Meet our Nature Explorers staff team for Summer 2025:
Program 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.
Program Educators: & stay tuned for more!
Jill DeVito loves to connect people of all ages with their own curiosity about science and nature. Before moving to Vermont to spend more time in the woods, she lived in many other states – including Texas, where she taught biology for fifteen years at the University of Texas at Arlington. During that time she moonlighted as an informal educator, first at the Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary, and later at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. She once wrote a dissertation about how toad tadpoles behave around garter snakes, which is appropriate because many of her favorite animals are creepy and crawly.
Kate Weeks is thrilled to be at BEEC again this summer. She grew up in the immediate area and was even a camper at BEEC every summer for many years. She loves working with kids and has worked in child care for more than ten years. Kate has always loved watching a child’s curiosity and wonder for the world around them. She enjoys spending time outside in nature as much as she can. A favorite activity when she’s with kids is exploring outside and she’s a huge fan of puddle jumping after a big rain storm. She works during the school year as a para educator at Vernon Elementary. Her favorite plant is the daffodil for their smell and their determination to grow back every year, even in the rocky soil of Southern Vermont.
Mountains to Moss ~ Nature Photo Explorers 2025:
Naturalist Educator: Kelsy Alan lives in an off-grid tiny house in the woods. She enjoys hiking, kayaking, snowboarding, and any excuse to be outside. Kelsy has a background in land stewardship and nontraditional outdoor education. She received a 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 foods.
Along with Michael Zuhorski, Photography Educator from In-Sight Photography Project.