Program Mentors

We believe that every person has a unique and sacred gift to share with the world. We call our teaching staff “mentors” because they help people to discover their gift and power by connecting them to nature and their heart.

Scott M. Baker

Since the age of 14, Scott has been immersed in the natural world through the magic and culture of Two Coyotes. He began his journey with the school as a summer camp student, and continues it now with many 8 Shields-based nature programs throughout the northeast. He enjoys the opportunity to teach and pass on a deep appreciation for and knowledge of nature. A lifelong homeschooler, he can be found in his natural habitat exploring the woods, honing his primitive skills, or playing the steel pan (as a former member of the renowned St. Luke’s Steel Band).

Adam Betts

Adam has been fascinated by the great outdoors since he read “My Side of the Mountain” and Gary Paulsen’s “Hatchet” series when he was a kid. He is especially interested in how our ancestors made and used tools to exist in and alongside nature, and has been forging and using knives, axes, and other tools for more than ten years. Having a BA in English Literature with a focus on short stories and poetry, he also enjoys telling stories and teaching storycraft to anyone willing to listen, and deeply believes in the power of stories to connect us to ourselves and our world. His natural habitats include riparian forests, mountains, and wherever the forge happens to be. 

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Andy Dobos

Andy is an artist and educator specializing in Nature connection mentoring, woodcrafts and wilderness skills. With a BFA in sculpture from Montserrat College of Art, Wildlife Track and Sign Level Three Certificate from highly recognized Cybertracker Conservation, Advanced Completion Certificate from White Pine Programs Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship, training in the Art of Mentoring and the Boys Sacred Fire Initiation, and more than a decade of experience in mentoring, Andy is highly respected in his field.

He has also made a priority of developing long and lasting relationships with his students and their families, becoming much more than a teacher but a true mentor. Andy also organizes The Cattail Gathering, an annual nature skills conference in Litchfield, CT.

Zach Fisher

Zach Fisher grew up amongst the redwood forests and beaches of the Northern California coast. The pursuit of art and music brought him to NYC and eventually to Tom Brown Jr’s Tracker School which he considers to be the beginning of the education he was always looking for. He began teaching primitive skills and nature connection in 2011 and has since worked for several earth skills programs, in addition to co-founding Earth Living Skills based in NYC and the Hudson Valley. His fascination with wild edibles and medicinal plants lead him to study herbalism at the Twin Star school of energetic and herbal studies in Connecticut. His goal as a teacher and a student is to foster deeper connection between people and the natural world in the spirit of conservation and to rediscover the vastness of our human potential.

Marco Frascone

Marco has always found his passion and truth in nature! He is fun loving and adventurous. He is constantly trying something new and challenging himself to change and grow as a person. He is an avid wood carver and artist and practices many mediums of expression ranging from large scale public murals to Peruvian cajon drum crafting and wood sculptures. Marco is often found in his workshop creating something new, or planning an adventure to a distant land. He believes in our capacity for love as humans and that connecting to our planet fosters connection amongst humanity. He is a large scale thinker and is always looking to see things from a perspective of we, not I, and us, not them. Marco can often be found in a hammock or hiking in local forests.

Morgan Hastings

Morgan is a FireKeeper turned MIT turned instructor and we are lucky to have his positive, happy personality in the field. He brings a passion for wilderness skills and has grown up with Coyote mentoring. He’s a gift to any child in his group.

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Zephyr Hoffman

Zephyr Hoffman has been practicing wilderness skills since childhood despite growing up in NYC. These days, when he’s not helping out at Two Coyotes, he works with children in the woods of southern Maine.

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Emily Karam

Emily attends UCONN and is pursuing a BFA degree in Studio Art and Graphic Design. She is a designer, traveler, photographer, hiker, and lover of all things fun. She enjoys hiking the awesome Holcomb trails with her beagle Truffles. Emily loves working with children, and aside from her work at TCWS, has coached kids in soccer, volleyball, and swim. She is excited to share her knowledge, passion, and experiences with students!

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Jia-Lin Koh (Loki)

Jia-Lin (known as Loki) is an alumna of Two Coyotes who approaches life with enthusiasm and a willingness to learn. She loves nature and teaches in order to bring people closer to nature and each other. She comes from a diverse background and aims to integrate her experiences into her mentoring and expression of herself. Loki is CPR and First Aid certified and a nursing student at Plymouth State University.

