Emma grew up in Sacramento, California where she gravitated to the outdoors from a young age. Bugs and creatures of any kind have always been her biggest fascination as she spent much of her childhood camping, hiking, and exploring all of the nooks and crannies of California. She had the opportunity to spend the summers in Lake Tahoe, where there was no shortage of wildlife to be inspired by and exploration to be done. 

While attending California State University, Chico, Emma had the chance to study in Athens, Greece and further grew her love for the gorgeous outdoors and spent most of her time in the waters of Eastern Europe. She holds a degree in Exercise Physiology and has a passion for the workings of the human body and what it’s capable of. This ties in wonderfully with her love for nature as it challenges her to spend lots of her time hiking, biking, running, fishing, climbing, and swimming. The more animal encounters within these activities, the better. 

Emma continues to be excited for all of the outdoor adventures to be had in Texas! Before joining the Earth Native team, Emma was a lifeguard for 8 summers, programmed summer camps, and was a Special Education teacher. Emma believes inspiring children to love learning and the outdoors is the most important work to be done. 

In her free time, you can find Emma out on the golf course, exploring new swimming areas, or in the kitchen trying out all kinds of recipes!

Callie was born and raised in the east Texas Piney Woods. Her love of nature blossomed at an early age listening to the woods come alive in the morning with bird songs and squirrel chirps from her grandparents’ back porch. Callie’s childhood was divided between time spent in the woods with her brothers creating hideouts that felt like a whole different world, and the basketball court. 

Callie’s early childhood experiences outdoors inspired her to study Geography at the University of Texas where she majored in geography on the landscape ecology tract and minored in geography. 

In the early 2000’s, Callie discovered permaculture and began studying the practice through the Austin Permaculture Guild, eventually receiving her Permaculture Design Certificate. To this day she remains fascinated by the natural rhythm that Permaculture provides not only to agriculture but to permaculture communities themselves. Callie is continuously striving to live connected with the land in her off-grid home in Caldwell County. Her dream is to one day live in a Permaculture Paradise.

Ross is originally from Winona, Minnesota; land of the Dakota peoples. He grew up running around the hardwood forests overlooking the Mississippi River Valley. Since 2009 he’s been teaching folks of all ages all sorts of skills on how to feel comfortable and confident in the outdoors while imparting a value of stewardship of the land. Having taught in multiple states and organizations in the Northwest including; WA, OR, CA, AK, MT, and ID,  he is excited to be in the state of Texas on the Earth Native Team.

Ross has an abundance of skills he has cultivated over the years that he has a deep passion for teaching others. Those skills range from survival, hunting, tracking, bushcrafting, bird language, edible and medicinal plant ID and preparation, natural building, conservation work, and making tools like bows, arrows, and knives.

Ross believes wholeheartedly in the values of experiential learning in the natural world that Earth Native brings to its clients and the lands we operate on. Outside of work he can frequently be found getting distracted by birds in the woods, talking to anyone who will listen about knots, shooting archery, or crafting any number of things from natural materials that he finds on the landscape.

Hannah was born and raised on the crystal clear headwaters of the Guadalupe, deep in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. From an early age her dad taught her how to ID wildlife, forage, catch snakes, and read the stars. She spent many summer evenings swimming in the river with her brother and sister, and flipping over rocks to find critters. These intimate encounters with the natural world led to a deep love for the ecosystem we are all a part of.

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Hannah brought her love for the natural world with her when she studied Art Education at UNT, incorporating ecological themes into her body of work, and later when she took a three year break from art school, traveling and learning about sustainable agriculture.

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Her travels brought her to intentional communities in the piney woods of Pennsylvania, the rolling prairies of the Midwest, and the open skies of the Southwest deserts. Hannah continued her agricultural education as a farm intern on Shaw Island in the Pacific Northwest.

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While living and teaching in Mexico, Hannah fell in love with permaculture, and the concept of incorporating more native species into her agricultural practice. She learned traditional native farming techniques from experienced women in the rural village of Hostotipaquillo, Jalisco. The link between sustainable agriculture and native foraging was a big game changer for Hannah!

