Kellen grew up in the Northwoods of Bemidji, Minnesota, where she cultivated her love of the outdoors, fishing, camping, and hiking among the beautiful paper birch trees and melodic love songs of the Common Loon. She moved to Missoula thirteen years ago and completed her B.A. in Print Journalism at the University of Montana. Over her years in Missoula, Kellen has worked in the service industry, wearing many hats, most recently working at Conflux Brewing Company as a manager and the event coordinator. Always passionate about conservation work, Kellen began as a field volunteer with the Owl Research Institute three years ago. Her volunteering involved catching and banding countless owls throughout western Montana. After years of persistence and dedication, she was hired on as ORI’s social media coordinator. In Kellen’s spare time she can be found hiking through the mountains with her two dogs, Sage and Theo, and her husband, Dean. She loves reading, writing, birding, and, above all, gardening.

Alyssa grew up in Livingston, Montana’s windiest city. Although one must avoid being swept away by the wind, Alyssa still loved to explore outside. Hikes to Pine Creek Falls, bike rides with her family into the valley, and summers filled with floating and fishing on the Yellowstone River cultivated her love for nature. In 2012 she moved to Arizona, where she held a collections internship with the Arizona Historical Society Museum and received her B.A. in History and M.A. in Public History from Arizona State University. After five years, the mountains were calling and she and her husband, Josh, moved to Missoula. In December 2022 Alyssa graduated from George Washington University with a Graduate Certificate in Collections Management and Care. She is currently serving as the Montana representative for the Mountain-Plains Museums Association of Registrars and Collections Managers Network (RC-MPMA). Outside of museum collections, Alyssa enjoys reading, drawing, volleyball, track and field, rafting, hunting, Dungeons and Dragons, and playing with her dog, Copper.

Alyssa grew up in Stevensville, Montana, where she enjoyed camping, hiking, and rafting with her family, and found a love for nature. She began her academic career in the Environmental Studies program at the University of Montana. Throughout college she continued to explore Montana, as well as the West Coast and various countries abroad, where she constantly sought out wild and untouched spaces. Alyssa is very excited to be back at MNHC where she has enjoyed teaching our youth about nature and rediscovering her love for nature because of them.

Pat grew up in England and came to the U.S.A. in 1980 pursuing a career in aeronautical engineering. One day he got tired of working for large companies, quit his job, and started volunteering at The Nature Conservancy. Eighteen months later they hired him as their first IT Manager, and he worked for them, in Seattle, for eleven years. In 1994 he took a hawk ID class, which opened his eyes to the world of birds and changed his life. Pat has spent many falls since then sitting in cold drafty blinds on mountain ridges trying to trap and band hawks. Pat and his wife moved to Missoula in 2009. They took the Montana Natural History Center’s Master Naturalist class together a few years ago. Pat has learned a lot from attending various nature classes over the years, and he is thrilled to be able to work for an organization that provides nature education. Pat also serves on the board of the Five Valleys Audubon Society, and he is hoping to get some flickers to use the nest box in his back yard if he can keep the squirrels out.

Andrea’s life has always revolved around science and nature. Raised in upstate New York on beautiful Oneida Lake, she received her B.S. in biology from Cornell University. Upon returning from a year abroad in France, she fell in love with teaching and completed a master’s degree in secondary science education at Teachers College, Columbia University. During her twenty-year tenure as a high school biology teacher in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, she chaperoned trips to Honduras and Mexico to conduct biodiversity surveys and study reef ecology. In addition to her tropical travels, she volunteered for Glacier National Park’s High Country Citizen Science Program, where she became captivated by the alpine environment and its species. This prompted her to embark upon graduate coursework at the University of Montana and a master’s degree in biology at Université Laval in Québec. Andrea’s research on the life history of mountain goats in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta deepened her understanding of scientific processes as well as her appreciation for the challenge and fulfillment of learning. It also happily led her back to the Treasure State, where she integrated western and traditional ecological ways of knowing the natural world as an instructor at the Salish Kootenai College STEM Academy. In her new role at MNHC, she is excited to share her commitment to connecting people with nature by cultivating new generations of environmental stewards through experiential, place-based education. When she’s not in the office/classroom, she’s a four-season explorer with a passion for all things outdoors: trail running, wildlife viewing, surfing, swimming, cross-country skiing, cycling, and hiking.

