Our Nature Learning Community Includes...
Rowena Conahan
Rowena is a founder of Nature Learning Community, where she teaches nature connection and outdoors skills for people of all ages, and consults with educators seeking to increase outdoors experience for their students. She’s an anthropologist, healer, storyteller and Montessori teacher, with a background as a homeschool parent and assistant in a Waldorf-based forest kindergarten. She attended Tom Brown’s Tracker School in New Jersey and Wilderness Awareness School’s Art of Mentoring. She’s currently a student in the Kamana Naturalist Training program, and works for the global 8 Shields movement. She’s also a founding member of Sunward Cohousing Community, where she’s lived and learned for 20 years.
Courtney Klick
Courtney is a re-wilding enthusiast with a passion for bringing nature connection, culture repair and the art of mentoring to our local community. Courtney is a homeschooling mother of three young children, a gardener, former Ayurvedic Practitioner and herbalist, and lover of sacred music. She loves wandering, encountering flora and fauna, and sharing those stories with others. Her daily goal is to spend as much time outdoors as possible, especially with children in the spirit of play and wonder.
Catherine Fritz
Catherine is a lifelong nature-enthusiast. She grew up playing and exploring in the sand dunes along Lake Michigan. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a dual degree in German and Arts and Ideas in the Humanities, she moved to Washington State where she worked for a number of years doing Youth Advocacy and Arts Education. There, she deepened her nature connection by learning the plants and animals of a new bioregion. She returned to Michigan to be nearer family and bring her magic back to the Midwest. In addition to teaching with Nature Learning Community, she's a Music Together Teacher, does youth theatre, and works with Ann Arbor Forest School. She's worked extensively with children and finds them to be an absolute delight.
Chuck Barbieri
Chuck Barbieri spent his childhood on Long Island, NY, very close to the ocean. Outside adventures in woods, swamps and ocean beaches were important daily aspect of his life as a child. As woods and nature areas were converted to parking lots and highways on Long Island he chose a college near abundant natural features. At Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, he majored in Environmental Studies and Biology. Chuck traveled extensively in the Pacific Northwest, took some Outward Bound classes, and went to graduate school at University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, majoring in Environmental Advocacy and Education. He enjoys “rock hounding” across the United States, doing nature art projects and simply sitting and walking in the woods, aimless and joyful. He's taught in many Waldorf schools as the kindergarten afternoon teacher and after-school director. He also directed many successful summer camps.
Miriam Dowd
Miriam is known for drawing us all into movement, laughter and play. Nurturing the body-mind-spirit with creative-expressive-restorative movement in the context of nature is one of her specialties. Miriam focused on Environmental Studies at Earlham College, and joined a 3-month Eco-Community Apprenticeship Program at the Hummingbird Ranch in New Mexico. She's also been a Children's Camp Counselor at NVC (nonviolent communication) Family Camp. She loves making food and medicine from the wild, and relishes a feeling of kinship with all things - the bugs, the trees, the campfire, the wind, and kids' laughter. And she super, super likes playing games where it's socially appropriate to lay flat out on the earth with a big smile on her face!
Mandy Ervin
Mandy really enjoys the simple complexity of nature; the balance between life and death and how everything she witnesses is a lesson and reflection to her of her. She's passionate about slowing down and observing the world around her and encouraging others, especially children to do the same. Her 12+ years spent with children as a nanny has kept her curious, adventurous and fearless. She enjoys creating things with her hands and is very excited to learn more about: identifying plants, creating shelters, pottery, tracking and so much more.
Petar Simic
Petar studied plant ecology in college and graduated with a degree in Biology. He's been in love with the natural world his whole life and would rather spend his days no other way than in the woods or watching the birds and the clouds. Petar was a head farmer at the Community Farm of Ann Arbor and loves the ability agriculture has to connect us with the natural world. He also taught at the Rudolf Steiner school and finds a lot of joy in educating and working with children.
Claire Maitre
Claire’s original passion is the natural world. And life has taken her on a wander through many related fields, crafting her as a valuable elder mentor whose wisdom and open heart have touched the lives of many. She earned a BA in Anthropology from Wayne State University and a Permaculture Design Certificate. She’s studied Village Building and Activating Cultural Emergence with the 8 Shields Institute, and is a participant in our own Oak Tree Mentorship Program. She’s also delighted in accompanying her grandsons in the Fuzzy Caterpillars class. You can look for her at Chrysalis Transitions, where she offers coaching and classes focused on Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects.
Sam Stein-Perlman
Sam, a life-long homeschooler, has been a student with Nature Learning Community for 8+ years and has loved every minute of it. Last year he was a counselor in training with us. Now he's a Junior Instructor! He’s also spent several summers in northern Vermont at a camp that emphasizes sustainability and love of nature. Recently he was part of a group that backpacked along the Long Trail in the Green Mountains and canoed along the Connecticut River in New Hampshire.
Sam is in his 11th year of competitive swimming. Other hobbies and interests include ancient and medieval history and literature, cooking, horology, quantum physics, studying renewable energy, and homeschooling “field trips,” such as going to the Amazon Rainforest and Galapagos Islands.
Sam’s favorite season is winter – the colder the better. When it's not winter, he loves scampering through the woods looking for mushrooms!
Sam is in his 11th year of competitive swimming. Other hobbies and interests include ancient and medieval history and literature, cooking, horology, quantum physics, studying renewable energy, and homeschooling “field trips,” such as going to the Amazon Rainforest and Galapagos Islands.
Sam’s favorite season is winter – the colder the better. When it's not winter, he loves scampering through the woods looking for mushrooms!