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 mind, Nicky has guided 1000s of students in studies of global environmental issues and leadership development. She began as an outdoor educator with the Colorado Outward Bound School, then

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 southwest desert of Northern New Mexico that raised her. Through time, she has been a researcher, an educator, a ski patroller, and baker. During college, Molly studied Environmental Science

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 and communities as told by water. Cob is regularly fascinated by cloud formation and river eddies, and led courses in canyoneeringing and kayak rolling to ground his undergraduate physics

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 and has been studying Western landscapes ever since. Kristina received her MS degree from Northern Arizona University, PhD in ecology & evolutionary biology from the University of Texas at

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 spring ritual. Ambling about in the backcountry with a backpack full of photo gear or spinning the pedals on his bike to travel long distances on dirt became quintessential

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 Trustees of Reservations, the nation’s first land trust. While receiving her Master’s in Environmental Conservation at the UMass Amherst, Olivia worked as a social scientist to examine the relationship

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 Park that sparked a passion for the mountains and prompted him to read Backpacker magazine on study breaks at St. Olaf College. After a year in Germany, he earned

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 Montana. He grew up in the north woods of Minnesota but now calls southwest corner of Colorado his home. It was a winding route to Colorado, including botany and

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 the Oklahoma panhandle to suburban Seattle, then kayaked from the Olympic Peninsula to Juneau, Alaska. Alone. In the company of her students, she has led trips to consider large

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 group of high school students on yet another “Carruthless” sufferfest through the San Juan Mountains or Colorado Plateau. More specifically, Ashley teaches 12th grade Humanities and co-directs San Juan