Meet our Instructors
We can't do what we do without the top-notch instructors who offer their wisdom and skills at each camp! We value the women and men who are dedicated to our mission and who enjoy teaching all of you so much that they come back year after year!
Supporting our instructors outside of camp is important too. We value those doing the important work of outdoor education! Follow the links in your favorite instructors bios for more information and additional offerings outside of VOW.
Supporting our instructors outside of camp is important too. We value those doing the important work of outdoor education! Follow the links in your favorite instructors bios for more information and additional offerings outside of VOW.
Bridget Butler, AKA The Bird Diva, has been working in conservation and environmental education for more than 20 years throughout New England. Her business Bird Diva Consulting has her traveling across Vermont delivering presentations, leading bird walks, and surveying birds for landowners. Bridget has worked for the Audubon Society in Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts and helped to created Audubon Vermont’s Forest Bird Initiative. You may have seen her on WPTZ or WCAX talking about birds and conservation or heard her on Vermont Public Radio’s annual bird shows on Vermont Edition. As the Bird Diva, she feels it important that birders use their passion for birds to make a difference by helping to protect habitat for birds and other wildlife. Bridget lives in St. Albans with her husband and three young children whom she’s grooming to be the next stewards of this wild world we live in!
Barbara Schultz has worked in forestry for over 40 years, and has been a forest health specialist for the State of Vermont since 1980. She started her classes as a Forest Ecology instructor at CCV by predicting that everyone would learn to identify twenty trees, and it was true (even the student who said, “I can’t, I’m from Brooklyn”). She likes the “detective” part of her job, using clues in the forest to diagnose forest tree problems, and finds that knowing the trees and being able to read the woods makes any walk in the forest more interesting.
Larry W. Hamel lives in Hardwick, Vermont. He is currently President of the Lamoille Valley Fish & Game Club and is a certified VT Hunter Education Instructor. Larry has been working with women's groups, instructing muzzleloader, rifle and handgun safety courses for the past 20+ years. He is a carpenter by trade and a hunter-tracker-competitive shooter-woodsman by choice.
Johanna Laggis is a dairy farmer in East Hardwick, VT. Along with her husband, John, his brother Chris, and their families, Laggis brothers Farms milks 500 Jerseys and manages 1000 acres of land. In addition to dairying, they sugar and harvest timber. Johanna worked as a forester for the State of Vermont in the 1980s and still spends lots of time in the woods foraging for wild edibles, identifying everything alive, and sharing her knowledge with friends and dogs. Johanna is currently serving on the Fish & Wildlife board as the Caledonia County representative.
Bonna Wieler teaches kayaking skills as an American Canoe Association kayak Instructor through summer camps, school programs, and Bold Paths Adventure. She leads day and overnight kayaking trips for AMC Worcester and Berkshire Chapters, and offers beginning kayakers a no-stress, supportive learning environment. She also teaches river curricula and consults, runs environmental and outdoor education workshops for school and after-school programs, and teaches team building and natural arts. Bonna serves on the board of Women Outdoors, Inc. and coordinates their NH/VT activities.
Deb Weinstein has been hiking and paddling in New England for 45 years. She has current Level 2 canoe instructor certification with the American Canoe Association and leads paddle trips for the AMC Worcester and Berkshire Chapters. Her volunteer responsibilities include work with the Massachusetts Appalachian Trail Management Committee and serving as a regional coordinator for Women Outdoors, Inc. Her current outdoor interests are river paddling, sea kayaking, canoe camping, backpacking, and cross country skiing. She is a part-time bicycle mechanic and soon-to-be retired atmospheric scientist.
A lifelong outdoorswoman and equestrian, Cheryl Frank Sullivan's primary wild side passions are bow hunting and muzzleloader for white-tailed deer, ice fishing for northern pike and spending time with her horse. Between those activities, she can be found trolling for salmon or casting for bowfin and bass on Lake Champlain on her boat the "WildFisherWoman". A graduate of and employee at the University of Vermont, Cheryl is currently pursuing her PhD specializing in the biological control of arthropod pests.
David Shedd is Publisher & Senior Editor of EasternSlopes.com, an online magazine devoted to encouraging people to get outdoors in the northeast. His specialties are carrying insane weights in backpacks over rough terrain to test packs, boots, snowshoes, and himself, and sleeping comfortably warm when the temperature sinks well below his sleeping bag's rating. David grew up in Vermont woods, far from neighbors (explains some of his eccentricities) and started learning outdoor skills early. Much to his parents' consternation, he always found his way home, even before GPS. David loves pedaling road, mountain and cyclocross bikes all year, and has raced on all three. He's survived the Mount Washington Hillclimb three times. He also enjoys backpacking, paddling kayaks, and has recently taken up "adventure obstacle course racing" which, he admits, is a form of institutionalized self-abuse. David hunts and fishes, often from a backpack or kayak camp. In winter, he camps, snowshoes, and enjoys every type of skiing that doesn't involve terrain parks. Enthusiastic about all these pursuits and the necessary gear, he places a strong emphasis on teaching people how to do things safely; he knows the right way to do things precisely because he's probably already suffered the consequences of doing it wrong the first time!
