Our species staff are committed to creating positive outdoor experiences for youth and adults, weaving fun, games, learning, instruction and exploration in the basket of "invisible schooling". If you are a nature educator living in Western MA and would like to offer a program through our co-operative, please get in touch.
Felix Lufkin - Director, Sumac School, Wild Edible Plant Series
Felix works with K-12, college and adult students at a number of programs in the Valley teaching nature awareness plant ecology at in and after school programs and public workshops. He has worked in the field since 2003 with well known nature education organizations like the New England Aquarium, Burgundy Center for Wildlife Studies, Mass Audubon, WolfTree Programs, the Vermont Wilderness School and Earthwork Programs. He has lead nature programs at NorthStar Teen Center, PVCICS, Four Rivers Charter School, the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School, and taught wild edible plants at UMass Amherst. He also directs Help Yourself, Inc. He is a father and runs Turtle Bend Farm with his wife, Maggie.
Felix works with K-12, college and adult students at a number of programs in the Valley teaching nature awareness plant ecology at in and after school programs and public workshops. He has worked in the field since 2003 with well known nature education organizations like the New England Aquarium, Burgundy Center for Wildlife Studies, Mass Audubon, WolfTree Programs, the Vermont Wilderness School and Earthwork Programs. He has lead nature programs at NorthStar Teen Center, PVCICS, Four Rivers Charter School, the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School, and taught wild edible plants at UMass Amherst. He also directs Help Yourself, Inc. He is a father and runs Turtle Bend Farm with his wife, Maggie.
Maggie Lufkin - Office Manager, Groundnut Organizer
Maggie has been in the world of nature education since 2012 and has worked at several organizations such as PVCICS, Help Yourself, The Wampler Foundation, The Hartsbrook School and Wolftree Programs. Maggie is a mother and run's Turtle Bend Farm with her husband, Felix.
Maggie has been in the world of nature education since 2012 and has worked at several organizations such as PVCICS, Help Yourself, The Wampler Foundation, The Hartsbrook School and Wolftree Programs. Maggie is a mother and run's Turtle Bend Farm with her husband, Felix.
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Jroo Burke - Forest After School
Jroo is an educator and organizer deeply invested in community care and health equity. Through work in healing justice, queer ecology, and harm reduction, they aim to build spaces for folks to find belonging within nature and the world. They have worked in outdoor and farm education for the past six years, and love nothing more than connecting young people to the animate world through growing food together. |
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Andrea Boyko - Forest After School
Andrea Boyko lives in Belchertown with her 3 daughters, a flock of chickens, a doggie and a sourdough starter named Reberta. She has a Masters degree in Education and has taught outdoor education since 2020 when she directed and taught at an outdoor “tent school”. She also led the nature program at the Smith College Campus School. She is an avid naturalist who loves growing her own food and foraging in our local woodlands. She has an extensive nature collection of everything from teeny-tiny mice sculls to porcupine quills and tortoise shells. She is an educator and a shoemaker by trade. Her specialty is making shoes and slippers out of discarded items like popped bike tire tubes and old wool sweaters. |
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Ari Henry (she/they) - Forest After School
Ari is excited to join the Leapfrog team this season. She has a diverse background in outdoor education and musical play. Their work with Leapfrog follows a year-long Watson Fellowship studying “Soundscapes of Childhood”. Living in rural communities in Tanzania, India, Nepal, Mongolia, Spain, Sweden, and Aotearoa (New Zealand), Ari created her own research project learning about the creative ways in which caregivers use song to raise the next generation with deep connections to the natural world. Ari has served as an outdoor educator in several contexts including leading farm-based field trips for Northampton public schools, and as a wilderness counselor at various summer sleepaway camps. Ari’s passion for creatively bridging the gap between the “science world” and the public drives her commitment to environmental justice and her use of child-led play in the outdoors. |
Claire Guillemin - Forest After School
Claire (she/they) is overjoyed to be working as your Forest Program Instructor. They graduated in 2024 from Hampshire College with a focus on Art, Writing and Outdoor Education. They grew up in Boston but spend their free time outside the city, trail running, climbing, making art and exploring the great outdoors. Claire has always had an affinity for the woods. They are fascinated by the antithetical nature of forest, how can any one thing be so grandiose and precious, so powerful yet so fragile? What other questions can we discover together?
Claire (she/they) is overjoyed to be working as your Forest Program Instructor. They graduated in 2024 from Hampshire College with a focus on Art, Writing and Outdoor Education. They grew up in Boston but spend their free time outside the city, trail running, climbing, making art and exploring the great outdoors. Claire has always had an affinity for the woods. They are fascinated by the antithetical nature of forest, how can any one thing be so grandiose and precious, so powerful yet so fragile? What other questions can we discover together?
Dean Colpack - Mushroom Walks Series & Groundnut Organizer
Dean moved to Western MA when he was eighteen and has since fallen in love with wild nature. He has worked as a nature educator in public elementary schools, has taught holistic, ethical butchering with gratitude to adults, is a member of the Pioneer Valley Mycological Association, and has been a prison justice activist focusing on reproductive rights and abolishing solitary confinement. He holds a MSW from Smith, and is working towards a social work practice that integrates group therapy and nature literacy.
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Martha Hoffman -Forest After School
Martha grew up frolicking in the forests of Eastern Mass and Maine. She graduated Oberlin College with degrees in Dance and East Asian Studies, and a passion for the wide open spaces of the midwest. In addition to working as a interfaith group dialogue facilitator and somatic educator, she has worked as a trip leader and outdoor educator at Alford Lake Camp, Camp Chewonki, Oberlin's Outdoors Club, and Earthwork Programs. Her ideal day would include discovering a hidden nature spot, picking blackberries, and hosting an extremely enthusiastic dance party! |
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Sadie Ranen - Forest After School
Sadie was born and raised in the Pioneer Valley. She has lived off-grid for the majority of the past decade in a remote region on Maui. Sadie has experience working with kids in nature at a Waldorf school, Earthworks Programs and in community where she lived off grid. Sadie is a yoga teacher 400hr certified in Hatha, Vinyasa. |
Fledge Dog - Forest After School, Sumac School, Field Director, Canine Outreach
Fledge is an avid outdoorsman, enjoying long romps in the woods and exploring the forest floor from a olfactory perspective. Keen to ingest all forms of animal biomass, this thoughtful and friendly canine is a mostly good listener. Fledge enjoys playing with younger humans at Forest After School and Earth Walkers, and his unique and gentle mentoring style helps students develop comfort and confidence around other members of his largely endearing species.