Marisa Bean

Environmental Educator and Naturalist, BEan in Nature, and Nature Educator, California Naturalist Program, UCSC, CPR and Wilderness Mental Health First Responder~WMHFR Certififed, First Aide and CPR Cert., WFA certified, Mom, Naturalist, Teacher, Mentor, Director, HomeSchooling Program Alumni

Marisa's role in BEan has been to share with parents her experience, hope and successes from her own learning journeys, with her boys.  Marisa hopes to help families to find the best fit for their learner/s on their educational journey.  Her parent, teacher, director, mentor and homeschooling mom experience has shown her that children learn best when they can follow their passions, immerse and connect with learning, get outdoors, and be led and mentored in an experiential way, an inquiry based way,  especially when supported by amazing mentors and teachers who meet this child where they are at in their given educational and emotional experience.

Jennie Gilrein

BEan in Nature offered that outdoor opportunity for her children, and they have participated in classes and camps over the last few years. Her children have learned so much and have enjoyed themselves year after year. Jennie has always loved being outdoors. You can find Jennie teaching Earth Detectives and Eco Sci Investigations on Tuesdays with BEan at SJ A Team Homeschool and Wednesdays with BEan at A Team in Cupertino.

Jennie has a Bachelor's in Psychology, and a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology. Her work experience includes leading grief groups for children, working with foreign exchange students, and spending several years as a Social Worker for foster youth. She also was part of a University of Washington research group called "Reconnecting Youth," where she lead supportive peer groups in developing coping skills in public schools in Seattle. In all of these settings, her favorite aspect of the work was to experience the resiliency of youth, and opportunity to provide them tools to flourish. 

Jennie has three children, currently ages 11, 14, and 17. She is in her 11th year of homeschooling her children, where she enjoys the opportunity to watch them gain knowledge in new and exciting ways, as well as learn new things about the world herself! Jennie never thought she would homeschool her children, but one compelling thought was how they could learn in different settings. BEan in Nature offered that opportunity for her children, and they have participated in classes and camps over the last few years. Her children have learned so much and have enjoyed themselves year after year. Jennie has always loved being outdoors, and spent most of her childhood at the beach in Southern California. She was excited to go to college in Oregon, and then move to Washington after college, where she enjoyed easy access to beautiful hikes, camping, and exploring. She later moved to the Bay Area, and is thankful to be close to her favorite places - Yosemite and Kings Canyon. As life has gotten busier over the years, she is incredibly grateful how her own children and other children she works with will slow her down to point out a unique insect, an intricate spider web, or shape of a cloud. She is excited to be part of the BEan Team as an opportunity to work with children and for continue a shared appreciation of our beautiful world!

Jeremy Bean

Jeremy loves the outdoors, hiking, exploring outdoor spaces, and art are his passions. Jeremy is often seen at our TNT 1x a month program and Summer Camp series, offering his Lead Teaching survival skill talents to our students!

Ancestral earth skills such as fire by friction, tracking, playing stealthy nature awareness games and art are but a few of his specialties!  He has grown into a very patient, kind young adult who feels strong about safety and respect for each other and the land.  We are very grateful he continues to desire to share his skills and talents with the younger generations.

Jeremy has assisted BEan In Nature since 2010 .He is 26 years old now and working on learning the trades. You might find him on the trails near our home in the Santa Teresa foothills and with us during the Summer Camp Season, which he say’s even when he is out working other jobs he loves to jump in and assist with the hard skills of ancestral survival in our Survival Summer Camp Programs. WE are so Grateful!

Jeremy started working for BEan (his mom’s program, me) since he was a Pre Teen..  He has had phenomenal long term nature mentorship, he is CPR certified and WFA Certified, has had quality teen experiences with Teen expeditions of his own with Riekes where he began his own long term nature led education from 7-17. His experience is 4 Fires Teen Rendezvous with 4EEE and teachings from quality 8 Shields Programs Conferences and of course has been a with BEan since he was 8 helping in leadership through his own LEADER IN TRAINING as a TEEN through BEan IN NATURE, offering mentoring in our amazing nature experiences supporting our phenomenal Nature Led Teachers.

Jeremy has grown into an amazing nature mentor, gaining skills from his focus and attention to his own nature awareness practices, and his longterm experience assisting and working with BEan in Nature program.

