Nature Name: Sunflower

Heather Butler has been the director of WOLF School since 1999. She graduated from Stanford University with an A.B. in Human Biology and Comparative Literature, and received her Teaching Credential from Chapman University in 2005. She began her career with WOLF School as assistant to the organization’s founder, Randy Widera, and has maintained the non-profit’s mission, values, and commitment to connecting youth to nature, while advancing WOLF School’s programs to meet schoolteacher and administrators' state teaching requirements. Continuing California’s tradition of science camp, she has implemented state standards-based learning and NGSS-supportive thinking into all programs, while retaining WOLF School’s strength as a dynamic organization providing inspiring outdoor experiences.  Heather is a member and past president of CA’s Association of Environmental and Outdoor Education (AEOE) and is a past board member of Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks. She thinks she has the best career in the world that combines working outdoors with kids and teachers, campfires, music, salamanders, and redwoods.

Nature Name: Tumbleweed

From camping and hiking with her family while growing up, to teaching swimming and surfing to kids in her hometown of El Segundo, CA throughout high school, Tumbleweed gained a deep connection to both youth education and learning about the outdoors from a young age. She attended college at UC Santa Cruz where she earned a B.A. in History with a minor in Education, before earning her Masters in Elementary Education at Loyola Marymount University. Tumbleweed began her career as an outdoor educator with WOLF School: she was hired as a naturalist in 2008, and promoted to program director in 2010. After that she did a stint as an interpreter for California State Parks at parks throughout the central California coast region, during which time she gained a vast knowledge of California’s various environments. She returned to WOLF School in 2013 as the school liaison/ administrator, and has been the associate director since 2015. Tumbleweed’s passion for WOLF School, the outdoors, for teaching and shared experiences, and her commitment to setting students and staff up for success spreads to the entire WOLF School team, creating a dynamic and fun work environment for staff, and an educational, empowering experience for students. She loves any activity that involves being in the sun, including surfing, hiking, reading, and gardening.

Nature Name: Typhoon

Originally from Redlands, CA, Typhoon earned both his Bachelor of Science in Ecology, Behavior and Evolution and a Master of Science in Biology from UC San Diego. He has held an array of educator positions, including as a San Diego Zoo tour guide, animal trainer and presenter at San Diego’s Safari Park, summer camp backpacking guide with Lawrence Hall of Science, as an interpreter for Big Basin Redwoods State Park, and as a tour guide for the Monte Verde Butterfly Garden in Costa Rica. Throughout his experiences, Typhoon began seeing educating our youth as the most impactful way to improve our environment and society, and started as a naturalist with WOLF School in 2010, before advancing to program director in 2011, and has been the program coordinator since 2012. He shares his positivity with all around him, and loves hiking and biking with his 2 year old daughter, and is looking forward to teaching her his other passions: kayaking, surfing, swimming, and backpacking.

Nature Name: Seal

Seal has a passion for the ocean and all of its creatures. She loves sharing this passion with youth by connecting the sea with the terrestrial environment. She lives life to the fullest every day and aspires to play the ukulele in the WOLF School band.