Our Staff and Board Biographies

Administrative Staff

Warren Moon, our Executive Director, began working with Wilderness Awareness School in 1995 as Youth Programs Director. He has since served as an instructor and administrator for all aspects of Wilderness Awareness School's programs. Warren has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and worked as an environmental engineer before he quickly realized that nature and mentoring were his true passions. His vision is to help restore people's reverence for life so that we can be better stewards of ourselves, our communities and our planet. Outside of Wilderness Awareness School, Warren is fond of gardening and caretaking his yard, sports, playing guitar, and spending time with his wife M’Liss, their daughters Kylah and Cassidy, and dog Sadie. Contact Warren

John Chilkotowsky is the Program Director and Outreach Director, and has been with Wilderness Awareness School since 2000. He is in awe of the natural world and sees hope for the future in every child. John has experience as an environmental educator, public school teacher and business consultant and is a graduate of the Kamana Naturalist Training Program. He and his wife Troye live in the Snoqualmie Valley with their daughters Maya and Elena. He loves playing harmonica and dancing with his family. Contact John

Kylie Loynd is the Development Director, Product Sales Manager, and Foxprint newsletter Editor. She has been connected to Wilderness Awareness School since 2005 as a volunteer and as parent to two daughters who attend year-round classes. But the seeds of community were planted long before that, by Elder Walt Hoesel, who provided a steady stream of encouragement: “You know, the girls would love…” Bless the vision of our Elders! Kylie has a B.A. in Marketing and Human Resource Management, twenty years of experience in sales and marketing, and created and published the nonprofit, independent magazine, The Polishing Stone as founder and Executive Director of Polishing Stone Foundation. Her journey towards sustainable living and deeper connection with the earth began with motherhood, and she is passionate about the simple, everyday ways we can make a difference in the world. Her daughters Niya and Keenan are the treasures of her life — clear guides to joy. Kylie loves writing, reading books and watching movies that open her heart, dancing, singing, being anywhere near the ocean, and the sound, sight and feel of rainstorms. Contact Kylie

Erin Brookshire is the Office Manager, and as the person who usually greets people by phone or at the desk, the "voice of Wilderness Awareness School." She lives in Monroe with her husband Rob of 15 years, and her soon-to-be 13 year old daughter, Jesika. Currently the house is busy with her Springer Spaniel Harvy, her two cats Freckles & Tiger and her bullfrog (a personal gift from Freckles), Hop. She is very close to her family who live nearby in Bothell, WA as well as Southern California. Erin grew up next door to her husband in Kirkland, WA and graduated from Juanita High School. She is most at home when at the ocean…preferably Ocean Shores. She has worked in a variety of different fields and is very passionate about working with Wilderness Awareness School. She is usually busy with Jesika’s sports schedule and academic schedule, but in her spare time she loves to hike the trails of the Cascades, photograph Northwest Lighthouses, hang out with her friends and family and plans weddings. Contact Erin

Mike Prince serves as Facility Manager for the school. He leads the caretaking of Linne Doran, the school vans and equipment. He also serves as a Community School Instructor. As a Delaware native, Mike spent many years exploring the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic coast. He earned a BA from University of Rochester in upstate NY. After teaching High School, directing a Boy Scout Camp, and working for the YMCA, Mike traveled west to join the Anake Outdoor School in 2004. He followed that up with a second year as a Apprentice Instructor with Community School. Mike is passionate about mentoring and dreams of creating a Wilderness Awareness Academy for teens that would blend nature and modern academic skills. Mike loves tracking, swimming, sailing, pizza, scouting, Inipi, football, and ice cream. Contact Mike

Linda Bittle is a 2007 graduate of the Anake Outdoor School and now holds the positions of business manager and technology manager. Her 25 years experience as nurse's aide and then storeroom clerk and Purchasing Assistant at a rural Missouri hospital help her in those roles. A long-time hunter, Linda also enjoys shooting skeet, tracking, camping with friends, photography and helping women get involved in the outdoors. She was pleasantly surprised to learn that studying ethnobotany could combine her love of history and of crafts with learning about the edible and medicinal plants native to her new home. Making baskets and cordage from local plants are skills she intends to continue to practice now that her residential year is over. Living in Washington suites Linda, as she likes looking out her window and seeing mountains and even enjoys the rain...it's a good excuse to curl up with a book and a cup of tea. She shares her Duvall apartment with a former Missouri stray, Clara, a very nice cat. Linda is a student in the Tracking Intensive this year, and will be doing a domestic dog track comparison project. Contact Linda

Stephanie "CW" Etley serves as Registration Manager and Summer Camp Volunteer Coordinator at Wilderness Awareness School, as well as an instructor with Roots and Wings. She is also an avid Kamana student! Before coming to Wilderness Awareness School, Stephanie worked as a Licensed Massage Therapist, was an instructor for another local wilderness school, and has been caring for children (including her own) in a variety of settings for over 20 years. Stephanie is very excited about combining her love for children with her passion for nature. She is also passionate about music, health and healing, birds, soccer, and camping with her family. Contact Stephanie

