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The Instructors of the Residential Program
- Mentors, instructors and friends

Core Instructors:

The four Core Instructors of the Residential Program facilitate the overall progression of the program, and serve as your primary mentors. They teach the core competencies of the program, and work with reknown guest instructors and staff specialists to provide mastery-level instruction in important areas. They each bring their own areas of specialty and enthusiasm, and part of the magic of the Residential Program is the unique complementary interaction of these vital teachers.

Chris Laliberte, Core Instructor: Chris has worked in the field of outdoor education since 1992, designing and leading courses that incorporate wilderness adventure and natural history. Chris has a strong working knowledge and expertise in wilderness survival skills and nature-based mentoring. In 1996 he founded Wilderness Awareness School's Community School, a highly successful wilderness course for teens. He has a Master's Degree in Environmental Education from the Audubon Expedition Institute and is currently working towards his Ph.D. in Mythological Studies. Chris also enjoys storytelling, poetry, music, and studying internal martial arts.

Nate Summers, Core Instructor, also serves as the Coordinator and lead instructor at the Instructor Training Apprenticeship Program, the Earth Mentor Program, and for Custom Youth Programs, and has been teaching people in the outdoors since 1995. In the past he has served as both Youth Programs Director and Adult Programs Director for Wilderness Awareness School, and has worked with such organizations as King County Parks and Recreation, Seattle Parks Department, and Outdoor Connections/WildLore. He is the founder of Pathfinder Outdoor School, an internal martial arts enthusiast, a practitioner of Chinese Medicine, and a new dad..

Alexia Stevens, Core Instructor, is a 2002 Residential Program graduate, and a graduate of the Kamana Naturalist Training Program. In addition to instructing at the Residential Program, Alexia serves as a staff specialist for Wilderness Awareness School's adult courses, and as a Kamana instructor. She has worked as a bird biologist in the North Cascades and Olympic National Parks, and has a degree in Environmental Science with a concentration on bird behavior and communication. In her spare time, Alexia stays busy riding her Bashkir Curly horse, listening to birds, playing the tin whistle, spinning yarns (literally and figuratively), and is recording an audio guide to bird sounds and behavior.

Marcus Reynerson, Core Instructor: Marcus has been working in outdoor and experiential education since 2000 leading backpacking trips and developing conservation courses for teens, and facilitating environmental education courses for elementary school students. In 2000, he completed a semester with the National Outdoor Leadership School before earning a degree in Environmental Studies from Miami University in Oxford, OH. He is a 2006 graduate of the Residential Program, and served as the apprentice to the course for 2006-07. Marcus is also a graduate of the Tracking Intensive and is certified as a Level 3 Track and Sign Interpreter through Cybertracker Conservation. Marcus enjoys playing guitar, traveling, college basketball, backpacking, sitting around a fire with friends, life near the ocean, and tends to be fond of any music with a good twang.

Staff Specialists

Additional Wilderness Awareness School instructors teach as staff specialists at the Residential Program, sharing their knowledge in specific topics over the course of the year.

John Gallagher, Staff Specialist: John shares his knowledge and experience with wild edible and medicinal plants. He has worked for Wilderness Awareness School since 1991 and is a a licensed Five Element Acupuncturist, a Community Centered Herbalist, and runs LearningHerbs with his wife Kimberly. John was the director of the Kamana Naturalist Training Program for 11 years and he currently manages Wilderness Awareness School's new content websites, NatureSkills.com and NatureTalk.net.

John Chilkotowsky, Staff Specialist: John offers his wisdom in youth instruction and wilderness course development. He has been an educator since 1995, teaching and designing wilderness courses in public schools, environmental education centers, and at primitive skills camps. John has a Bachelor of Science degree, has completed survival courses with several survival schools across the country, is a Kamana Naturalist Training Program graduate, and serves as the Program Director at Wilderness Awareness School.

Laura Gunion, Staff Specialist: Laura shares her knowledge and skills with natural mentoring. She is also Assistant Director of Youth Courses, and an Instructor at Community School. She began her work for Wilderness Awareness School after completing the Residential Program in 2002. She has enjoyed teaching at nature camps, leading expeditions, and creating rite of passage courses for children and teens at other outdoor education organizations for 10 years before coming to Wilderness Awareness School. Laura also completed the National Outdoor Leadership School's Semester in the Rockies in 1996.

Dan Corcoran, Staff Specialist: Dan shares his passion and experience with wilderness survival skills and naturalist studies. He also serves as the Director of the Kamana Naturalist Training Program, and as an instructor with Youth and Adult Programs at Wilderness Awareness School. Dan also designs and instructs at many of our most popular survival courses. Dan received his B.S. in Biology from Indiana University, is a 2003 graduate of the Wilderness Awareness Residential Program, a graduate of the Kamana Naturalist Training Program, and a Wilderness First Responder.

David Moskowitz, Staff Specialist: Dave shares his knowledge and experience with wildlife tracking, outdoor education, and wilderness survival skills. Dave also serves as lead Tracking Programs Instructor and Special Programs Coordinator. He joined Wilderness Awareness School in 2005, bringing with him over a decade of experience with wildlife tracking, and in teaching outdoor and environmental education throughout the United States including at Outward Bound, Rites of Passage Journeys, and the Northwest Outdoors Science School. He holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Outdoor Adventure Education from Prescott College.

Mike Prince, Staff Specialist: Mike shares his passion and experience with youth mentoring. He is also the coordinator of the Earth Mentor Program, a Youth Courses Instructor, and Facility Manager for Wilderness Awareness School. Mike graduated from the Wilderness Awareness Residential Program in 2004, and followed that with a second year as a Apprentice Instructor with Community School. Mike's previous experience as an educator includes teaching High School, directing a Boy Scout Camp, and working for the YMCA.

Guest Instructors

The Residential Program also incorporates expert guest instructors that visit the course to offer their unique perspective on special skills and topics:

Karen and Frank Sherwood, Guest Instructors: Frank and Karen were Senior Instructors at Tom Brown, Jr.'s Tracking and Survival School for 15 years before starting their own school, Earthwalk Northwest. Karen specializes in ethnobotany, uses of wild edible and medicinal plants, basketry, and other wilderness living skills, while Frank works with us on flintknapping, braintanning, and fishing technologies, and other wilderness survival skills. Together, they carry a vast wealth of knowledge and experience in living with the land, and we are blessed to be able to work with them each year. Earthwalk Northwest also offers a remarkable array of survival courses in all of these topics throughout the year that would be of great interest to students and graduates.

Jon Young, Guest Instructor: Jon offers inspiration and unique insight into the realm of nature education and tracking. Jon Young founded Wilderness Awareness School in 1983. Inspired by his childhood mentoring with tracker and author Tom Brown, Jr., Jon has pioneered blending Native mentoring techniques from around the world with the tools of modern field ecology. Under Jon's guidance, Wilderness Awareness School has grown to reach students all around the world with its courses that help people reconnect with their native environments. Jon is the principal author of The Kamana Naturalist Training Program.

Chris Kenworthy, Guest Instructor: Chris shares her passion and knowledge of nature awareness and native scout skills. She is the director of Coyotes Path Wilderness School which she founded in 1994. Chris trained extensively at Tom Brown, Jr.'s Tracking and Survival School and has led wilderness courses for many years. She has been running the Scout Class, an intensive week of training in nature observation and awareness, for the past decade on her land in the foothills of the North Cascades. Chris shares a love and knowledge of nature that inspires her to pass this on to others.

Peter Yencken, Guest Instructor: Peter brings an entirely unique perspective to students as he shares with them his love of traditional archery and the making of longbows.

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