Four Winds Nature Institute Board

Elizabeth Cooper

Elizabeth Cooper has an educational background in Forestry, Conservation, and Environmental Education and a passion for nature study. She has been teaching and leading groups of adults and children outdoors for over twenty-five years. Elizabeth has in the past, held the position of Education Director for Merck Forest and Farmland Center and worked for 11 years as an educator and ELF program trainer for the Vermont Institute of Natural Science. She participates as a citizen scientist in the Vermont Butterfly Atlasing Project and in New England Wildflower Society's Plant Conservation Program.

Jerry Jenkins

Win Johnson

Edwin L. Johnson, Hubbard Brook Research Foundation Director of Finance & Administration, joined the staff in 2006 after a year serving as a trustee. He has spent most of his career in nonprofit management, including 20 years at Dartmouth College where he last served as Vice President and Treasurer.

Cynthia Moulton

Cynthia Moulton has been teaching in the Natural Science Department at Castleton State College since 1997. Her courses include Flora and Fauna of Vermont, Ecology, Ecotoxicology, and Tropical Biodiversity. She is a graduate of University of Maryland (MS Environmental Science) and North Carolina State University (Ph.D. Zoology). She has over ten years experience as a biologist with the U.S. EPA and The Fish and Wildlife Service working mainly on issues dealing with the ecological risks of pesticides. Her interests include biodiversity conservation and environmental health as well as spending time in nature. Cynthia loves participating as a Four Winds volunteer in her son’s class at the Lothrop School.

Chris Runcie

Chris Runcie was an Environmental Studies major at Middlebury College where she did research on frequency-dependent selection in fruit flies. Later she attended graduate school and received an MA and PhD in Zoology for her research on chemical trail-laying in a termite species. Returning to Vermont, Chris spent many years as a full-time mother of three, but found the time to pursue her delight and interest in nature through the Forest & Field Club, the Lewis Creek Association, and as an ELF volunteer. She became an educator at VINS in 1997 and taught the ELF program for 9 years. Chris is keenly interested in birdsong, in insect behavior, in plant and animal relationships, and in engaging people of all ages in learning about nature.

Susan Sawyer

Susan Sawyer is an artist-naturalist from South Woodbury. Susan has been a freelance artist and teacher for over thirty years, and since 1996 has been a member of the faculty of the Adult Degree Program of Vermont College, where she advises studies in art and natural science. She also worked for the Vermont Institute of Natural Science for thirteen years as an educator, naturalist, and illustrator. She was one of the lead authors of the second edition of Hands-On Nature. Her particular interests include plants, insects, and all kinds of wet places – vernal pools, fens, bogs, and beaver meadows – and making art that reflects her love of nature. She's insatiably curious, loves a puzzle, thinks observation and imagination are the beginning of both science and art, and believes in having lots of fun while learning about the natural world. Susan earned a BA in graphics and natural history from New College, Sarasota, Florida and a Master of Fine Arts in visual art from Vermont College.

Steve Spensley

Steve Spensley has been a classroom teacher since 1979. In 1981 he was hired to teach at Barstow Memeorial School, in Chittenden, where he has worked with 3rd, 4th and, now, 5th graders. During the summers Steve works at Camp Betsey Cox, in Pittsford. At camp he does site work and leads hiking adventures. He has a keen interest in exciting children about the natural world and has been able to do this both within and outside the classroom.

Four Winds Nature Institute