Marisa Bean

Environmental Educator and Naturalist, BEan in Nature, and Nature Educator, California Naturalist Program, UCSC, CPR and WFA certified, Mom, Naturalist, Teacher, Mentor, Director, HomeSchooling Program Parent

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.

Bree Vargo

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

Jeremy Bean

Jeremy loves the outdoors, hiking, exploring outdoor spaces, and art are his passions.

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. I am 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. He experience 4 Fires Teen Rendezvous with 4EEE and teachings from quality 8 Shields Programs Conferences and other amazing nature experiences with phenomenal leaders. 

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.

Shellena M 

Shellena is a lover of animals, K-2 tutor and teacher, admin and BEan registrar guru, our supportive expert behind the scenes.

Updates soon!

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 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 my beautiful granddaughter!

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

More soon!