Aubrey Pevsner

Substitute Teacher

I live in the rural neighborhood where I was raised, a hidden canyon nest on ancestral Chumash land. Coast live oaks tint my childhood memories and most of my present days a rich, dark green. Under their shadowy tunnels, I have spent thousands upon thousands of hours walking, exploring, playing, and meditating.

My immersion in the natural world has shaped my identity, colored my imagination, and cultivated my empathy for our endangered planet. As a teenager, I participated in a theatrical environmental activism intensive through Heifer International. In college at Johns Hopkins, nature informed my study of theatre and creative writing. On staff at Eden Village farm-to-table camps in New York and Northern California, I developed a love for working with children outdoors.

For ten years, I have worked as a mentor and educator to kids of all ages in both conventional and unconventional settings. For five years, I was a nature mentor with EverWild LA, through which I co-led classes with Lindsay for two years and shared community with Kat. Lindsay and I have also had the privilege of working together through my private class, Mountain Trail Seekers. Over the summer, I joined Lindsay and Kat for their week-long Wild Kin Forest Camp, and I excitedly look forward to any time I’m able to hop in as a school year substitute.

Through nature mentoring, I have rediscovered and deepened my own relationships to my wild kin in ways that have felt essential to my being. I aim to help foster the same kind of connection in the communities in which I work.