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.
Interested in joining our staff team? Let us know.
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).
Izzy Betts
Izzy 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.
Noel Cherubino
Noel’s love of nature began as a child playing with friends in the woods of small town Connecticut and camping with family. Her interest expanded from play to include primitive skills and nature awareness when she met Scott Eldridge, founder of Two Coyotes, in a Wilderness First Responder class in 1999 while pursuing a certificate in Adventure Education. She went on to travel to various workshops and primitive skill gatherings up and down the east coast and to Arizona before settling back down in Connecticut and reconnecting with Two Coyotes by enrolling in Pups with her two children. Upon her return, Noel quickly transitioned from participant to Pups Mentor and has continued in this role as her children transitioned to Wild Seeds.
Noel began swimming before she could walk. In addition to Two Coyotes, Noel works as a swimming teacher. She has recently begun to explore the transformative power of swimming in natural bodies of water on the mind, body, and spirit during all four seasons. During the summertime, she can be found teaching swim lessons in backyard pools.
Ben DiNoia
Ben grew up exploring the forests and fields of Connecticut, and was fortunate to build kinship with plants and animals alike from a young age. He believes direct contact with Nature is both enriching and healing, and is dedicated to creating spaces of learning in the outdoors. After attending college in Ithaca, New York and earning his B.A. in Documentary Studies and Production with minors in Spanish, Outdoor Education, and Environmental Studies, he has returned to his home range to experience this landscape anew and facilitate meaningful experiences through presence, curiosity, and challenge by choice.
Anna Holden
An environmental studies major who taught (mostly) middle school science for 7 years before staying home with her children, Anna agrees with Frank Lloyd Wright, “Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” She has always felt most at home outside, drawn to the magic and mysteries of Mother Earth, and will take any chance she can to help others reconnect and rekindle their sense of wonder, awe and belonging with the natural world. She also enjoys, in no particular order, reading, rock climbing, gardening, cooking, playing guitar, singing (even though she can’t), running, creating art, logic puzzles, kayaking, wishing on meteors, and working to make the Earth a healthier, happier, more inviting home for everyone… even the bugs.
Scout LoPriore
Scout has always loved animal worlds, plants, folklore, and grandma stories. Since a young age, they have had a passion for learning about the plants and animals around them and how to see stories on the landscape. This passion led to them learning how to make food, medicine, and crafts in relationship with the living world.
Scout has a profound love for intergenerational and interspecies relationship and loves sharing that with kiddos, whether practicing skills, playing games, or making things with their hands. Scout has a background in art, nature education, and health justice. They can also be found dancing, crafting, swimming, and trying to learn fiddle. Most of all, they enjoy mentoring youth in ways that center reverence, curiosity and joy.
Katie Luekens
Katie is an educator, musician, and passionate advocate for children. With a degree in voice performance from Indiana University and a Masters in Education from The University of Bridgeport, she is dedicated to nurturing and supporting families and children as they explore their wildness through song, storytelling, and play. Katie’s priority is to mentor children in an environment of love, diversity, community, and curiosity. She looks forward to delighting in the joy, laughter, and energy of the children in her programs.
She lives in Madison with her husband and three children, where they sing through the seasons, grow vegetables, bake bread, tend chickens, and collect and boil sap from their sugar maple trees.
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 former 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.
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.
Story McCarty.
Story has been a member of Two Coyotes since she was 5 years old. She works with the Pups alongside her mom, Aja, and brings creativity and passion for nature to the program. Outside of high school and Two Coyotes, she enjoys hiking, skateboarding, creating art, and listening and playing music.
Grant Norton
In the legendary times when the Wildseeds, Blackfoxes and Firekeepers were united as one because we did not yet have enough students to divide them (2009), Grant was a student of TCWS in distant lands (Penwood State Park, CT). They were trained in the ways of nature connection mentoring by a long list of people that do not work here anymore. But Grant still does work here!
In fact, they have worked at Two Coyotes without pause since 2012 (except for all the times they paused, like 2019 to 2022). In that time, they have lit more than 3 fires (a lot more…), hunted a mammoth (it turned out to be made of hay-bales, but was still a good atlatl target), foraged and eaten a wide range of plants and moderate range of animals, and brought all that and more to students everywhere (as long as everywhere is limited to Holcomb Farm in Granby and Sticks and Stones Farm in Newtown).
Clara Pagliaro
Clara is a passionate forever student. Meeting life with a curious mind and intention to always grow, decompose, rest, and grow again. Stepping into the role of being a teacher and guide feels part of her purpose as life unfolds. She is a Clinical Herbalist and Astrologer, practicing through an embodied somatic and intuitive lens, and is currently in school exploring the realm of higher education and getting her degree. She is a community organizer and space creator, starting and running the Stony Creek Farmers Market when she’s not at school or in the forest. Clara also has a fascination with Ecotones, where the edges of nature merge together, and change and diversity thrive. She moves with her heart and loves to adventure through the forest whether it’s a National Park or her backyard, being outdoors is her happy place, where creativity can flow and bring her back to herself. She is beyond grateful to play, guide and learn from the students here at Two Coyotes.
Ceil Primerano
Ceil has loved being a part of Two Coyotes summer camps for nearly 10 years. Learning how to hold Red Efts, carve wooden spoons, and fight with Boffer swords during Wildwood week are some of her favorite memories. Ceil enjoys spending time outside, hiking, reading, horseback riding, and teaching herself various types of braiding and weaving techniques. She has been homeschooled her whole life and has been able to travel with her family to many beautiful landscapes and national parks around the country but she will never feel more at home than when she is in Maine hiking along the coastline of Acadia National Park.
