Northern

Team

: Muskoka

Laura Alward

Laura Alward has been studying ecology, healing and art for 8 years. Laura spent 3 years learning sustainable agriculture and herbalism in Western Canada and US, and earned a Permaculture Designers Certification in California. Laura currently works as a Terrestrial Ecologist for an environmental consulting firm in Muskoka. Laura loves to cultivate, harvest and honor wild plants which she uses for food, healing and crafts. She volunteers helping her local community with stewardship activities such as environmental education, shoreline restoration and nature landscaping at schools, and is honored to be helping create a new culture of nature connection in Ontario through the Headwaters Gathering and Art of Mentoring. When she’s not playing with plants Laura loves to go tracking and assist with wildlife research in the Algonquin Park area.

Alexis Burnett

Alexis Burnett is a Naturalist, Tracker, Wilderness Skills Practitioner and Canoe Guide from Orangeville, ON. He currently resides on the west side of Algonquin Park, spending his days tracking and running his Canoeing Adventure and Nature Education company, Earth Tracks. Alexis has spent significant time learning from wilderness survival and tracking experts such as Tom Brown Jr., Jon Young, and renowned Herbalist Rosemary Gladstar. He has been practicing indigenous skills and naturalist studies for over ten years, and has run the Orangeville Tracking and Nature club for the past seven.

Chris Gilmour

Chris Gilmour is part of the northern organizing committee for the Art of Mentoring experience being held near Toronto in Aug. 2010. Currently living in the Muskoka area of Ontario, Chris is a professional outdoor educator and wilderness guide. He has over 9 years of experience helping people of all ages deepen their knowledge of the natural world through experiential education. He is the founder of Earth Mentorship Programs, a business focusing on naturalist mentoring and wilderness training for various types of groups and organizations. Chris is passionate about wildlife tracking, herbal medicine, ancient wilderness living skills and is a devout student of the natural world. Chris is also the Program Director for the p.i.n.e. summer camps, and spends time with both Sticks and Stones Wilderness School and the p.i.n.e. project as an instructor and mentor throughout the year.

Eastern

Team

: Peterborough

Kathleen Charlton

Kathleen grew up spending her days wandering in the woods, watching insects, catching frogs and exploring the earth beneath her feet. As an adult, Kathleen has spent the last 12 years teaching and developing programs for children. She holds a Masters degree in Teaching from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto (OISE/U of T) where she completed a thesis on the topic of outdoor adventure as an avenue to resilience for children at risk. Kathleen loves mentoring children and is currently rooting herself in the Peterborough area where she acts as the Children‘s Programming Coordinator for the Smith-Ennismore-Lakefield Library and as a part-time Educator for Camp Kawartha. She is a student in the Kamana Naturalist Training Program and co-organizer of the Kawartha Wilds Tracking Club.

Craig Brant

Craig lives with his wife Kathleen in Lakefield Ontario (near Peterborough) on the southern edge of the Canadian Shield. He has been learning “the ways of the wilds” for over 15 years; as a teenager guiding wilderness canoe trips he realized that he “loved it out there” and also that he did not know much about many of the thousands of creatures around him. He has set out to correct that and to share the journey of learning about the natural world with others. His work in Outdoor and Environmental Education has been supplemented by studies and training with a diversity of nature and wilderness programs including the Kamana Naturalist Training Program, White Pine Programs Tracking Apprenticeship and Wildlore (Timeless Visions). Craig is also the co-organizer of the Kawartha Wilds Tracking Club.

Southern

Team

: Toronto and near north

Skeet Sutherland

Skeet Sutherland is founder, program director and lead instructor of Sticks & Stones Wilderness School. He also provides private ecological consulting services assisting landowners in preparing stewardship and sustainable forest management plans. In an effort to raise local ecological awareness, Skeet voluntarily coordinates local Community Stewardship Initiatives and leads the Headwaters Tracking Club. He is also an active member of the Headwaters Gatherings in Ontario.

Sticks & Stones Wilderness School is based out of the Headwaters Region of southern Ontario, where Skeet grew up. The school specializes in holistic wilderness living education, and integrates ancient skills with a philosophy of caretaking our environment.

Andrew McMartin

Andrew is the founder and Executive Director of The P.I.N.E. Project, a small non-profit organization created to connect people and place through nature based learning and play. He enjoys eating plants that others think are weeds, getting grass stains and mud on his clothes, and spending time in nature (be it the front lawn, the local park, or far far away wilderness).

He is currently working on his stick collection, and you’ll often find him pretending to be a coyote with PINE Community Outdoor School, or creating some kind of fun, functional object from natural materials. In his off time he busies himself making messes around his house. ; )
Andrew has degrees in Biology, Physical and Health Education, and Education from Queen’s and Lakehead Universities. He has been an outdoor educator in the UK, USA and Canada, and interned in Africa, helping facilitate day experiences on the White Nile. Andrew has spent over 10 years in the adventure education field, guiding youth wilderness leadership experiences across the remote northern aspects of Canada from Labrador to the NWT. Throughout the years, he’s also spent time as an intern with Tom Brown Jr’s Trackerschool in New Jersey, learning from Dan Gardoqui at White Pine Programs in Maine, and Mark Morey at the Institute for Natural Learning.

Kyle Lamont:

Kyle was raised in a small coastal town on Vancouver Island.

Building forts, making fires, and roaming the coastline occupied most of his free time. His most memorable experiences however are climbing the big, west coast trees.

Currently, he lives in the Beaver Valley, and is working towards becoming a certified arborist. When he isn’t climbing trees throughout the week, he can be found wandering the countryside, shooting some arrows, or tracking the locals (animals that is).

Western

Team

: London, ON

Kevin MacGregor

Kevin has studied with various wilderness skills schools over the past ten years, and has been involved with the Art of Mentoring teachings for eight years. He has received certificates in wilderness survival, tracking, and permaculture, trained in ICCD Clubhouse philosophy, and completed an apprenticeship in community resilience with the Institute for Natural Learning in Vermont.

Kevin has been applying his skills by mentoring people who received brain injuries through various types of trauma. Kevin does one-on-one mentoring, founded the brain injury survivors conference, co-founded the International Brain Injury Clubhouse Association, sits on the advisory board for Cornerstone Clubhouse, and has spoken at various conferences and workshops.