Instructors

Ramzy Berbawy — Lead Instructor for School-Year and Summer Youth Programs; Adult Wilderness Skills Instructor

Ramzy’s naturalist journey began in the suburbs, stargazing on a football field, sparking a deep passion for the outdoors. He’s since worked on small farms across the Olympic Peninsula and Methow Valley, where he deepened his connection to the land.

As a lead instructor for CedarRoot’s youth programs, Ramzy’s first priority is to give students the chance to fall in love with being outside. His teaching style is informed by joy and playfulness which provide students a foundation for learning practical skills and developing a lasting connection to the wild world around them.

Katy Bowman — Outdoor Cooking Class Instructor

Katy moved to the Olympic Peninsula in 2011 and discovered CedarRoot school a few years later via a flier at the grocery store. After her young family took a weekend-long nature education class, she was all in on outdoor cooking, wildlife tracking, and making cordage. She served two years on the board of another nature school before joining the CedarRoot board in 2024.

Professionally, Katy is a biomechanist, founder of the movement education company Nutritious Movement as well as the author of many books on natural human movement. Personally she is a long-time CedarRoot parent, book-lover, and long-distance walker. When not speaking or writing on the importance of movement to the body, community, and environment, she is probably doing something with her kids, walking to get somewhere, or washing dishes.

Hannah Breckel — Assistant Youth Programs Instructor

Hannah has loved the outdoors since the day she was born on an Alaskan island. Since then she has moved around the country learning about new flora and fauna as she goes. Hannah is especially captivated by birds, but also enjoys foraging for wild edibles, hiking, and mountain biking. Currently in her third year participating in CedarRoot's Friday Nature Studies program, Hannah is the first student to earn one of the program's Nature Studies Rings. She enjoys sharing what she's learned as an assistant instructor for the Wednesday afternoon program. 

Scott Brinton — Lead Instructor for School-Year Youth Programs; Adult Wilderness Skills Instructor

Scott has nearly three decades of nature education experience.  He has mentored hundreds of students in practical wilderness skills and nature awareness.  He co-founded the Riekes Nature Studies Department in California, has taught Environmental Science for Peninsula College, and taught Islandwood’s graduate students in the Natural History and Ecology program. Most recently, Scott founded CedarRoot to help continue natural history and rural skills education. He is passionate about applying ecological lessons discovered in nature to areas of regenerative design, sustainable development and agroecology.

Marko Colby — PNW Mushroom Class Instructor

Marko is an experienced educator, farmer, and lifelong forager. Drawing on years of hands-on practice in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, Marko guides students through the fundamentals of safe, ethical, and sustainable mushroom foraging. He and his wife run Midori Farm, where they cultivate organic vegetables and artisanal fermented foods, further grounding his teaching in ecological stewardship and land-based living. Known for his approachable style and passion for experiential learning, Marko helps beginners build confidence in identifying wild fungi while fostering a meaningful connection to the natural world.

Dr. Mark Elbroch — Tracking Immersion Instructor

Mark is a scientist, tracker, writer, and storyteller. His current position is Lead Scientist for the Puma Program for Panthera (www.panthera.org), a global nonprofit focused on wild cat conservation. His research on mountain lions is contributing radical changes to what we thought we knew about the species, especially with regards to their social lives and their keystone roles in ecosystems.

Mark was awarded a Senior Tracker Certificate by CyberTracker Conservation in Kruger National Park, South Africa, after successfully following lions across varied terrain. His certificate was the 17th ever awarded and the first to a non-African.

Jason Knight — Wilderness Skills Instructor

Jason is passionate about helping people learn wilderness survival skills. Since 1997 he's taught thousands of people, including training hundreds of adults to become survival instructors. He has consulted as a local wilderness skills expert for the Discovery Channel and has been featured on NPR. He is a co-founder and instructor at Alderleaf Wilderness College, where he has offered courses on wilderness survival to the general public and a broad range of clients including the US Forest Service, the Seattle Mountaineers, and the cast of the award-winning film Captain Fantastic.

Chloe Lampert — Lead Youth Summer Camp Instructor

Chloe has been a part of the CedarRoot community for over a decade, evolving from student to instructor! She is grateful to have grown up under the mentorship of many local naturalists and organizations. She cherishes every opportunity to give back to the community that raised her, passing along the knowledge, skills, and joy accumulated throughout a childhood spent mostly barefoot and sopping wet. 

