Joan is passionate about exploring the natural world with children, and supporting teachers as they discover the joyful learning that happens when students engage in rich and meaningful experiences outdoors. Joan has worked as a classroom teacher, naturalist educator, curriculum designer, and has offered science PD to teachers in WSESD and beyond for the past 15 years. She lives off-grid in a home that she and her husband built. When exploring beyond her own yard, she has been lucky enough to bike and hike in such stunning places as the Swiss Alps, West Africa, The Danube River Valley, and Vancouver's West Coast Trail - but she is partial to the forest behind her home and the back roads of Vermont. Joan's undergraduate degree is in Psychology and Child Development. In graduate school Joan focused on both Environmental Education and Teaching with Technology. Joan holds a current Vermont Educator License. She is so happy to be a part of the Academy School learning community, supporting students and teachers as they make connections and discoveries through science and nature.