Olympic

We were fortunate to reconnect recently with NatureBridge Golden Gate (formerly The Headlands Institute) alum Ryan Hunt at our Olympic campus. During his visit to Olympic, Ryan and his fellow team members met with NatureBridge CEO and President Phil Kilbridge, Olympic Campus Director Jen Kidder, National Park Service staff and members of our Olympic staff. They toured the campus and learned how NatureBridge has evolved since Ryan’s time as a student at The Headlands Institute in 1991. Ryan shared about his NatureBridge program where he learned about marine life and ecosystems in Golden Gate National Recreation Area, an experience he termed “seminal” to who he is today. Currently, Ryan serves as a senior staff member on the US Senate Appropriations Committee where he recommends to the Senate how funds should be spent, particularly in relation to the preservation of outdoor spaces.

NatureBridge is pleased to announce Dr. Jordan Thayer as one of our guest speakers at Evening on the Lake, our signature Pacific Northwest event. The event will be held on October 6, 2023 at the Amazon Meeting Center in downtown Seattle, where we will spend an unforgettable evening highlighting our Olympic National Park programs and celebrating the stewards of today. We hope you can join us!

Our Olympic campus was buzzing with activity as we welcomed volunteers, friends and NatureBridge board members for a spring clean-up day earlier this month. Friends and community members joined our campus educators the following day for Elwha Exploration Day, an opportunity to walk in the footsteps of NatureBridge students discovering the Elwha River’s history and engaging in hands-on science activities exploring the river’s ongoing restoration.

On April 5, 2023, our NatureBridge team at Olympic was honored to host U.S. Senator Patty Murray on our campus. Senator Murray and her team joined us for an afternoon, learning about NatureBridge’s mission to connect young people to the wonder and science of the natural world.

For Kathryn, it is essential that the learning experiences her students have outside the classrooms work in tandem with what they are learning in the classroom.

Congratulations to Kim Hanson who recently accepted the permanent position of Mid-Atlantic Regional Director after serving as Interim Director for the Mid-Atlantic Region. Now in her third decade of working for NatureBridge (she began in 2002!), Kim brings a wealth of experience, wisdom and vision to the role.

NatureBridge recognizes and is grateful for the land upon which we are privileged to run our programs and the indigenous peoples who continue to care for and have stewarded these places for thousands of years.

There is an exceptional passion that radiates from environmental educators at NatureBridge. Its intricacies and quirks are unique to each individual but it is a shared understanding and force that bonds our multi-campus team. That passion is palpable in Chelsea Behymer, our new Program Manager in Olympic National Park, who with barely two months on the job, has already made an impact on the staff, educators and students she supports.

In his capacity as a coastal hazards specialist at University of Washington’s Washington Sea Grant, Ian Miller spends his time communicating the dangers of climate change to the people who are directly affected by them. A former NatureBridge educator and director of education at our Olympic campus, Ian understands that scientists get a bad rap when it comes to communicating to non-scientists. Read this entry in our 50 Stories series to see how he uses educational strategies he learned at NatureBridge to remove those barriers and translate science in a way that creates understanding and spurs action.