Santa Barbara Faculty
Lia Grippo
Wild Roots Founder, Director, and Preschool Lead Teacher
Born in Riga, Latvia, Lia Grippo spent many of her earliest years foraging and fishing the woodlands with her family. Her early relationship with Nature has remained a constant thread in her life. At an early age, Lia was drawn towards working with young children and has been an early childhood educator since 1989. In 1996 Lia founded her first preschool, Seedlings, and in 1998 she opened Wild Roots Forest School, a preschool and kindergarten roofed by the sky and carpeted with the living woodland floor. Lia is a storyteller, naturalist, herbalist, parent educator, mentor and education consultant. Using the arts of storytelling, song, poetry, movement, and play, Lia is dedicated to helping children and families develop their powers of imagination, and through these powers discover their relationship with all of life. Lia has brought knowledge, compassion, reverence, and magic to her community not only through Wild Roots Forest School, but also through workshops, seminars and mentoring for adults. Having trained and mentored dozens of early childhood educators through her years, she is excited to have co-founded Academy of Forest Kindergarten Teachers, which offers formal training for forest kindergarten teachers. Lia's commitment to excellence sets a high bar in this fledgling field in North America. Lia is the grateful mother of two tree climbing boys and wife of an exquisite musician.
Jenn Sepulveda
Associate Program Director
Kindergarten Lead Teacher
Jenn has a deep love of and appreciation for nature and all its wonder-filled gifts. She grew up in South Lake Tahoe exploring fresh water lakes and streams, climbing granite boulders and mountains and has always sought refuge in the natural world. She graduated from UC Davis with an emphasis on Spanish language and literature, completed graduate work in Spain through New York University, and obtained her Bilingual Teaching Credential through New College of CA in San Francisco. Her interest in and love of Spanish language and cultures began at an early age and led her to pursue living and studying abroad in Mexico and in Spain. She has been a bilingual educator here in Santa Barbara since 2008 (at Cesar Chavez Charter School, Orca School and Wild Roots), and a mentor for Wilderness Youth Project since 2012 . In 2018, Jenn completed level 3 training with the Academy of Forest Kindergarten Teachers. She is daily mentored by her own spirited boy, who brought her out of the classroom and into the wilds. With her feet on the earth roaming barefoot on the land, singing songs and playing games with the wee ones, she is grateful to experience curiosity alive, and to share in the magic that is everywhere. She loves working with her hands, tending the land, and all opportunities to share and offer gratitude. She is also deeply committed to weaving a vibrant tapestry of sustainable communities.
Chelsey Adams
Mixed Age Preschool Lead Teacher
Chelsey Adams is passionate about sharing her love for the natural world with children through modeling thoughtful stewardship, embodied reverence and joyful curiosity. Raised by an environmentalist and a veterinarian amidst the woods and prairie of rural Wisconsin, her favorite moments were spent jumping in leaf piles and dining with raccoons. Today she shares a love of nature with her husband and 10 year old daughter. She finds great joy in offering academics within the context of place-based, hands-on nature connection and most recently directed and facilitated an outdoor educational program for children in Kindergarten and first grade. Chelsey has been a Lead Teacher at Wild Roots Forest School since 2013 and is a graduate of the Academy of Forest Kindergarten Teachers where she works as a reader and consultant for current trainees. She holds a BA in Wilderness Education and is a graduate of the Wilderness Guide Program at the Teaching Drum Outdoor School. She loves to write and is an author and storyteller with Pipilo Tales. Chelsey is dedicated to advancing educational models that cultivate nature-connection, imagination, practical skills and a deeper relationship with the earth and one another.
Fionna Krijger
Mixed Age Preschool Lead Teacher
Fionna was born and raised in Orange County, California, and her journey into the outdoors was prompted by her father’s spontaneous boat purchase when she was 7. For many years they spent countless days maintaining the boat, with summers spent living on the boat, fishing, and traveling out to Catalina Island. With these cherished memories of the outdoors, she became motivated to teach and guide youth into their natural environments. With this, she earned a degree in Biological Anthropology with a minor in Science and Mathematics Education from University of California, Santa Barbara. She lives in Santa Barbara with her pet sourdough starter. In her spare time, you can find her rock climbing, backpacking, crafting with natural materials, and getting creative in the kitchen.