Anake Outdoor School Staff

Chris Laliberte, B.A., M.S serves as a core instructor at the Anake Outdoor School. Chris graduated Dartmouth College in 1992 with a degree in Anthropology, and immediately started working in the field of outdoor education, helping to create programs that incorporated wilderness adventure with cross-cultural experiences. Since 1992 he has worked in the education field as an interpretive naturalist and wilderness expedition leader. In 1996 he received a Master's Degree in Education from the Audubon Expedition Institute (AEI), and is currently working towards his Ph.D. in Mythological Studies. Chris founded the Community School program in 1996, and has served as its Director and one of the lead instructors through 2002. His passions (aside from exploring the natural world) include poetry and storytelling; studying Baguazhang and other internal martial arts; singing and playing traditional music on the guitar, mandolin, and bouzouki. Contact Chris

Nate Summers: Nate coordinates the Anake Leadership Program, and serves as a Core Instructor for the Anake Outdoor School. He has been mentoring adults and youth in the outdoors since 1995. Nate's journey with ancient living skills started as a teenager at the Ancient Lifeways Institute in Southern Illinois. This exposure to stone age living at a young age sparked a life-long interest in anthropology, hunter-gatherer lifestyles, and indigenous cultures. In the past, Nate has served as both Youth Programs Director and Adult Programs Director for Wilderness Awareness School, and has worked with such organizations as King County Parks and Recreation, Seattle Parks Department, and Outdoor Connections/WildLore. Nate is an internal martial arts enthusiast, a practitioner of Chinese Medicine, and a the proud father of his pre-school age daughter Katie. He holds a Master's of Acupuncture degree from the Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, as well as Bachelors of Arts Degrees in both Anthropology and Asian Studies from the University of Illinois. He has also served as faculty for the Desert Insitute of Healing Arts, the Asian Institute of Medical Studies, Earthwalk School of Energy Healing, and as adjunct faculty for Prescott College. Nate likes to fish, practice internal martial arts, go on Daddy-adventures with his daughter, and gather wild foods to supplement his diet.

Alexia Allen serves as a core instructor at the Anake Outdoor School. She is a 2002 Residential Program graduate, and a graduate of the Kamana Naturalist Training Program. Alexia also serves as a staff specialist for Wilderness Awareness School's adult programs, and as a Kamana instructor. She has worked as a bird biologist in the North Cascades and Olympic National Parks, and has a degree in Environmental Science with a concentration on bird behavior and communication. In her spare time, Alexia stays busy riding her Bashkir Curly horse, listening to birds, playing the tin whistle, and spinning yarns (literally and figuratively). Contact Alexia

Marcus Reynerson serves as a core instructor at the Anake Outdoor School. He has lived close to the natural world throughout his life and some of his earliest memories include hunting and fishing in the muggy marshes and pine forests of south Louisiana. Thanks to a childhood of outdoor recreation, Marcus got an early start working in the environmental education field. After leading youth on backpacking trips during college, he earned a degree in Environmental Studies from Miami University in Oxford, OH. Marcus went on to serve as a conservation programs director for Philmont Scout Ranch in Northern New Mexico and then as a lead naturalist at an outdoor education center in Southern California. He was drawn to Washington from Louisville, Kentucky, to attend the Residential Program in 2005 and followed up with a second year as an Apprentice Instructor with the Residential Program. In addition to immersion in nature, Marcus enjoys backpacking, storytelling, fishing, playing music and singing, any time spent near the ocean, and practicing internal martial arts. Contact Marcus

Youth Programs Staff:

Laura Gunion is Assistant Director of Youth Programs, Coordinator of Thursday Youth School, Vashon Youth School as well as Coordinator and Instructor at Community School. She began her work for Wilderness Awareness School after completing our Anake Outdoor School in 2002. She has enjoyed teaching at nature camps, leading expeditions, and creating rite of passage programs for children and teens at other outdoor education organizations for 10 years before coming to Wilderness Awareness School. Laura received her B.A. in Child Studies from Tufts University in 1995, and completed the National Outdoor Leadership School's Semester in the Rockies in 1996. In her spare time you may find Laura splashing in the stream at her house, doing yoga, painting, learning how to make local plant medicines, listening to birds, or skiing. Contact Laura

Sol Marie Doran, is a Lead Instructor at Youth School and Roots and Wings, and 'Director of Faery Affairs' at Wilderness Awareness School. She came to Wilderness Awareness School from southern California, where she worked with Wilderness Youth Project, ran an early childhood outdoor program, and earned a B.S. in Ecology. She currently studies naturalist skills with Kamana and herbalist skills at Ravencroft. Her other passions include beekeeping, ethnic dance, and gardening. Contact Sol

