| Spencer Nielsen (he/him), is a guide to inner and outer nature. He has been an environmental educator since 2006, working with youth of all ages. In the greater journey of nature awareness and connection, his passions are ethnobotany and ancestral skills. He helped co-found Vilda Nature and was an instructor and program director with them for a decade. He is a wilderness guide, leading backpacking trips and rites of passage for teens, having worked with schools and independent organizations over the last decade. He’s led wilderness rites of passage for hundreds of 8th graders and high schoolers as well as adults. Spencer is a permaculture designer and educator, creating edible, medicinal, and habitat gardens for families while teaching Permaculture Design Courses near and far. Spencer has been immersing in the internal arts of Hatha Yoga and Qigong for many years and had the privilege of training with many amazing teachers. Music and art are current passions, opening portals to the wild world and the wild within. You can read more about Spencer here. |
| CAITLIN MCNEELY (she/her) grew up exploring the gentle sandy beaches of the southern Gulf coast and the giant sprawling oak trees in her urban Houston neighborhood. In the summer, her favorite time was spent road-tripping to the magical tide pools and rocky beaches of a small island off the coast of Maine, where she fished for seaweed, made forts of driftwood and talked to the small colorful creatures tucked in the pools. During college at UCSB, she studied the intersection of nature, spirituality and creative writing and traveled to Ghana for a year abroad to experience more intact earth-based cultures. Since then, she has continued to follow a path of learning from and supporting indigenous cultures and wisdom-keepers, including joining indigenous-led water protector camps in West Texas and in Anishinaabe territory in Minnesota, spending several months living with and supporting Dine families at Black Mesa and learning from local California indigenous leaders at the Buckeye Ancestral Skills Gathering. Caitlin holds training from the Wilderness Awareness School in Washington and is rooted in the 8-shields model of deep nature connection and Jon Young/Tom Brown/Stalking Wolf lineage. She has been guiding youth outdoors ages 6-16 for the last 3 years through Vilda, a nature-connection program in Marin, as well as co-creating a rites of passage program for middle-school aged youth at Heartwood Waldorf School. She has trainied in Somatic Ecopsychology and to become a Wilderness Quest Guide through Wilderness Reflections. Caitlin holds experience and knowledge in permaculture, organic farming, folk herbalism and ancestral bushcraft, and is Wilderness First Responder certified. In her free time you can find her dancing, drinking tea, planting flowers, and practicing parkour. |
| Brian McDaniels LMFT (he/him) is proud to be a fifth generation Northern Californian. Raised camping and exploring from the caves and meadows of Mount Diablo to the banks of the Sierra watersheds and the granite spires of Tahoe, happiness was always found in the wild-lands. In College Brian found his voice as an environmental-activist with the Bay Area American Indian Movement and Idle No More in their successful campaign to stop the refinery corridor expansion. He also found his calling working with youth and recovering adults as a tobacco-cessation specialist for Bay Area Community Resources. He completed a Bachelor’s degree in psychology at Dominican University and then worked at the beachside rehabs of Malibu while earning a Master’s of Arts in Clinical Psychology at Pepperdine University with a focus on family-systems. At this time Brian honed his skills counseling teens in a Juvenile-Diversion program for inner-city youth held at the Culver City Police Department. Upon completion Brian earned his hours for licensure running dual-diagnosis groups for Napa County’s outpatient treatment center. He began teaching nature skills and doing rites of passage work with Vilda Nature and Elemental Leadership in 2018 co-leading backpacking trips in Emigrant Wilderness and full-time teaching youth ages 6-18 for several years. He is now thrilled to be combining his love of the outdoors and passion for counseling, completing the Wilderness Reflections Eco-therapist Certification in 2023 and starting a private practice for youth in the Marin County Area. In his spare time Brian is an active member of the Bay Area dance and ancestral-skills communities, and an avid gardener/aspiring farmer with his partner Gabi in Terra Linda. |
| I am a life-long learner, in love with learning about and protecting Life. With academic degrees in Biology and Peace and Justice Studies, my professional and personal pursuits have situated me at an intersection between ecological stewardship and social justice. Born and raised of humble beginnings in Marin County and of Central American and Eastern European ancestry, I have developed a deep connection to the lands and waters of the north central California coast, and have as a guiding question in my life: “How do I become a Person of Place?” I have worn a lot of hats throughout my life, ranging from wilderness guide and mentor to program designer and educator. Throughout all of this, nature connection and nurturing resilience through diversity have been integral components to everything I do. I aim to create health and well-being in the land and human tending I do. My goal now is to help renew and restore native habitat, create beautiful spaces that are in balance with and support the native ecosystem, and educate and empower individuals to establish and deepen their own connection. I hold certifications in Permaculture Design, Wilderness First Response, Wilderness Fire Fighter Type 2, Wilderness Chainsaw Use, and Somatic Ecopsychology and Wilderness Quest guiding. I am grateful to all my teachers who have carved a path before me, especially my parents and ancestors, those at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Wilderness Reflections, and Audubon Canyon Ranch. Si, Hablo Español tambien |
Deep Gratitude to my teachers and guides along the way
Elemental Quest is inspired by the direct teachings of John Young (8-Shields Institute), Bill Plotkin (Animas Valley Institute), Michael Meade (Mosaic Voices), Emerald North and Betsy Perleuss (School of Lost Borders), Dave Talamo and Amy Beismeier (Wilderness Reflections), Jeffrey Szilagyi (Stepping Stones Project), Amos Clifford and Shay Sloan (with Way of Council), Jack Kornfield, Donald Rothberg, and Joanna Macy (Spirit Rock Meditation Center), John Stokes (The Tracking Project), as well as indigenous elders and wisdom keepers: Tata Erik Gonzales (Earth Peoples United), Philip Scott (Ancestral Voice), George Bertelstein (Medicine Path), Don Ryberg (Tribal Chairman, Tsi Akam Maidu), Redbird Willie, and many more from gatherings and ceremonies small and large.
Understanding of universal life force and the healing journey have been supported by Teja Bell (Qigong Dharma), Saul David Raye (Atma Yoga), Jerry Alan Johnson (International Institute of Medical Qigong), Thom Leichart (Five Branches University), Damo Mitchell (Lotus Nei Gong & Xian Tian College) Master Zhongxian Wu (Chinese Wisdom Traditions), Dr. Nida Chinensang (Sowa Rigpa, Traditional Tibetan Medicine), and Kathleen Davis (Tui Na), Suzannah Stason (Medical Qigong).
Spencer has led hundreds of teens in rites of passage programs, from Summerfield Waldorf School, Marin Academy, Sonoma Academy, Credo High School, as well as through programs with Back To Earth, Vilda Nature, and Elemental Nature. Spencer continues his efforts to weave the presence of indigenous and non-indigenous elders into programs. Over the years, Spencer’s co-guides across numerous schools and organizations have also been amazing mentors, contributing to the continual evolution of programming.
ELEMENTAL QUEST 