Mixed Age Preschool Lead Teacher
Fionna was born and raised in Orange County, California, and her journey into the outdoors was prompted by her father’s spontaneous boat purchase when she was 7. For many years they spent countless days maintaining the boat, with summers spent living on the boat, fishing, and traveling out to Catalina Island. With these cherished memories of the outdoors, she became motivated to teach and guide youth into their natural environments. With this, she earned a degree in Biological Anthropology with a minor in Science and Mathematics Education from University of California, Santa Barbara. She lives in Santa Barbara with her pet sourdough starter. In her spare time, you can find her rock climbing, backpacking, crafting with natural materials, and getting creative in the kitchen.
Courtney Narine
Kindergarten Assistant Teacher
As a very young girl, Courtney and her parents moved from SoCal to Switzerland, where her architect father had grown up. Among many other novel experiences, she fondly recalls wandering in dusky fairytale forests with her grandmother, enjoying the deliciously fragrant air; soft, springy paths; and towering evergreens. Two years and one global recession later, her family returned to Southern California where Courtney spent her youth in the 1970’s; graduated from Santa Monica HS and then UCLA in the ‘80's; and spent time in the ‘90’s traveling, working in NYC, and starting a family. In 2004 she and her young family moved to SB, where she began working at the SB Unified School District, first as a library technician and later as an Elementary Art educator. A wife, mother of two grown boys, and mama to a sweet kitty, Courtney is also an avid reader, fermented food curator, soap maker and knitter. She is happiest in nature, either at the beach, wandering in the hills, or tending the plants in her own backyard. Courtney is delighted to be part of the Wild Roots family and feels honored to spend time with our amazing, adventurous forest schoolers!
Kindergarten Assistant Teacher
As a very young girl, Courtney and her parents moved from SoCal to Switzerland, where her architect father had grown up. Among many other novel experiences, she fondly recalls wandering in dusky fairytale forests with her grandmother, enjoying the deliciously fragrant air; soft, springy paths; and towering evergreens. Two years and one global recession later, her family returned to Southern California where Courtney spent her youth in the 1970’s; graduated from Santa Monica HS and then UCLA in the ‘80's; and spent time in the ‘90’s traveling, working in NYC, and starting a family. In 2004 she and her young family moved to SB, where she began working at the SB Unified School District, first as a library technician and later as an Elementary Art educator. A wife, mother of two grown boys, and mama to a sweet kitty, Courtney is also an avid reader, fermented food curator, soap maker and knitter. She is happiest in nature, either at the beach, wandering in the hills, or tending the plants in her own backyard. Courtney is delighted to be part of the Wild Roots family and feels honored to spend time with our amazing, adventurous forest schoolers!
Laura Sanchez
Mixed Age Preschool Lead Teacher
Laura was born and raised in Los Angeles. Most of their summers growing up were spent volunteering to help teachers and students at their childhood elementary school. Coming from a family of teachers, they were naturally drawn to the field of education and considers themselves a life-long student of the universe. After completing a BA in Child Development and Family Studies at CSU, Long Beach, they navigated their way to Goleta to work for San Marcos Parent-Child Workshop, a cooperative preschool. In the summer of 2018, Laura volunteered for Wilderness Youth Project and learned about the training opportunity with the Academy of Forest Kindergarten Teachers. Since then, they have experienced the newfound magic that lies when working with children outdoors at Aventuras, a language-immersion forest preschool in Los Angeles. Laura has journeyed their way back to Goleta, with an open heart and determination to continue fostering the love of teaching and learning.
Cielle Watjen Brown
Assistant Teacher
Cielle was born in Mendocino and spent much of her childhood making fairy forts in the redwood forest, catching frogs in the creek and swimming in the ocean. Her love and wonder for the outdoors and animals was instilled early on and she loved growing up with a plethora of goats, chickens, ducks and rabbits to keep her company. Moving to Hawaii as a teenager led Cielle to find a love for hiking, camping, water sports and studying marine life. It was there that she also began guiding children on explorations into the mountains to make forts, scout trails and create nature art. Cielle was brought back to California to earn a degree in Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology at UC Davis. While living in Davis she worked as a garden educator, tending to school gardens and helping students grow their own food and connect with the land. She’s spent the last 6 months living in the Bay Area, and is excited to move to Santa Barbara. In her free time, she loves to go camping with friends, swim, and try out new mediums of art. Cielle looks forward to sharing new experiences and discoveries at Wild Roots!
