Camp Staff

Meet the people who make our camps happen!

Kristina Weeks

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Director of Youth Programs

Kristina joined BEEC in 2012 and loves exploring with youth of all ages to discover the wonders of nature together. She enjoys tracking in the sand, mud, and snow, playing games that let children become animals, and creating nature-inspired arts and crafts. Kristina grew up in Papua New Guinea and Botswana, with parents who loved adventure in the great outdoors, which instilled in her a great love of the natural world. At Marlboro College, Kristina earned her B.S. in Conservation Biology, with a focus on carnivore ecology and community conservation in southern Africa. At Antioch University New England, Kristina 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.

Ellen Peters

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Educator

Ellen Peters is from Barre, Vermont. She earned her elementary education degree from the University of Vermont. She has never taught anywhere but in Vermont! Ellen began her career in a one-room school in Guildhall, Vermont. After ten years there, she took a job in a “big” school in Jamaica, Vermont, where she taught primarily first and second grades for 28 years. She ended her career at Townshend Elementary School upon her retirement in June of 2021. Ellen’s passion for teaching is hands-on, inquiry-based, place-based outdoor education. Music and puppets also play a large part. She does not feel ready for a life without any teaching at all, which led her heart to BEEC. “The curiosity and wonder of children, especially outdoors, is what feeds my heart.”

Rebecca Walton

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Youth Program Educator

Rebecca Walton lives in Bellows Falls, Vermont and is excited for her first summer at BEEC. Her excitement for being outdoors stems from formative experiences in the Cascade Mountains and Puget Sound lowlands of her childhood. After receiving a Bachelor's degree in Biology and studying education, Rebecca has spent most of the past six years teaching at Kroka Expeditions and Teton Science Schools. With children, she loves fostering awe and curiosity by looking closely at all that is happening around us in nature, and helping kids to feel comfortable being outside. Beyond teaching you can catch Rebecca on the trail either running or biking.

Kate Weeks

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Youth Program Educator

Kate Weeks is beyond thrilled to be back 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. 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. When she’s not working she loves spending time with her husband and young son, as well as their bear of a dog named Sully. 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.

Kelsy Allan

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Youth Program Educator

Kelsy Allan 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.

Siri Harrison

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Youth Program Educator

Siri Harrison has lived most of her life between Vermont and New Hampshire, exploring the forests by her homes. She loves taking long walks in both the sun and the rain, and is especially drawn to bluebirds, cedar wax wings, and wildflowers of all types. She developed an appreciation for the natural world at a young age, climbing trees, frequenting swimming holes, and mushroom scavenging with her dad. Growing up with one parent a science teacher and the other a primary school teacher, she learned by example how to interact with and care for children and the environment in turn.

Cole Petersen

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Youth Programs Educator

Cole Petersen is from the Chicago area and moved to Brattleboro eleven years ago. They have been working at local schools for three years and specialize in working with children with various disabilities. They believe strongly in meeting children where they are at and fostering any interest in nature. Cole loves all creatures, particularly the slippery and slithery ones. When they are not working or peeking under a rotten log, they can be found anywhere with a needle and thread upcycling or embroidering their favorite slimy creature.

Jane "Purslane" Congleton

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Youth Program Educator

Jane "Purslane" Congleton is from Brattleboro and has been working with pre-K and elementary-age kiddos for three years. Growing up accessing outdoor creative play, expedition & farming education, Purslane has developed a commitment to mutual aid care work in solidarity with global indigenous led movements against colonization, fascism and neoliberalism.

They work at Wild Strawberry Forest School and substitute at a number of local schools. She can be found doing deliveries to neighbors, singing with friends, tending intergenerational "third spaces" such as 69A Brattleboro, organizing concert fundraisers, and co-facilitating multimedia political education spaces with the Maroon School and Resource Generation respectively.

Purslane has studied outdoor leadership with Kroka Expeditions, and holds a BA in Organizational Leadership & Change from College Unbound (RI), where they concentrated on histories of colonization and prison abolition. Over the next year, they intend to study massage therapy, possibly return to Navajo land in Black Mesa, Arizona to volunteer with shepherds and landworkers. Eventually they dream to pursue a graduate program intersecting disability & carceral studies.

Maya Holschuh

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Youth Program Educator

Maya Holschuh grew up playing in the woods and creeks of southern Vermont, cultivating a love for our natural world at a very young age. She is dedicated to connecting people of all ages to our beautiful Earth and helping them foster a deep sense of curiosity for it. Maya has a beautiful lust for life, finding the beauty in everything. She loves spreading this love with everyone, connecting them to their own inner child. Maya has a degree in Environmental Science and a heavy background in education. One of her many dreams is to open her own forest school. When she is not teaching, you can find her outside hiking local mountains, fishing, creating art, writing in her journal, or simply sitting amongst the trees.

Amara Tuma

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Leader-in-Training

Amara Tuma has lived in Vermont her whole life and has always loved spending time outdoors. Whether she is hiking the green mountains of Vermont or the snow-capped mountains of Nepal, swimming in a river or the ocean, or spending time with friends and family, she feels happiest when she is outside.Amara is a high school student who enjoys playing soccer, doing gymnastics, running track, and traveling the world. She has spent countless hours exploring rivers and forests with her younger brother and teaching her younger cousins from the city about the Vermont wilderness.

Camp Staff

Meet the people who make our camps happen!

Team Member