Staff Spotlight

Ingrid Apter was a beloved NatureBridge educator who dedicated over 20 years of her life to sharing her love of the outdoors with the kids in our programs. She was an integral part of NatureBridge and her passing in 2021 was a deep loss for our team. Before her passing, Ingrid began to design a mural for our Skins and Skulls lab at Golden Gate. Her vision was to transform the lab so that it reflected the scenery just outside its walls. Ingrid began sketching the mural on canvas in her home during shelter in place and engaged a professional muralist to complete the project when she was unable to. The mural was dedicated in her memory and honors her indelible belief in the power of outdoor education.

Since March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has shut down the increasingly popular programs in Prince William Forest, where programs like NatureBridge are a rarity. The campus pivoted to distance learning and “school yard” programs with excellent results. Still, teachers and students have been clamoring for in-person programs to return as soon as it is safe to do so.

"I used to ice climb quite a bit and often without a rope. In 1998, I took a 100 foot fall...and I was in a wheelchair for months. I also shattered my femur and broke my shoulder a year ago in a really bad paragliding accident in Mexico. So...yeah, I’ve banged up a few things.”

Listening to these injuries listed off one after another, it’s easy to believe you’re hearing from an X-Games athlete or a professional adrenaline junkie; a thrill-seeker and risk-taker of the highest order. Who you’re actually hearing from is Jeff Crow, NatureBridge’s Director of Risk Management.

Andrew West attended Yosemite Institute in 1997 as a high school junior with a group of students from the Redding Area. That trip was transformative for Andrew. It was the foundation of his life's work, as he returned to Yosemite National Park upon college graduation where he worked for over a decade.

When Isabel Esparza was nine years old, she said goodbye to her family, greeted a crew of friendly flight attendants and flew half-way across the country to Michigan — alone. It was one of many trips for the former NatureBridge educator that was driven by her mother’s adventurous spirit. Isabel shares how that infectious spirit influenced her career path and the way she dreams of raising her own children. She also reflects on how an equity thought experiment she would propose — “Imagine a scientist” — helped students at our Mid-Atlantic campus see themselves represented in environmental education.

NatureBridge began in Yosemite National Park with one person and an idea. That person was high school math teacher Donald Rees. His idea? A week-long trip to Yosemite National Park for his students at Laguna Blanca School in Santa Barbara. The year was 1971, the cost was $80 per student and the promise was a rewarding and educational experience in Yosemite Valley. That trip inspired the founding of Yosemite Institute—now NatureBridge—and 50 years of overnight environmental education in our national parks.

In 2018, NatureBridge Olympic Science and Education Manager Chris Morgan won the Baxter Award—an internal grant that aims to promote personal growth, adventure and the professional development of NatureBridge staff. Chris’s proposal was two-fold: experience the deep wilderness of the Brooks Range and the great migration of the Porcupine Caribou Herd.

At 76, Ingrid is NatureBridge’s oldest—and arguably most iconic—environmental science educator. As we celebrate Women's History Month, we're highlighting Ingrid's contributions to both the San Francisco and NatureBridge communities in which she serves.

This year’s recipient of the Outstanding Affiliate Organization Award is the California Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education (AEOE), an affiliate at which two NatureBridge members play a critical and influential role—Estrella Risinger and Reed Schneider.