FACILITATORS

Our program facilitators are here to support your children and your family. Each facilitator brings a unique background in nature-based learning, natural history, and compassionate communication to this work.

We love nature, children, and play!

Andrea Eilers

Andrea (She/her) has been working with Fresh Air Learning since early 2015 and volunteered as a parent for 2 years before that. She has a degree in special education and has been working with elementary and preschool families for 20 years. When she's not volunteering with her two kids' various activities you can find her staying fit and getting inspired outside. She believes that Fresh Air Learning helps give kids resilience, stamina, personal responsibility, and a deep connection to nature, it is her hope that kids fall in love with nature forever and grow to preserve it. Andrea is a reporting teacher with our elementary program. See you in our forest office!

Willoughby Arevelo

Willoughby (He/him) was raised in the Coast Redwoods in southwestern Cascadia (traditional Wiyot and Yurok territories). He fell in love with fungi as a young child, and has been learning from them, along with plants, animals and microbes, ever since. For the past decade he's been offering educational experiences relating to fungi, art and ecology in community contexts and schools. As a parent of a young child, Uma, one of his greatest pleasures has been sharing his knowledge and passion for living beings with her and observing her develop relationships within her ecosystem. Willoughby works to offer ecological teachings woven together with artistic experience and play to help children build relationships with the more-than-human world around them, an embodied awareness of the interconnectedness of all beings, and a place-based sense of belonging, caretaking and gratitude for the gifts of the earth. Some of his other passions include music (He plays percussion in the Carnival Band), and growing, foraging, cooking, preserving and sharing food.

Hana Hermanek

Hana Hermanek has been teaching at Fresh Air Learning since 2017. She was born and raised on Haida Gwaii where she learned to pick mushrooms, hike along salmon rivers and go camping usually when it is raining. She completed an undergraduate degree in Ecology and Spanish at UVIC in 2003 and then travelled across Canada and Ecuador teaching environmental education for 5 years before obtaining her Education Degree. The organic and place-based learning that happens at Fresh Air Learning, is her jam.

She loves supporting children find interesting ways to engage with their surrounding using imaginary play while gaining important life skills. When not found tromping through the North Shore trails with children in raincoats, she can be found riding her e-bike around town, going to or teaching a yoga class, or looking at the sky in search of birds and neat looking clouds.

Meagan Braun

Meagan (She/Her) is a certified teacher who is passionate about place-based learning, play and a strength-based approach to teaching and learning. Meagan has a background as a nurse's aide, Educational Assistant and Early Childhood Educator. Through years of play and connection with community members young and old Meagan has learned the value of relationship and trust in the learning process, and in building safe, healthy and rich learning communities. Meagan loves the outdoors and is thrilled to combine her passion for the outdoors with her teaching career at Fresh Air Learning and other Island Discovery programs.

Tricia Edgar

Tricia (She/they) loves to connect people with places. She is a settler of European ancestry who lives in the Lynn Creek watershed in Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam territory. For 27 years, Tricia has worked as a nature educator in this watershed, developing programs that explore the streams and forests of the temperate rainforest. She loves watching children fill with enthusiasm and wonder in nature. Tricia has an undergraduate degree in English and Geography and a Masters degree focused on ecological restoration and community development.

She has a background in permaculture education and also facilitates the Forest School Practitioners' Course through the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada. When she is not teaching, learning, and immersing herself in nature, you can find her hanging out with her daughter (a home learning graduate), reading fantasy novels, baking gluten-free goodies, writing stories with her students, or rehabilitating foster cats!

Liz Raymond

Liz (they/them) is a BIPOC mixed-raced child of immigrants, born and raised in San Diego, California. They hold two degrees related to education, a BA in English with Single Subject Teaching from San Diego State University and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from The University of Southern California. They have had the pleasure to live in beautiful Vancouver, BC for the last seven years. Liz decided to be an educator because they wanted to make sure that BIPOC children would have a familiar face in the classroom, one that knew and understood their struggles to belong in society.

Liz has enjoyed building upon their passion for nature through attending workshops like Wild Wisdom. Some nature related activities that they enjoy are: weaving, carving, hiking, in plein air painting, and reflective journaling (sit spot). Liz experiences nature through a learning lens and strives to keep that sense of wonder alive for their students and themselves. One of their goals is to encourage all children to find harmony and peace in natural spaces. Another goal is to reach out to BIPOC communities and get children in nature who don't have easy access to it. Liz loves spending time with their partner and dogs in Stanley Park. They also enjoy journaling with fountain pens, reading, and making footbags. Liz looks forward to connecting with you and your children in nature.

Jessica Curry

Jessica (She/her) has a background in outdoor education, travel and tourism, and holds an elementary teaching degree. She has a passion for exploring nature and sharing that love with others. She believes that all children should have a chance to explore their natural world around them and keep being curious about what they find.

Jessica loves going canoeing, hiking and camping with her husband and two boys. She also loves keeping herself busy with sewing, soap making, canning, and tending to her garden. Jessica also volunteers her time as a Scout leader, and helps facilitate support groups for families who have children with special needs.

Aazam Jalali Javaran

After graduating from psychology, Aazam devoted her career to working with children. She first started as an IB preschool teacher and later worked as a humanitarian specialist with refugee children in her home country.

