Dana Rivkin

Summer Camp Coordinator

Dana’s passions are fueled by a desire to build connections to ourselves, to others, and to nature. Her love for the outdoors was ignited through her childhood summers spent at camp in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota. Her love for connecting with people guided her to a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations at American University in Washington, DC. Blending her varied studies and experiences together led her to working in the conservation field as a Trail Crew Guide for high school students as well as a Desert Restorationist. Since 2007 Dana has been working as an outdoor educator, adventure guide and yoga teacher for various organizations around the globe. She joined Mt. Adams Institute as the Summer Program Coordinator in May of 2019. Dana’s free time is filled with yoga, surfing, dance, and cooking food from her garden.

Adam Lieberg

Camp: Junior Naturalists

Andrea Ruchty-Montgomery

Camp: Botany Arts and Craft

Andrea works as a botanist with the U.S Forest Service. She spends her time examining the flora and fauna of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. She shares her wealth of information, love, and excitement for lichen with students and adults alike. Through her career as a botanist, she takes a deeper look at the myriad of micro communities that often go unseen beneath or feet. Andrea lives and works on the edge of the Gifford Pinchot in Trout Lake, Washington.

Brendan Norman

Camp: Outdoor Explorers

As founder and first executive director for Mt. Adams Institute, Brendan has twenty years experience operating AmeriCorps programs such as the Northwest Service Academy and “I Have A Dream” Foundation – Oregon and operating youth camps. An educator at heart with dirt in his blood, Brendan loves the outdoors nearly as much as his family.

Brittany Anna Mariposa

Camps: Little Trackers, Midsummer’s Dream, Wilderness Skills

Brittany is passionate in guiding future generations into respect and love for the environment, to move forward with loving kindness, and be woven in community.  Brittany has worked in the field as an Outdoor Educator since 2011. Locally, she has been involved with Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute, Cascade Mountain School, Mid Valley Elementary School, Whitson Elementary School, Peace Village, and Little Oak Montessori. Her professional passions are balanced with deep fulfillment in teaching & practicing Yoga, speaking Spanish, internationally traveling, backpacking, drinking tea, dancing, singing, and receiving wisdom under starlight, around a campfire, or in a glorious body of water.

Chantel Alcaraz

Camp: The 5 Elements of YOU!

Chantel Alcaraz is an EYRT- Yoga Instructor of over 14 years and is an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Coach/Mentor through her business Abhasa Wellness. She is a Yoga teacher trainer and loves the aspect of sharing her love for embodiment practices with her students! She is passionate about practices that bring her more into her body, aware of her environment, and into the present moment. Living in India for the past 8 years shifted her perspective on life, and living a more present and purposeful daily experience. She nannies part time and loves seeing life through the perspective of young eyes!

Jack Perrin

Camp: Macgyver Overnight

Jack Perrin, Instructor & Director, Gorge Maker Space: is a licensed high school physics teacher with over 20 years’ teaching experience in alternative education. Jack serves as director of Gorge MakerSpace. A builder and tinkerer all his life, Jack founded a school for sustainable living in Colorado where he taught natural building. He and his family moved back on the grid, and back to his native NW to make STEM education in the Gorge a blast.

Jefferson Greene

Camp: Weaving a Story

Born and raised on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon, Jefferson Greene has been around weaving since the time he can remember his grandmother and her daughters weaving basketry and bags for the common giveaway. Connecting with the plants and acknowledging their lifecycles has been an instrumental part in his professional and personal life. There are many ways to weave different materials together and Greene is honored to share a way to connect to mother nature and the cycles in which the earth blesses our lives.

Jenny Twohig

Camps: The Powers of Herbs, Plants and Food, Botanical Crafters

Jenny Twohig has been exploring the Cascades for the better part of a decade, learning about the ecology, medicine, and beauty of these incredible spaces. Attending Arctos School of Botanical and Herbal Studies helped to reinforce her love and practice of plant medicine. Be it crafting a medicinal tonic or dyeing fabric, you can usually find her in the hills of White Salmon, tending the land and gardens. Jenny has an M.S. in Leadership for Sustainability Education from Portland State University, and a B.S. from Keene State College.

Lotti Wood

Camp: Geometry in the Great Outdoors

Lotti has been working with young children for almost 20 years. She is an enthusiastic educator with sunshine in her heart and a passion for drawing out that spark in others. She is excited to combine her art degree and Montessori background to bring creative projects to the classroom, following the interests of the children and implementing projects across the disciplines. She lives in the Montavilla neighborhood in Portland, Oregon with her children zephyr and sequoia and her wonderful partner Martin. She can usually be found rock climbing, jewelry making, cooking vegetarian delicacies, making videos, and bringing people together.

Rebekah Rafferty

Camp: Wildlife Trackers

Rebekah Rafferty is a VetsWork Program Coordinator at MAI. She supports our Southeast/Central and Alaska cohorts of military veterans serving in 45-week natural resource internships on public lands. She’s also worked as a place-based educator in the Columbia Basin since 2012, beginning in western Montana and most recently in the Columbia River Gorge. One of her favorite things to do on her free time is wander the woods and follow wildlife around. She’s taught tracking classes in snow and non-snow substrates, worked as a field technician on wildlife projects focused on wolves, Canada lynx, and wolverines, and holds a Track & Sign Level III Certification from Cybertracker International.

Teigha Mondragon

Camps: Mountain Chef, Mountain Sous Chef

Growing up as the oldest child in a large family in New England, Teigha was naturally drawn to the kitchen. Her family traditions included hunting, gardening, foraging and preserving. These traditions instilled in her a strong sense of gratitude for our Mother Nature and a desire to share the gift of high quality food. Teigha studied nutrition at Simmons College in Boston and worked in the restaurant industry, exploring the hands on experience with food. She attained her culinary certification in San Diego, CA and opened My Healthy Home Chef LLC in 2010.

Now with over 15 years of hospitality and culinary experience, Teigha teaches children of all ages to play with their food. She has the ability to cultivate a fun learning environment, teaching lessons that will last a lifetime. She encourages her students to jump into the kitchen and experiment with the many roles food plays in our lives. Her purpose is to help the next generation develop gratitude for Nature’s bounty and feel confident in the kitchen.

Tina Rivkin

Camp: Art in Nature

Tina Rivkin’s passion for art, nature exploration and teaching has been growing throughout her entire life. She studied various art mediums through her youth and young adult years. Raising two children, she always encouraged creativity in their school projects and in life in general. Working as a Tour Guide for the Walker Art Center for 25 years, Tina led art exhibition tours and  taught activities in the art lab which corresponded to the museum galleries and outdoor sculpture garden. She worked with adults, preschool through college age students, students with special needs and adults with memory loss. For 4 years Tina worked as Education Director and Teacher for Highpoint Center for Printmaking helping put together an education program for students ages 6-18. During that time she taught basic printmaking classes and coordinated an academic calendar project that incorporated printmaking with language arts in the school classroom. Seven years ago Tina became a certified Orton-Gillingham instructor. This teaching method is a multi-sensory, phonetic based reading program designed to guide emerging readers with different needs. She now works as a private reading/writing/spelling tutor for students in grades 1 through 6.