Who We Are

Core Staff

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 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. 

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. 

Originally from the west, Willow is new to New England and is excited to be a student of the eastern forest.  She is delighted to join the VWS team as the Outreach & Operations Director. Willow loves to celebrate the turning of the seasons with ceremony and joy — usually with a cup of tea, honey from a beehive, a flower bouquet cut on a walk with her family and goats. 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.

 

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.

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.

 

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 offers consulting and design for regenerative agriculture systems at AppleSeed Permaculture.  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.

 

 

Ezra Wool

After a subtle but loud whisper to dive deeper into traditional skills, Ezra took on an apprenticeship with Holistic Survival School in 2018. Prior to joining VWS, he worked in wilderness therapy and outdoor youth programs. Ezra loves fungi and bees, and enjoys teaching workshops on mushroom cultivation, and tending to his hives. Over this past year, he took on a bow hunting immersion with ROOTS school in VT, and has been thrilled to learn all about the bow hunting world. If he’s not out talking with the trees, he might just be hanging with his cat, Cass, or strumming his guitar.

 

 

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.

Hannah Lindner-Finlay

Hannah loves to explore the natural world in collaboration with children. She believes that every child should feel known, loved, and celebrated for who they are. As a mentor, Hannah observes children closely, responding to their emergent interests as she learns alongside them. Hannah has a Masters in Nature-Based Early Childhood Education from Antioch University and has worked with children in various schools, homes, child-care centers, and enrichment programs for the last 12 years. She also leads nature and play-based professional development for teachers. 

 

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.

 

 

Lauren Dausch

Lauren is excited to be back for her third year at VWS! In 2023, Lauren graduated with an M.S. in Environmental Studies/Environmental Education. She is passionate about creating safe and loving community to help children thrive, and her past experiences working in the mental health field inform all that she does. In her spare time, Lauren can be found making up silly songs with her fiance, caring for her many animals, reading, or crafting. Lauren believes in the healing powers of the natural world, and she brings her joy for all things big and small with her to Vermont Wilderness School.

 

 

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. 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. She currently holds a valid teaching license and gracefully sews together academic learning with emergent experiences outdoors. Luna lives in Harrisville, NH where she relishes the grounding effects of nature and outdoor adventure with her family. She is also the director of Wild Hearts in NH.

 

 

Lydia Fox

Lydia just moved to Brattleboro this year, and is grateful to join the VWS community as an assistant mentor. Her passions include foraging, herbal medicine, hide tanning, bike travel, fermentation, and writing poetry. She currently lives and works at Wild Carrot Farm, and just started a masters program in clinical mental health counseling. Previously, she apprenticed and taught at the Maine Local Living School, and is super excited to continue hanging out in the woods with kids.

 

 

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.

 

Mikaela Marmion

Mikaela is a lifelong lover of the natural world, whose absolute calling and delight is working with kids of all ages. She is a clinical social worker with 25 years of experience in schools, camps, clinics, studios, and forests. Mikaela is deeply rooted in working with kids to promote resilience, awareness, empowerment, and curiosity/wonder about our natural, social, and internal worlds. She is passionate about helping people to remember belonging in the web of all life. She finds joy in helping young folks to listen deeply and to more fully become the uniquely magical beings that they are.

 

Oliver Scheltema

 

Rose Richter

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.

Charlie Roberts

Board of Directors

  • Ingrid Burrows
  • Kate Clemow
  • Kelly Coleman
  • John Lee
  • Jason Morris
  • Gia Neswald
  • Alan Roberts