Our Team

*CO Dept Early Childhood - Director and Coach Certified 2022

*Early Childhood Health Outdoors (ECHO) Coach Certified 2022

*MS Ecological Teaching and Learning - Lesley University 2011

*BA Biology (Focus on Field Ecology) Colorado College 2000

*CO Teaching License Science 7-12 w/ ELL Designation

*Wilderness First Responder

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Ryan is a web weaver and a bringer of people and ideas. He has taught and facilitated ecological literacy for over 22 years both inside and outside the formal classroom with ages 3 through 18.  

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Ryan is a "re-wilding" practitioner and has been since age 3.  He honors the natural and inherent beauty of human migration while still being accountable to repair settler colonial oppression and border imperialism. He resides on stolen native land, Tsêhéstáno (Cheyenne) and Hinono'eino (Arapaho) unceded territory and works towards reconciliation through Land Back initiatives.  His heart and soul are rooted in the intermountain west bio-region but like all White Americans his relatives are immigrants.  Born and raised in Denver, attending integrated DPS schools (Park Hill Elementary 1989; Smiley Middle 1992; Manual High School 1996).

He reveres the interweaving of life and organizes for climate justice transitions addressing the human induced Sixth Mass Extinction.  He aims to help students and society participate in the global movement to protect life on Earth, sometimes listening to “youth wisdom” before listening to “adults”.  For the last several years, while working as an Ecological Literacy Specialist in Denver Public Schools and in Salt Lake City Public Schools, he has been a researcher and practitioner of Land Based and Nature Based Pedagogy and/or Forest Schools and also creating modified Forest School programming for public schools.  

*CO Dept Early Childhood - Director and Coach Certified 2022

*Early Childhood Health Outdoors (ECHO) Coach Certified 2022

*MA Early Childhood Education, ASU 2017
*Teaching License, CO Birth - Eight 2017-23

*BFA Fine Arts, SVA NYC, NY 2010
*BEES Educator, CU Denver 2019

*Wilderness First Aid 2023

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Kat is a synthesizer, who values understanding how things work. She has taught and facilitated early childhood environments both inside and outside the classroom for 10 years.

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Kat grew up on the salty coast of New England, on the land of the Wabanaki, Pennacook, Pawtucket, & Abenaki people.

After spending a decade in New York City, she moved out west. Landing in Denver in 2017, Kat has worked in a variety of preschool settings to hone her skills in nature-based, child-led learning. From Colorado Kids Academy, Head Start programs in Clayton Early Learning, and Denver Public Schools - she has been developing relationships with several local communities, incredible families & wildly talented colleagues.​ 

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Her passion lives in cultivating meaningful relationships, playing in wild nature-scapes, and finding out what makes people light up.