The Living Earth Team
Our Administrative Staff
Hub Knott
Co-Founder; Executive Director; Nature Connection Mentor; Board of Directors
Hub Knott
Hub has been on a deep nature connection journey for over 25 years. He didn’t grow up in a world that felt connected to nature. He knew something was missing. In his late teens he started exploring the woods near his childhood home in Baltimore, and then expanded to some of the most beautiful wild places in North America. He yearned for the taste of the wild, the real, the mountain peaks and the rich valleys.
He has traveled to other continents and studied with many leaders and mentors to answer the question: what consistently connects people to nature, and their purpose? It is these findings that put him on the leading edge of the nature connection movement. Hub knows from experience how this nature connection journey can transform ones life, leading to more heart-centered relationships and purpose. He has mentored and taught thousands of people to connect in a deeper, more meaningful way with not only the natural world, but with themselves in balance with community.
Hub is great at bringing humor, curiosity and a light-hearted approach to loving this earth and empowering people to embrace their opportunity. Hub lives along the Blue Ridge Mountains with his wonderful daughters, Violet and Phoebe. He loves pursuing his outdoor passions of gardening, tending the wild, wandering the mountains behind his home, trail running, paddling rivers, and saying “yes” to adventure.
Kathryn Abbott
Associate Director
Kathryn Abbott
Kathryn is passionate about creating community, nurturing families, and supporting systems that help people thrive. She has a career background in finance, sales, and marketing, and a deep belief in service as a guiding principle in both work and life. Before joining the Living Earth School staff, she served for four years on the LES Board of Directors and held leadership roles with other nonprofits, including Attachment Parenting International and the Greenwood Tree Educational Cooperative in Washington State.
She and her family moved to Charlottesville in 2019 and quickly found a home in the LES community. Kathryn homeschooled her two children, now attending high school and college, through a dynamic, child-centered approach. She believes deeply in the power of nature to awaken joy, deepen connection, and inspire stewardship of the earth and one another.
She enjoys time with family and friends, cooking and sharing nourishing meals, reading great fiction, learning new things, being in nature, and being inspired by meaningful conversations.
Arion Oxford
Administrative Director
Arion Oxford
Arion is a lifelong LESer. He started at Earth Roots in 2011 and dove head-first into as many summer camps and homeschool semesters as possible. He majored in Environmental Thought and Practice at UVA, and has worked in aerospace engineering and software development before returning to his LES roots. Arion loves stories and is an avid reader and a dedicated plant parent, with over 40 house plants. In his free-time, Arion puts his Earth Skills and Wilderness First Responder training to use by volunteering with the local search and rescue team.
Nature Connection Mentors
MaKealy ‘Sunflower’ Meyers
Field Coordinator/Year Round Instructor
MaKealy ‘Sunflower’ Meyers
Sunflower grew up in the rolling mountains of Happy Valley (State College PA), home to the Penn State Nittany Lions. WE ARE! She graduated from Penn State University in 2017, and soon after worked her first job as an envir. educator for the nature program she grew up attending as a kid and teen. After that first summer role she knew she wanted to follow her passion for creating meaningful connections & experiences for people in nature. Sunflower has been working as an outdoor env. educator ever since (nearly 10 years!) across four states, two islands, and many adventures along the way. Kealy has seen time and time again the magic possible when we foster the connections we have with nature and each other. Sunflower spent the first year in Cville working as a preschool teacher until she learned about Living Earth School and knew she couldn’t pass up the chance to work and learn with a community like LES. Sunflower started with LES in 2024 and looks forward to many seasons of growth, learning and exploration ahead!
Kealy has always felt most at home outdoors and is known to find a way to make any ‘inside activity’ an outside one. She is especially grateful to be living near the beautiful Blue Ridge Mts soaking up the central VA weather. In her free time Sunflower is usually found crafting, reading, watching football + snacking, relaxing in her backyard. On weekends she loves to take road trips to visit family in PA, spend time with her childhood friends, or to any place along the coast! Her favorite parts of the day are during Sit Spot watching the wildlife from her patio with a cup of coffee/tea.
(PS, huge shoutout to Gwynnda The Good Wheel Of The West, Sunflower’s favorite Baltimore trash ‘snail’!)
