Staff Bios
The staff of TrackersBEND includes experienced regional educators on the leading edge of place-based education. We are a community of people who's diverse range of skills and interests make everyone of our classes an adventure.
 |
Tony Deis (pictured with Molly) Founder and Galley Cook Tony has always loved his great Italian family; sitting with the grandpas and grandmas, playing horseshoes and bocce ball with the kids, working in the garden and eating good food together. Since 1994 Tony developed and taught outdoor education classes with The Audubon Society of Portland, Metro Regional Parks and Greenspaces and other Portland outdoor education organizations. Tony eventually founded TrackersNW, an outdoor education organization rooted in fostering community and knowledge of place. As practitioner of many martial arts, as a writer, an artist and a maker of fantastic Sicilian pizza, Tony is working to connect more people to the land and their families in a beautiful way. | |
YouTube BIO! |
Molly Strand, Self Defense Skills Instructor, Molly has a passion for travel, foreign languages and culture, classical music, outdoors adventuring, and empowering people through self awareness and self defense. A native Oregonian, Molly received her Bachelors degree in German from Davidson College in North Carolina and spent a year in Germany, also traveling throughout much of Western Europe. She trains and teaches the martial art of Poekoelan Tjimindie Tulen and is a certified Tulen Self Defense Instructor, teaching kids and women about safety and strength. She is a self-defense instructor with Artemis Adventures and is a Trackers International safari representive to Botswana and beyond. Molly is also an avid cellist in the Central Oregon Symphony, snowboarder, fluent speaker of German, dabbler in languages such as Italian and Portuguese and lover of cats. | |
 |
Hannah Kruger (Pictured with Buddy) TrackersBEND Partner- Originating in rural Illinois, Hannah spent morning till night exploring the surrounding woods and cornfields of the A-frame she grew up in. Many find the Midwest to be void of any adventure, but Hannah had no troubles filling her days with wild escapades including swinging through farm haystacks over pits of angry boars, creek walking up the Elk Horn, and building pit-fall traps surrounding her fort (to thwart any unannounced visitors of course). Upon attaining her B.A. from University of Iowa, she migrated westward to Southern California where she worked as an Outdoor Education Instructor and Naturalist for WOLF Adventures. Still knowing that there were sights to see, and people to meet, she headed towards the canyon lands of Utah, where she lived and worked as a Wilderness Therapy Instructor prior to moving to Bend. Ultimately, Hannah aspires to sail around the world on a 40 foot yacht with her dog Lola-bear. They were on their way out to the coast in search of some good sailing waters (and a boat) when they stumbled upon Bend, and decided to stay a while. | |
 |
Beth Brady TrackersBEND Partner Beth is fascinated by the power of ritual: traditional and modern, focusing mostly on rites of passage and sweat lodges. Beth has a love for exploring the wilderness solo, plant identification, orienteering, and showing others the value of an experience when done by oneself. Passionate about all aspects of fire making including the resources, understanding, process and patience needed to successfully start a fire. Background in ecology and evolution, watershed restoration, soil and water management and conservation, a brief stint in the Peace Corps Nepal, 1.5 years in Southern Utah instructing teens in a wilderness therapy program and wound up here, in beautiful Bend OR teaching bike safety to 5th graders, part-time running a bike cooperative and part-time carpenter, painter. Other interest in exploring, learning to track, crosswords, road trips, my dog, thinking of adventures, and biking. |
|
YouTube BIO! |
Thaddeus Koster, Lead Instructor & Resident Genius, Thaddeus was 4 years old when he would pick up bent nails at his dad's construction sites. He would then straighten them and use them for his own building projects. In the rural outskirts of Portland, practically living in a junkyard, Thaddeus learned how to weld, make anything run from any parts and specialize in "creative engineering" learning instantly read all the tolerances of all our gear, equipment as he often is the one who made most of it. Thaddeus spent 2 years as crew leader in the Youth Conservation Core, 3 more years in environmental education, he is certified by several long term survival skills programs and is one of the foremost experts on primitive skills in Portland. He is trained to avalanche level 1 and also a former fire fighter. This is the man who can create anything from nothing! Our lead in training "McGyver™ like" skills. He is also a highly experienced white water and sea kayaker, boat builder, dog sled musher and motorcycle enthusiast. | |
 |
David Jacobson, Skills Instructor -David enjoys eating good food and draws from his background in botany, wildlife ecology, and wilderness living skills in order to eat well on our programs. Combining urban, and wilderness foraging strategies he assists students in learning to create crawfish stew and wildcrafted meads. David also graduated with a BS in Botany from the Evergreen State College. During his time as a "Greener" he took it upon himself to do extensive independent study contracts in pressure release study and other aspects of tracking and natural history. One critical aspect of David's educational philosophy is his attentiveness to safety of students and the requirement that every lesson needs to functional. "I will never ask a student to do something that does not have a real purpose. We learn about tracking to actually find the animal, not simply as an academic study." |
 |
June Rzendzian, Skills Instructor-June has been a naturalist in the Pacific Northwest for nearly 10 years. She has explored tracking and wilderness crafts since 1998 and taught MESD Outdoor School for seven seasons. June has a Masters of Science in Educational Leadership at Portland State University’s Leadership in Ecology, Culture and Learning program. Her rewilding with TrackersNW includes leading women and girls deeper into their relationships, hunting and gathering wild foods in urban and greener landscapes, storytelling and creating new ways to play, learn and give thanks every day. |
 |
Shaun Deller, Lead DIY Instructor -Shaun is an artist, designer, bicycle fanatic, observer and participant in the wild and urban landscape. He grew up in Pennsylvania and moved to Portland after graduating from The Maryland Institute College of Art. His interests in art and the wilderness then converged into an exploration of wilderness arts. This includes skills such as hide tanning, sewing, fire making, tracking, shelter building, and awareness of plants and animals. He loves to share this knowledge and excitement with the world around him. His company Deller Recycled Apparel specializing in high quality bike style hats from recycled material. |
Compass 
ContactRegisterBlogTrackers International
© Lutras Enterprises, LLC Site Design: Kiliii Yu, Good Design for Good Causes |
 |