About

My work as a teacher, author, and workshop facilitator is the realization of a lifelong dream - sharing the immense benefits of an outdoor, embodied educational practice with fellow educators - as well as a response to the increasing challenges facing schools and teachers. 

I have over 30 years of experience in outdoor education. I began my journey as a teacher at 19 as an instructor for Outward Bound's 'Youth at Risk Program,' guiding incarcerated youth on river trips in Florida. Afterwards, I spent a decade in California, working for independent and charter schools offering experiential, outdoor educational programming such as rock climbing trips to Joshua Tree; mountaineering in the High Sierra; treks in Death Valley and the mountains of Southern California; and international travel to Europe and Mexico. 

Currently I'm an associate professor of interdisciplinary studies at Champlain College, where I teach Outdoor Adventure, an outdoor education course for first year college students; Megatransects, a field methods class based in outdoor exploration;  and Bodythought, a course that introduces students to mind/body science. All my classes are outdoors, experiential, and designed to engage students with an embodied centered learning experience built on curiosity and exploration. 

I'm also the author of four nonfiction books about nature and learning, and have written for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Education Week. I live in Vermont with my family and a half-feral dog who resembles a scurrilous hyena.