: Outdoor Education Center Staff Directory :
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Permanent Staff
Outdoor Education Center Director: Rebecca Jaramillo
Rebecca has been working at the Outdoor Education Center since October 2006, starting off as the Assistant Director and moving into the Director position in 2011. She has a B.A. from the University of San Diego in Marine Science, and a M.A. from the University of New Mexico in Recreation – Outdoor Environmental Education. She has worked as an environmental educator since 2002, and has taught environmental education to every age range in a variety of formal and informal settings. In 2004-2006 she was the education coordinator for a non-profit avian research and education organization, responsible for developing and maintaining educational programs throughout the state. Rebecca values her involvement in teaching and motivating the new environmental educators that come through the Glen Helen program every year. Through her involvement in the National Association for Interpretation, Rebecca maintains up to date education methods enjoys creating new activities to further enhance the student experience at Glen Helen. With her new responsibilities as the Director, she looks forward to making the Outdoor School and Ecocamp programs accessible to more schools while continuing to meet the needs and expectations of the current teachers.
Outdoor Education Center Assistant Director: Autumn Foutch
Autumn has a B.S. from Michigan State University in Fisheries and Wildlife. She comes to us from Lorado Taft Field Campus in Illinois where she began as an outdoor educator in 2007 and most recently served there as Assistant Outdoor Education Coordinator. She has spent two summers as a camp counselor for Chippewa Nature Center in Michigan where she acquired her Wilderness First Responder certification and led multiple backpacking and canoeing trips with children. Autumn is a life-long primitive camper and living history interpreter. Her ultimate passion lies in creating fun, safe and educational opportunities for all ages by facilitating exploration and discovery in natural environments. She is very excited to mentor and share her experiences with the Naturalist intern staff as well as learn and grow alongside them. Autumn started on July 6th and is already putting her skills and expertise to good use creating a stronger Outdoor Education Center.
Outdoor Education Center Business Manager: Whitney Till
Whitney came to Glen Helen as a Naturalist Intern in 2006. She continued as Program Coordinator for the Outdoor School and Antioch Honors Institute in 2007, before beginning her current role as Assistant Business Manager of Glen Helen in 2008. She is glad to be able to contribute to both the Yellow Springs and surrounding communities, and to spend her days in the forest.
Intern Staff
Administrative Intern (Program Coordinator): Stephanie Falzone
Stephanie grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in Environmental Science and a Minor in Conservation Biology. She especially likes frogs and birds, and loves getting to learn about eastern bird species. She enjoyed being a Naturalist at the Glen so much that she is returning for a year as Program Coordinator. You can often find her in the Glen taking pictures of birds and plants.
Administrative Intern (Extension Naturalist): Matthew Herron
Matthew is from Baton Rouge, LA and holds a BA in English and German from LSU. He hopes to be a resource for educators in the Miami Valley while promoting experiential education as Extension Naturalist. Matthew has a great love for natural history and biodiversity and hopes to pursue his masters in place-based education following this internship.
Administrative Intern (Raptor Center Assistant): Elisse Sheha
Elisse has a bachelor's of science in Zoology from Kent State University. She has done volunteer work for the Cleveland Metroparks doing bluebird, raptor, and coyote surveys. She worked in banking for 3 years after graduation, but wanted to pursue a career in nature and the Glen Helen internship seemed like the best entry into that after gaining Raptor handing and teaching experience at Audubon Center of the North Woods in Sandstone, MN and Rock Eagle 4-H Center in Eastonton, GA.
Naturalist Intern: Amy Banner
Amy Banner, originally from Youngstown, Ohio, attended Ursuline College in Cleveland, where she played soccer for four years. Upon graduating, she joined Americorps NCCC, and had the chance to work closely with several non-profits from Ohio, to Iowa, to Alabama, and many places in between. She enjoys volunteering, board games, reading books, wearing Merrells, brewing tea, and she has always had a passion for the outdoors. She also dabbles in drawing, puzzles, playing Frisbee, Hungarian culture, and makes a mean black-bean burger.
Naturalist Intern: Ellen Biscotti
Ellen Biscotti grew up in Brecksville Ohio, and graduated from Kenyon college in 2011 with a degree in Biology. While at Kenyon, Ellen enjoyed volunteering as a field trip leader at the environmental center on campus. She also spent two amazing summers as an intern with the Knox County Community Garden, learning to be a better gardener and getting to know many wonderful people. In her free time, Ellen loves hiking, biking, reading, and music. Ellen is thrilled to be a naturalist intern at Glen Helen this year!
