Youth Program Instructors

Ramzy Berbawy — Lead Instructor for School-year and Summer Youth Programs

Ramzy’s naturalist journey began 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. Ramzy has completed the Wildlife Tracking Intensive with the Wilderness Awareness School and is currently continuing his studies through CedarRoot’s Wildlife Tracking Immersion.

Ramzy is now in his fourth year as a youth nature studies instructor with CedarRoot and is also involved in adult programming. This year, he will co-lead CedarRoot’s new multi-month Wilderness Skills Immersion, sharing his extensive knowledge and mastery with those eager to dive deeper into learning these ancient and essential practices. His hands-on approach and passion for nature inspire his students, equipping them with practical skills and a lasting connection to the wild world around them.

Scott Brinton — Lead Instructor for School-year Youth Programs

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. Education: B.A. in Agriculture and Alternative Energy, The Evergreen State College; M.A. in Natural History and Education, Prescott College.  Certifications: Current Wilderness First Responder and Level 3 Track and Sign certificate, trackercertification.com.

Thuja Noba — Instructor for School-year Youth Programs

Thuja grew up on Duwamish territory, in what’s now known as West Seattle. Her love for nature connection began through permaculture studies and naturalist training at Fairhaven College in Bellingham. A life-changing immersion in regenerative farming followed, leading her to study and work on farms across the country.

Over the past three years, Thuja has been with the Wilderness Awareness School (WAS)—first as a student in their nine-month adult program, then as staff working with youth, and later training to mentor adults in nature connection. She’s also spent the last two years with Rites of Passage Journeys, supporting transformative experiences that help people reconnect with land, self, and community.

After two years away, Thuja is thrilled to return to the peninsula and join the CedarRoot team, continuing the work she loves.

Michelle Fox — Saplings Instructor

Michelle has spent over four decades inspiring and learning alongside children, with the past 15 years devoted to nature education. With an Elementary Teaching Credential and a passion for creative, immersive learning, she’s brought joy and connection into bilingual classrooms, Spanish immersion, preschool, and art, always rooted in curiosity and a deep love for the natural world. She founded TreeSong, a nature education nonprofit in SW Washington, and spent ten years there as director and lead youth instructor.

Now settled on the Olympic Peninsula, Michelle is thrilled to be CedarRoot’s Program Director and lead instructor for Saplings, continuing her heartwork of guiding people of all ages into deeper connection with the natural world.

Sean Koomen — Olympic Mountain Expedition Lead Instructor

Sean first moved to Port Townsend in 2003 to attend the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. After spending several years traveling both nationally and internationally working on wooden boats, he returned to the Olympic Peninsula in 2010 as a boatbuilding instructor for NWSWB. In a short time, Sean became the lead boatbuilding instructor, and now, after 15 years of teaching adult students, he is shifting his passion toward working with kids.

In 2022, Sean joined Olympic Mountain Rescue in Bremerton, WA, and, with his combined teaching experience, is excited to help CedarRoot develop more expeditions and outdoor adventures for youth in our area.

Tyler Walcheff— Olympic Mountain Expedition Instructor

Growing up in Anacortes, Tyler found an early love for the outdoors through climbing, backpacking, and exploring the North Cascades and Olympic Mountains. He studied Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at The Evergreen State College and later worked as a field biologist and ornithologist in remote regions of southeastern Oregon, southern Arizona, Australia, and elsewhere, including off-grid field expeditions that lasted months at a time.

After returning to Washington to earn a master’s in science education from Western Washington University, Tyler eventually made his way back to the Olympic Peninsula, where he now teaches high school science at Chimacum High School. He has been climbing and mountaineering since his teenage years, pursuing technical rock climbing and alpine travel throughout North America and abroad.

Joshua Sylvester— Lead Sequim Summer Camp Instructor

Sylvester grew up along the saline coast of Maine, where he learned to forage and track at an early age from his father. These skills helped feed his family through hunting and gathering local wild foods. Later in life, he lived in the Appalachian area of Tennessee and Central Florida. He always wanted to learn more so studied plants and animals with his wife and children.

Sylvester was feeling stagnant, his learning having plateaued through books and exploration, when a close friend recommended Tom Brown Jr.'s Tracker School in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Returning home to Maine, he began to put into practice what he had learned at the school. He eventually returned to Tom's Children of the Earth programs and earned a Coyote Mentoring teaching certificate.

Chloe Lampert — Lead 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”.

Hannah Breckel — Assistant Summer Camp 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. 

Olivia Rose — Assistant Summer Camp Instructor

Olivia has been attending nature schools since she was four years old, and began participating in CedarRoot programs in 2021.  During her time in CedarRoot, she has completed the first four levels of the Fire Ring and has also completed portions of the Plant Ring.  Olivia grew up on her family's farm in Sequim, and she enjoys jumping into cold rivers and lakes, climbing trees, drawing, reading, and playing lots of soccer.

Caleb Sigmond — Assistant Summer Camp Instructor

Caleb grew up in the CedarRoot program and has been a devoted attendee since pre-school. It has ignited his love of the outdoors! He can be found packrafting the Elwha, backpacking in the Olympics (and even the Alps), bike commuting to school, sailing the San Juans and Gulf Islands, rowing longboats for school credit every week, and commercial fishing in Alaska. He brings these outdoor adventures to the work he does at CedarRoot. Caleb finds it difficult to name a single moment outside he loves most; rather, he is most fully himself when immersed in the outdoors—adventuring, working, and connecting with the natural world.  He loves sharing experiences with other kids and is honored to be stepping into the mentor role with the Salish Coast weekly programs and summer camps.