Outdoor Education Leaders
Staff & Faculty Background - Outdoor Ed Leaders and Sophomore Wilderness Expedition Leaders
Our instructors and co-leaders have been trained and certified through the Wilderness Medical Institute department of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS.) Instructors receive a WFR and co-leaders receive a WFA.
Liz O'Hara
Faculty - Wilderness Expedition Leader
lohara@stevensonschool.org
Liz learned her love for the outdoors at the hands of her father during many canoeing and kayaking trips on the rivers of Missouri. She was hooked as soon as she heard about Stevenson's fledgling outdoors program and took NOLS courses in leadership and rock climbing to broaden her skill set. Liz has been involved in the Sophomore Wilderness Expedition since 1995, leading four crews and four basecamps and spending the other years as the communications liaison. She occasionally leads hikes, and she coaches the spring sea kayaking program.
Bob McCormick
Faculty - Wilderness Expedition Director
bmccormick@stevensonschool.org
Bob's interest in the outdoors can be attributed to his grandmother who was once the head of Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources. In addition to embarking on birding trips with her, Bob and his family went on frequent canoe and camping trips to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Canada. After graduating from college, Bob moved west to ski (and work) in Utah and quickly became sold on a life in the outdoors. From there, a love for outdoor education blossomed. He worked at the Teton Science School in Wyoming and spent two summers leading trips with NOLS in the backcountry of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Bob has been on numerous educational backpacking, rock climbing and ski trips. He has participated in three seasons of the Stevenson Outdoor Education program. Exposing students to the challenges and delights of the outdoors is extremely rewarding to him.
Lindsay Jeffers
Faculty - Wilderness Expedition Leader
ljeffers@stevensonschool.org
As a nine-year-old Stevenson summer camper, Lindsay had his first backpacking experiences on the Vagabond Trip in Yosemite with Robert Ricklefs and newly-hired Coach Wilson. Growing up on Carmel Point, he had been hiking the trails of Point Lobos, Jacks Peak and the hills above the Carmel Highlands before he entered Stevenson as a 7th grader. Soon he began exploring longer trails in Los Padres National Forest on day trips and backpacking excursions, solo and with other Stevenson students. During a senior year abroad, he hiked and biked in Scotland and Ireland. As a college student, he returned for several summers as a Stevenson Camp counselor and led many hikes in Los Padres and Yosemite. When he became a full-time teacher at Stevenson, Lindsay led weekend hikes and informal four and five-day Easter trips in Los Padres and Big Basin while continuing to participate in Summer Camp hikes. His first Wilderness Expedition was in 1995, and he has been both a Crew and Base Camp leader every year since. Fall and spring terms, he supervises an intramural bicycling program. Lindsay is a resident faculty member and computer science teacher as well as the school's computer network administrator.
Jon Kemmerer
Faculty - Wilderness Expedition Leader
jkemmerer@stevensonschool.org
Growing up in upstate New York, Jon learned at a young age how much fun he could have outside. Whether it was jumping into a creek, walking through the woods or playing sports with his friends, he spent many hours outdoors. Working at the Stevenson Summer Camp in college gave him his first taste as an outdoor education leader and he has been doing it ever since. Jon has worked in outdoor education for the past 11 years before joining the Stevenson faculty full time. He has led backpacking, canoeing, sea kayaking and skiing trips in Maryland, Arizona, Nevada, Chile and California. He is also a river guide on the Kern River during the summer.
Logan Talbott
Wilderness Expedition Leader
Logan's adventures in the outdoors have taken him from the big walls of Yosemite, such as the northwest face of Half Dome and El Capitan, to the Himalayas of Nepal and an ascent of Mt. Ama Dablam. Logan considers the Sierra Nevada to be his home mountain range now, including the volcanoes of the cascades as a personal favorite. His love of the mountains was initially fostered at Stevenson, mostly thanks to Erik Olson, and now his life is spent primarily outdoors. Logan currently works as a professional mountain guide for Alpine Skills International in Truckee, Calif. He feels the Wilderness Expedition is a fantasic experience for students and leaders alike.