Barak Brashear
Year-Round Instructor
Barak Brashear
Barak Brashear has been working in the field of outdoor education and recreation for more then 20 years, first as a counselor at Nature Camp, a summer camp in Rockbridge County, Virginia, and most recently as a trail maintenance technician with Charlottesville City Parks and Recreation. A native of Crozet, Virginia, Barak first learned to love the outdoors while hiking in the mountains, playing in the creek, and going on canoe trips with his family.
Barak has a degree in outdoor recreation from Ferrum College and is a certified Wilderness First Responder and Leave No Trace Master Educator. When he is not teaching or guiding, he enjoys, hiking, backpacking, canoeing, rock climbing, and birding. His lifelong passion for outdoor education has led him to live in and travel to many places in the United States and around the world including Europe and South America. But he feels most at home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia
Mike E.
Year-Round Instructor
Mike E.
I have been an outdoor educator for over a decade. Many of my first experiences with nature began as a kid, where my vacations with family were often camping adventures in the Mid-Atlantic. I’m from Baltimore, MD a city I still love, but I am also entranced by the Appalachian Mountains.
After college, I would go backpacking on my own, as I knew even then that something about being in nature was healing. My nature connection journey has taken me across various parts of the Mid Atlantic and Southern Appalachia. I continued that journey with a strong interest in foraged foods and gardening. I began to educate myself about foraging and read “Nature’s Garden” from cover to cover. The first plant I identified on my own was lamb’s quarter. I’ve been involved in small scale sustainable agriculture and seed saving on an urban farm in Baltimore. In 2017 I joined the LEAF program at Living Earth because I wanted to learn a deeper awareness and feed my connection to nature in ways beyond growing and foraging food. As I went through the Leaf Program and spent time at the community garden and local parks, I realized that the beauty of nature can be found anywhere, even in the heart of the city. My hope is that everyone can have the opportunity to experience an interwoven connection to nature and be renewed by those healing threads.
Having lived in a variety of intentional communities or co-ops, I believe in the benefits of sharing knowledge and resources. Though one can learn a lot during a solo journey in nature, we do not survive alone in our day to day lives. I am grateful for those who cultivate a relationship and knowledge of place, foods from our local ecosystem, and handmade goods and am excited pass on the knowledge that I have learned from my many teachers, to younger generations and to a new village of people trying to live in right relationship with the earth the beings that inhabit her.
Erin Campbell
LEAF Instructor
Erin Campbell
Erin Maureen Campbell, aka Soupy, became wildly curious about the natural world during three years in the Pacific Northwest as a student and instructor at the Wilderness Awareness School. Soupy is a UVA grad from Springfield, and in 2014 after several years of adventuring out-of-state, she moved back to her native Virginia and fell completely in love with these hardwood hills, humid summers, and swift-running streams. Soupy has spent most of her life as a mentor, primarily in carpentry coaching, transformational nature connection experiences, and survival skills instruction. After completing a graduate degree in Conflict Transformation at Eastern Mennonite University, she has supported various group facilitation processes around important and often contentious issues. Soupy lives in a tiny house she built herself, and she loves mountain biking and adventuring with her eight nieces and nephews.
Peter Yencken
TAP Instructor
Peter Yencken
Peter is a master bowmaker and craftsman. He has instructed at wilderness schools across the United States and Australia, bringing the satisfaction of materials such as leather, wool, wood and metal into people’s hands. Peter brings humor and wry wisdom to his classes, and is known for his probing questions that make crafting class double as Philosophy 101.
Jack Antes
TAP Instructor
Jack Antes
Oft-described “weird dude,” Jack claims he is able to hold 50 crows at once but has yet to demonstrate it to anyone. A talented artist, musician, and craftsman, Jack grew up in Charlottesville and was a regular face at Living Earth overnight camps as a child before making the transition from participant to instructor in his teens. A passionate tracker and survivalist, as a student of primitive living skills Jack is constantly pushing his edges to learn more and improve his abilities, both on his own—his time in Utah was frequented with self-imposed desert survival challenges (he’s spent countless hours following trails through briars and stalking up on deer because it’s “fun”)—and from others, at organizations like the Tracker School. Enigmatic, laconic, and with a sense of humor “so dry it makes dust look wet,” Jack may not give much away at first glance (or second, or third…), but spend a few hours in the woods with him and you’ll soon see why we’ve kept him around so long.
