Karen Luke Fildes
Director
“Renewal is possible when approached with an open imagination and heightened awareness.”
Born and raised in the American Northwest, Karen Luke Fildes, has spent the past two decades dedicated to sharing her love, respect and awe for the splendor of the natural world. She is a recipient of Pierce County (Washington) Arts Commission’s Margaret K. Williams Award for Excellence in the Arts and has a life history of conducting her popular workshops on “The History of the Pen”, “Inking Through Anxiety”, and “Art for Nature’s Sake”. Her oil paintings that celebrate water and the dynamics of change belong to collections all over the world. Karen believes that there are no mistakes in art and strives to help students come to realize the safety of creating with each, their own authentic style.
David George Gordon
Assistant Director
“I love working with aspiring naturalists – helping them share their newly acquired understanding of their region’s animals and plants with others in their communities.”
An award-winning naturalist, David George Gordon is the author of 20 books on wildlife and wild places. He is well known for his field guides to bald eagles, orcas, geoduck clams and slugs. Mr. Gordon is also the author of the groundbreaking Eat-a-Bug Cookbook (Revised): 40 Ways to Cook Crickets, Grasshoppers, Ants, Water Bugs, Spiders, Centipedes and Their Kin. An engaging public speaker, he’s given presentations at Yale University, Virginia Tech, The Smithsonian Institution, California Academy of Sciences and many other museums, schools and science centers throughout North America.
http://www.davidgeorgegordon.com
Carol Farris
Web Administrator
“There is no limit to who we can be or what we can do. The first step is believing in yourself and, in doing so, you are already half-way there.”
Carol Farris has always had a keen interest in empowering the community with knowledge about the natural world. She holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Washington and received an NLM postdoctoral fellowship in Bioinformatics and previously worked with the NW Association for Biomedical Research to develop a Bioinformatics curriculum for AP High School instruction. For the past several years, she has participated in multiple Early Childhood Cognition studies at the University of Washington. Carol currently consults as a full-stack web developer for projects that help strengthen our community through integration of science, technology, and outreach.
Elliot Williams
Multimedia Content Creator
“Art is a process of letting your passions take flight and turning a blank page into something out of your imagination.“
As a young child, Elliot Williams was inspired by nature and the animals on his parents’ small farm to write and create art. However, he followed his competing passion for science and graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Science degree in Bioengineering. More recently, he realized that he could fuse his passions by developing a career in scientific communication and multimedia development. He creates content for several groups, including the Brainsplain video project and the University of Washington Stress and Coping Project. He is responsible for writing website content, editing images, creating video slideshows, and developing a social media marketing campaign.
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