Cole Thompson
Faculty - Wilderness Expedition Leader
cthompson@stevensonschool.orgCole's first exposure to the wilderness took place during his high school years in the 1960s, when he first hiked up the Carmel River to Hiding Camp with experienced family friends. He remembers the mosquitos, but also the comraderie and the beautifully manicured trails of The Los Padres National Forest. He also remembers dashes over Devil's Peak in 100 degree heat and campfires at Comings Cabin. College life in Colorado exposed him to the high country, but the method of transportation was cross-country and downhill skiing. After an extended layoff spent raising a family on the peninsula, he eagerly jumped at the chance to get back into the woods by volunteering for the inaugural Stevenson Wilderness Expedition base camp in 1994. He has served every year as a crew leader, surviving many numerous stormy scenes and harrowing episodes. Following the Storm of the Century in 1995 he attended a National Outdoor Leadership School "Educators Course" in the Olympic Peninsula in order to hone his skills. As a NOLS alum, he climbed Gannet Peak in Wyoming during another summer faculty enrichment program. His three children, Michael ('95), Christopher ('97), and Franny ('02) participated in the expedition in every possible way they could during their tenures at Stevenson. Christopher served as an alum for several years, and Franny joins the 2008 expedition as a base camp leader.
Franny Thompson
Wilderness Expedition Leader
Franny joins the Wilderness Expedition in 2008, but she has served in other ways for years in almost every role of the expedition. From the ate of eight, she has attended our staff training sessions each year at the side of her father and expedition instructor, Cole Thompson. When she finally went on the expedition as a sophomore, she knew all the tricks. She was a co-leader with a base camp her junior year and with a crew her senior year. She graduated in 2002, then went abroad to spend a fifth year of high school in the English Speaking Union in England, where she had a chance to travel extensively while studying at a boarding school in Darlington. Franny recently graduated from UCSC in pre-med, earning an urban EMT credential along the way. She has a Wilderness First Responder certification as well, and has served as a counselor for the past few years.
Riann Siciak
Faculty - Wilderness Expedition Leader
rsiciak@stevensonschool.orgRiann joined the Stevenson faculty in 2007. She is a coach, a dorm parent, and an English teacher. She has a certification as an outdoor educator from the Canadian Outdoor Leadership Program - a 3 1/2 month intensive course - and has attended the Wilderness Risk Management Conference in both California and New Hampshire. In addition to hiking, she loves winter camping, including snow and glacier travel, flatwater canoeing in which she is a certified instructor, and surf kayaking in the local waters of Monterey Bay.
Tanja Roos
Wilderness Expedition Leader
Bio coming soon.
Andrew Czerny
Faculty - Wilderness Expedition Leader
aczerny@stevensonschool.org Bio coming soon.
Kelly Burnett
Faculty - Wilderness Expedition Leader
kburnett@stevensonschool.orgBio coming soon.
Sue Denny
Faculty - Wilderness Expedition Leader
sdenny@stevensonschool.orgBio coming soon.
Charles Henrikson
Faculty - Outdoor Ed Leader
chenrikson@stevensonschool.org
Charlie grew up in Marin County where he first began his love affair with the ocean in the cold - and sometimes violent - coastal waters of the Bay Area. He attended college in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and began another love affair there. This one was with the desert. He began his teaching career at the Orme School in central Arizona. He was able to explore the empty spaces and hidden, often forgotten, canyons in the dry, unforgiving high plains of the deserts in the area. He also shared his love of that arid climate with students. While in Arizona, he ran an outdoor program and taught innumerable students how to safely appreciate the surrounding environment, especially through rock climbing. Six years ago he moved back to the coast and began working at Stevenson. Here, he leads the fall season afternoon sea kayaking program and sometimes assists with the climbing program. Charlie is happy to have returned home to the Pacific Ocean where he can share the waves, kelp forests and wonderful sea mammals with Stevenson students.
Peter Lips
Faculty - Outdoor Ed Leader
plips@stevensonschool.orgPeter has been supervising the rock climbing program for several years. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons during the fall and winter terms, students in the program travel to the Sanctuary Rock Gym in Sand City. While some students choose to wear a harness and take advantage of the large number of traditional climbing routes, others decide to enjoy the bouldering routes and climb at lower levels without a rope or harness. Peter also supervised the kayaking program for several terms and, although he has slowed down in recent years, he has been an avid surfer, snowboarder, and mountain biker for over 20 years. Participation in outdoor activities and enjoying nature has always been such a rewarding experience for Peter, both physically and spiritually. He is honored to be a part of a program that allows students so many excellent opportunities to do this at varying levels.