Meet our Summer 2024 team!
While a small crew of staff keeps the organization running all year long, every year we welcome a new cohort of seasonal staff. These staff are the ones you see on the trails, take you on tours, engage your kids in the wonders of outdoor education, and passionately care for these spaces we steward. It’s our pleasure to finally introduce our summer 2024 team!
Meet our staff and read their bios below, organized by location.
Wynn Nature Center
140 acres of boreal forest featuring the Carl E. Wynn Visitor Center, the Daisy Lee Bitter Outdoor Learning Space, and 5 miles of hiking trails
Henry Reiske
Ridge Coordinator
No bio given.
Maya Nabipoor
Wynn Nature Center Coordinator
Maya is joining CACS for a third year, returning as the Wynn Visitor Center Coordinator. Maya graduated from the Evergreen State College with a B.S. in Biology in 2019, and has since served through Washington Service Corps as an Environmental Educator with the Nisqually River Education Project and the Nisqually Land Trust. She enjoys educating and engaging the public in habitat stewardship and restoration. Maya grew up in Portland, Oregon and lived in Olympia, Washington since 2015–she moved to Homer year-round this year. She enjoys fishing, camping, and getting out on the water!
Emma Laatsch (she/her)
Wynn Naturalist
This is Emma Laatsch’s second year back at Coastal Studies, and she is so ready to be back! Emma Laatsch has lived in six different states, but considers herself to be from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She now lives in Wisconsin where she will be graduating in May from University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh double majoring in Environmental Studies and Sociology with a certificate in Sustainable Education. Emma loves her Wisconsin winters, hiking, and teaching kids through the garden project she has set up for a local elementary school and her volunteer work at a nature preserve near her college town. She is ready to be back to puzzle, see friends from last year, and adventure more of the beautiful state of Alaska!
Mariana Rubio (she/her)
Wynn Naturalist
Mariana was born and raised in Texas but graduated from Salem College in North Carolina where she received a B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies with a concentration in conservation. This is her second summer with CACS and she is so excited to be back! She loves adventure and feels deeply connected to nature.
Mariana is passionate about wildlife protection and diversifying the outdoors, especially including BIPOC voices in the environmental field. In her free time, she enjoys volunteering, reading, doing puzzles, and completing word searches. She is so excited to keep learning and is so grateful for this experience!
Ryan Zimmerman (he/him)
Wynn Naturalist
Ryan grew up in upstate New York where he gained an immense appreciation for the mountains and learned to enjoy all kinds of outdoor recreation including hiking and kayaking. Ryan graduated from the University of New England in Maine in 2022, switching his focus to the ocean with a degree in marine biology where he spent time studying the diet and behaviors of native seal populations. Since then he has gone on to work in outdoor, place based education, bringing his childhood passion of the outdoors into a space where he can share his knowledge of marine environments and conservation. This is Ryan’s first season with CACS and in Alaska and he is so excited to explore the new environments right along with visitors.
In his free time, Ryan enjoys painting landscapes of the beautiful places he sees around him and experiencing different cultures through cooking. He also enjoys surfing, travel, photography, and trying anything at least once! He is so excited to join the CACS team and experience Alaska.
Day Camp
Ten 4-day sessions all summer long
Ava Daley (she/her)
Day Camp Co-Coordinator
Ava is originally from New Jersey, and grew up with an appreciation of the outdoors fostered through her love of running and skiing. Ava is now preparing to graduate from the University of Colorado Boulder with a degree in Elementary Education, a minor in Leadership Studies, and a STEM Education certificate. Ava is so incredibly excited for her second summer at CACS where she’ll be returning as the Day Camp Co-Coordinator to kick off a summer filled with curiosity, learning, and laughter before she heads off to Kalispell, Montana to begin teaching 4th grade!
Dave Ronchetto (he/him)
Day Camp Co-Coordinator
Returning for his second season! Y’all know him! Y’all love him! Can’t avoid him! Welcome back, Mr. Dave Ronchetto! I am honored and excited to return to Coastal Studies. Full-time college student with WGU specializing in special education and coming in with the skills to prove it. Also going to be a new father right before the CACS season starts, so be ready to see LOTS of pics of my baby. I'm always ready to learn and be excited about new things, mainly extinct creatures from our past. What's your favorite dinosaur/fossil? Mine’s the Diplodocus and trilobites.
