Beth has been an educator and early childhood advocate for a lifetime. She received her BA in English Literature at UC Berkeley and then completed her Early Childhood Master Teacher/ Site Supervisor teaching permit at San Francisco City College. She spent most of her 20s teaching at a diverse, play-based preschool co-op in the San Francisco Mission neighborhood, where she solidified her belief that the early years of a child's life are both critically important and also require a strong network between family, community, and school.

Although her 12-year teaching career led her in many directions subsequently, this initial experience cultivated a perspective that focuses on family communication and connection and using the school experience to create lifelong relationships not just between children, but between families and the school, fostering a sense of community that is so often sorely lacking in our individualistic society.

Forest school represents the intersection of her professional experience and her passion. As a long-time outdoor adventurer, she finds herself retreating to nature when life seems overwhelming and has seen repeatedly how time in nature acts as a poultice for all the busyness, distraction, and disconnect of our current social climate. She believes deeply that a return to our wild, essential selves is the only way we will heal the challenges of our flailing world and that we should begin by offering that sense of wild to our children. Forest school is a place where her own two young daughters have evolved into assured, emotionally-attuned, tree-loving, powerful creatures.

When she’s not teaching, she loves disappearing into a good book, hiking, practicing Functional Patterns, trying new recipes, exploring alternative modalities of healing, and expanding her fledgling knowledge of bushcraft and wilderness survival skills.

Brooklyn has a degree in Psychology from Westmont College, where she emphasized her studies on mental illness in children & adolescents. She is also currently in school to receive her certification as an herbalist. She believes that the natural world holds the answers to humanity's greatest struggles and in living life slowly and deliberately— taking time every day to have gratitude and love for the world and creatures around us.

Ever since she was little, growing up in Washington, Brooklyn has been running around forests looking for mushrooms and wildflowers. Whenever she would scrape her knee or have a stomach ache, her grandma would come running over with lavender oil or mint tea.

She has worked in so many different facets pertaining to the environment; on small dairy farms, in ocean conservation groups, on small gardening projects, flower farms, and mushroom cultivation. Her true passion is educating people (especially children) on how to honor the Earth and responsibly utilize her to heal our minds, bodies, and souls.

Brooklyn feels called every day to the natural world, to share its gifts and its magic. She currently lives in a little cottage in the Santa Barbara mountains with her partner, tending a small garden and chickens. She lives closely to the land, monitoring her everyday impacts. 

Her hobbies include; sewing, fermenting, surfing, making sourdough bread, embroidery, woodworking, preserving, cooking, dancing, natural dyeing, and swimming. 

She is extremely passionate about healing through nature, ancestral play-based education, animal justice, and food systems.

Katie grew up in Santa Barbara and has been a nature girl for as long as she can remember. She and her husband have been together for 20 years and have three beautiful children, Jaidin, 19, Annika, 9, and Bear, 5.

When Katie became a mom at the age of 20, she became interested in early childhood education and studied at SBCC. She started teaching preschool at 22 and has been at it ever since, incorporating her love for plants, animals, and creativity in her curriculum. After many years of working with children, she continues to be excited to be part of providing a magical and meaningful experience for children and their families.

Ruby was born in Austin Texas and raised in Venice beach CA. She and her partner of 6 years moved to Santa Barbra last year. She grew up gardening with her mom & collecting fossils and rocks on her grandma's farm. Being outside, barefoot with dirt under her fingernails, basking in the sun is her favorite way to be. 

Both of her parents have a green thumb, so Ruby likes to say that she was born with two! She was raised to be gentle with plants and animals and to respect and love them. This motivated her to pursue herbal & spiritual studies, influenced by nature and the bounty of gifts and magic it has to offer. Her passion for nature inspires her to teach children how to discover their connection with the beautiful and magical living things around them! Ruby hopes to teach children to respect the planet, love plants, and absorb their healing powers. She is grateful to have the opportunity to learn from the minds and beautiful imaginations of children. 

As a nature lover, work has always involved being outdoors. She has worked for her family’s landscaping business, for a vegetable farm and organic compost production, in mushroom farming cultivation, and nannying.

If Ruby is not out in the garden you can find her foraging for treasures & finding mushrooms on a hike, making botanical art and creating jewelry with found shells and crystals, practicing yoga or dancing around her house, reading about herbalism & plants, or talking to fairies in the forest. 

Grace recently moved to Santa Barbara from Humboldt county, where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, worked at a local elementary school, and taught kids’ Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes.  Grace loved Humboldt for the abundance of outdoor activities and natural beauty, but was led to Santa Barbara on a quest for warmer weather. She is a long time nanny to young children.

Enjoying time outdoors and being connected with nature has been essential to Grace since childhood, so she is excited to be in a setting that fosters such a connection for more kids. After working with children of various ages for many years, the preschool age has remained her favorite for the unparalleled levels of enthusiasm and curiosity expressed at this age.