Johnny Miller is an instructor at Youth School, Monthly Programs and with Special Programs and Expeditions. He hails from the North Cascades, where he has worked for 11 years for the Forest Service as a Wilderness Ranger, trail builder, and a forest fire fighter. He has also trained with and worked for the Boulder Outdoor Survival School in Utah, taking adults on expeditions from mountains to desert with minimal gear. Johnny has a bachelor's degree from the Evergreen State College in Ethnobotany, and an A.A.S degree in Forestry from Green River Community College. Some of his passions are: rowing his boat amidst the beautiful islands of the Pacific northwest, walking in the wild areas of the world, and growing and gathering food from nature's bounty. Contact Johnny

Laura Hersh is an instructor with Roots and Wings and Youth School. She is a lover of all things nature, and grew up by the Salt Marsh on Long Island where she spent many days in the woods fishing, catching frogs and just daydreaming. Laura has been an outdoor educator since 2001 with Nassau Boces Outdoor Education, Ferry Beach Ecology School, Touch of Nature Education Center, The Cache River Wedlands Center in southern Illinois, the SCA in Alaska - where she created a Junior Ranger program - and Nature Vision in Redmond, Washington. She is a 2007 graduate of our Anake Outdoor School. Laura loves mentoring children and learns daily through their wonder. Contact Laura

Adult Programs Staff

Emily Gibson serves as Adult Programs Coordinator, Assistant Summer Camp Director, and Youth and Adult Program Instructor. Emily has spent her life among the cedar trees and winter wrens of Western Washington, where her inner compass is set to orient by the Cascade Mountains to the East and Puget Sound to the West. She loves good literature, music, faraway cities, adventures, mischief, stinging nettle soup, big mud puddles, her daughter, and too many other things to list. Before coming to Wilderness Awareness School, Emily studied Wildlife Science at the University of Washington. She spent two years as a research assistant studying the effects of urbanization on songbird populations in the Puget Sound region.

After graduating from the Anake Outdoor School in 2005, Emily participated in the Instructor Training Apprenticeship and was an Apprentice Instructor with the Residential Program. She has also continued her study of tracking through two years of Wilderness Awareness School’s Wildlife Tracking Intensive. She is a team leader for the Cascade Wildlife Monitoring Project, and is certified as a Level II Track and Sign Specialist with CyberTracker International. Contact Emily

David Moskowitz is our lead Wildlife Tracking Programs Instructor and the project manager for the Cascade Wildlife Monitoring Project. He joined Wilderness Awareness School in 2005, bringing with him over a decade of experience teaching outdoor and environmental education throughout the United States including at Outward Bound and the North Cascades Institute.

David is a skilled field researcher and has been involved with forest carnivore research and wildlife monitoring in the Cascades for many years as well as avian research in the Puget Sound area. He holds a bachelors degree in Environmental Studies through Prescott College with an emphasis on Field Ecology and Wildlife Tracking. David is an active member of the International Society of Professional Trackers and has given many talks and presentations on wildlife and tracking based on his years of field work and teaching. He holds professional certifications in wildlife tracking, wilderness medicine, avalanche safety and sits on the Board of Directors for Rite of Passage Journeys where he is the chairman of the Safety Committee. His writings on wilderness skills, environmental education, natural history and tracking have appeared in numerous regional and national publications including Green Teacher, Wilderness Way, and the Wilderness Education Association Journal. Along with tracking wild animals, mountaineering, environmental activism and photography are several of his passions. Click here to visit Dave's Photography Website. Contact David

Jenn Wolfe has trained with Jon Young and Wilderness Awareness School since 1994 in the Arts of Animal Tracking, Art of Mentoring and Naturalist Training Skills as well as completing a 9 month Animal Tracking Apprenticeship program with Jon Young and Mark Elbroch in California. Jenn has been Lead Instructor for many years on Adult Expeditions, tracking animals in the wilds of Idaho's backcountry as well as working with adults locally through Tracking Club, tracking intensives and other adult programs in the Puget Sound Area. She is also a member of Wilderness Awareness School's Elder Council. As a "free range child" living in many different rural environments she had unlimited access to the woods and fields of her various backyards. Her Dad led her and her 5 siblings on many adventures into the Wilds while her Mom grounded her to the Earth through gardens and family. As an Adult she became a public school teacher with a BA in Education and a BFA in Art. Finding Wilderness Awareness School brought her "Home" with a much deeper experience of the the Natural World. Along with her love for Tracking and the Natural world, Jenn also loves to create works of art and play with her granddaughter. Contact Jenn

Independent Studies Program Staff:

