Deeply committed to the Earth Path, Lena is passionate about celebrating this life on amazing planet earth. Lena was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. Lena graduated from University of North Carolina at Asheville with a degree in Cross Cultural Sustainability at the intersection of Ecology, Anthropology and Sociology. She has her Permaculture Design Certificate, and graduated from the Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness Program at the Regenerative Design Institute.

She is the founder and director of Earth Path Education est. 2008, where we help grow a culture of listening to the earth as our wisest mentor through facilitating deep Nature Connection with children and adults and guiding girls through their Rites of Passage into womanhood. Lena leads a transformative earth skills and ceremonial arts year long immersion for adult women called Women Rewilding. Lena is a mother, and enjoys playing with her daughter Naia Grace in the forests at Earthaven Ecovillage where she lives.

Her flower farm and design business, Blossoming Hearts- offers ceremonial flowers. Lena can be found singing to the plants, making bouquets, holding young women's initiation ceremonies, dancing, planting more fruit trees and falling ever so madly in love with the great mystery of the natural world. Lena’s passion for travel, indigenous rights, traditional ecological knowledge and cultural and ecological health and regeneration brings her around the world. She brings groups to Guatemala with her brother organization Inchanted Journey to bring cross cultural connection with the Kiché peoples and preserve the cloud forest. She co-guides transformational trips with her Zapotec artisan friends to learn traditional fiber arts and pottery in the Oaxaca region.

She co-founded of School of the Traveler, a backpacking and cultural guide organization in Copper Canyon, Northern Mexico. Lena is a proficient Spanish speaker. She has guided university students on trips to the mountains, rivers and caves of North Carolina and beyond, through the highly respected UNC Asheville Outdoors Program. She empowered youth working with Free the Children– the largest youth-led organization in the world– as the Regional Network coordinator for the Southeast. Lena has been a children’s rights activist since she was a teenager. She’s currently working with Disney to develop strategies to alleviate Child Slavery around the world.

In 2013-14, Lena directed a Nature Awareness Program through the Riekes Center on Human Enhancement and guided Silicon Valley youth into the redwoods and into greater nature connection.

Lena loves mentoring, singing, lightning bugs, growing food, foraging, running, dancing, ancestral crafts, deep breaths, bringing people together and waterfalls. Lena has taught music at the Children's Earth School and Spanish, Music, handcraft and Nature Connection at The Learning Village in 2015-2018. She initiated and annually organizes Soil Sisters, the young women's program for the Southeast Women's Herbal Conference and the Moon Maidens young women’s initiation ceremony at the Spirit Weavers Gathering.

Currently Lena is teaching women from around the world to be Rites of Passage guides in the year long Rites of Passage Guide Training.

More than a Botanist, Luke Cannon is a long time pursuer and teacher of our living natural world.  His passions to study and understand the beautiful ecological intricacies of our astounding earth have led him throughout the Americas and across the globe.  An avid naturalist Luke draws from a diverse pool of knowledge, combining his  biological studies with his life experience and training in Appalachian ecology, organic farming,  survival skills,  permaculture, rural homesteading and experiential education.  His course of studies include the North East School of Botanical Medicine, the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, the Humboldt Field Research Institute,  University of North Carolina Asheville, the Highlands Biological Station, the Karuna Falls School of Permaculture (NZ),  John Young's Art of Mentoring course and the Kamana Naturalist Training Program. 

During the last two decades, Luke has instructed for numerous wilderness awareness programs, led classes, walks and workshops for numerous private and public institutions, herbal schools and plant societies including the North Carolina Arboretum, the Blue Ridge Audubon Society, Organic Growers School, the Finger Lakes Native Plant Society, the Asheville Mushroom Club, Wild Abundance, the Appalachian School of Holistic Herbalism and the Wild Leaders Immersion Program.   In 2011 he became the founder and Director of Astounding Earth - dedicated to helping people deepen their relationships with the living Earth.    Luke currently lives in the mountains of North Carolina, studying and teaching Appalachian ecology and ethnobotany.  He offers regular public walks and workshops to share his knowledge of local plants, birds, mammals, mushrooms, ecosystems and ecology.

Bobby’s connection to mystery and the natural world began as a young child exploring the rivers, creeks, hills, hollers, mountains and valleys of East Tennessee. Growing up on farms and acreage afforded many opportunities for play, wonder and connection. He grew up working with his hands and has over the years turned this into constructive work building all sorts of structures, including houses and cabins. With a degree in education, he has worked over two decades with students, creating space for learning and connection through hands on activities with groups, retreats and camps. Bobby’s introduction to earth skills began at SNS 2021 and continued in 2022 providing him a great foundation upon which to build his studies as a naturalist.

His passion is to pursue a life of harmony, connection and love for our natural world and to create and hold space for others to experience the same. Being a father opens his eyes to experience the world from a childlike perspective every day. In addition to carpentry and property maintenance, he currently works at Knox Forest School where he is a guide to 6-12 year olds. He can be found birding, biking, foraging, hiking, frolicking, paddling, reading, ecstatic dancing, wild crafting, slowing down, enjoying the beautiful sound of Tibetan brass bowls, and Be-ing!

Stephen was born and raised in Knoxville, TN, where he currently resides. He grew up hiking, camping, roaming and building forts in the wild, which has given him a great love and interest in the mountains, valleys and waterways of Appalachia. This love has guided his experiences and work.

With a passion for introducing young and old alike to the wonders of the natural world and an appetite for playful experiences, Stephen and his partner Sara co-founded Knox Forest School, which offers educational programs and experiences to young people. After six years of parents asking, “What about forest school for adults, we want to play too!” they now offer adult classes that—yes, have ecology, herbal medicines and wildcraft—but are much more about the sacred art of natural play and wonder. 

His education background includes a degree in Anthropology, a Master’s in History, a certificate in Acceptance and Integration Training (counseling protocol), and a certificate of naturalist studies of the Southern Appalachians. Stephen has a passion for the art of storytelling and loves contagious laughter, building things, taking long treks in the mountains, science fiction, and most of all, being a partner to Sara and a dad to his three wonderful kiddos—Zoe, Zaide and Walker. In teaching, Stephen seeks to instill in people (of all ages!) a sense of magic, harmony, and joie de vivre.