Staff Bios

Amy Hyatt, Executive Director

Amy moved to Vermont in August 2001 to participate in Vermont Wilderness School’s Instructor Apprenticeship Program, get trained and move back to her birth home bioregion of Southwestern Ohio to start a Wilderness School there. She quickly fell in love with Vermont, the work of Vermont Wilderness School, the children and families of Oyase and has been with us ever since. Amy completed the four-year Apprenticeship Program with VWS in 2005, coordinated and co-facilitated a year of the Apprenticeship Program, and has been an Oyase staff lead instructor since the 2003-2004 program year. She has also been a lead instructor for Deep Wilds intro to wilderness survival overnight programs, for Otter Day Camp and Earthfriend Discovery Day Camps. She has also been on staff for 8+ east coast Art of Mentoring workshops and is currently a major organizer of the Vermont Art of Mentoring. Her specialty is working with children ages 7-11 and adults of all ages in areas of nature awareness, basic survival skills, creative expression, cultural facilitation and community building. She completed a Master of Arts in eco-literacy and place-based education in 2004 from Union Institute and University and a Bachelor’s of Philosophy in Cross-Cultural Communication through the Arts from Miami University in 1995. Additional, Amy has extensive experience in non-profit leadership, organizational development, and community organizing (that’s what she did before moving to Vermont)!

Programs:

Executive Director of VWS
Program Director Oyase Community School
Camp Director & Lead Instructor Earthfriend Discovery Day Camp
Facilitator/Presenter Art of Mentoring

First Aid Certification: SOLO Wilderness First Aid & AHA CPR

Bob Etzweiler

Bob has always loved being outdoors. Before moving to Vermont in 2006, he was program director and naturalist at a summer camp / outdoor retreat center in Pennsylvania. He loved the work, but it wasn’t exactly the focus he wanted. Upon coming to Vermont, he started doing wilderness programs similar to Otter Day Camp and found that was a good fit. He has worked for Oyase Community School since 2007 as well as offering his own Fox Walk Programs—both offered through Vermont Wilderness School He loves hunting, tanning hides, crafting, tracking and wandering. He also loves primitive cooking and wants to have a related show on the food network. Let him know if you have any connections.

Programs:

Field Director Otter Day Camp
Lead Instructor Earthfriend Discovery Day Camp
Field Director & Lead Instructor Oyase Community School
Director & Instructor for Fox Walk Programs

First Aid Certification: Wilderness First Aid & CPR

Efan Hsieh

Efan lives in Pioneer Valley of MA and shares her passion for nature as an instructor with the Vermont Wilderness School, the Institute for Natural Learning, and Wolf Tree Programs. Efan has a BS in Environmental Science from UMass Amherst, and completed the nine-month Intensive Leadership Program with the Institute for Natural Learning under Mark Morey. She has facilitated nature-and-culture experiences for people of all ages and in all seasons, for the Art of Mentoring workshops, the Community Nature Awareness Program, Bates College, Deep Wilds Wilderness Rites for Waldorf school teens, and through many other schools and programs in the Northeast. She has also consulted on implementing permaculture designs on a residential scale since 2005. She loves gardening, playing her fiddle, contact improvisation dancing, singing, yoga, wandering in the woods, fermenting foods, harvesting and making plant medicines, and spending time with her women's circle.

Programs:

Lead Instructor Full Moon Girls
Art of Mentoring/Fall Rendezvous Staff

First Aid Certification:

Patrick Johnson

Patrick Johnson studied painting and sculpture at the Meyers Art School at The University of Akron and he has been a professional artist for most of his life. He studied mountaineering, winter survival and white water paddling with the American Canoe Association and with Misha Golfman, co-founder of Kroka Expeditions. Patrick was both an employed and volunteer staff for Kroka Expeditions for several years and designed the logo that they continue to use today. He studied the Art of Mentoring with Mark Morey and was inspired to carve his first longbow at that time. He joined Boys to Men Mentoring and began teaching and developing wilderness programming for nearby schools including Kindle Farm Children’s Services. Recently, he attended Alan Emond’s Hunting Camp and tracking classes and he continues to study Jon Young’s Kamana Naturalist Training online. Patrick lives in Marlboro, VT where he works as an artist, teacher of wilderness skills and tutor of children for Options In Learning tutorial services.

Programs:

Lead Instructor Otter Day Camp
Lead Instructor Oyase Community School

First Aid Certification: ARC Wilderness & Remote First Aid & AHA CPR

Dhyana Miller

Dhyana lives in the Connecticut River Valley of Western MA as a wildcrafter, earth-based mentor, and contradance fiddler. She designed her B.A. in conservation biology and experiential education at Hampshire College. Her study of ecovillage and permaculture design brought her in 2006 to Lost Valley Education Center near Eugene, OR. Since then, she has taught in a Montessori classroom and pursued further training from Jon Young, Penny Livingston and James Stark in the Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness program. Dhyana now invests in the future generations as an instructor for Flying Deer Nature Center, White Pine Programs and Vermont Wilderness School. She guides children and young women on journeys to engage in their gifts and rediscover their true selves within an ever-strengthening intergenerational community.

Programs:

Lead Instructor Full Moon Girls
Assistant Instructor Oyase Community School
Art of Mentoring/Fall Rendezvous Staff

First Aid Certification: ARC Wilderness & Remote First Aid & AHA CPR

Louisa Pugh

Louisa came to Vermont five years ago to attend Marlboro College where she spent the first two years studying a mixture of music, the environment, education and anthropology. She first visited Oyase with former staff member, Liz Crain, in the winter of 2008, and immediately decided to stay on as the Hemlock Clan’s intern. Her experiences with Oyase that winter inspired her to intern at several other camps and schools in the area, all that teach a sense of place and of the environment. Her final projects at Marlboro integrated those experiences into a larger study of “place based education”. In 2009, she joined the Oyase staff with the Beech Clan. She spends the rest of the week living in cabin in Guilford, knitting, contra dancing and playing the fiddle.

Programs:

Assistant Instructor Oyase Community School

First Aid Certification: ARC First Aid & AHA CPR