You can meet Jeremy jumping in to support and teach in our TNT 1x a month camp outs, Family camp outs and Survival summer programs.

Michelle Ward 

Michelle Ward (she/her) 22 , loves all green spaces and has an affinity for native flora and tree climbing. Michelle has returned in a new role as the BEan Communication Specialist!

Michelle has been a student with BEan In Nature since 2010 and started as an assistant in 2012. She became a co-lead in 2018 and a lead teacher in 2021. She has worked for multiple local earth education programs and is CPR certified and WFA certified. Michelle graduated from De Anza College in 2024 with her Associates degree in Organizational Communication and plans to continue her education in Communication and Forestry. 

She will be the new Communication Specialist for BEan and facilitates curriculum development, training new staff, runs social media, and supports the transformation of BEan in Nature into A NON PROFIT, its new fledgling Be In Nature.

Her favorite outdoor activities are swimming, making fire, and eating wild plants. 

Shellena M 

Shellena is a lover of animals, K-2 tutor and teacher, admin and BEan registrar guru, our supportive Admin. Shellena manages the first line of communication often for our registration system and our BEan Families, and is now in her 3rd year of BEan Registrar support.

Shellena has been an elementary school teacher and has moved on from teaching in Traditional School setting, and started her own tutoring program. She is an expecting mama and is excited to start her very own family very soon.

Bree Vargo

Bree has moved on to work for SunRun Solar! You can find Bree with us at our TNT weekends and here and there supporting us, with her wild ancestral knowledge in our busy, most epic, Summer Survival Series program.

Bree is a UCSC gradate with a BA in Environmental Studies. She has a deep love of nature and over ten years of experience working with all ages of children. CPR and WFA Certified.

Bree has experience with fire by friction, archery, tree climbing, Ancestral outdoor cooking, plant, animal and Fungi identification, tracking, wood carving, making plant medicine, and garden education/science. Bree earned her Permaculture Design Certification, from SC Permaculture in 2017, got her 200hr Vinyasa Yoga Certification in Bali, in 2019, and has been a Ceramicist (Potter) for over ten years.

Bree is excited to offer her experience and knowledge to our BEan Team as Lead Teacher on; Mondays at a Garden Class at Lakeside School in Los Gatos, Tuesdays at Lake Anderson in Morgan Hill, Thursdays at Wolf Mt in Los Gatos and Fridays at Henry Cowell in Felton!

**Bree also has a side Business of making a Pain Healing Salve- “a natural ‘Neosporne’ Called - Back to Plant Medicine

*Check out her Website BacktoPlantMedicine.com or Instagram @backtoplantmedicine

Joshua Bean off on new adventures in AZ

Joshua is a wild hog dirt time lover, animal whisperer and amazing naturalist, scooter expert, and streamer. Josh is a Daddy to Violet and Noelle, with his beautiful partner Elise. They have moved to Arizona to start their lives as a new family! We will see him around I am sure!

Josh has a passion for adventure and has an amazing gift with animals. He enjoys exploring and hiking the hills near his home, always coming back with great stories and amazing finds from the land.  Joshua started nature awareness when he was 5 1/2 through 16 years old.  Josh participated all the way into the Teen program at Riekes for  and mentored the Newt kids (6-8 year olds) at Riekes for 3 years.

Josh has assisted in BEan In Nature since 2012, helping out with A TEAM classes, Weekly Programs and Summer Camps since 2012! His ability to help the children connect to the land and to each other, and have a great time outdoors, is what make Joshua such a great mentor.

Currently Josh is Co-Instructing in our Wednesday Stevens Creek program, Thursday after school program, Friday Felton Tween/Teen Class, and our Teen Leadership program.

Elise Frazier 

Elise is a lover of animals, scholar, social media guru and mama to our 2 beautiful granddaughters, Violet and Noelle!

Elise has been our social media guru working on our INsta and our FB media and BEan is so happy to have her! Elise is 19 years old and in now a college student at DeAnza studying her Generals and will be graduating in the summer of 2021 to transfer to a State or UC to study to be a Lawyer! 

You can find her behind her screen studying, outside with her doggies playing, supporting on the spot organization and minor admin support with BEan, hanging with our family, and with us at times helping with registration check ins and needed extras on the land at camps!

Hilda 

Our Accounting Team