Maria Stull-Escobar (she/her)
Day Camp Educator
Originally raised in St. Augustine, FL and Rochester, NY, Maria rediscovered her Deaf identity and passion for the environment at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Pursuing a combined degree in Environmental Science, Psychology, and Laboratory Materials, she has led conservation efforts in Vermont, NM, and CO. Maria found her calling in environmental education through an agricultural internship at Hawthorne Valley in NY. Now excited to join the CACS team, she's ready to inspire with her experiences and academic background. An avid lover of working with animals and exploring nature through hikes, Maria is passionate about making environmental education accessible and engaging.
Kate Hansberry
Day Camp Educator
Hi everyone! I’m so excited for this season! I was raised in Bangkok, Thailand and typically a city girl but I switched up the scenery and I’m so excited to explore Homer. I took a gap year and spent it teaching and volunteering with Americorps in Atlanta. I’m now a student at Sarah Lawrence College, just north of New York City. I’m studying all things humanities, hoping to go into some sort of law or social work. I also take plenty of dance classes. Outside of class I play for the softball team and run cross country, and I’m so excited to be running around Alaska!
Liv Ladaire
Day Camp Educator
No bio given.
Inspiration Ridge Preserve
700-acre wildlife preserve on the Ridge protecting critical habitat and watersheds
Sarah Demsky (she/her)
IRP Coordinator
Hello! I grew up in Washington State, where I acquired my BA in Early Childhood and Elementary Education. I’ve been teaching outdoor education around the country, living in Washington, Tennessee, California, and Alabama. And now I get to be in a place I’ve dreamed of for years, guiding people through the outdoors. What a life! I strongly believe in the power of education and the power of the outdoors - put those two things together and BAM, what an impact this kind of program can make! When it comes time to relax, you'll find me tinkering with music, staring up at the stars, reading a good book, or enjoying my goofy friends.
Anika D’Souza (she/her)
IRP Naturalist
Originally from rural Illinois, Anika discovered her passion for the outdoors after moving to Utah for college in 2020. She will be graduating in May 2024 with a degree in Biology and minors in Global Health and Bioethics. In her time at university, Anika has been a volunteer board member for Backcountry Squatters, a national nonprofit that helps women and non-binary folks get outside through educational programs, trips through the backcountry, and generating stoke for the beautiful environment. Anika is passionate about increasing access to the outdoors for historically underrepresented groups and believes the best way to do that is through ecological education and appreciation. She is stoked to explore the coastal and montane regions of Alaska this summer and hopefully check some birds off of her life-list. In her free time, she can be found playing guitar, drawing, and hiking.
Robyn Walker Spencer (she/her)
IRP & Wynn Naturalist
Robyn is a recent graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine, where she majored in biology, focusing her studies primarily in marine ecology. Robyn grew up in Rockport, Maine, where she developed her love of cold ocean dips,forest wanders, and rocky intertidal critters. After spending the last two summers working as science educator on Hurricane Island, ME, she is thrilled to continue sharing wonder and curiosity with other people in the outdoors in an environment entirely new to her! She is deeply passionate about making outdoor education accessible to as many people as possible. In her free time, you can find Robyn reading lots of books, playing guitar, hiking/climbing/swimming/exploring, or diving into a new crafty project.
Maureen Dailey (she/her)
Trail Specialist (all locations)
Maureen is originally from Maryland, the suburbs of Washington, DC, and has always enjoyed the outdoors. Just two weeks after graduating with a Marketing degree from Xavier University in Cincinnati Ohio, she embarked on a month-long NOLS backpacking trip, hiking 125 miles across the southern talkeetna mountains of Alaska. She credits her passion for the outdoors to this trip which led her to go on and work a variety of seasonal jobs. Spending 10 months working with AmeriCorps NCCC and the California Bureau of Land Management, Maureen fell in love with trail work and outdoor education. Most recently she worked on a trail crew on the long trail with the Green Mountain Club in Vermont. She is thrilled to return to Alaska and dive into the world of outdoor education. In her free time she enjoys watercoloring, hiking, backpacking and skiing.
Dan Scott (he/him)
Inspiration Ridge Preserve Caretaker
No bio given.