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Sasha Lehrer

Sasha has been a nature connection mentor at Two Coyotes since early 2013. She has extensive experience teaching in diverse settings from farm to forest, school to studio. She taught dance in elementary and middle schools throughout Greater New Haven and is a co-founder of New Haven Ecstatic Dance. Sasha is a certified yoga teacher leading classes at Breathing Room. She is also an environmental educator at Common Ground School. Her work with children in the woods and her own deep connection with the natural world helps inform the way she lives her life: as an organic art form in sync with the cycles and beauty of nature.

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Alycia Matchen

Alycia is a mother of two daughters who loves sharing, learning about and cooking or crafting in the great outdoors. She is a Girl Scout leader, trained paralegal, trained medic, workout enthusiast and gardener. When she’s not at Two Coyotes, Alycia is most likely working out, tending her chickens and garden, or homeschooling her daughters in creative ways.

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Callum McCabe

Callum is an alumnus of Two Coyotes, having been a student from the ages of 9 to 14, before becoming a Mentor In Training. He is a graduate of Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts High School, majoring in Theater Design and Production, and planning to attend college for the same major. Callum has a deep love for adventure, being outside and sharing the wonders of nature with people. When not teaching at Two Coyotes, Callum does freelance work for local theaters, enjoys baking, and visiting his friends (and their cats).

Aja McCarty

Aja brings light and love to every project she is involved with. She runs an urban homestead with her husband, 4 kids, and chickens in Simsbury, CT. Aja runs our Pups program in Granby.
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Alexa Merriam

Alexa is a passionate lover of all the natural world has to give and teach humanity! She is a radiant artist with the wild spirit of a child that continues to grow thanks to her time spent communing with the forests and water in Connecticut and beyond. A creative writer and musician, she graduated in 2017 with a B.A. in Literature from Hamilton College.

Since then, she has worked in classrooms and farms alike, creating bridges between human hands and plant stems out of the universal need for wellness and balance. Whether it be through dance, yoga, song or storytelling, energy healing and meditation, growing an herb garden or pinecone craft-making, Alexa enjoys finding new ways to celebrate life every day!

Stephanie Niles

Steph’s love of nature stemmed from countless hours spent in the woods as a child growing up in CT and her deep connection to the wilderness as a young adult living in North Carolina, South Carolina and the high desert of southern Utah. She is now mom to three little environmentalists and teaches art in the home school community. Steph holds an art degree from the University of South Carolina where she focused in art education and photography. Steph shares her wonderment and love of nature with the children in the Two Coyotes family as a camp director in the summer and an instructor during the school year. She also works behind the scenes year-round as Two Coyotes’ Program Director to keep the programs staffed and running smoothly.

Finn O’Connor

Finn is a Two Coyotes alumnus who originally began his wilderness skills journey with the Roots School teen scout program in Vermont, and is spurred to continue learning and sharing knowledge by a lifelong fascination with all aspects of wilderness skills. After having worked with kids in many other environments–including coaching gymnastics and skiing, mentoring at Roots and volunteering for the Cattail Gathering and Roots Rendezvous–he has now fully realized the potential for connecting people to the world around them through the Two Coyotes school and its philosophy. When not running around the woods or covered in dirt, he can be found creating art, spending time with his friends, reading, or doing one of his (probably too many) sports.

Adelka Polak

Adelka is an interdisciplinary performing artist who founded Sova Dance & Puppet Theater in CT in 2013. She has performed in Denmark, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Bulgaria and Taiwan with Masque Theatre since 2008. She performed at LaMaMa with the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, Ibex Puppetry, and Michael Pestel. She toured internationally with Squonk Opera who went “from junkyards to Broadway.” Sova Theater also provides puppet & dance theater programs to early learning centers, museums, public schools, and home-schooled youth in CT & NY. Sova Theater advocates responsibility to humanity and the environment through arts and education. www.sovatheater.com

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Karianna Rosenberg

Karianna is a lifelong student of nature, a dance anthropologist, an artist, a bilingual storyteller, an outdoor educator, a cultural creative, and transformational workshop facilitator. Her deep connection and love of nature and passion to help others discover their own connection with the earth, themselves, and others, began with her growing up on a small family farm surrounded by a Connecticut state forest.

Karianna holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology, with a Minor in Spanish, focusing on Dance Anthropology and Dance History. She earned an MA in Teaching Spanish and English as second languages, with a Bilingual Multicultural Endorsement from the School for International Training. She is also certified in Wilderness First Aid.

