Meet the Wild about team

Dr. Hartley Banack

Dr. Hartley Banack

Board of Directors - Treasurer

Dr. Hart Banack- Hart has worked as an in/formal educator since he was 17, teaching swimming levels, guiding canoe trips & certifying canoe levels, teaching first aid, teaching English as a Second Language, teaching high school Science, running outdoor-based non-profit organizations and preparing in-service and pre-service teachers. Hart holds a B.Ed. in Environmental Education from Simon Fraser University (SFU), and a master’s and PhD in Philosophy of Education, also from SFU. Hart is a founding member of the HOPE-Ed (health, outdoors, physical and experiential education) area in the Faculty of Education at UBC, along with being the lead faculty for outdoor environmental education since 2014. Currently, Hart is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). Research interests include: outdoor learning, experiential learning, and considerations of where learning takes place. Hart has been involved with the IEL since 2015. Wild About Outdoor Learning Society Board of Directors - Treasurer

Carrie Froese

Carrie Froese

Board of Directors / Executive Director

Carrie Froese is a strong advocate for the social, emotional, physical and intellectual benefits of learning outdoors. Her professional learning is strongly rooted in teacher research, experiential learning, outdoor learning and the inquiry process. She has seen the power of cross-curricular outdoor learning to inspire joyful learning, a love of nature, and the investment in caring for the environment in a positive, proactive way. Carrie has worked in three school districts in British Columbia as a teacher and principal; a reading methods teacher and faculty associate at Simon Fraser University; a teacher of teachers at the Fuyang Bureau of Education in China; and most recently as an educational consultant in Vancouver. She has been on the Steering Committee of Wild About Vancouver since 2015. She is also on the Steering Committee of the Institute for Environmental Learning at Simon Fraser University and is the president of the BC Literacy Council of the International Literacy Association.

Chris Penton

Chris Penton

Steering Committee

Chris Penton is a self proclaimed guardian of nature. With both a degree in science and in education, he loves, and do well at, developing meaningful learning opportunities for youth, and their families, with a focus on responsibility and safety. His passion for conservation and outdoor learning motivates him every day as a Lead Ranger for the Vancouver Park Board. He is an avid birder and you'll often find him outdoors just listening to the sounds of nature, catching the daily news. He has been composing music since a young age and enjoy bringing my small instruments camping, poetically adding to the symphony of the natural world. As someone who has come to this land as a settler, he believes strongly in the vital role to learn, listen, reflect, and act in support of Reconciliation.

Annie Montague

Annie Montague

Board of Directors

Working with institutions, non-profit organizations, Indigenous communities and schools across BC and internationally, Annie promotes community learning with respect to the increasingly interconnected and complex world we collectively inhabit. Annie values equitable, creative, and empowering asset-based community development and has worked with myriad age and demographic groups in the Educational field over the past decade. Annie holds a MA in Educational Studies from the University of British Columbia; her award-winning Master’s thesis details six months of an ethnographically-oriented case study she conducted with preschoolers at world-renown Green School in Bali, Indonesia. When not leading community engagement initiatives in BC, Annie can be found promoting outdoor early childhood education, writing postcards to friends and family near and far, or seeking sunshine in the red rock deserts in the ancestral homelands of the Shoshone, Paiute, Goshute, and Ute Tribes (also known as Utah, her home state).

Benjamin Dewar

Benjamin Dewar

Steering Committee

Ben Dewar has always been a bit of a wildman at heart. He owes much of this to his childhood summers spent exploring the woods and waters of Gambier Island, BC. It was there where he began to cultivate his love of adventure, the great outdoors and no-doubt, his penchant for thrill-seeking. He is a lover of boardsports, which are his preferred mode for exploring throughout the year. As an educator with the Surrey School District, he is always looking to bring nature's abundant teachings into his classes and likewise, to help foster curiosity and a respect for the environment in his students. From April to October he can be found getting dirty with gardening projects, where he practices his trade as a professional green thumb. As a longtime member of the WAV team, he seeks to build partnerships with other schools across the Lower Mainland of Vancouver and help inspire others to get outdoors!

Kate Inch

Kate Inch

Steering Committee

Kate is an outdoor recreation enthusiast and loves to explore the beautiful and rugged landscapes of British Columbia.

As a Secondary teacher with the Vancouver School Board, Kate works to promote outdoor education and nature-based learning with her students.

Focusing on education for sustainability and environmental stewardship with her students, Kate looks forward to participating in this year’s WAV festival with Templeton Secondary and the city of Vancouver.

Megan Zeni

Megan Zeni

Steering Committee

Megan Zeni is a PhD candidate in the faculty of education at UBC (EDCP) who brings over 25 years of K-7 public school teaching experience to her research. Her research interests include pedagogies of place and play in the elementary school context. Megan currently teaches in a public school outdoor and garden classroom and consults extensively on garden classroom start up and maintenance, as well as practical tips for joyful learning with all sorts of loose parts outdoors. Follow her learning journey at www.meganzeni.com.

Dr David Zandvliet

Dr David Zandvliet

Collaborative Partner

David Zandvliet is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada and the founding Director for the Institute for Environmental Learning. He also is an Associate member in the Faculty of Science at SFU. An experienced researcher, he has published articles in international journals and presented conference papers on six continents and in over 15 countries. His career interests lie in the areas of science and environmental education with a special focus on the study of learning environments. He has considerable experience in the provision of teacher development and has conducted studies in school-based locations in Australia, Canada, Malaysia Sri Lanka and Taiwan. David leads environmental education programming. Wild About Member

Jason Camp

Jason Camp

Steering Committee

Born in Vancouver, Jason has called the city home his whole life. In addition, Jason has been lucky enough to explore, not just the wilderness just outside the city limits, but the great outdoors around the world. From mountaineering in the St. Elias range in Canada, to rock climbing in the deserts of Australia, to scuba diving in the Caribbean, to hiking in Iceland, Jason has listened to the call of the wild and answered to the best of his ability. A teacher for the past 10 years, Jason is passionate about hands-on learning experiences, and has done his best to encourage his students to explore the natural world.

Bindy Kaur Kang-Dhillon

Bindy Kaur Kang-Dhillon

Steering Committee

Bindy was born on the unceeded, territorial, sovereign lands of the Coast Salish peoples and continues to live and raise her children on these lands as uninvited settlers. As a critical health researcher, she focuses on advancing health equity particularly for racialized communities in Canada. She has been particularly privileged to work with her ancestral community: the Punjabi Sikh diaspora on health-based projects for the last 20 years. Raising her two children has afforded invaluable lessons on how inequities persists for many families, and she hopes to continue to advocate for not only health equity but for education equity. Her children ensure that she is a part of many community spaces including their elementary school and outdoor preschool. Bindy treasures her time outdoors especially during hikes and playing in sandy beaches with her family.

Sandra Murray

Sandra Murray

Steering Committee

Sandy aims to spend life outside. In the winter she’s in the mountains as a ski instructor and trainer for the Cypress Mountain snow school. Spring finds her growing veggies in her community garden plot. Hiking and canoeing keep her outdoors until ski season begins yet again. Sandy is on faculty with SongWorks, an international music education organization that fosters playful teaching and vibrant learning. With songs and song games as the foundation of SongWorks, learning experiences are infused with joyful play and musicality. https://songworkseducatorsassociation.com What better way to celebrate nature than to sing and play song games outdoors!

Join Us

Join Us

Steering Committee

We would love for you to join with fresh ideas and energy to engage B.C. communities is action to bring together their residents together in outdoor activity for physical and mental wellness, learning and conservation and ecological actions.

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