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Her time spent in Mexico working with kids inspired her to return to school to finish her degree. After graduating she worked as an Outdoor Education Instructor at Mo Ranch. She especially loved teaching native botany, freshwater ecology, gardening, and sustainability.

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She also spent several years teaching fourth grade at a Nature Based Charter School in Austin, where she loved hiking with her kids in the woods and teaching Math through the lens of Texas Animals statistics.

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Hannah is so happy to have returned to her roots as an Earth Native Instructor in her Central Texas homeland. There are few things she loves more than working with kids, playing in the woods, and inviting others to be curious about the beautiful world around us.

Eli was born and raised in Austin, TX. As an Austin native, his nature connection is firmly rooted in the landscapes of Texas that he spent so many hours exploring as a kid. At a young age Eli’s passion for the outdoors truly blossomed as he traveled across the many regions of Texas hunting with his dad and fishing the gulf coast. 

After high school Eli decided to expand his outdoor knowledge by pursuing an Environmental Science degree in Denver, Colorado. After living in Colorado for a few years, enjoying the Rockies, the pull of Texas and family drew him back to Austin. Before joining the team at Earth Native, he worked as a Park Specialist with LCRA. At LCRA he taught outdoor education classes on topics ranging from outdoor survival skills to skull morphology and led recreational experiences for adults and youth within LCRA parks and along the Colorado River. Through teaching, Eli’s passion for passing along the deep connections he has to Texas flora and fauna to the next generation has only grown stronger. 

Eli currently lives in South Austin where he pursues homesteading, with a goal of greater self sufficiency and sustainability, where he enjoys looking after his chickens and a miniature horse named Gaylin.

Nick was born in Austin but raised in many places. Since before he was old enough to remember, Nick developed a love for nature while spending weekends at a cabin in southeast Texas. In those early years Nick could always be found searching for bugs and snakes in fields seemingly claimed solely by huisache and caliche. Those explorations helped him fine tune his senses and be alert to the silent, small, and elusive creatures of nature. 

Nick moved to Kansas for several years as a child where he found a wonderful mentor in a science teacher and herpetologist who further encouraged his passion for snakes and reptiles. Nick’s mother played a huge role in supporting this interest by not only tolerating all the escaped creatures roaming the living room, but also would call on him in the yard to catch and relocate animals. Unfortunately sometimes Nick would relocate these creatures back into the house… To this day Nick’s mom still texts him pictures of every snake she comes across. 

Even deeper connections with nature developed on childhood camping and road trips Nick took with his dad, listening to Kerouac on the way, and writing poems to the stars and mountains and desert sands of the Southwest. This deeply seeded sense of adventure and wonderment led Nick to exploring the natural world across many countries in his later years, often finding himself wandering the forests of Japan, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and central Europe. Most recently returning home to Austin after living in Germany, where his love for new nature grew as deep as the mycelium of the dinner he learned to forage. 

Second only to his personal love for nature, is his passion for sharing experience. Before joining the team at Earth Native, Nick spent 20 years working with youth as an educator, tour guide, entertainer, mental health specialist, sports instructor and competition level professional coach. The continuous thread throughout has always been a passion for community and wilderness as a foundation for growth.

Michelle grew up on the outskirts of Houston, Texas, where the suburbs of a big city left little room for nature. Still, her innate curiosity for wildlife, nature, and the world never wavered. In her free time, she would spend hours exploring her own backyard, digging up dirt to make clay bowls, and watching the tadpoles slowly metamorphosize day after day in the pond. Her fascination grew and grew, and she decided to explore the world even further by pouring herself into National Geographics, learning about every animal fact she could from wildlife books, and "traveling" across the globe from oceans and deserts to mountains and valleys through nature documentaries on Animal Planet.

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As she grew older, Michelle discovered a deep passion for working with children. Volunteering every summer at CAMP Camp, a summer camp for kids with special needs, fueled her love for education and childhood development, inspiring her to earn a degree in Early Childhood Special Education from Texas Christian University.

