Instructors

Chandra Brown

Instructor

Chandra is an Alaska-born writer, Grand Canyon river guide, and educator. She has worked within the realm of river conservation, celebration, and communication since her 2010...

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Mel Buzzard

Instructor

Mel initially joined WRFI as a field instructor in 2017 and served as the organization’s Outreach Manager from 2019-2022. She grew up on the Hawaiian island...

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Kristian grew up in the suburbs of Miami and spent the bulk of his childhood playing video games in air-conditioned rooms. It wasn’t until late adolescence,...

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While Ashley calls Durango her home, your best bet in finding her these days is to listen for her classic “yeeooop” call as she summons a...

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Eva’s chief ambitions are to save the planet and to fix all social injustices, but in the meantime she teaches and guides on the Colorado Plateau....

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Jessie Cubberly

Field Education Manager & Instructor

Jessie Cubberly (she/her) has dedicated her adult life to facilitating intimacy between people and place, driven by the questions: how have we, are we, and can...

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Natalie found a love of lifelong learning through trip planning in terrain without trails. Bushwhacking gave her the gumption to finish a PhD in wildlife biology...

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Steve Edwards grew up bouncing among the high plains of Wyoming, Montana’s Yellowstone country, Utah’s sandstone, and the volcanoes of central Oregon. He attributes his bad...

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Nina Elder

Instructor

Artist and researcher Nina Elder creates deep time perspectives where planets, geology, and ecosystems are in constellation with social issues and personal narratives. With a focus on changing...

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Lindsey’s (she/they) life thus far has been marked by the exciting and curious intersections between plants and humans. Growing up on the ancestral lands of the...

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Chelsea is a geologist and freelance cartographer who is passionate about our dynamic earth and communicating science to the public. She was raised in an eclectic...

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Stephanie Fisher

Instructor

Stephanie grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of rural Western North Carolina where she spent much of her time exploring the French Broad River and surrounding...

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Erika grew up in the Pacific Northwest and fell in love with Montana during her undergraduate field conservation courses. During one class near Glacier National Park...

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Kitty Galloway grew up on island in the Salish Sea and spent her younger years exploring the rivers, forests and mountains of the Pacific Northwest. She...

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Mark developed his love for snow and aversion to mosquitos from childhood years in Minnesota and South Dakota. But it was seasonal employment in Glacier National...

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Margot Higgins

Instructor

Margot has been teaching college students in and out of the field since 2005. Born and raised in the urban wilds of New York City, she...

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Before Zac knew any better, he had the wild idea of becoming an engineer. His thought was to play a part in the renewable energy revolution,...

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Chelsea Leven

Instructor

Chelsea’s love and curiosity for the natural world was born of muddy hands, frog-catching, and tree climbing as a child in the snowbelt of northeast Ohio....

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Nick Littman

Instructor

Nick grew up in the oak-spotted hills of northern California. Before settling in Montana he worked as a field biologist around the Northwest. In 2014, he graduated...

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Joe Loviska

Student Experience Manager

A passionate reader of landscape and literature, Joe has been a writer, farmer, mechanic, welder, pedicab driver, guide, gardener, and teacher. After earning a B.A. in...

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In both her professional and free time, Olivia enjoys digging into the intersection of people and places. Currently, she works as a conservation specialist for The...

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Danny holds a Master’s degree in Geography from the University of Minnesota, where he studied the effects of mountain pine beetle outbreaks on subalpine forests in...

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Ryan Arash Marsh is a first generation Iranian-American naturalist and organizer living in Fairbanks, Alaska. He grew up in coastal California amidst the oaks and chaparral...

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James grew up in the high desert of western Colorado, where he developed a passion for landscapes and the stories they record. College brought him to...

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Molly is an applied ecologist and enthusiastic wanderer of wild spaces. She identifies strongly with her current home’s landscape in Western Montana along with the brilliant...

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Nancy Moore

Instructor

Nancy earned her Master’s of Environmental Studies degree at the University of Montana in 2012, where she focused on Environmental Writing and taught undergraduate courses exploring...

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Kelsey Morales

Instructor

Kelsey Morales is Chicana and grew up outside of Denver, Colorado and spent most of her formative years in Flagstaff, Arizona. She holds a MA in Sustainable...

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Dave graduated from Evergreen State College with a degree in Environmental Studies, and then earned his M.S. in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana. Dave...

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Katie has worked for WRFI in various capacities since 2013 – instructing in the field, training new instructors, developing curriculum, maintaining WRFI’s gear, and reaching out...

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Kari grew up western Montana, where a childhood of examining interesting rocks in the borrow ditch, watching clouds change over the mountains, and collecting huckleberries with...

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Kelsey Patterson

Instructor

Kelsey began with WRFI as a student on the Colorado Plateau back in 2007, only wishing she had discovered it sooner. Growing up in the high...

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Nicky Phear has long been dedicated to WRFI and to the power of experiential education to transform lives. Leading with social intelligence and the future in...

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Maisie Powell

Program Coordinator/Instructor

Maisie’s roots are back in the deciduous hardwood forests of the East Coast, but she always felt drawn to the vast, open landscapes and craggy mountains...

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Daisy Purdy

Instructor

As a southwestern transplant hailing from the east coast, Daisy has served as an Ethnic Studies, Sociology, and Native American Studies educator at Northern Arizona University...

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Mike Remke grew up in the central and southern Rocky Mountains where frequent visits to the canyon lands of the Colorado Plateau were a form of...

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Kerri Rosenstein

Instructor

Kerri Rosenstein is an interdisciplinary visual artist and collaborates with diverse communities as an educator, facilitator, and creative director. She teaches in academic and alternative education...

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With their roots in the floodplains of the Sacramento River Valley, Cob is a human being with a passion for listening to the stories of landscapes...

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Ash Sward

Instructor

Ash Sward maintains roots in both the Rocky Mountains of NW Montana and in the Central Valley of California. Ash received their MS in Environmental Studies from the University of...

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Heather took her first backpacking trip during high school, spending eight days engulfed in Canyonlands National Park. Having grown up in the flat plains of Minnesota,...

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Born in the Pacific Northwest, Spencer’s love for ecology and conservation was ignited amidst the sun-scorched deserts of the Southwest, the snowy peaks of the Rockies,...

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Mason Voehl

Instructor

Mason Voehl comes from old Minnesota stock. When he met his wife Sarah while studying philosophy at Augustana University, he fell in love twice: once with...

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Kirstin is passionate about diverse landscapes, from desert soil to old growth forests. She originally learned to love the outdoors in the foothills of the Appalachians....

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Nadia White enjoys solo travel because it makes her love people all the more. As part of a genealogical exploration, she biked a jagged hypotenuse from...

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Rachel got hooked on bicycle-touring and the beautiful Rocky Mountain West in 2015 when she co-founded Cycle for Science, bicycled across the U.S., and stopped in...

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Kristina Young is a dryland ecologist and place-based science communicator living and working on the Colorado Plateau. At eighteen, Kristina moved from New Jersey to Montana...

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