Who We Are

Core Staff

 

Richard Berkfield – Executive Director

Richard is an impactful and collaborative leader who is passionate about building community and regional resilience. Most recently, he spent seventeen years as the founder and director of Food Connects in Brattleboro, working to transform the local food system for both producers and consumers.

Richard lives in Putney, VT with his two kids, and deeply values the mission and work of VWS. He is eager to be of service to the VWS mission, bringing the experiences and connections he has built in this region, along with a “lifelong learner” attitude and commitment to shared leadership and social justice.

 

Amy Hyatt

Amy Hyatt – Senior Program Director

Amy moved to Vermont in August 2001 to participate in VWS’s Instructor Apprenticeship Program, with the intention of later moving back to her home bioregion of Southwestern Ohio to start a wilderness school. But she quickly fell in love with Vermont, the work of VWS, and the children and families. She has been with us ever since. Amy now directs youth programs year-round, most notably Blue Heron Community School, Shambhala Warrior & Nature Camp, and Earthfriend Discovery Day Camp.

Amy’s adult program offerings at VWS include the series Foundations in Nature Connection Mentoring and Nourishing Our Roots retreats.

Amy’s specialty is working with children ages 7-11 and adults of all ages in areas of nature awareness, basic survival skills, cultural facilitation, and community building. She completed a Master of Arts in eco-literacy and place-based education from Union Institute and University and a Bachelor’s of Philosophy in Cross-Cultural Communication through the Arts from Miami University.

Amy also provides consulting, custom workshops, and one-on-one distance mentoring.  See her consulting page. 

 

Bob Etzweiler – Senior Program Director

Bob has always loved being outdoors. Before moving to Vermont in 2006, he was program director and naturalist at a summer camp / outdoor retreat center in his home state of Pennsylvania. Since then Bob has become a beloved mainstay at VWS, directing youth programs year-round, most notably Foxwalk Forest School, Teen Leadership Camp, Foxwalk Day Camp, and Otter Day Camp.

His adult program offerings at VWS include the Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship, the Summer Tracking Intensive, the Hunter’s Heart Apprenticeship, Deer Hunting Prep Weekend, and the annual Lynx Tracking Expedition.

Bob loves tracking, hunting, tanning hides, crafting, and wandering. He also loves cooking by fire! 

Bob also provides consulting and custom programs.  See the VWS consulting page. 

Ron Schneiderman – Business Director

Ron stepped into the Business Director role at VWS after fourteen years at the Brattleboro Food Coop. Working in the Coop’s Finance Department for nine years strengthened his understanding of mission driven operations, and ways to keep them thriving and healthy. He appreciates the opportunity to apply his experience with designing and running accountability systems, and with short and long range planning, in an organization that has a mission in listening to the foundational lessons of nature.
As a Brattleboro resident for the past 21 years, Ron has come in contact with VWS mostly through summer camp programs the two young people in his family have attended, and from the greater community of friends and neighbors who have shared their enthusiasm for the school. Ron is currently serving on the board at the Neighborhood Schoolhouse in Brattleboro and working on his Masters in Education at Goddard College. He is also a musician and visual artist.

Willow Jordan Uth – Outreach & Operations Director / Field  Director

Willow grew up exploring, admiring and being at home in the outdoors: from mountain tops, to open lakes and rivers, ocean beaches, fields and forests.

In love and care of her home in nature, Willow is a land steward, farmer and community organizer. She received a B.S. in Environmental Science and Management with a focus on plant ecology and agroecology from UC Davis and has worked over 15 years with biodiverse farms, small businesses and universities tending land with an array of ecological techniques while engaging the community in the process. Willow loves to celebrate the turning of the seasons with ceremony and joy. She and her husband Jay, and kiddo Juniper are growing their small farm, Sylvan Moon Farm, in Putney.

She feels most at home on the forest edge, on a rocky crag near a body of water, preferably in fog.

 

Field Staff

Abby Mnookin

Abby came on as a lead instructor for the Great Blue Heron Community School in 2014 after volunteering in 2011-2012 when she was pregnant with her first child (who has been happily participating in VWS programs since they turned five). Abby loves being outdoors— wandering, swimming, backpacking, biking, gardening, building fairy houses, and more. She spent several years working in NH’s White Mountains, where she had the unique opportunity to live in, and learn from, the alpine zone. Later, she earned an M.S. in Environmental Science at Antioch University New England and taught high school biology for several years, where she had a collection of dermestid beetles that helped clean her animal skull collection. Check out her Vermont Public Radio commentary about working with VWS and her article about primitive cooking for Local Banquet. Abby also weaves webs of connection through community organizing and birth work.

 

Connor Stedman

Connor has been involved with VWS for many years and for two years served as our Executive Director.  He now joins us each summer to lead Land Stewardship Camp.

Connor has mentored students of all ages in nature connection since 2004 and teaches on knowledge of place and land stewardship around North America.  As an ecological designer, Connor specializes in agroforestry and carbon sequestration on farms.  He lives in Florence, MA and travels frequently around the Northeast.

Connor co-organized the internationally acclaimed Carbon Farming Course; has served on leadership teams for Art of Mentoring workshops in Vermont, California, Idaho, Texas, North Carolina, Ontario, and the British Isles; and is a graduate of both the Wilderness Awareness Residential Program and the Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness program. Connor holds an M.S. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont’s Field Naturalist and Ecological Planning program and a B.S. in Eco-Social Design from Gaia University International.

