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 14-year teaching career led her in many directions subsequently, this initial experience cultivated a perspective that focuses on family communication and connection; her hope is to nurture parents and children alike, creating bonds, offering compassionate understanding for all parts of the human experience, and hopefully ultimately creating a web of connection that uplifts every part of the family.

Forest school represents the intersection of her professional experience and her passion. As an avid 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 education should focus on joy, connection, emotional literacy, and an understanding of the self both as an individual and as part of a greater community. 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, camping, practicing Functional Patterns, dancing, exploring alternative modalities of healing, and expanding her fledgling knowledge of bushcraft and wilderness survival skills.

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.

As someone who has always felt most comfortable barefoot in the woods, Grace feels right at home at A Thousand Mornings. Grace is passionate about enjoying the simple pleasures presented by nature, and is grateful to spend each day doing so with preschoolers. Having grown up in a relatively rural area, Grace’s core memories consist of perching in pine tree branches, creating make-shift trails and hideouts in the woody acres of the backyard and, of course, building fairy homes. Grace is delighted to continue enjoying similar experiences with both the students and teachers of A Thousand Mornings.

Having worked with kids of many ages, the preschool years remain Grace’s favorite. She loves the raw emotions, and the perpetual “what” and “why” questions about the everyday things that adults have generally stopped thinking much about.

Outside of forest school, Grace can often be found wandering a trail, camping, or strolling the beach-always accompanied by her cattle dog sidekick, Clover.

Gretchen loves sharing her passion for the outdoors and has done so through many different avenues over the years. After graduating with a degree in Adventure Education, she became a backpacking guide. She worked in Yosemite for 7 summers sharing about the flora and fauna of the Sierras while equipping clients with the skills they needed to thrive in the Sierra Nevada backcountry. During these trips she utilized outdoor activities as catalysts for personal growth focusing on themes such as trust, communication, and leadership.

Gretchen realized that the reason she loved her guiding job was not just the beautiful landscapes (although it was a huge plus) but the people she was sharing it with. The rich diversity we see in nature is also represented in human beings. She celebrates differences, and sees them as ways to learn and connect with each other.

Gretchen has worked with children and adults of all ages. She has worked with 8 month olds up to 90 year olds. She believes that each of us has something to teach and share. She is very excited about working with preschoolers specifically because of their energy and curiosity.

Outside of work, Gretchen enjoys beekeeping, surfing, trying new recipes, taking public transportation, and swimming in whatever body of water she can!

Tori is currently studying early childhood at SBCC. She loves fostering children’s curiosity and wonder for the natural world and learning alongside children themselves. Working at the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens, she fell in love with working in outdoor education as the experience mirrors so much of the exploration she loved as a child.

As a child, Tori remembers going out to her small garden and eating snap peas and tomatoes straight from the vine, and working with her hands out in the dirt. She loved going to nurseries and farms to play with the chickens, gather worms for the compost, and fill jars of worm tea for her plants. She now volunteers with several communities in that same vein of work, giving time to local compost collectives, animal sanctuaries, and permaculture farms. 

Some of her favorite things to do are cooking and experimenting with foraging recipes, every kind of dancing, crafting and DIY projects, hiking and camping, yoga and rollerskating, and fermenting! 

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.