Adelka Polak
Adelka is the founder of Sova Dance & Puppet Theater, based in CT & mainly serving schools, arts venues and community organizations in New England and NYC. Adelka is a dancer, puppeteer, mask-performer and movement director whose work has brought her to Denmark, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Turkey.
She shares her knowledge of dance, puppetry and crossing artistic disciplines with audiences across the U.S. and abroad, especially in NYC, CT, and the Hartford Public Schools. She assists the Jim Henson Foundation in Professional Development training for teachers at the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC. She has worked as a professional puppeteer now for more than two decades, since she graduated from Chatham University with honors with a B.A. in Theatre and Cultural Studies in 2002.
I Robinson
I is excited by nature, humans, and interactions between the two. He enjoys meditating, running (especially on previously unknown trails), making music, reading, and people watching. He has lived on the East Coast, in the Midwest, and Berlin, Germany, and he loves to travel and learn new languages (fluent in German and currently learning Spanish). I joins the Two Coyotes with an interest in conflict resolution, restorative justice, and creative expression. He believes it is crucial to do the work (especially in youth-environments) in undoing existing biases and creating equity for all. They believe in the importance of play, especially while working with youth in nature.
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.
Storm Songe
Storm graduated from UCONN with a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and an MS in Conservation Biology and Biodiversity. They joined Two Coyotes as a mentor in 2012 and have been involved ever since! In spring, fall, and winter, you will see them teaching the Coyote Village School Year Program in Newtown, Killingworth, and Granby. Over the summer, you will usually find them working at the Granby site.
When not with Two Coyotes, you can find Storm wandering the wild lands of Connecticut, in search of birds, gathering nuts and berries to make dye, crocheting tiny animals, painting with ink, and collecting crystals & minerals.
Storm has a profound love for wildlife and for teaching. Their 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.
Kestrel von Oy
Kestrel has always been in love with nature, animals, and all the magical little things that are unseen or overlooked. They grew up with their toes in the dirt, helping their mom plant and tend flowers and vegetables, and once organized an impromptu rescue party to catch a dozen abandoned rabbits they found out in the woods (actually, one of the rabbits found Kestrel and poked their ankle with his nose to ask for help).
They have built their career out of finding ways to care for things, whether mentoring kids in an after school program, building a gardening business focused on removing harmful invasives, or working at an animal shelter. Kestrel is happiest when they are on a trail with their three dogs, outside with their husband at night watching for fireflies or searching for luminescent rocks, making friends with spiders, or generally anywhere in the vicinity of moss. When they aren’t outside basking in the natural world, they can be found building worlds of their own through writing, sculpting, and just about any other craft they can get their hands on.
Tyler 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.
Tigerlily Wisner
Tigerlily Wisner (they/them) has been a part of the Two Coyotes community for 10 years as a student. They have known for a long time that they would want to continue their journey as a mentor, sharing skills with a new generation. In addition to exploring nature, Tigerlily loves dance, writing, acting, art and cosplay. They love creating characters and pouring their heart into each of their stories. Tiger enjoys mentoring others and following along as they create their own unique stories of life.
Summer Staff
Each year, our team grows to include staff returning from school and other far flung adventures, teen alumni who have completed our Mentor-in-Training program, and other new folks who bring their gifts and love for nature to our summer campers.
Jonny Gotterer
Jonny is an educator, lover of nature, and father of three wonderful girls. His passion for the outdoors began with summers roaming the streams and mountainsides of West Virginia and evolved into an interest in backpacking and rock climbing. During college, Jonny explored primitive skills through classes with Ancestral Knowledge and the Tracker School. After graduating with a BA in history from Georgetown University and traveling through Central and South America, Jonny settled in Bridgeport, CT and has worked as a history teacher in a traditional classroom setting for the past twelve years. Jonny is grateful to be able to combine his passions for the nature and education as a Two Coyotes mentor.
Sage Liotta
Sage is a long time member of the Two Coyotes community, having attended programs for eight years. One of his favorite aspects of the Two Coyotes program is primitive project making, including bows and pack frames. In addition, he is a graduate and returning community member of Boys Sacred Fire – a rites of passage program. When not in the woods, Sage enjoys woodworking, snowboarding, history, and classic novels.
Jacqui Matchen
Jacqui has been a participant at Two Coyotes since she was a Wildseed. Her mentors over the years instilled in her a sense of wonder about the natural world. Her mentors, combined with her hunger for knowledge kept her enthused about the woods over her nearly decade long journey through the program. Now, she looks forwards to passing down the knowledge and excitement that she picked up over the years to the future generations who participate in the program. When she is not out in the woods, she can be found reading sci-fi and fantasy novels, crocheting, blacksmithing and writing novels and songs.
Emmett Ransden
Emmett Ransden has been part of the Two Coyotes community for 6 years as a student, where he further deepened his passion for the outdoors. Emmett is an avid fencer, and also enjoys writing, hiking scenic trails, canoeing, and backpacking. Emmett loves learning new things, traveling to new places and meeting new people.
Nur Refai
Nur Refai is an amateur musician and writer out of Naugatuck, Connecticut. He loves teaching, learning, and game playing, especially when in the company of trees or cats.
Ava Sasaki
Ava has been involved in Two Coyotes summers for nearly ten years- as a camper, MIT, and Mentor. Her appreciation for nature was inspired by her mentors growing up. Now she wants to share that spark with all of the summer camp attendees. This love for the wilderness has helped her develop a love for drawing forests and insects. Ava enjoys trying new things and will never pass up an opportunity to go in the river or teaching kids how to catch crayfish. Outside of Two Coyotes, she can be seen creating, whether that is a new dress, or a fun physics experiment.