She is fascinated by children's authenticity, and their wonder towards life. She aims to preserve these qualities in children by helping them connect with the nature.

In her free time Aazam enjoys reading novels, learning French, volunteering, and spending time with family and friends.

Cara Goggs

Cara (she/her) is very excited to be joining the amazing group of facilitators at FAL. She has been a preschool teacher for 30 years, the last 10 of which have been in nature. Cara has worked in a variety of nature connections programs and can’t imagine doing anything else with her life. She can be found birding in the early hours at Maplewood Flats as well as wandering the hills and valleys of the North Shore. She also enjoys combing the rivers and beaches, rockhounding and agate hunting. Cara is passionate about storytelling, singing, crafting and eating snacks under old trees in dappled sunlight.

Kate MacDonald

Kate (she/her) has long been inspired by working with children of all ages in various community and educational settings. As a life-long learner she first got involved in outdoor education with Fresh Air Learning in 2018 and she is grateful to be continuously learning from the land and from the teachings of the long-time stewards of the unceded Coast Salish territories. Kate holds a BA in Child and Youth Studies, MA in Social Justice and Equity Studies, and is currently a doctoral student in the Faculty of Education at SFU with her research focusing on place and nature-based education within the public school system. Kate is certified as a Forest School Practitioner with the Child and Nature Alliance/Forest School Canada and is passionate about connecting with nature through exploration and play, and about fostering caring and compassionate learning communities with young people. Stemming from an interest in food security, eco-social justice, and system sustainability, Kate is an avid community gardener and can often be found tending her gardens and enjoying local parks with human and more-than-human companions.

Alina Ziyun Zeng

Alina, a dedicated learner, passionate creator, and intrepid explorer at heart, finds her truest expression through the diverse realms of art. Her formative years spent in close proximity to the nurturing embrace of nature instilled within her an unbreakable connection to the ever-changing landscapes that cradle our world. With unwavering commitment, she endeavors to forge a profound bridge, bridging the prevailing chasm between our society and the environment that sustains us all. Recently graduated from UBC with a bachelor's degree in urban forestry and a minor in recreational planning, Alina stands on the cusp of her journey towards multifaceted knowledge. Her insatiable curiosity drives her to explore and understand various fields, eager to meld the wisdom garnered from each into a tapestry of insight and innovation. With her indomitable spirit and dedication, she is poised to champion the cause of ecological harmony and the pursuit of creative excellence. In Alina's free time, she enjoys photography, cooking, and cloud watching.

Marshall Martin

Marshall (he/him) is a soon-to-be graduating student in Psychology, who aims to attend graduate school in either counselling or education. Growing up, Marshall cultivated an appreciation for the outdoors through various adventurous camping and nature-related trips all throughout BC, as well as everyday walks through the forest near his childhood home. He is excited to help share this appreciation with the younger generations as part of the Fresh Air team. In his free time, you can find Marshall walking the Green Necklace, meditating at the pier near the Lonsdale Quay, or playing basketball with his friends.

Alysha Seriani

Alysha (she/her and they/them) — or Al for short — is a settler artist and inter-generational learner who loves to cook, sing, play, listen, and get into collaborative and messy hands-on projects. Over the past decade, she's been an educator within many local arts and community organizations as well as public schools and museums while dabbling in hobbies of hide tanning, speaking and singing in Scottish Gaelic, researching local feminist art history, and marvelling at all that is growing and decomposing around her. Al's style of facilitation with children weaves together social-emotional learning, popular education, intersectional feminism, decolonial animism, somatic awareness, secure attachment and disability justice. Since joining Fresh Air Learning at Everett Crowley Park in 2023, Al is committed to learning and showing up to that particular place in ways that honours its past and future flourishing.

Humphrey Chou

Humphrey (He/him) is an engineer, musician, and dancer who grew up in Burnaby and North Vancouver, and has a great love for foraging local flora (and funga), crafting with natural materials, and climbing all the things. He enjoyed getting his hands dirty for environmental stewardship projects with Metro Vancouver's Catching the Spirit Youth Society. After getting a chemical engineering degree, he worked for a startup researching biodegradable materials, and helping businesses achieve their zero-waste goals. He then founded a knife sharpening business, before starting to work in Early Childhood Education in 2022. He enjoys facilitating childrens' free-flowing creativity in nature, through play and exploration and crafting. If you get the chance, ask him about hammock camping, West Coast Swing dancing, or making bull kelp flutes!

Jeff Leung

Jeff has over six years of experience in education with children and youth. From tutoring Math, coaching soccer, and teaching languages, to volunteering and working at Forest Schools. He has a lifelong passion for teaching. He believes that life is not a series of problems to be solved, but a journey to experience, learn, and cherish!

A growth-oriented mind, he likes to challenge himself by trying new things: improv, acro yoga, standup comedy, meditation, an 800km bike tour in Taiwan, backpacking in South America...

An adventurous soul, he can speak 3 languages and has hitchhiked in 5 countries. He visited Vancouver two years ago and fell in love with the majestic mountains, the salty smell of the ocean, and the super tall trees that seem to never stop growing - just like him, so he has decided to make it his home here.

By spending time with kids, he realizes that it opens up his inner child, who is fun, playful, and musical! He is a big fan of play-based learning and taking supported risks, and he has demonstrated that through his work and life. Also, he likes to serenade the park with his blue recorder, and kids love that!