 

David DiRocco

David grew up playing in the swamps of eastern Massachusetts. For the past few years he has been guiding groups of youth and teens on their own personal nature-connection path. He has seen the powerful impact integration into the non-built landscape can have on individuals as well as group bonds. He is particularly interested in tracking, fire and sense awareness.

 

 

Ellie Fuller

Ellie is a skilled and experienced nature mentor and wilderness skills facilitator who grew up within and mentored by the rich nature connection community in Sussex, UK. Her passion is supporting children and adults to connect with the natural world our kin, in reciprocal, fun and adventurous ways. She especially loves facilitating teens in meeting edges, challenges and rites of passage, and supporting young people to deeply explore the old skills and ways of living in reciprocity with the more-than human world. Ellie’s current favourite skills to explore are hide tanning and acorn eating.

 

Ian Bigelow

 

 

 

 

Ian Patten

Ian became interested in wilderness skills after exploring anthropology in college and seeing how other cultures managed to live sustainably on the land. After graduating, he spent three years practicing earth skills and traditional crafts at ROOTS School in Vermont. He currently lives in central Massachusetts (Nipmuc land) and is enrolled in the Ethnobotany program at the University of Alaska. He is especially passionate about wild plant foods. When he’s not out foraging, he’s often gardening, weaving baskets, or spending time with his six dogs.

 

Jasmyn Atsalis-Gogel

Jasmyn started attending VWS programs when she was six and continued until high school.  After graduation she returned to the world of mentoring youth in nature connection, working various programs throughout the years with VWS, BAMS, and a few others in southern Vermont. Jasmyn is passionate about sharing the gratitude and sense of connection with place and self that she gained from being immersed in nature throughout her youth. She is also passionate about skills such as primitive cooking, basketry and other crafts, tracking, hunting, and stewardship of the land. In addition to working with VWS, she works with sugaring operations throughout New England making maple syrup, and is a K-9 handler for the Vermont Search and Rescue team.

Kathy Dean

Kathy has been teaching in the outdoor adventure and nature connection fields for more than 20 years. Together with Jean Bergstrom she co-founded Her Wild Roots, which offers nature education programs for women. She has a passion for birds and has completed White Pine’s Advanced Bird Language Program and worked in wild bird rehabilitation with the Vermont Institute of Natural Science. Kathy is the author of the book Abbreviated Field Guide to Mammal Behavior: New England Region (2020). Kathy leads tracking and birding by ear workshops at VWS, in addition to the programs she runs through her own organization Trotting Fox Programs.

 

 

Luna (fka Mali) Johnson

Luna moves through life with a playful yet attentive attitude. Her skills and passions lie within educating others and encouraging their interests. Some of her more recent interests are processing animal hides, playing music, and cooking tasty food for her loved ones. She has been an educator of young children since 2009. Over the years, she’s gained experience in and out of the classroom working with diverse learners. Since joining the VWS team in 2018, she’s gained a deep appreciation for this community and looks forward to continuing to mentor youth.

 

Maggie Breen

Maggie has been attending VWS programs since she was 9 years old. She spends her time reading books, riding her horse, and wandering outdoors. She enjoys wild edibles, playing games, craft projects, swimming, hunting, and learning of all kinds. She also works on a few small family farms, bringing in loose hay with draft horses, digging potatoes, getting up for the sunrise, and bird watching. Maggie lives on a small hillside farm in west Brattleboro with her family.

 

 

Oliver Scheltema

Oliver started out as a Blue Heron student several years ago and has grown up in the program. For three years he was a Teen Intern and has been an Assistant Mentor for several years. Oliver loves to work and build with a deep care for the land and for our young people. He also enjoys training in aikido, raising his dog companion Moose, and working on his tiny house. Oliver is Wilderness First Aid certified.

 

Rose Richter

Rose loves guiding people into nature using mystery as a co-creator. She has been a nature connection guide and mentor, working with youth for over 10 years. Her journey began with a biology degree at the University of Rochester and summer camps at a nature center in NJ. She grew her passion in NY with Earthworks Inst. and Primitive Pursuits, learning and teaching ancestral skills like friction fire, and honed her wilderness skills on a 200 mile solo trek in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It became clear to her that the journey was only just beginning. During the pandemic, She studied at Wilderness Awareness School in WA in a 9 month immersion program deepening into naturalist skills, bird language, survival skills, wildlife tracking, land stewardship, community leadership and self discovery. She currently lives in Mount Holly Vermont with her partner dreaming up new ways to continue to connect people and bring them together through earth skills, community and mentoring.  Rose is Wilderness First Aid certified.

 

Zak Grace

Zak was introduced to VWS in 2014 as a parent of two sons who attended Blue Heron Community School.  Zak is eager and passionate about the great outdoors and loves to share the excitement of discovery and learning with youth.  He has a BA from Hampshire College in Studio Art, and amidst all the excitement of family life he also pursues a career as a glass artist and craftsperson.

 

Interns

Jude Paris

Jude is a 15 year old homeschooler who has been with VWS for the past 9 1⁄2 years. He loves playing soccer and other board and computer games and he is excited to begin another year helping with the Foxwalk kids.

Board of Directors

  • Ingrid Burrows
  • Kelly Coleman
  • Gia Neswald
  • Alan Roberts