In her spare time, Karianna enjoys social dancing, especially swing and Argentine tango, writing poetry, playing fiddle/violin, spending time with family and friends and being out in nature.

Jackie Ryan (Rainbow)

Jackie loves adventures in nature, traveling and exploring different cultures and landscapes. Creating a nurturing environment for children to learn lights up her soul. Before discovering Two Coyotes, Jackie taught at Idyllwild Arts Summer Camp in Idyllwild, CA and Common Ground Summer Camp in New Haven. She spent many years as a nanny, where she collaborated with parents to facilitate a thriving environment for kids with a variety of special needs.

Jackie has a BA in Studio Art from the University of Vermont.  Her abstract paintings reflect her rainbow spirit – a bridge between the natural and material realms. She has been teaching yoga since 2013 and received her Health Coach certification from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in 2015. She’s avidly studying and facilitating personal growth, transformation and communication. She has a private coaching practice and teaches workshops on meditation, mindfulness, yoga, painting, dance, holistic healing and women’s empowerment. She is passionate about guiding both children and adults into alignment with the rhythms of nature, honoring themselves, each other and the Earth all at the same time.

Jessica Sulkowski (Stormsong)

Jessica graduated from UCONN with a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and an MS in Conservation Biology and Biodiversity. Jessica joined Two Coyotes as a mentor in 2012 and has been involved ever since! In spring and fall, you will see her teaching the Homeschool Program in Newtown, Killingworth, and Granby. Over the summer, you will usually find her as Camp Director at the Granby site.

When she’s not with Two Coyotes, Jessica is at the Ansonia Nature Center where she teaches environmental education classes, runs the Nature Store, and cares for the resident animals as the Animal Curator. Jessica is also involved with Ansonia Community Organic Gardens and Friends of the Ansonia Nature Center, Inc.

You can find Jessica wandering the wild lands of Connecticut, crocheting amigurumi, reading field guides, sewing skirts, birding, and collecting crystals & minerals. Jessica has a profound love for wildlife and for teaching. Her driving force in life is to foster love and connection with the environment so the wild lands we so deeply enjoy will be preserved for many generations to come.

Tyler Reid Von Oy

Tyler is an avid outdoorsman, with many self-taught skills.  He can often be found hiking around Connecticut’s myriad trails, enjoying the forests with a meditation or learning a new skill. He is adept at knots, fire making, and using a sword (boffer or otherwise), and loves nothing more than learning in the outdoors. He is a jack of all and master of some, and appreciates nature for its freedom, peace, and plethora of exciting adventures. In addition to his affinity for the wild, he is an instructor of Capoeira at the rank of Formado, and enjoys participating in the Armored Combat League at a world champion level. He is fluent in American Sign Language, and he holds his Bachelor of Science in Psychology, as well as a First Aid Certification. Wilderness mentoring is truly his passion and where he finds fulfillment in life, teaching and sharing his knowledge with anyone willing to listen.

Marcus Wade-Prince

Marcus found his love of wild nature after beginning his Journey at Eagle Rock school in Colorado. As a rite of passage, he completed a 24 day wilderness course living life simply and getting in touch with what is important to him. Since that experience, he has worked at Rocky Mountain National Park and did a NOLS course in the Wind River range. This experience opened his eyes to the life-changing effect that being in nature can have on people, especially kids. After being away from these opportunities for a while, he is eager to jump back into the wilderness and be a positive beacon of light, care, and passion so the kids can have a fun and meaningful experience. He considers himself a poet and he loves the art because it has no lines or boxes and can be a sanctuary for community, compassion, and understanding where one’s authentic self can be realized. Marcus is looking forward to being a part of the Two Coyotes community and impacting young minds while he is on his own journey through life.

Christian Welsh

Christian loves to celebrate life and help others celebrate it as well. Growing up in northern Connecticut, Christian would find herself getting lost amongst the trees and other plants to find connection. Christian studied permaculture through the University of Oregon and received her permaculture certificate while working on organic farms in upstate New York. Christian has a passion for growing beautiful food and medicine that was grown with love and care, and helping others to connect more to nature. When Christian is not at Two Coyotes, you may find her volunteering her time or managing small local organic farms, up to her elbows in dirt working on her home garden, or you also may just stumble across her on your journeys harvesting wild edibles!

Interested in joining our staff team? Let us know.