Naturalist Intern: Hannah Breig
Hannah is from Minnesota and graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2010 where, while majoring in Zoology, she spent most of her time participating in marching band and the music service fraternity Kappa Kappa Psi. Since college, she completed an internship in southern Florida at a wildlife rehabilitation hospital where she raised countless squirrels, raccoons and opossums from tiny baby to release. She's excited to work at Glen Helen and have the opportunity to teach kids about the wonders of the world around them.
Naturalist Intern: Carmen DeLeon
Carmen is originally from San Francisco, California and graduated from the University of California, Davis in 2008 with a degree in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology. She has done internships in veterinary medicine, systematic biology, and ornithology. Her favorite animals to work with are raptors and waterfowl, but over the past two years she has been mostly working with people while teaching hands-on science programs for Explorit Science Center in Davis. She came to Glen Helen because her true passion in life is science, in particular conservation biology. She wants to gain new insight and experience in teaching youth to be aware of environmental issues and inspire them to see the action they can take in their everyday lives to be good stewards of nature. Additionally, she is excited to finally experience all four seasons and have a chance to continue her interest in working with raptors!
Naturalist Intern: Maddie Dunfee
Maddie grew up in Middletown, Ohio. During her 9th grade biology class, she discovered a passion for ecology. She went on to graduate from Cornell University with a degree in Biological Sciences. She loves exploring the outdoors, gardening and learning new things. She looks forward to investigating nature with students who visit Glen Helen.
Naturalist Intern: Julie Earnest
Julie loves being outside and working with kids and can’t wait to blend the two at Glen Helen. She likes reading, trying (mostly failing) extreme sports, and anything to do with Italian culture/history/language. After growing up in a tiny town in central Maine, she now loves to travel and to try new things but can’t imagine being away from the woods for too long. She just graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in English and plan to pursue a Master’s in Education in the future. In the past few years, she's spent time volunteering with kindergartners in Michigan, working at a summer camp in North Carolina, training with Greenpeace in San Francisco and can’t wait to add interning at Glen Helen to that list.
Naturalist Intern: Kelly Lecko
Kelly is a firefly-loving, mud-puddle jumping, cheerful soul who likes to be outside as much as possible. She loves working with children, and sharing her passion for the outdoors with them. Sometimes she thinks she would rather be learning, imagining and playing with youth rather than her own peers. As a recent graduate of the University of Redlands in California, she is excited to put her environmental studies into action at Glen Helen. The best part of it all is that there is always something new to learn and although she is an educator, she looks forward to having adventures and learning something new every day.
Naturalist Intern: Dexter Norris
Dexter was born and raised in Jefferson, Ohio. After graduating high school in 2007 he attended Ohio Northern University majoring in Biology with an emphasis on Field Biology. During the summers of 2008 and 2009 he worked as a counselor at the Iron County Youth Camp, Batawagama in Crystal Falls, Michigan. Throughout his time at ONU, Dexter took many field and organismal courses including, but not limited to: Natural History, Herpetology, Ornithology, Biogeography, Animal Behavior, and Plant Taxonomy and assisted with daily upkeep of plants in the greenhouse and as a teacher’s assistant for Natural History. While at Glen Helen, Dexter hopes to gain more experience with outdoor education. In the future, he plans to pursue a career in avian or amphibian conservation. Dexter is the youngest child of his family with two sisters and one brother. He also has two nieces. In his free time he enjoys running and reading. His favorite animal is the spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum). One of his lifelong goals is to adopt a dog and name him Gordon.
Naturalist Intern: Sarah Turner
Sarah grew up in Wayne, Pennsylvania. From a young age, she enjoyed spending time outdoors and exploring the natural world. She attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado where she earned a degree in Environmental Science. She was drawn to Glen Helen by the field-based, experiential learning style of the outdoor education program.
Naturalist Intern: Michael Wang-Belt
Michael graduated from the University of California, Davis in 2008 with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology with an emphasis in Biology. After graduation he realized he wanted to go into the field of teaching and enrolled in a single subject credential program. For the next two years he taught high school science grades 9-12 and earned his credential for Biology. He wanted to explore different options in science education and expand his education experience. He found new experiences at Explorit Science Center as an educator for hands on inquiry based learning for students grades 1-5. He enjoyed learning how new methods of teaching and sought out more educational opportunities. He applied to Glen Helen to expand the tools he has to teach science. He also would like to experience teaching in an environment without four walls where students can learn science by being out in the field and have a chance to explore the natural world around them.
Naturalist Intern: Keegan Williams
Keegan was born on a rural farm, and naturally spent his childhood developing his passion for the outdoors. He studied zoology at Ohio State University and has jumped around doing conservation and education jobs since. He intends to use his experience here to improve his small group planning and interaction skills.
