PROGRAM DIRECTOR & LEAD INSTRUCTOR

Emma has been exploring educational spaces for the past 20 years beginning during her undergraduate years at Duke University when she served as a Special Talents tutor at a highly-diverse, underserved urban elementary school in Durham, North Carolina. Her senior project was a documentary film about homeschooling that explored the weekly routines of several homeschooling families and reflected on her own transition from an experiential-based homeschool to traditional public school in the seventh grade. Emma went on to earn her Master of Education and has taught a variety of ages including 3rd grade classroom, 4th-5th grade enrichment, and K-3rd grade science at St. John's School, a highly acclaimed K-12 independent school in Houston, Texas. She has additional experience in a K-12 international school, a Montessori-based preschool, homeschooling co-ops, and a public school parent partnership. She was inspired to found The Greenwall School to fill a gap in existing academic offerings that honor and prioritize children's unique interests, talents, and holistic human needs.

Emma has a bachelor's degree from Duke University in English, Writing and Composition. She earned a Master of Education in Elementary Education from the University of St. Thomas and has 20+ years of 1:1 private tutoring experience.

In life, Emma enjoys math and problem solving, baking, discussing important things with children, forest tending, reading, tasting different foods, writing novels to partial completion, debate, drinking tea from fancy cups, playing games, running and walking in wild spaces, architecture, yoga, and is currently learning Korean. She has the loveliest family imaginable.

LEAD INSTRUCTOR

Ashley has been an advocate for alternative, holistic education options since her studies in graduate school. While working in Texas public schools, Ashley became aware of the disconnect between the content of academic spaces and bigger goal of educating the whole child. After having three children of her own, she recognized that children are just as much teachers as they are learners and her desire for alternative modalities expanded.

Ashley graduated with a B.A. in Communications and Multimedia from St. Edward's University in Austin, TX. After graduating she was employed in the English Department at Texas State University while completing her graduate studies in Elementary Education, English as a Second Language. She has a Master of Education and taught in a K-5 public school before starting a family.

Her children have been her greatest teachers and guides. They are each unique and learn in vastly different ways but the curiosity and wonder are ever present. She is currently training with North American Montessori Center for Lower Elementary certification. She also has extensive experience in working with neurodivergent students and strategies for helping them succeed.

As a student and listener of Mother Earth, she weaves her creativity, love of humans and non-humans, and desire for community into her daily life. She's an amateur tinkerer of herbal teas and medicine, loves to create beauty using graphic design and painting, and thrives on bringing people together. She recently moved from Texas to Washington State, following the call of the trees and a longing to be part of something greater than herself.

LEAD INSTRUCTOR

Emma or “Beaver” as many of their students and friends know them, grew up in Vancouver, B.C., where they learned to love biking, exploring ocean and forest ecosystems, and playing in the rain. Their interest in the field of education began early in life and grew significantly in high school, particularly after reading The Smartest Kids in the World by Amanda Ripley and Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education by Ken Robinson. They followed their passion for teaching in alternative environments over a decade of working in summer camps, after school care programs, tutoring, individual care-taking and mentoring.

In university, Emma explored the intricacies of human behavior and child and adolescent development, pursuing a B.A. in Psychology from the University of British Columbia. Upon graduating they worked as the Survival Lead at a bilingual summer camp in Québec, reigniting their love for outdoor education. During the pandemic, they contemplated ways of weaving together formal education with nature education and stumbled across Wilderness Awareness School. In the Spring of 2022, they graduated from the year-long adult program, The Immersion, where they became well acquainted with the core routines of connecting with nature and started to dive deep into naturalist studies. They then completed the Nature Instructor Training Program in June of 2023, expanding on their naturalist knowledge and practicing guiding others in their journeys of nature connection. Through their many years as a summer camp and school year instructor, Emma has inspired curiosity in their students, and employed skills for fire making, crafting, singing, and storytelling, in their teaching.