Scott has led national and multi-national nonprofit organizations working in the American West and Latin America. His passion and experience stems from leading transformational community-based organizations and a desire to offer experiences that renew one’s relationship with self, others, and the natural world. Combining his experience as a high school physics teacher, outdoor educator, and river and wilderness guide, Scott co-founded and directed Ecology Project International, a nonprofit that has engaged over 40,000 high school and college students in critical conservation research from Yellowstone to the Galapagos. He later served as the Executive Director of Adventure Cycling, the nation’s largest membership bicycling organization. Scott was a Fellow at the Academy for Systems Change, and previously served on the boards of the Montana Nonprofit Association and the Montana Community Foundation. He has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Barbara and an M.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. When not at work, you’ll find Scott exploring the rivers and trails with his teenage kids and his wife, Julie.

Emma grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, where she learned to love being outside. She earned a B.S. in Biology with a minor in Ecology and Environmental Science at Marian University in Indianapolis while competing as a professional cyclist. After graduating, Emma headed to Mount Rainier National Park, where she led citizen science research on toads and developed a passion for science communication. Mountain biking and skiing then brought Emma to Montana and she’s so glad she’s here! She has enjoyed connecting and learning about Montana through non-profit work at Ecology Project International, Wild Montana, Families First Learning Lab, and most recently Home ReSource, where she taught zero-waste initiatives to 5th graders. Emma is excited to reconnect with her naturalist skills and explore the natural world with students in her new role as a Visiting Naturalist in the Schools Teaching Naturalist. In her free time, Emma can be found coaching the local junior mountain bike and nordic ski teams in Missoula, reading, and learning Spanish.

Elena grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, and has loved nature from a very young age. She obtained a B.S. degree in Wildlife Biology from the University of Missouri-Columbia and moved to Missoula in 1999. Early in her career she worked as a field biologist and technical science writer for the U.S. Forest Service. In 2020 she became a Master Naturalist and Certified Interpretive Guide and discovered a new passion—teaching people about nature, specifically ornithology and botany. Elena currently teaches classes at the Lifelong Learning Center and MOLLI as well as teaching the Master Naturalist program in the Bitterroot Valley and Glacier National Park. She recently created a new business: Blue Heron Nature Tours. In her free time she enjoys camping, growing her own food, and paddleboarding with her daughters, Ella and Lucy, and her husband, Seth. She and her family are currently keeping busy building a tiny off-the-grid cabin themselves in the Seeley-Swan Valley.

Ann’s love of the outdoors started in her youth, chasing her brothers around the tennis court and building forts in the woods behind her family home in Minnesota. After earning her B.S in Elementary Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ann jumped right into the classroom. She taught preschool-6th grade in schools across Montana and California for over 20 years, gravitating towards schools with an outdoor education focus. In addition to classroom teaching, Ann worked for several years as a traveling tutor, developing place-based curriculum for locations from Beijing to Europe.  More recently, she has been working as a freelance curriculum designer, creating educational content for elementary students. Ann completed Nature Docent Training at Topanga State Park in California, where she grew to love the chaparral ecosystem of the Santa Monica Mountains. Now that she is back in Montana, Ann loves being outside and on the trail as much as possible, and is eager to share her love of this stunning landscape with the youth of Missoula.

