploring the open space of Marin County. After earning his B.S. in Ecology at UC San Diego, Spencer traveled around the world studying indigenous lifestyles and relationships to the Earth. Since studying Environmental Education through UC Santa Cruz, he has taught in a variety of environmental education programs throughout California, and is currently a naturalist at Greenwood School in Mill Valley. Spencer enjoys practicing and teaching primitive skills such as fire-making, shelter building, and tracking, and he appreciates the deeper awareness of nature that arises when tracking mammals or listening to birds. Throughout his years as a naturalist, Spencer has also been a gardener, blending his passions of ethnobotany and permaculture.

From the first time Liam caught a garter snake, his passion, curiosity, and sense of adventure carried him to explore far reaching horizons in the outdoors. He sees teaching this passion as an activity of absolute necessity, not only for the coming generations, but for his well being. The joy in a child's expression, or the intense concentration of his or her learning, brightens his day.

Liam's greatest enthusiasms for the outdoors include wilderness survival, and awareness. The cumulative months spent camping, surviving, and scouting in the North East provide the bedrock from where he teaches these skills. Liam has several years of experience teaching at several wilderness youth and nature center programs, is a graduate of the Vermont Wilderness School and a current student of the Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness program.

Greg was born and raised in the mists and rain of the Pacific Northwest. He grew up roaming the wild places of Puget sound where he developed an appreciation of there wildness. These ramblings often entailed sleeping under the stars, matchless fires, and pursuing the trails of various animals. The study of bushcraft and animal tracking have remained some of his life long pursuits, which he has been sharing with adults and youth alike. He has completed a Bachelors of Science from the Evergreen State College as well other trainings in the study of nature and bushcraft. These days one may he may spot him in such diverse places as the Mount Tam area or the woods near Killarney national park in Ireland.

Wendy is a seasoned science teacher who loves a good adventure above all else. She spent her younger years tromping the woods of Pennsylvania, and her older ones wandering the mountains of California. She has led young people on explorations all over the world, and here in the Bay Area.

Wendy holds a certificate in Wilderness Skills from Earth Skills School, including tracking animals, fire-making, shelter building, edible and useful plants of California. She is certified at a Health Care Provider level in First Aid, and both adult and child CPR. She has recently begun her medical training towards becoming a Nurse-Midwife.

Jared is breed and spread in his wild, wild east-bay hometown of Canyon CA. (population 250). He fancies himself as Woodsman and a Waterman in some company and an Applied Ecologist around others. Daily he finds himself building with local natural materials, hunting for elusive mushrooms, planting fruit trees, playing with fire, and loving the ocean. He has worked and taught in a variety of roles including tall ship sailor, natural builder, 3-5 grade outdoor instructor, and wild land firefighter/ EMT. His favorite constellation is Orion, his mascot is his dogs, and if he ever gets around to starting an old time band it will be “the poison oakee boys.”

Tony has lived and studied skills and concepts of sustainability his entire life. Even as a teenager he cultivated a 3/4 acre market garden based on principles of permaculture design and the study of ecology through tracking. The extensive Italian family Tony grew up with was one of the greatest influences on his core philosophy of the value of community and family. His focus at the Evergreen State College was how humans connect to the land around them through participatory experiences. This, coupled with 16 years of extensive work and cutting edge development as a contractor and consultant in the field of environmental education, lead him to found TrackersNW and the Trackers Family of programs. Based on his work, research and experience in survival, bushcraft, traditional skills and tracking, Tony also taught extensively for the graduate sustainability program at Portland State University, including founding their Naturalist Training Program. He has facilitated wildlife tracking, outdoor entrepreneurial and adventure education workshops for the Forest Service, Audubon Society of Portland, countless parks and interpretation agencies, universities, colleges and much more. Currently, he is a lead facilitator for the TrackersTEAMS Immersion Program. Tony is also authoring a definitive guide and workbook on tracking and naturalist training with Michelle Keefer, set to publish in fall 2009.

Molly has a passion for travel, foreign languages and culture, classical music, outdoors adventuring, and empowering people through self awareness and self defense. A native Oregonian, Molly received her Bachelors degree in German from Davidson College in North Carolina and spent a year in Germany, also traveling throughout much of Western Europe. She trains and teaches the martial arts, teaching kids and women about safety and strength. She is a self-defense instructor with our Women's programs and is a Trackers International safari representative to Botswana and beyond. Molly is also an avid cellist in the Central Oregon Symphony, snow boarder, fluent speaker of German, dabbler in languages such as Italian and Portuguese and lover of cats.