Four Winds Nature Institute Board
Linda Fuerst
Linda Fuerst, now retired, has been a 3rd and 4th grade teacher for 22 years. She enjoyed using the first edition of Hands on Nature and getting her students outdoors to observe first hand, the wonders of the natural world. She is now a classroom volunteer and co-coordinator of the Four Winds program at the Cornish Elementary School in New Hampshire, one of the first schools in New Hampshire to participate in the program.
Jerry Jenkins
Jerry has been involved with Wildlife Conservation Society's work in the Adirondacks since the genesis of the Adirondack Communities and Conservation program, and has brought his interest and expertise in forest ecology to a variety of discussions and projects. He is a botanist and consultant with wide-ranging experience for a number of regional organizations, including performing ecological assessments for the Adirondack Nature Conservancy. Jerry is the author of The Adirondack Atlas: A Geographic Protrait of the Adirondack Park. He is also director of the White Creek Field School in White Creek, NY.
Jerry Jenkins
Win Johnson
Edwin L. Johnson, Hubbard Brook Research Foundation Director of Finance & Administration, joined the staff in 2006 after a year serving as a trustee. He has spent most of his career in nonprofit management, including 20 years at Dartmouth College where he last served as Vice President and Treasurer.
Cynthia Moulton
Chris Runcie
Chris Runcie was an Environmental Studies major at Middlebury College where
she did research on frequency-dependent selection in fruit flies. Later
she attended graduate school and received an MA and PhD in Zoology for
her research on chemical trail-laying in a termite species. Returning
to Vermont, Chris spent many years as a full-time mother of three, but
found the time to pursue her delight and interest in nature through the
Forest & Field Club, the Lewis Creek Association, and as an ELF
volunteer. She became an educator at VINS in 1997 and taught the ELF
program for 9 years. Chris is keenly interested in birdsong, in insect
behavior, in plant and animal relationships, and in engaging people of
all ages in learning about nature.
Susan Sawyer
Susan Sawyer is an artist-naturalist from South Woodbury. Susan has
been a
freelance artist and teacher for over thirty years, and since 1996 has
been a member of the faculty of the Adult Degree Program of Vermont
College, where she advises studies in art and natural science. She also
worked for the Vermont Institute of Natural Science for thirteen years
as an educator, naturalist, and illustrator. She was one of the lead
authors of the second edition of Hands-On Nature. Her particular
interests
include plants, insects, and all kinds of wet places – vernal pools,
fens, bogs, and beaver meadows – and making art that reflects her love
of nature. She's insatiably curious, loves a puzzle, thinks observation
and imagination are the beginning of both science and art, and believes
in having lots of fun while learning about the natural world.
Susan earned a BA in graphics and natural history from New College,
Sarasota, Florida and a Master of Fine Arts in visual art from Vermont
College.
Steve Spensley
Steve Spensley has been a classroom teacher since 1979. In 1981 he was hired to teach at Barstow Memeorial School, in Chittenden, where he has worked with 3rd, 4th and, now, 5th graders. During the summers Steve works at Camp Betsey Cox, in Pittsford. At camp he does site work and leads hiking adventures. He has a keen interest in exciting children about the natural world and has been able to do this both within and outside the classroom.