After college, she embarked on a big adventure: moving to Madrid, Spain to teach at a bilingual STEM primary school. It was a life-changing experience that shaped her as a teacher, a life-long learner, and human in this world. During the weekdays, she honed in on her teaching skills, focused on creating an immersive, engaging, and loving learning environment for her students. While on the weekends, she spent her time exploring the world like she always dreamed of as a kid; traveling to new countries, making new friends, reconnecting to nature through wild adventures, and maintaining her child-like wonder and curiosity for it all every step of the way. 

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Upon returning to Texas, Michelle was determined to build a fulfilling life rooted in her passions for education, exploration, nature, music, and meaningful connection. Through many twists and turns, her journey led her here to Earth Native, where she found the perfect place to combine her passions and serve her students, community, and the world around her.

Marcia's love of animals was immediate and undeniable. Born and raised in the San Juan Islands of Washington state, her first passion was for orcas. She spent hours sitting on boat decks carefully scanning the horizon for the subtle exhale clouds that indicated the orcas' presence. This is where Marcia honed the patient observation skills she'd need for identifying and interpreting wildlife tracks and sign.

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Marcia moved to Austin, Texas in 2009 and immediately got to work learning everything she could about the plants and animals that make Texas so diverse. She spent three years volunteer gardening at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. She received the first of her Permaculture Design Course Certifications in 2012 and completed an Advanced Permaculture Design course in 2014. She also became a certified Texas Master Naturalist in 2014, serving as president of the Lost Pines chapter from 2017 through 2019.

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As a Texas Master Naturalist, she began leading interpretive hikes at the local state parks. She found that her hikes typically revolved around the park wildlife and their tracks and sign. In an effort to learn more, Marcia took a weekend tracking workshop through Earth Native in 2017 and hasn't stopped tracking since.

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She has participated in Earth Native's Wildlife Tracking Intensive since 2017, both as a student and as a teacher's assistant. She also teaches Introduction to Wildlife Tracking and Bird Feather Identification. She is currently certified as a Track and Sign Specialist through the Cybertracker Conservation evaluation system, an international standard for gauging and enhancing in-field knowledge of wildlife behavior and track and sign identification. She is one of only 5 in Texas and 39th in North America to attain this level of certification.

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In her free time, she is a beekeeper, a chicken-wrangler, and a totally-within-reason-not-at-all-crazy cat lover. She dreams of one day using her tracking skills to observe and study mountain lion populations within Texas.

Ashley is a native Houstonian where she grew up barefooted—more often than not, gardening with her grandmother, climbing trees, shark tooth hunting in the Galveston Bay, and rock hunting in the Comal River. She spent the duration of her young-adult years exploring the vast acres of Colorado public lands. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in painting from Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design in Denver, Colorado. Her interdisciplinary non-traditional approach to art making is rooted in conscious curiosity and purposeful play, advocating for earth connection and ecological health. She regards herself as a daughter and student of the earth, ever learning from the cycles of nature. 

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Ashley is a certified community herbalist, learning from her lineage of teachers and practicing The Irish Wisdom Tradition. She is immensely interested in ancestral knowledge and particularly drawn to the field of ethnobotany. Her love for wildcrafting originated in the High Plains region which she left behind to reclaim roots in her home state. 

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Before joining Earth Native Ashley spent three years working as a regenerative farmer and an internship supervisor, mentoring and educating young farmers on the significance of community food systems. She received her Master of Environmental Management degree with an emphasis on sustainable and resilient communities from Western Colorado University in Gunnison, Colorado. Her masters work focused on permaculture, natural building, and passive solar greenhouse design. Looking ahead, she intends to continue to hone her permaculture skills, gradually invigorating her endeavor to steward land and community with authenticity.

Alex’s love for nature began at a young age, inspired by his parents’ passion for sharing the joy of outdoor adventures with him and his brother. Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Alex spent every chance he could outside the city, learning the skills of backcountry camping and discovering the plants and wildlife of the places he explored.

