MEET OUR Team
Miss Ky
Founder, Head Teacher,
Director of HR & Programs
Ky is from Orem, Utah, and currently lives in Provo with her partner, two kids, and three cats. Provo Canyon feels like home - she’s spent much of her life hiking, rafting the Provo River, and exploring its trails since childhood.
Ky studied education and history at Snow College and BYU. She has worked in a local Waldorf kindergarten and created various programs for children that emphasize creativity, imagination, nature connection, and emotional intelligence. She has been a forest school teacher since 2014 and is deeply devoted to tending relationships - with herself, others, and the Earth we all belong to.
Since 2013, Ky has also worked as a birth and postpartum doula, though she is currently pausing that practice to focus on teaching. She is a licensed Foot Zone Therapist (since 2014) and currently offers sessions from her home. Ky is also a graduate of the Embodied Imagination program with Robert Bosnak, PhD, and the Dream Tending program with Stephen Aizenstat, PhD, where she focused on dreamwork rooted in connection with the Earth and the living world.
Ky loves gardening, making fiber art, dancing, foraging, and singing with her friends. She is committed to embodying her deep values: playful curiosity, living in awe, mutual reciprocity, community care, and deep listening - to herself, to others, and to the animate world we all participate in.
Miss Aile
Lead Teacher
Aile spent her childhood in the shadow of Mt. Rainer and the towering evergreen trees of the Pacific Northwest. She first fell in love with the forest sitting near the top of one of her favorite evergreen trees. She spent a lot of her childhood soaking up every outdoor opportunity and was an athlete into her college years.
Her childhood experiences and love for being physically challenged led to homeschooling her son mostly outdoors in his early years. While fostering a love for the outdoors in her own family she has spent the last 10 years deeply immersed in child-led education, forest co-ops and everything child development. Recently Aile has finished her Lifeways early childhood education certification as an extension of her deep devotion to guiding our most precious and vulnerable humans, the children. Aile believes that fostering relationships while being held by some of our greatest teachers, the plants, can serve us deep into adulthood by rooting children in the knowing and respect of themselves and the Earth.
Aile is also a traditional birth attendant and full spectrum doula serving the Wasatch front. She just finished her midwifery assistant training with Talya Bennion CPM and Savanna Easter CPM, LDEM. Aile is looking forward to completing her CPM certification and continuing to serve families in the Salt Lake valley.
Aile's dedication to healing with plants first in her own home has led her to being a folk herbalist since 2014. Her love for weaving community often brings the opportunity to share what’s she learned in group settings which is one of her deepest joys to combine community and plant knowledge. You can usually find some kind plant medicine waiting to be strained on her counter.
Aile's other joys include mothering a son with her childhood best friend, sitting by the river, hiking with their adventure dog and two kitties in tow, crafting, thrifting, bonfires with friends, learning about subjects that interest her and adding books to her personal library every chance she gets.
Miss Shayla
Assistant Teacher
Shayla grew up in the heat of Arizona, and spent her winters exploring the desert, and the summers outside in northern Arizona and Utah, coming up with all sorts of magical worlds to play pretend with her siblings.
She studied marriage and family, and art at BYU-Idaho, getting her associates, before coming to Utah.
​
She has worked with children her whole life, from a pediatric dental assistant to helping children with additional needs in schools, it’s been her whole world. She is very passionate about making sure every child feels seen and heard, reaching out to the ones who might feel left behind, and finding non-traditional ways of teaching, knowing every child learns differently.
When she’s not working with children you can find her hiking up the canyon, reading all sorts of books, crafting, and baking!
She is excited to get the opportunity to be outside and learn more with your children this school year!
Miss Lis
Founder, Director of
Operations & Enrollment
Lis is a nature native who grew up on the beach in Southern California and has lived along the Wasatch Front for over 20 years. She earned her BS in Psychology at BYU and after focusing on growing her own family, continued on to be trained as a Certified Nature & Forest Therapy guide.
​
Inspired by her experiences with the healing power of nature, she created Wasatch Forest Therapy in 2017 and continues to guide private groups through forest bathing and spiritual nature sessions. She also offers international nature connection retreats to sacred lands and loves the wisdom, magic, and wonder that place can hold for us.
​
Lis is the author of An Invitation to Forest Bathing: 52 Activity Cards to Find Yourself in Nature, a card deck that guides folks all around the world into land connection.
​
Creating Wildwood Forest School in 2019 and teaching children in nature has been one of her life's greatest joys. She is honored to offer this unique nature education to her community and regards it as a sacred work. She believes that children who grow up in love and relationship with Mother Earth are the ones who will protect and care for her into adulthood.
​
Lis' other joys include being the mom of two inspiring boys, traveling the world, reading and studying the many subjects that interest her, and spending any free time outside with her friends and family!
.jpeg)
Miss Christie
Lead Teacher
Christie is an orchid on the forest floor, a river as it flows into the ocean, a jam jar, a bee sleeping in a tulip. Christie is a black hole. Christie is a seed in the soil. Christie is a brick in the southernmost wall of your house. Christie is in process.
Christie is a human born in 1994 in New Jersey. Christie grew up in motion, with home in their heart (not fixed on the map) and is practicing rooting deeply into Provo City. Christie is a poet, a student, a guide, a sister, a friend. Christie has 7 siblings, 13 years nanny experience, a deep love for social-emotional learning. Christie holds a BA in Photography from BYU.
Christie is neurodivergent and loves to nourish children in their diversity in all dimensions of life experience. Christie likes to weave together whimsy, earth tending, deep listening, play, and concentration without effort. Christie is inspired by spirals, the shapes of words, sunlight, cookies, laughter, tears, passionflowers, longing, colors, how silks feel in the wind, looking into babies' eyes, open hearts, etc, etc, etc. You can probably find Christie washing dishes at a friend's house, reading a romcom, or laying on the ground with feet in the sky.
.jpeg)
Miss Bergen ("Bear")
Assistant Teacher
Bergen spent her childhood exploring the forests and lakes of the Midwest. She has spent her adult years falling in love with the mountains of Utah and enjoys singing, dancing, kayaking, canoeing, swimming, camping and hiking all year round!
Bergen was the co-founder of Nourishing Kin, a local nonprofit created to support folks of European descent in reconnecting with ancestral traditions and regenerative land-honoring practices. She finds great satisfaction in creating spaces for people to come back into right relationship with themselves, the community, and this beautiful planet!
Bergen has many years of experience working with children and studied Special Education at the University of Wisconsin. She is also a rights of passage mentor and offers individual coaching, workshops, and retreats.
Bergen lives in Spanish Fork with her partner, kids and their big orange tom cat Tiger.
Miss Chris
Main Substitute
Chris spent her childhood admiring butterfly bush flowers and building sandcastles on the beaches of southern California. As a grown up, she loves sitting by rivers, swimming in lakes, and lying down amongst the trees.
Chris loves making art of all kinds (mosaics! illustration! upcycling! sewing! gouache! design!), teaching yoga (at the yoga underground!), reading books, tasting pizza (mozz please!), enjoying the company of her five year old son, and belly laughing.
She graduated from UVU with a BA in graphic design, and loves illustrating things for children the very most.
Chris lives in Provo with her husband, 6 year old, and golden retriever.