When not being a dirt person (he falls somewhere between hippie and hipster), Jack can likely be found obsessively practicing one of the many instruments he plays, working on “viscerally surreal” art and film, or otherwise embodying the pretentious art-school dropout talking about Liquid Liquid or The Fall in the corner at the party, who he loves to complain about and pretends he isn’t (if you’ve read this far into his bio, though, it’s pretty obvious that he is).
Camille Thionville
TAP Instructor
Camille Thionville
Camille grew up homeschooled on a homestead in rural Virginia, learning through connection with the natural world around her. She started training in Shaolin Mizong and Jow Ga kung fu at the age of 9 and continues to practice martial arts today. Her desire to understand and learn more about psychology and the movement of the human body took her all the way up to New England and then back to Virginia.
Camille first joined the Living Earth team as a summer camp instructor in 2021. Working with the summer camp re-awoke the pure, joyful, innocent connection with nature that she had grown up with. She now strives to bring awareness of movement, awareness of breath, and awareness of the joy of living with everybody around her. Along the way, she discovered the amazing diversity and benefits of mushrooms to the ecosystem and is currently focusing on deepening her understanding of the mycelial network and its enormity.
Cohosh Guenther
Volunteer Coordinator
Cohosh Guenther
“Cohosh” Kate Guenther has been a part of the Living Earth School community since about 2007 in the roles of student, volunteer, board member and employee. She benefitted from years of study in the Kamana Naturalist Training Program by Wilderness Awareness School. She created a resource database for wildlife rehabilitators, educators, and naturalists about the wild plant foods eaten by wildlife: www.wildfoods4wildlife.com.
Her current passions are historic open fire cooking, natural fiber crafts and dogs.
Snow Bear, Steven Taylor
Summer Camp Elder, Veteran Summer Camp Instructor
Snow Bear, Steven Taylor
Luke von Hemert
Veteran Summer Camp Instructor
Luke von Hemert
Luke von Hemert started going to the Living Earth School when he was around 10 and quickly fell in love with what was taught at the school. He then went on to attend every camp that they offered, and when he heard he could become a CIT (counselor in training) he jumped at the idea. After graduating high school, and seeing a bit of the world he has signed on to be a natural mentor for kids, and plans to do so in the future.
Luke really enjoys rock climbing, and ascending huge walls out in Utah has been a big highlight in his life. What he really likes about working for LES is sparking kids connecting to the earth, and seeing them really start to care for it.
Joey Murray
Veteran Summer Camp Instructor
Joey Murray
Joey has been with LES for 17 summers and it just wouldn’t be the same without him! Joey has a love of the wilderness that was fostered since he was a child. He has had the opportunity to travel all over the world learning from Indigenous elders and nature connection leaders and has constantly asked the questions: What brings people closer to nature connection? What brings people closer to themselves? It is the drive to answer these questions and especially the community of friends that he works with that has put him at the cutting edge of the nature connection movement.
Joe realized that deep nature connection mentoring and community are the most important ways for our children and adults to grow in a very deep way to connect with the earth and our hearts. He loves to care for the land and when he is not teaching he is learning. Over the span of his career he has trained many instructors and helped start a number of wilderness schools. More close to his heart has been the thousands of children he has helped mentor into becoming fully alive amazing beings.
He is a co-founder of Ancestral Knowledge 501(c3) and has been mentoring deep nature connection since 1997. In his free time he loves to spend time in nature alone or with his family, students, community of other nature connection mentors.
…We have nothing but praise for a great program and wonderful, attentive, caring staff…
David K.…This is an incredible camp, where our son feels at home in nature, is genuinely cared for and inspired by the great staff.
Caroline P.The Living Earth Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors are the stewards of our mission and vision. They volunteer their time, passion, and expertise to help advance strategic goals that support our work in the nature connection movement. We are grateful for their commitment to our organization and community.
Living Earth School seeks to reflect the diverse array of people who live in our region. We encourage anyone who has the skill set, knowledge or interest in supporting mentored nature connection for youth and adults in our community to consider volunteering with LES.
Volunteering as a Director on the Board of Directors is one of many ways to get more involved with Living Earth School. We are always seeking people interested in being considered for Board or Committee service. Board member terms are 3 years. Terms generally start January 1st, and our active recruitment and interviewing process begins in June. Current board committees include the Equity, Finance, Fundraising, Human Resources, Risk Management, and Governance and Board Development Committees. If you would like to speak to someone about the possibility of board or committee service, please complete our interest form HERE.