Nora grew up in central Ohio, attending and volunteering at STEAM day camps and programs, where she developed her love of sharing the natural world with others. She moved to Missoula in June 2020 to pursue a B.S. in Ecology and Organismal Biology at the University of Montana. While studying, she worked as a research assistant for several projects at the university. Most recently, she worked on a study of pine tree sapling survival and regeneration after wild fires in Gold Creek, Montana. In her free time she likes to go hiking with her two dogs, attending concerts in town, and crocheting.

Kaylin grew up in the mountains of Colorado skiing and finding love for the natural world. They spent a couple years studying ecopsychology with a focus on the intersection of mycology, gender, and indigenous leadership. She lived in Washington doing outdoor education, and guiding as well as doing wilderness therapy in Idaho. They enjoy mindfulness and identification in nature as well as outdoor recreation like whitewater kayaking and downhill skiing.

Lisa is an interpretive planner and designer who launched her small business, Field to Frame, in 2019. She worked as staff for the Montana Natural History Center and has taught outdoor and environmental education in Washington, Colorado, and Minnesota. She holds a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana and an M.Ed. from Western Washington University with an emphasis in nonprofit administration through the North Cascades Institute’s residency program. Skiing, hiking, gardening, reading, keeping up with teenagers, and searching for huckleberries keep her busy. Though she’s never met an MNHC nature journaling class she didn’t like.

Peggy Christian is a naturalist, writer, and photographer. Nurturing a life-long sense of wonder, she seeks, through her art and writing, to deepen our relationship with the natural world and explore how that relationship guides the way we live our lives and the choices we make everyday. She is the author of several children’s books, including If You Find a Rock, and has taught writing and book arts for more than twenty years. She is a Master Naturalist and has volunteered for a number of environmental and literacy non profits. Hiking, growing and preserving food, and skiing, both cross country and downhill, are her passions. She lives in Missoula, and shares her wanderings and wonderings on the blog Backwoods and Beyond (An Exploration of the Wild Inside and Out).

Hank is a conservationist, author, journalist, and guide, and has been extensively involved in endangered species restoration in the northern Rockies. Hank studied wildlife biology and journalism and has an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. From 1977-2002, Hank was the Defenders of Wildlife Northern Rockies’ representative and his 1995 book, Wolf Wars, chronicles the effort to restore wolves to Yellowstone. Hank created the Defenders of Wildlife Compensation Funds for reimbursing farmers for wolf and grizzly bear livestock losses. Hank has been honored with many awards including the Don Aldrich Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Award, the Edward Lowe Enviro-Capitalist Award and a Special Achievement Award from the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee.

Ian was raised in Boise, ID, and studied Biology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. He has earned graduate degrees in Education and Recreation Management. He taught elementary and middle school sciences in San Francisco, Boston, and here in Missoula. Ian was also an environmental/outdoor educator for San Mateo Outdoor Education, Massachusetts Audubon, and Missoula Outdoor Learning Adventures.  Ian and his wife April moved to Missoula for many great reasons in 2008 and love the access to wild places. Ian can be found enjoying Missoula’s parks and trails on a daily basis. Ian also volunteers with Missoula Children and Nature and Friends of Missoula Parks.

Caroline was born and raised in Springfield, Ohio, and has degrees from Vassar College (B.A., English) and Boston University (M.S., Science Communication).  She and her husband, Willis, have lived in Missoula since 1997, and have a daughter, Ella. MNHC became a wonderful home for Caroline soon after arriving in Missoula; she began coordinating MNHC’s Field Notes program around 1998, and created Field Notes Quarterly in 1999, which transitioned into Montana Naturalist magazine in 2004. She managed Field Notes and Montana Naturalist through 2011, and has continued to support MNHC in various ways since then. Natural history centers and museums had been a staple of Caroline’s upbringing in Ohio and the east. She was lucky to find a way to connect with MNHC and its people during the formative years, and loved feeling part of the beginning of what is now such a powerful force and resource for naturalist education and nature appreciation in Missoula and beyond.

Bio coming soon!