Our Staff, Board of Directors, and Sponsors

Michelle brings to BEEC her passion for experiential learning and her dedication to Earth stewardship. She has served as the Director of Environmental Education at Northfield Mount Hermon School, Executive Director at Oak Meadow, and CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Brattleboro, where she established Kids Club at Retreat Farm, a nature-based afterschool program. Michelle is a graduate of Harvard’s Women in Education Leadership Program, Antioch New England’s Environmental Studies Master’s Program and she holds a B.S. in Education and English from the University of Rhode Island. Presenting on tradition and innovation in K-12 education at conferences like SxSWedu, National Association of Independent Schools, National Partnership for Educational Access, Children & Nature Network, and Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, she has provided thought leadership in the progressive, experiential education sector for the past decade. Michelle loves traveling to new places and has a 1979 Airstream for inspiration.

Erin brings over a decade of experience in administrative management and client relations within mission-driven organizations. She currently serves on the board of Trust For Wildlife, a nonprofit dedicated to reversing habitat loss for migratory birds. Erin is also a writer, potter, and homesteader, and has been deeply connected to the natural world her entire life. She and her husband live amidst the Green Mountain National Forest, where they are surrounded by songbirds and guided by a shared commitment to ecological living. Passionate about conservation and community stewardship, Erin is honored to support BEEC’s mission and help strengthen the organization’s long-term impact.

Patti has worked at BEEC since its founding in 1991, continuing to develop and share her lifelong fascination with the natural world. Those who read her View from Heifer columns know that some of her best friends are rodents and they will be acquainted with Willow the beaver, Burdock the porcupine, and the other wild creatures she has befriended and cared for. Patti is a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and fields the many calls that come in to BEEC about wildlife woes. Her favorite season is winter.

Kristina joined BEEC in 2012, and 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 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 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 when she retired in June of 2021. Ellen’s passion in 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.”

Daniel is an ecologist, educator, and naturalist specializing in natural community and landscape ecology. He has worked and studied in remote landscapes of Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Quebec. Daniel holds an A.A.S. in Forest Technology, a B.A. Boreal and Arctic Ecology, and a M. Ed. Environmental Education. While he is not running his own ecological consulting business based in Brattleboro VT, he can be found with his family exploring wild parts of the Northern Forest.

Jed Blume, M.A. has been supporting nonprofit development in southern Vermont since 2012. As an outdoors enthusiast, his experience includes backpacking, sea kayaking, distance swimming, and gardening. Jed’s background includes an accomplished track record as an activist, organizer, trainer, strategist, fundraiser, consultant, and musician. After completing a Master’s Degree through SIT Graduate Institute in 2012, Jed began partnering with organizations as a freelance organizational development consultant. Today, he supports community-based programs, social services, education, environmentalism, and the arts. As of the beginning of 2025, the impact of this work has raised over 10 million dollars for over 25 organizations.

Jill loves to connect people of all ages with their own curiosity about science and nature. 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. 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.

Shaliq’s mission is to empower young people to care about the natural world. Having studied Fish & Wildlife Technology, Shaliq is a lover of all the planet’s fauna. However, his main focus has always been North American birds! If asked, his favorite is the American Goshawk… but the real answer is he has one in every family. Previously, Shaliq was an educator and program coordinator for an accredited conservation organization. When he’s not in a wetland or forest, you might catch Shaliq making art, watching anime, or training in mixed martial arts. If he suddenly breaks eye contact in conversation, he’s probably birding.

Jessica Dolan is an ethnobotanist dedicated to exploring the relationships between people, plants, and place. She shares her knowledge of native fruits, nuts, and roots of Southern Vermont, weaving together traditions of food, medicine, and ecological stewardship.

Amanda Kenyon is a nature therapy and meditation guide, woman, voice for the land, belly dancer, accountant, cook, sister, volunteer, builder of stone walls, hiker of high peaks and a humble human learning every day from all the beings of this shared planet Earth. She is a community member amongst the housed and unhoused people living on the unceded homeland of the Elnu Abenaki people, in the place called Wantastegok, “the river where something is lost”, at the confluence of the Wantastekw/West and Kwenitekw/Connecticut Rivers, known as Brattleboro, Vermont. Amanda guides mindfulness and sensory-based nature experiences that promote holistic well-being and strengthen our relationship with nature, ourselves, and other humans. Her forest immersion experiences and nature therapy sessions are rooted in the Japanese tradition of shinrin-yoku–forest bathing, and are powerful tools for finding presence, connection and wellness in one's life. Amanda is certified by The Forest Therapy School and is also Wilderness First Aid trained. Her business is called Landkind Guide in recognition of our kinship with all beings---mankind as well as the more-than-human beings who we share this land with.

Justin's background includes botany, plant chemistry, and, for good measure, human physiology and biochemistry. He teaches about the nourishing, medicinal, and toxic properties of our diverse fungi.