We are looking for individuals who will:
- Create and foster connections within our greater community, particularly within communities where barriers to nature connection exist
- Serve as visionaries and leaders while driving our strategic vision and goals
- Guide and support our fundraising efforts
- Have knowledge and background in areas such as:
- Non-profit accounting/financial acumen
- Data analysis/statistics
- Equity and inclusion
- Event planning/execution
- Non-profit governance
- Grant writing
- Small business or non-profit law
- Marketing/public relations/social media
- Operational leadership
- Sustainable building and/or land management
Our Current Board Members
Val Goodman
Board President
Val Goodman
Val Goodman, currently serving as our Board President, has been a long-time supporter of the Living Earth School. Connecting with nature is a deeply rooted family value so when her children were young they attended LES camps. Val and her husband attended LEAF in 2019-2020 & 2023-2024.
Val spends as much free time as possible walking the Living Earth Sanctuary land, connecting and learning the rhythms.
Valerie came to Charlottesville as a traveling nurse “just passing thru” in 1988, and never left. She married and raised her family here. Now semi-retired from her RN role and empty nesting, she is caring for her menagerie of miniature donkeys and horses. Valerie lives in Charlottesville on her hobby farm with husband Matt. Great joys include feeding the birds, tending to the koi pond, taking long cycling trips, and finding ways to care for others.
Brian Bentzen
Brian Bentzen
Ellie Whitenack
Ellie Whitenack
Ellie Whitenack’s connection to Living Earth School began through her two children, who participate in its programs. Watching their confidence grow through time outdoors under the guidance of the school’s exceptional field staff has deepened her appreciation for the impact of nature-based education. Her gratitude for the staff and the intentional, thoughtful way they carry out the organization’s mission is one of the reasons she accepted the opportunity to serve on the Board of Directors.
Ellie holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Nutrition and is currently pursuing her Doctorate, where her work focuses on integrative approaches to health, with particular interest in supporting children with complex health conditions.
She grew up in the Charlottesville area, spending much of her childhood playing outside and backpacking with her family. Today, she enjoys trail running with her dog, hiking with her kids, and recently took up fly fishing as a way to stay connected to nature.
Val Washington
Val Washington
Val Washington, the newest board member, is new to the LES community. She has an undergraduate degree in Economics and is pursuing her Masters in Urban and Regional Planning with a concentration in Sustainability.
She became interested in rekindling her relationship with nature after studying environmental justice and taking a park planning class in graduate school. As a novice outdoorswoman and adventurer, Val attended her first backpacking trip with LES in 2023. Her dream is to be equipped to enjoy solo camping and backpacking trips throughout the region.
With the threats of global warming and climate change, she believes that right now is the time to gather people to enjoy and appreciate nature before it is too late. Even so, she understands that due to cultural and systemic barriers, not everyone can enjoy the outdoors as much as others, and she hopes to change that through outreach and education.
Val lives in Harrisonburg with her son, and dog, Stewie. In her free time, she enjoys reading, road trips and spending time with her family.
Kate Knott
Co-Founder
Kate Knott
Kate Knott is the Co-founder of the Living Earth School, along with Hub. She was the director of the school from 2002-2020. She has currently stepped away from this position and is now serving as a board member.
Kate is a visionary and change maker, on a mission to connect people back to living a life connected to nature and to their own sacred journey. She sees life as a precious gift and knowing that we have a choice to live it fully or hide in our comforts or distractions. She actively chooses to live from her heart and to step into life fully.
She has built one of the leading nature schools in the country, from the ground up, and continues to be on the cutting edge of the national nature connection movement. She has been engaged on the nature connection journey herself for well over 25 years and has touched the lives of thousands. Her path continues to unfold around connecting people to our brilliant planet Earth, and to both awakening within and helping others awaken to their truth within. She is currently forging a new path involving deep nature connection, meditation, nature photography and expeditions to beautiful wild places on planet Earth. Stay tuned!
Kate loves to explore the wild with her family, by herself or with friends. You will most likely find her nibbling on wild plants, hiking, paddleboarding, exploring beautiful wild places and often on her belly getting the perfect photograph of a beautiful moment in nature.