Linwood H. Smith has 30+ years of experience teaching archery skills and with all brands of archery equipment. He will work one-on-one with you to pinpoint any troubles with your setup and get your gear hitting the right spot with the right force in no time! Linwood Smith Archery Pro Shop in St. Johnsbury is proud to offer the award-winning performance of Martin and all of the equipment and accessories to help you reach your archery goals. Every bow Linwood sells is carefully configured and set up to wield the best possible performance. Courses in their large indoor/outdoor archery shooting range are available year-round with peak season in August through October.
Meridy Capella has been the owner of Evergreen Alterations, a woman-owned small business in Bennington, VT for over 20 years. She's a government contractor for the Department of Defense, while maintaining a civilian client base in her area. Meridy alters the uniforms of all law enforcement in Bennington County. Fiber arts, sewing, and creating are Meridy's passions and pastime. She truly enjoys sharing this passion with her community.
Sarah Corrigan is an herbalist and primitive skills practitioner who has a focus on ethnobotanical studies. Informed by these land based arts, she finds they offer the rewards of self reliance through skill, responsibility and gratitude through growing and gathering, and the awe and wonder of things through the beauty of the natural world. In effect, that this interaction can educate us to being more capable, responsible, and healthier human beings. As a student and an educator, she remains passionate about continuous learning, and facilitating a student's relationship to the natural world through supporting their own learning processes.
B.A. Art History, Drew University, 2005
Vermont Center of Integrative Herbalism Clinical Herbalism 3 year program
B.A. Art History, Drew University, 2005
Vermont Center of Integrative Herbalism Clinical Herbalism 3 year program
Naomi Geriepy grew up in Massachusetts and Maine before moving to Vermont in 2017. She now lives in Bradford, VT with her loving partner and dog. Naomi is a passionate plant person, dedicated to tending the Earth and being in relationship with plants and all of the natural world. She has completed over 300 hours of sacred plant medicine apprenticeships with The Gaia School of Healing and Earth Education, as well as other workshops and trainings involving practices like sacred plant medicine, plant communication, identification, poisonous plants, folk herbalism and more. After 3 years of studying and learning, Naomi now teaches plant spirit communication workshops, tea meditations and materia medica study groups. In addition to teaching, Naomi also works as an independent practitioner, providing healing sessions incorporating plant spirit medicine and energy healing as well as herbal consultations.Naomi is also a 200 hour RYT, trained in Vinyasa style yoga. She has been a practicing yogi for over 7 years and has spread her love for intentional movement and the yoga ethics throughout Maine and Vermont. Most recently, Naomi taught at The Vermont Be True Yoga Festival, in addition to offering private yoga sessions to members of her community.
Naomi believes that the knowledge and practice of sacred plant medicine and plant spirit communication is a human birthright that we are all entitled to. She is dedicated to teaching and spreading this knowledge and these practices to empower people of all walks of life to take medicine and healing back into their own hands. She believes that medicine should be for people and not profit. Plants bring us into community with eachother and with the earth, they bring us medicine and healing for the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Naomi's mission with her work is to help us all to remember that we are of the Earth and that health and healing are accessible through being in sacred relationship with nature.
Naomi believes that the knowledge and practice of sacred plant medicine and plant spirit communication is a human birthright that we are all entitled to. She is dedicated to teaching and spreading this knowledge and these practices to empower people of all walks of life to take medicine and healing back into their own hands. She believes that medicine should be for people and not profit. Plants bring us into community with eachother and with the earth, they bring us medicine and healing for the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Naomi's mission with her work is to help us all to remember that we are of the Earth and that health and healing are accessible through being in sacred relationship with nature.
Tim Jones is founder and executive editor of EasternSlopes.com, devoted to encouraging people to get outdoors in the northeast. Tim's motto is "Life isn't a spectator sport. Get out and enjoy!" and he practices what he preaches. He wandered from the back yard of his rural New Hampshire home as a toddler and has been exploring outdoors ever since. He started skiing at age 4, was still in grade school when he started camping, hiking, and paddling canoes, and taught both Alpine and cross-country skiing while in high school and college. A full-time journalist for nearly 40 years, Tim has published over 1500 feature stores and thousands of newspaper columns on outdoor pursuits. Winter is his favorite season and he enjoys camping; snowshoeing; Alpine, AT backcountry, Telemark and Cross-country skiing; Nordic skating; and winter mountaineering. When there's no snow, he hikes, paddles sea kayaks, rides bikes, camps, and climbs mountains. He is also an avid fly fisher and hunter. Tim's experience in the outdoors has taught him that the best way to safely learn any new skill is in incremental steps with expert instruction from someone who knows, not only how to do, but also how to teach.
Janice Decooman focused her career on teaching art and health in Vermont public schools while tending many fiber animals, spinning, knitting, crocheting and developing her weaving style by incorporating her studies of Navajo and Japanese weaving. Painting 'Whimsical Expressions' on wood started as a unique way to display woven and dyed garments and has grown into an art form itself. Carving wood is her new creative adventure. Currently Janice balances her Wildflower Weaving & JDesigns business with studying Ayurveda and working as a wellness consultant. She shows her fiber and art work at local art galleries and offers private floor weaving instruction in addition to various workshops.