Meet The Team

Co-founder and director of the Earth Mentoring Institute, Trista has spent the past 35 years studying  initiation and ancient rites of passage.  She specializes in working with groups and individuals supporting them to develop inner awareness and a whole human experience. 

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Trista is the visionary for the overall mission of  the Earth Mentoring Institute. Through her years of working with human evolution, she has researched regenerative systems in regards to food, health and wellness, education and economics.

 

She is committed to creating a model of regenerative living that others can learn from through experience. She is the inspiration for creating the Forest Perfumery as a regenerative economic model to support youth programs, forest teacher trainings, and women's leadership programs to be accessible for all.

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Trista offers both residential retreats at Hawk Circle and online programs.  She is the founder of Sacred Mountain Tours where she guides people to sacred sites throughout the world, and The Living Grail, where she offers women's leadership programs.

 

Trista is the author of, When the Dark Mother Calls, a certified aromatherapist and herbalist.  Her work with essential oils, shamanism and energy medicine provides her clients and students with a profound healing experience.  She is also a mother of three, avid gardener, knitter and enjoys tending to her animals.  Trista holds dual degrees in marketing and management from Bentley University, Waltham, Ma. 

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"The path of inner alchemy leads a person to experience their whole, Divine humanness.  The union of Self and aligning ourselves with abundance and inner peace is the path to creating a new experience here on Earth."

Co-founder and director of the Earth Mentoring Institute and founder of Hawk Circle Summer Camps, Ricardo has led workshops, camps, school programs and adult trainings for over 40 years. He specializes in teaching and facilitating transformative programs using the skills and philosophy of the wilderness to awaken our senses and our connection to the Earth. 

 

Ricardo has dedicated his life guiding children and teens through experiences in nature that foster a deep connection to the earth and the power of the natural world. 

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He is the creator of The Forest Educator Podcast where he's interviewed over 100 educators across the globe, as well as The Forest Educator Training online course. In 2018, he presented a Tedx Talk on Saving our iGeneration Kids from Nature Deficit Disorder.

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Through both research and hands-on experience, Ricardo believes we need to actively ensure our children have transformative experiences in nature to offset the digital world. And with outdoor experiences, be taught both skills and crafts to actively engage with nature in meaningful ways.

 

A member of the Tracking Project's Community Mentoring Program in New Mexico,  Rick is also an artist, writer, crafts person and timber framer. He and Trista live at Hawk Circle with their son, Javier.  

 

"The skills of survival, awareness and community lead a person ultimately to hearing the inner voice of the heart, of our own personal truth. This knowing of self is the root of real leadership, healing and our path in today's world."

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Terra serves on the Board of Directors of the Earth Mentoring Institute, bringing more than two decades of legal experience together with her work as an herbalist, educator, and visionary committed to regenerative relationship between people and the living Earth.

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Her work is rooted in reciprocity: the understanding that our relationship with land cannot be solely one of use, extraction, or even stewardship, but must become a living exchange in which human communities participate in the health and vitality of the ecosystems that sustain them.

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As an attorney, Terra has spent much of her career working within complex regulatory systems and holds an advanced law degree in Environmental and Natural Resources Law. That experience informs the practical side of her service to the Institute: governance, thoughtful development, organizational sustainability, and the structures necessary to carry an ambitious vision forward responsibly.

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As an herbalist and creator of Herbalism by Design, Terra's work explores plant intelligence, ecological relationship, and the restoration of meaningful relationship between people, plants, and place. Her approach to herbalism extends beyond the use of plants as medicine to consider what plants can teach us about ourselves and our relationship with the living world.

 

Terra sees her service to the Earth Mentoring Institute as an opportunity to help steward not only an organization, but a living model for what becomes possible when land, community, education, enterprise, and the sacred are allowed to support one another.

Lisa is an early childhood teacher who is passionate about educating children using methods that help each child see their own unique brilliance. Her curative classrooms offer children a safe space to learn and thrive, while instilling a reverence of nature.

 

She has spent three decades teaching in both inner city and suburban settings. She is currently an elementary teacher in New Hartford, NY, as well as a nature educator through her company R.T. Hawks. She earned her B.S. in Elementary Education from SUNY Oneonta, M.S. in Reading from SUNY Cortland, and completed a K-12 Teacher Engineering Education Certificate Program at Tufts University.

 

Through her school district, she piloted Novel Engineering, a research-based teaching approach developed by Tufts University that integrates engineering, science, math, and literacy. She trained K-6 teachers in her district on this approach, and also served as an assistant, training teachers on this method at Tufts University. 

 

Lisa also designs classes and retreats for women that offer both empowerment and connection to the natural world. Her work with women and children weave together craft, myth, and imagination, offering profound experiences. 

 

Lisa serves on the board of Earth Mentoring Institute, bringing 30 years of experience in education and community development. 

 

She is a passionate lover of the outdoors and enjoys hiking, kayaking, reading, and traveling. She loves to spend her free time with her husband and four children. 

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