Chloe is an undergraduate student at Colorado College, majoring in Organismal Biology and Ecology with a particular interest in mycology and entomopathogenic fungi. She spends her summers home, foraging for woodland trinkets and wild food, playing the guitar for snails, chasing tides and waterfalls, and dancing under the stars.

She believes in fostering love, curiosity, and reciprocity as mechanisms to bridge the cultural divide between “nature” and “human”.

Matt Mahan — Wildlife Tracking Immersion Instructor

Matt became involved with the Olympic Cougar Project after losing livestock to a cougar—an experience that sparked a deep desire to find better ways to steward both land and wildlife. Seeking alternatives to lethal conflict, he connected with Dr. Mark Elbroch and began monitoring his land with game cameras, discovering it was a key cougar corridor with over 60 visits in two years. This work led to collaring local cougars and eventually to Matt being hired by Panthera to manage a camera grid in Jefferson County. He also documents kill and bed sites and assists a local filmmaker with camera trapping for a documentary. Matt continues to deepen his skills in tracking and trailing, and is passionate about finding coexistence with apex predators.

David Moskowitz — Wildlife Track and Sign Certification Instructor

David Moskowitz works in the fields of photography, wildlife biology and education. He is the photographer and author of three books: Caribou Rainforest, Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest and Wolves in the Land of Salmon and co-author and photographer of Peterson’s Field Guide to North American Bird Nests. He has contributed his technical expertise to a wide variety of wildlife studies regionally and in the Canadian and U.S. Rocky mountains, focusing on using tracking and other non-invasive methods to study wildlife ecology and promote conservation.

Sarah Spaeth — Wildlife Tracking Instructor

Sarah has a lifetime of exploration of, and connection to the Pacific Northwest, and has worked for Jefferson Land Trust for 28 years helping to preserve the farms, forests and fish habitat of Jefferson County. Her life's work was enriched immeasurably through a wildlife tracking class she took 11 years ago— it opened her eyes fully to the significance of conservation work to the other creatures that share their home with us. Sarah has been studying and teaching wildlife track and sign through the Wilderness Awareness School’s Wildlife Tracking Intensive, and achieved her Track and Sign Specialist Certification in 2020. She is excited to help us learn to read this first script written on the land, telling stories rich in love, mystery, drama and death!

Andrew Stratton — Wildlife Trailing Instructor

Andrew is Project Coordinator on the Olympic Cougar Project, based in western Washington, with 8 years of experience in wildlife research fieldwork. Originally trained in naturalist skills as a tracker through CyberTracker International, holding a professional tracker certificate, which includes a
professional trailing certificate and a specialist in track and sign for Western Washington. He attended Alderleaf Wilderness College, an outdoor skills school for two years. He is currently finishing his degree in wildlife and fisheries conservation through Oregon State University. His professional interests include being in the backcountry, tracking, camera trapping, and training working dogs that assist with the safe capture of cougars.

Dr. Nyn Tomkins — Skull/Bone Morphology Instructor

Nyn is a naturalist, anatomy enthusiast, chiropractor, bodyworker and wildlife tracker. She’s a graduate of Wilderness Awareness School’s nine-month Immersion program and is now a guest instructor. She is deeply interested in the story our bodies, in particular our bones, can tell about how we live and relate to the world. She is passionate about teaching anatomy and physiology as a way to help other people relate to and connect with our other than human kin.

Rachael Van Laanen runs Mystery Bay Farm, a micro-goat dairy on Marrowstone Island.  She received a BA in Ecology and Education which led her to teach environmental and garden based education for 10 years.  She then followed her passions to the world of farming and co-ran a diversified organic vegetable farm for 3 years.   Rachael is also passionate about weaving.  She was mentored for 4 years by Miwok elders in Yosemite Valley Ca, where she learned to twine willow into all different shapes, sizes and patterns.

Peter Yencken — Village Class Instructor

Peter started as a bowyer while working for Tom Brown's Tracking and Wilderness Survival School.  He has taught the art of making bows to 2000+ people of all ages. He also makes and teaches knife (of different size and shapes) making; backpack basket making; felt boot making; as well as leather bag, hat and shoe making. Peter has been on a lifelong search for skills that help people reclaim a feeling of self reliance while also providing a focal point for observing oneself more deeply. He currently lives in Ticksville (a.k.a. Charlottesville, VA) and learns much wisdom from his daughter.