Yurt on the Spit
Gateway to the intertidal zone on the iconic Homer Spit
Sarah McIntosh
Yurt & Intern Coordinator
Sarah is returning to CACS for her third summer and is so excited to be back, this time coordinating the yurt and our teen interns. Sarah was born and raised in Jackson, Wyoming, and developed her love for the outdoors and exploring as a child hiking and camping in the Tetons and Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. She went to college in Bellingham, WA where she graduated from Western Washington University with a degree in Environmental Science and a minor in Environmental Education. While in Bellingham and since leaving and spending time in Hawaiʻi, Sarah rekindled her love for the ocean and all sea critters, especially whales. The past two winters she’s been learning so much living and working in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi where she now works for the Hawaiʻi Nature Center. She’s dreamed of living in Alaska since she was a child and is very excited to return to Alaska and continue the adventure. Sarah enjoys watercolor painting, hiking, skiing, camping, and exploring tide pools in her free time.
Jeanna Edlund (she/her)
Yurt Environmental Educator
Excited to return for her second season, Jeanna is from Minneapolis, MN and graduated May 2023 with her B.S. in Conservation Biology from the University of Minnesota. Growing up, her parents had her enrolled in nature center summer camps for as long as she can remember. These camps are what she attributes to the foundation of her love of the outdoors and environmental education! Despite living in a land-locked place all her life, she has always had a passion for coastal and marine systems. This passion has allowed her to travel and live short term in both Hawaii and Mexico, learning about coral reefs and fisheries. This past year, she has been applying to grad schools, traveling, and working other seasonal jobs in Grand Marais, MN and Acadia NP, Maine. In her free time, she loves ceramics, being outside, intramural volleyball, and fishing! She is most excited to lead SPIT Kids again this summer.
Iris Downey (she/her)
Yurt Marine Educator
No bio given.
Peterson Bay Field Station
Our semi-remote Field Station across Kachemak Bay
Shannon Moore
Peterson Bay Field Station Coordinator
No bio given.
Alexa Helm (she/her)
Lead PBFS Environmental Educator
This is Alexa’s fourth year working for CACS, and the jury’s STILL out on whether she likes PBFS camps or marine worms more!
Grady Welsh
Lead Backcountry Environmental Educator
No bio given
Lauren Gemery (she/her)
PBFS Naturalist
Lauren grew up in Vermont and recently graduated from Middlebury College with a major in Conservation Biology. Lauren loves hands-on learning, from snorkeling during her semester abroad in South Caicos to growing veggies at Middlebury’s organic farm. Since graduating, she has explored seasonal work through teaching at a nature center in Montpelier VT, wildland firefighting in northern California, and outdoor education in South Carolina. She is grateful for the many opportunities to learn from local communities and perspectives different from her own. Lauren is excited to share her wonder of the outdoors with others this summer and learn more about Alaska! In her free time, she enjoys ceramics, ultimate frisbee, wood-fired pizzas, polar plunges, and exploring with her dog (Luma)!
Isabel Beach
PBFS Naturalist
Isabel grew up in Homer and will be returning for a third summer with CACS. She is excited to spend some time on the south side of Kachemak Bay at the field station! Isabel graduated from Barnard College in 2020 with a B.A. in anthropology (archaeology) and a concentration in environmental science. Currently, she spends the academic year at Boston University where she is pursuing her PhD in archaeology. Isabel’s research focuses on Dena’ina plant-use in the archaeological record, but she generally is intrigued with all members of the more-than-human community in Kachemak Bay. She is especially interested in how people in Kachemak Bay have been shaped by and in return have shaped their botanical landscape.
Ziggy Berkoff (she/her)
PBFS Naturalist Intern
Ziggy grew up spending the school year in the evergreens and great food scene of Portland, Oregon, and the summers berry picking and salmon fishing in Kasilof, Alaska. This is her first season working for CACS and she is so excited to be part of the team! Ziggy is currently a Junior at the University of Vermont pursuing a B.S. in Environmental science with minors in psychology and studio art. She recently returned from studying abroad in Botswana where she worked with local communities to mitigate human wildlife conflict. Ziggy is very passionate about conservation and the intersectionality between having access to green spaces and good mental health. She is excited to get to know coastal ecology better, and hopefully eat great seafood all summer long. When she is not studying for organic chemistry, you can find Ziggy skiing, painting, baking challah and coaching club lacrosse.
CORaL Network
Supervising and supporting the 2024 Community Coastal Experience
Misha Klassen
Community Coastal Experience Coordinator
Misha has had several roles with CACS over the six years they’ve been in Homer, and is now primarily working remotely as the Community Coastal Experience coordinator. Misha spends the rest of their time playing in the garden, skiing with their dog, and trying to find people to play board games with her! Coastal Studies has been the longest-standing of Misha’s many seasonal jobs as an environmental educator, biology field technician, and trail/hut crew member in Washington, New Hampshire, Arizona, Costa Rica, and Alaska.