Dan Corcoran is the Director of the Kamana Naturalist Training Program, and an instructor with our Youth Programs and Adult Programs as well. After receiving his B.S. in Biology from Indiana University in June of 2000, Dan moved to the Pacific Northwest to pursue his love of nature with Wilderness Awareness School. He graduated from the Anake Outdoor School in 2003. As a Kamana graduate, he aspires to inspire more people to finish the program. He continues to push his edges with attempts to touch a deer, flintknap a clovis point, and hear a cougar bird-alarm sequence. Dan is also a Wilderness First Responder. Contact Dan

Outreach Staff:

Lindsay Huettman loves being a part of the Wilderness Awareness School team in her roles as Outreach Coordinator, and Youth School Instructor. Her primary passion is connecting humans to wilderness through the use of native plants. This inspired her to complete a degree at WWU in Ethnobotany Stewardship Education. This can include anything from eating Hemlock cambium and discussing its nutritional benefits, to making baskets out of Cedar roots and dying them with lichens! Other passions include leading wilderness survival, whitewater rafting and kayaking expeditions; writing and playing music, and creating dynamic environmental education curriculum for K-12. She has a background in organic farming, landscaping, horse packing & training, homeschool support and is an avid plant dork when it come to biochemistry. Most of all she loves to sit in the woods and watch the leaves uncurl each spring. Contact Lindsay

Dan Rain, Outreach Specialist, has worked with Wilderness Awareness School since 1999, and feels that he has found a true professional calling in helping to share the organization with the rest of the world. Dan has a degree in Environmental Studies and Psychology from Alfred University, and his background includes over a decade of experience in environmental education. He and his wife Sarah are enjoying (surviving?) the adventures of parenting their elementary school-aged son, Cadao Kestrel, and daughter, Alyra Maple. Dan and his family live in New York State's Capital District, where he leads a couple of nature education activities as a volunter. Dan visits the School in person occasionally, but usually "tele-commutes" across the miles... Contact Dan

Ellen Haas is co-author and an outreach specialist for our book Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature: For Kids of all Ages and their Mentors. Retired from a 20-year career teaching English, Ellen contributed to many of Wilderness Awareness School’s initial projects in Washington -- including its first long-range plan and program catalog, early editions of Kamana, and the Seeing Through Native Eyes and The Art of Mentoring audio recordings. She loves simply being outdoors; watching her son develop a business; and her grandchildren, dog, and garden grow. Contact Ellen

John Gallagher, L.Ac., CCH is a marketing specialist for Wilderness Awareness School, and a staff specialist at the Residential Program. Since 1991, John has served in many positions, most notably 10 years as Independent Studies Director. He was also the design editor for the Kamana Naturalist Training Program, and has also completed the program as a student. He is a licensed Five Element Acupuncturist, Community Centered Herbalist, and teaches herbal studies with the Residential Program. John is the proud father of his son Rowan and daughter Hailey, and husband to Kimberly. John and Kimberly run LearningHerbs.com, a web site that teaches simple herbal medicine making through products they designed. Contact John

Rees Maxwell, Web & Print Masseur, has been massaging the kinks out of design since the previous millennium. A graduate of the Residential Program and instructor with Roots & Wings, he has finally found a way to combine his geeky nature with a love of nature. When Rees isn't assisting with the design needs of WIlderness Awareness School, he and his wife Matty are creating a new school in Eugene, Oregon. Dancing Sol Nature School began full-time preschool classes in the Fall of 2008. Rees currently teaches semi-regular preschool classes with Matty. He also teaches nature awareness and outdoor living skills to high-schoolers at the Network Charter School. And amongst all of this he is a father to two fantabulous boys: Rowen and Aiden.

National Staff:

 

Jon Young. Inspired by his childhood mentoring with tracker and author Tom Brown, Jr., Jon has pioneered blending Native mentoring techniques from around the world with the tools of modern field ecology. Under Jon's guidance, Wilderness Awareness School, which was originally founded as a high school nature club, has grown to reach students all around the world with its programs that help people reconnect with their native environments.

Jon is co-author with Ellen Haas and Evan McGown of Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature - for Kids of All Ages and Their Mentors, a book about our curriculum. He has created several popular audio training series which can be purchased through the products section of this website, and he is the principal author of The Kamana Naturalist Training Program and Animal Tracking Basics. Jon is also the director and founder of OWLink Media and the Shikari Tracking Guild, and serves as a guest expert instructor for the Anake Outdoor School and certain other Wilderness Awareness School programs. Contact Jon

Board of Directors (bios and photos coming soon!)

Chuck Newquist, President
Tony Laliberte , Treasurer
Ellen Haas, Secretary
Annie Thoe
James Szrama
Warren Moon

If you would like more information about volunteering on Wilderness Awareness School's Board of Directors, contact Warren Moon, Executive Director by email using our web Contact Form or by phone: 425-788-1301 x 37.