Educators and Trip Leaders

WildPlaces is immensely grateful for the participation of many amazing outdoor experts, enthusiasts and professionals who volunteer their time to take huge responsibilities for youth at Immersed in the Wild and Rio Limpio . It’s a 24/7 schedule that our educators and trip leaders have when they step into a WildPlaces project.  For “Immersed in the Wild”, for example, that means multiple days of mentoring, safety, logistics, briefings, breakouts, and planning–night and day. For Rio Limpio, it means leading dozens of volunteers down trails along miles of the fast-flowing Tule River. The positive impacts they have on the youth and on the land are immeasurable and priceless.

Nicole Celaya

As a lifelong educator and currently an instructor at Porterville College, I have experienced in our youth the growing disconnection from our environment and those that inhabit it. My hope is to try to encourage in my students a deeper connection and responsibility to the earth and its creatures through education and community. I am passionate about preserving the beauty of our planet for future generations and feel that working with Wild Places and encouraging my students to get involved locally is one way for me to do that.

 

 

Chico Garza

Xavier “Chico” Garza is our bilingual, professional  cook, creating nutrious and lively meals that kids like. A grandfather, Nichiren Buddhist, artist, and Aztec dancer, Garza brings much to the “table”. Raising three daughters in San Francisco and now living in Springville, CA, Garza enjoys the rivers and mountains of the Sierra.

 

Cabrina Grubb, Rio Limpio

Cabrina served as the Rio Limpio Coordinator for WildPlaces in2011.  She has been a part of the Southern Sierra community for the last five years, and has volunteered with WildPlaces for the last four years.Her goal for WildPlaces, this year, is to empower river users to take an environmental stand on keeping their rivers clean, and educating our community on the importance of having a clean and protected watershed.She has lived throughout the western states and attended FortLewis College in Durango Colorado, where she studied Geography with an emphasis on GIS.In the past couple of years she has worked with the Forest Service as a Lookout on the Western Divide Ranger district.

Susan Macias

Susan Macias is a long-time WildPlaces volunteer and board member. She lives in Long Beach, where she teaches English as a Second Language at Long Beach City College and tends a community garden. She is passionate about natural landscapes, regenerative design, and tracking.

Scott Parkin

Scott is a Senior Organizer with Rainforest Action Network and works with Rising Tide North America. He works to educate and organize youth to take action to stop the destruction of the climate and wild places around the country. He has worked on a variety of campaigns around climate change, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, mountaintop removal, labor issues and anti-corporate globalization. Originally from Texas, he now lives in San Francisco.

Brain Rouch

I love spending time outside–climbing, skiing, kayaking–just having fun and exercising. I grew up in these mountains and my family has been here for generations. I’m excited to engage youth in the natural world and mentor the next generation of stewards.

 

Dean Diaz de Leon

Dean has attended many Immersed in the Wild trips, where he lends his expertise in black-smithing.  Besides blacksmithing, Dean has many talents, including art and wood-working.  He is looking forward to leading more Immersed in the Wild trips this season.

Sarah Vail

After five years as an outdoor educator with Outward Bound and thirteen years of work on violence against women with international organizations, I come to Wild Places because of the potent link between the two. The wilderness is a place of discovery, challenge, growth, recovery, and transformation, without distinction based on where any one of us is from or what we have experienced in life. In the wild, we learn to confront fears and to try things that feel uncomfortable or challenging, and we find that our personal limits keep expanding — much like the horizon which gets wider than anything at home once we get outside. I love working with youth in Wild Places because they leave feeling more connected to the outdoors and to themselves, and because it provides a sense of peace and perspective as well as a deeper physical and mental strength.

 

Bill Raymond

Bill has worked with organizations such as Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, Forest Action Network, and various other environmental organizations, beginning in 1993, soon after separation from the US Army. Doing this work has provided Bill with the opportunity to fight to preserve the precious remnants of our natural environment over much of the world.  “It has been both an honor, and a privilege to have been involved in some of the major ecological victories of my life, and I am happy to continue that work with WildPlaces in the Sequoias.”

Ian Herdell

Ian served two years at WildPlaces as an AmeriCorps Volunteer.  In 2010, Ian joined the WildPlaces’ team as a program director.  Ian now lives in Springville.  He is an avid rock-climber, farmer, and wo0d worker.  Ian started Sierra Woodcrafts in 2010, and his carpentry uses salvaged wood from the Sequoias.  He is currently an adviser for the Rio Limpio: Tule River Partnership and Cleanup.