Promoting environmental awareness and knowledge and encouraging its appreciation in our keiki.  

 

I moved to Maui twelve years ago from a small seacoast town in New Hampshire where I was a self-employed landscape designer.  Prior to that, I studied at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and received a B.S. in Landscape Architecture. After graduation, I worked in a Florida based landscape architectural firm that focused on residential & commercial development, parks & recreation, and environmental mitigation & restoration plans.  Strolling through MOMI’s campus today, you can see the results of my experience and student collaboration in the preparation and maintenance of the herb & rain gardens, Peace Garden, Plumeria Grove, Native Plant Nursery, and Living Classroom.

 

After moving to Maui, my nautical side took hold, and I sailed the South Pacific for five months aboard the SV Kwai delivering cargo to the small, sparsely inhabited atolls of Kiribati and the Cook Islands.  I returned to Maui and worked as a boat captain/scuba instructor and educated visitors about Hawai’i’s marine world for the next four years.

 

The experience of educating and the desire to meaningfully contribute brought me back to the land and into the MOMI community as a substitute teacher in 2012.  In the spring of 2013, I began my current role as the Living Classroom Resource Teacher and student-led Sustainability Committee facilitator.  The opportunity to witness and participate in the growth and development of students from their early primary years through middle school adolescence, all within an outdoor learning environment, is a unique privilege.

 

As a lifelong learner, I have completed an online Master of Science Graduate Degree in Environmental Studies from Green Mountain College in Vermont.  My goal is to apply the knowledge gained from the MSES program to the Living Classroom and Sustainability Committee’s student experience and to further develop my professional knowledge and skills to transition into an administrative decision-making & leadership role in the environmental education field.  When I am not rooted in research, you can find me, camera in hand, at the forest or beach with my wife, Megan, daughter, Mae, and dog, Abbey.