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Among his countless adventures, a passion for climbing emerged, whether it was trees, mountains, or even abandoned buildings, Alex loved to be up high. One of his life goals is to climb every 14er in Colorado, and he’s already well on his way. If he’s not at his home in North Austin, there’s a good chance he’s at the climbing gym or already en route to Colorado.

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While in school, Alex worked for Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine, traveling across the state to research some of Texas’s most unique wildlife. Mountain lion tracking in the Chisos Mountains and birdwatching in the Rio Grande Valley are just a couple of the memorable experiences from that time.

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Through all his nature-filled adventures, teaching has remained the backbone of Alex’s career. Every summer during college centered around education, whether mentoring inner-city youth in New York City or studying abroad in western Japan.

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Now, as an instructor at Earth Native Wilderness School, Alex is excited to share his passion, skills, and boundless enthusiasm for the outdoors with his students, helping them build the knowledge, confidence, and curiosity to explore wild places on their own.

Anna was born and raised in Houston, Texas, after her family moved from the United Kingdom. Growing up with a Tropical Biologist for a dad and a Geologist/Geographer for a mom, both of whom are educators, meant she rarely went anywhere without learning everything she could about the world around her. It started with a love for insects that went as far as sleeping with her collection under her pillow every night, then grew into bringing home all manner of animal remains and processing them in the kitchen sink. Her room quickly became akin to a Cabinet of Curiosities, and friends were not always eager to have sleepovers with skulls staring at them through the night.

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As she grew up, Anna was able to travel all over the world and experience ecosystems beyond her wildest imagination. Those experiences ignited a passion for wildlife and ecology that stayed with her. Her favorite place on the planet is Kenya, Africa, where she was inspired by communities living in close relationship with wildlife and the land. She knew she wanted to help bring that kind of connection and harmony back home and share it with others.

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From ages 8 to 16, Anna volunteered at the Charlotte Davis Burns Resource Center, where she handled all kinds of animals and creepy crawlies and helped bring them into classrooms throughout CFISD to educate students about wildlife and animal husbandry. By high school, Anna was also volunteering at the Houston Zoo as a Camp Counselor, Naturalist Educator, and Junior Zookeeper. Over those years, she fostered her joy for working with children and adults alike by encouraging curiosity in nature through play and hands-on experiences.

Anna also pursued Animal Sciences through her high school FFA program and got her first job as a Veterinary Technician at 16. She worked as a Vet Tech all through college for seven more years, working with horses, farm animals, cats, and dogs. While she loved being able to help so many animals, her true passion was always the outdoors and helping people connect to the land, just as she had as a little girl.

Anna followed her passion for wildlife into college and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Wildlife Biology with a minor in Geography. Her studies brought more knowledge and experience than she could have imagined, and she continues to build her skills so she can share them with as many people as possible.

At Earth Native, Anna’s goal is to foster a deep connection between children and the land so they may gain confidence, independence, and empathy for the world around them.

Nate grew up in a small farm town in Central Illinois, where many of his childhood days were spent outdoors exploring nature. He and his friends spent hours roaming his family farm, where he began learning primitive and outdoor skills such as mushroom foraging, hunting, and fishing.

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After graduating high school, Nate enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he served for seven years as an artilleryman. During his time in the military, he explored many different environments, including Japan, Thailand, and the East and West Coasts of the United States. His service also provided extensive training in land navigation and a variety of life-saving survival skills.

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After separating from the military, Nate felt drawn to share his love of the outdoors with others and began deepening his connection to nature in a new way. He is currently pursuing a degree in psychology and is especially interested in the role outdoor experiences can play in confidence, resilience, personal growth, and overall well-being.

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Nate is passionate about helping younger generations connect with the natural world around them. He continues to build his own wilderness skills while sharing his enthusiasm for self-sustainability, outdoor learning, and respect for the natural world with Earth Native students.

