Meet our Nature Explorers staff team for Summer 2024:
Camp Co-Director: Kristina Weeks joined BEEC in 2012. She loves exploring with youth of all ages to discover together the wonders of nature. She enjoys tracking in the sand mud and snow, playing games becoming animals, and creating nature arts and crafts. Kristina grew up in Papua New Guinea and Botswana with parents who loved adventure, which instilled in her a great love of the natural world. At Antioch University New England, she earned her M.S. in Environmental Education, with a focus on a continuum of outdoor and place-based education through the elementary and middle grades. Kristina has always had a connection with cats, so one of her favorite local mammals is the bobcat. One of her favorite plants is the dandelion for their brilliant color and that the whole plant is edible; and their name, for their jagged leaves, is derived from French “dent-de-lion” meaning tooth of the lion, oh – another cat connection! (Director for weeks Jul 1, Jul 15, Jul 29, Aug 5)
Camp Co-Director: Sarah Tsalbins is happiest when rambling in wild places and working with young people. She loves that she gets to do both with BEEC. For 15+ years Sarah has created and led learning experiences everywhere from museums to riparian zones to botanic gardens to traditional classrooms. As an educator, she loves to share her passions for ecology and history while nurturing a sense of curiosity and interdependence. Sarah earned a teaching credential and M.A. in Education from Mills College and taught for five years at public schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she also worked as a museum and environmental educator. After two decades on the west coast, she is happy to be re-rooting in southern Vermont, one of the first places where her sense of joyful connection with the natural world bloomed as a child. Sarah enjoys bird-nerding, running in the woods, riding her bike, reading, and learning to play guitar. Shooting stars (dodecatheon) are one of her favorite plants. She’s also enchanted by the mutualistic magic of lichen. She really likens wolf lichen. (Director for weeks Jun 24, Jul 8, Jul 22, Aug 12)
Camp Co-Instructor: Anna Cummings has lived in Brattleboro since she was three. She has been hiking and exploring the outdoors since before she could even walk. She is full of energy 24/7, and loves to see the world through the eyes of children. She often organizes and hosts accessible events for teens through Brooks Memorial Library. In the future, she hopes to spend a year abroad in France as an au pair. When not organizing events and attending local concerts, she spends much of her time hiking. Anna loves to search for insects, cool rocks, and trees to climb. Her favorite insects are ants, her favorite rock is any climbable glacial erratic, and her favorite type of tree to climb is hemlock. (Co-instructor for all camp weeks)
Stay tuned for more bios coming soon!
Nature Photo Explorers, Mountains to Moss 2024:
Co-Instructor: Kelsy Alan lives with her adventure dog Buddy in their off-grid tiny house in the woods. Together they enjoy hiking, kayaking, snowboarding, and any excuse to be outside. Kelsy has a background in land stewardship and nontraditional outdoor education. She has Bachelor’s degrees in Natural Resource Management and Environmental Science, and has had opportunities to play and work in the woods with kids of all ages through various positions with BEEC, nature museums, schools, and land trusts across New England. Kelsy particularly loves getting excited with folks about finding small creatures and eating wild plants!
Along with a co-instructor from In-Sight Photography Project.