Sarahlily Stein (they/them)
Community Coastal Experience Co-Coordinator
When I was 18, I moved to Homer and have lived here on and off ever since. Inspired by Alaska's landscapes, I earned a B.A. in physical geography with a focus on subarctic issues and GIS. I've been very lucky to have worked around Alaska and northern Canada, from researching bears in Denali National Park to working on food sovereignty in the Northwest Territories. This is my fourth season working with CACS. In the past, I've been the IRP Coordinator and a Peterson Bay Naturalist, and I'm so excited to travel around coastal Alaska with CCE this summer. When I'm not in Homer, I live just over the border in the Yukon.
Danny Kohr (they/them)
Community Coastal Experience Co-Coordinator
Danny grew up among the coral, seagrass, and mangroves in Florida and Malaysia, and these coastal systems remain very dear to their heart. Danny graduated from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Marine Sciences in 2021. Their pursuit of marine conservation work has taken them from Alaska (learning to SCUBA dive to study kelp forests; monitoring salmon in the Yukon river basin) to Antarctica (wrangling penguins) – and now back to Alaska again to join the CCE team this summer! Danny is passionate about nourishing relationships to the land and water and increasing outdoor safety and access for historically-excluded community members, and they love being able to share the little wonders and surprises of what you can see in a tidepool or find under a log. They work to practice deep-rooted principles of justice, equity, and community care in all that they do. They can often be found drawing, doing some kind of fiber art, or exploring.
Leslie Jacoby
Community Coastal Experience Co-Leader
No bio given.
Homer Wilderness Leaders
A partner of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies
Molly Mitchell
HoWL Program Coordinator
No bio given.
Kayla Fox Rivers (she/her)
HoWL Instructor and Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies Development Assistant
Returning for season II - Kayla grew up in North Pole, Alaska spending lots of time outdoors under the aurora and the midnight sun. She attended CSU for her finance degree and UAF for her MBA. Working aboard Semester at Sea, Kayla led trips worldwide, ranging from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco to the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. While living in Fort Collins, Colorado Kayla taught ecology to kids at the Gardens on Spring Creek. Outside of work you can find her, trail running, reading or finding a new artistic hobby. If you want to learn to juggle or unicycle or attend the weekly circus jam in town - she’s your gal!
Headquarters
Our hub for coastal studies
Beth Trowbridge
Executive Director
No bio given.
Katie Gavenus
Program Director
No bio given.
Marcie Gordon
Bookkeeper & Office Manager
No bio given.
Joscie Norris (she/her)
Community Liaison & Wellness Specialist, HoWL Climbing Specialist
Joscie bounced from one fun northern state to another, Vermont to Alaska! This will be her fourth year with Coastal Studies and she now works out of the office year round supporting staff and students with a focus on wellness, inclusivity, and accessibility. She worked as a naturalist before in the White Mountains of NH and for Coastal Studies (Wynn and PBFS) and focused on ethnobotany, traditional ecological knowledge, and experiential education. She had a fun bout of rock and ice guiding too and would love to tell you about Homer’s small but charming climbing scene. Outside of leading programs and supporting staff at Coastal Studies, you can find her leading climbing trips with the HoWL crew or romping with friends around the peninsula. She enjoys the creative Homer ski scene in the winter (is a new year-round Homer resident), has a new obsession with pottery, and finds writing in third person quite tricky. Ask her about her latest wild harvested cooking adventure (or flop!) and the lichens that abound.
Heather White (she/her)
Marketing, Outreach, & Visitor Services Specialist
Heather was born and raised in the high desert of the Southwest—in the homelands of the Diné, Hopi, Zuni, Havasupai, Hualapai, Western Apache, and Puebloan people—and credits the mountains, canyons, and forests of that region with developing her sense of self and instilling her love of landscapes. During and after undergrad she worked with various conservation organizations in Flagstaff, Arizona on native plant research, ecological and natural history interpretation, riparian wetland restoration, and monitoring mining operations on the Colorado Plateau. She received her MA from Northern Arizona University wherein she studied race, space, and cultural relationship to land. This is her second year with CACS, and she lives in Homer year-round.