Growing up in the North Dallas area, Bobbi was always drawn to the outdoors. Whether exploring nature, playing sports, or simply spending time outside, she developed a deep appreciation for the natural world from an early age. Soccer became a major part of her life and led to the opportunity to play at Cisco College. During that time, Bobbi also discovered a passion for mentoring young people while coaching youth soccer, helping children build confidence, develop new skills, and grow both on and off the field.

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While attending Cisco College, Bobbi's interests expanded beyond athletics into environmental science. She worked in the campus greenhouse and served on the botany research team, gaining valuable hands-on experience in plant science and ecological research. Bobbi later earned a degree in Natural Resources Management with a concentration in Wildlife Biology from Texas Tech University. Throughout college, she immersed herself in field-based learning through camping and outdoor survival courses, greenhouse work, wildlife surveys, white-tailed deer research, and other hands-on conservation experiences that deepened her understanding of the natural world. During her time at Texas Tech, she also worked at a donkey sanctuary, where her love of caring for animals continued to grow.

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After graduating, Bobbi worked at an animal clinic, where she expanded her knowledge of animal health while working closely with pets and their families. Although she enjoyed caring for animals, she realized her greatest passion was combining her background in wildlife biology with her love of teaching and mentoring children.

As an instructor at Earth Native Wilderness School, Bobbi is excited to help students build confidence, develop practical outdoor skills, and foster a lifelong appreciation for wildlife, conservation, and the natural world through meaningful, hands-on experiences.

Roxy was born and raised surrounded by the towering pines, spreading live oaks and majestic pecans of southeastern Louisiana. She fondly remembers gathering blackberries with her mom after ballet class, learning how to crack pecans by squeezing two together in her hands, and countless hours sitting in clover patches making flower crowns. She spent many summers travelling with her family of six, camping at various national parks around the US, where she diligently completed every Jr. Ranger program she could get her hands on and dreamed of being a park ranger herself one day. In college she received a bachelor of liberal arts in Cultural Resource Management, after which she spent a year working with at-risk youth in a Baton Rouge middle school through City Year- an Americorps program. 

Fast forward a few years and she is a new mom living in Austin, curious about learning the names of all the “weeds” growing in her front yard. This curiosity led to the realization that there was wild food growing everywhere around her in yards, business landscaping, edges of parkland and greenbelts. To learn how to identify and use all of these wild edible plants became her passion and obsession. She furthered her knowledge of plants by getting her permaculture design certificate through Austin Permaculture Guild in 2022. Through this course she was introduced to herbalism, natural building, and creating closed-loop systems that reduce a person’s ecological footprint. She is actively working to include these ideals into her daily life, as they align with her desire to live in a way that contributes to the well-being of the planet. 

Through her pursuit for a deeper understanding of wild foods and foraging, she has met and learned from some of the most well known foragers in the US today- Sam Thayer, Alexis Nelson, Dr. Mark “Merriwether” Vordebruggen, Jesse Azobek, and others.

Roxanne has four children who are her biggest source of joy in life. Raising them to be good citizens and caretakers of the planet takes up most of her time, but when she does have a free moment, she enjoys practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu, sewing clothes, gardening, cooking, and escaping into a good fantasy novel.

Margaret grew up in the suburbs of Houston, where she was homeschooled through middle school. She often chose to complete her schoolwork outdoors, surrounded by nature. A field next to her home was filled with wild edible plants, and from a young age she began foraging there, sharing the landscape with the wildlife that depended on the same native species.

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Homeschooling allowed Margaret to learn beyond the classroom through educational field trips, including camping in Texas state parks, foraging on family land, and exploring native ecosystems firsthand. One of her favorite experiences was a botany course that involved canoeing down Buffalo Bayou to identify native plants, then pressing and preserving them in her own botanical collection.

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Inspired by these early experiences, Margaret pursued a degree in horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University. While there, she worked at the university's botanical garden, helping develop native plant trial gardens alongside her mentor and participating in the Native Plant Society of Texas. She also volunteered at the East Texas Native Plant Materials Center, where she assisted with native plant conservation, restoration techniques, and seed production to support the reestablishment of native species across Texas.

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After earning her bachelor's degree, Margaret accepted a position with a commercial landscape construction company. Although it was a valuable opportunity for a recent graduate, she soon realized her passion lay not in transforming natural landscapes, but in protecting and restoring them. That experience reinforced her commitment to native plants, conservation, and environmental education.

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Alongside her passion for nature, Margaret enjoys creating safe, engaging environments where children can explore, ask questions, and develop a lasting appreciation for the natural world. Margaret is excited to share her love of plants, wildlife, and the outdoors with the next generation through hands-on learning and exploration

Kevin grew up in Mississippi surrounded by trees, trails, and wildlife. After college, he moved to Seattle and participated in The Immersion, a nine-month wilderness survival and nature connection program. Through that experience, he discovered that time outdoors could be more than hiking or camping. It could also be a way to learn, challenge yourself, build community, and develop a deeper relationship with the natural world.

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The experience changed the direction of Kevin’s life and sparked his passion for outdoor education. He began working as an instructor in the Seattle area, teaching children about edible plants, animal tracking, sensory awareness, and other outdoor skills through hands-on activities and games.

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Kevin later moved to California, where he gained additional experience teaching and facilitating outdoor programs for students of all ages. He especially loved watching students step outside their comfort zones, overcome challenges, and discover abilities they did not know they had. After the school year ended, he returned to Seattle to help mentor and train outdoor education staff.

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Kevin is excited to be back in the South and sharing his love of outdoor education with students at Earth Native. In his free time, he can usually be found bouldering, practicing bushcraft skills, or enjoying the water.

​Aayan was born in Texas and grew up in Oman on the Arabian Peninsula, where she spent much of her childhood gardening, hiking, swimming, exploring tide pools, and catching critters with her brothers. Growing up among Oman’s unique landscapes and diverse cultures sparked her curiosity about the natural world from an early age. She was always bringing home interesting finds, creating habitats for small creatures, and turning whatever she discovered into an opportunity to learn. Along the way, she learned to sail, taught pottery classes, explored foraging, and developed a particular fascination with wetlands and the life found within them. She also traveled throughout Asia, experiencing a variety of cultures and ecosystems.

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Aayan eventually returned to Texas to earn a degree in Environmental Studies from Texas A&M University. There, she deepened her knowledge of ecology, herpetology, entomology, and biogeography. Her studies included mapping and researching wetlands, examining plant and invertebrate communities, and participating in amphibian and reptile surveys. Outside of school, she continued learning through her own garden, identifying snakes and insects, collecting aquatic plants, and building self-sustaining planted aquariums.

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After graduating, Aayan worked as an ecologist throughout Texas and New Mexico. Her fieldwork included endangered species surveys, wetland assessments, karst evaluations, and wildlife and plant surveys. Although she loved working in the field, she discovered that one of her favorite parts of the job was sharing what she had learned with others. Aayan loves to inspire the same sense of curiosity that shaped her own childhood. At Earth Native, she is excited to help children explore, get their hands dirty, and discover the natural world for themselves.

David Croft is a native of the Texas Hill Country and grew up as a “free-range child” with outdoor experience in all parts of Texas.  He has interests and experience in Primitive Technologies, SCUBA diving, caving, sailing, flying and wildland studies of all kinds.  

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In his early college career he studied psychology/geology at the University of Texas and was active in sub-marine and submarine research both with the UT system and the Department of the Interior.  After several years of developing his carpentry skills into a design and construction business, his latent interest in medicine and emergency response led him to become a certified EMT with special skills.  From there he took on firefighting, EMS response and ultimately full time work at the Seton system first as an Emergency Room Technician then as Operations Manager for Seton’s Emergency Services.  During that period he finished a pre-med degree and assumed much of the responsibility for Seton’s disaster response including response to Hazardous Materials Incidents in the region.  He also represented the Seton System at the region’s Interagency Disaster Council.  

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David then returned to school full time to complete a degree in Environmental Management with a focus on Natural Hazards.  As an intern at the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District, he worked to develop and evaluate emergency response/notification strategies for HAZMAT incidents that threaten water quality in the district.

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After graduation, he was recruited by the City of Austin Office of Emergency Management to write the healthcare response plans for Austin/Travis County and then by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to help design and implement a Facility Management Information System.  David then joined the City of Austin's Wildland Conservation Division helping to care for and manage the City's preserve lands.  

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David became a Master Naturalist in 2004 and has volunteered in various capacities including teaching primitive technologies for the Capital Area Master Naturalists, Westcave Preserve, the Native Prairie Association of Texas, Scouting and YMCA.  He is the Emergency Operations Coordinator for El Ranchito Summer Camp and enjoys teaching “Primitive Technologies”, “Natural Hazards of Texas”, “First Aid off the Grid” and other topics.

Heather grew up across south, east, and west Texas, developing a deep love for the outdoors from an early age. She spent countless nights camping and was known to prefer sleeping outside—even when at home. Summers were dedicated to scout camp, a community she remains actively involved with today.

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A sports medicine physician by training, Heather has a particular interest in event administration, where the natural environment and human performance intersect. Through wilderness medicine, she has found the ideal connection between her professional expertise and passion for the outdoors.

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Heather regularly teaches wilderness medical education courses for a wide range of audiences, including outdoor enthusiasts, guides, wildland firefighters, and healthcare professionals. She is passionate about making practical, evidence-based medical knowledge accessible to anyone who spends time in remote environments.

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Living in west Texas, Heather is inspired by the quiet, wide-open spaces and big skies of the Big Bend region. When she is not practicing medicine or teaching, she can be found hiking, camping, backpacking, and building connections within the outdoor community, including through her involvement with Earth Native Wilderness School.

Mark spent his childhood in rural England, and from an early age was obsessed with the natural world. He has fond memories of pond dipping for newts, looking for badgers with his Dad, and horrifying his Aunt by pulling apart owl pellets in her kitchen sink. Gifted with a degree of freedom that may seem surprising today, he and his friends spent every available moment playing in the local woods and fields. Somewhere back in the 1980s he discovered a book on outdoor survival skills and started to get more serious about his outdoor pursuits through the Scout Association, and Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Schemes. 

Following degrees in the biological sciences, Mark moved to the US to pursue a scientific research career. The move was transformative, and when he wasn’t working, he was backpacking and birding around his new home in North Carolina, canoeing the local lake, or crawling around the local parking lots looking at all the cool new bugs. Following a later move to Maryland he discovered the Ancestral Knowledge School where he fulfilled a childhood dream by successfully making his first friction fire. It was here he began formally training in ancestral/ survival skills.

Mark moved to Texas in 2012 and is now a certified Texas Master Naturalist, and the President of his local Audubon Chapter. Shortly after arriving in Texas Mark started working his way through the catalog of classes on offer at Earth Native. He developed a passion for animal tracking after taking an intro class in 2020 and has been involved with Earth Native’s Tracking Intensive ever since. This journey has taken him from student to instructor, and from tracking roe deer and hedgehogs in the UK, to mountain lion and wolves in the USA. He holds a Level III Track and Sign certification with CyberTracker North America and is currently working towards Professional and Specialist Certifications! 

Eric is a born and raised Austinite and naturalist. As a kid, his summers were filled with trips to Enchanted Rock, Hamilton's Pool, and all the other natural wonders of central Texas. Eric was one of Earth Native’s first students back in 2011. He then became an instructor at both Earth Native and the Austin Nature & Science Center. During the past few years, Eric has been working as an engineer in the renewable energy and environmental consulting fields, but he always takes time to reconnect with the natural world and teach people about plants. He is especially interested in edible and medicinal plants and has led numerous plant walks. He enjoys traveling and exploring nature with his wife, Stacy. Eric and Stacy co-founded a yaupon tea business called Local Leaf; they sustainably wild-harvest yaupon from Earth Native School's land to create a bottled yaupon maté drink as well as powdered yaupon matcha. They also co-authored Foraging Texas: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods.