Bend Staff

Tony has lived and studied skills and concepts of sustainability his entire life. Even as a teenager he cultivated a 3/4 acre market garden based on principles of permaculture design and the study of ecology through tracking. The extensive Italian family Tony grew up with was one of the greatest influences on his core philosophy of the value of community and family. His focus at the Evergreen State College was how humans connect to the land around them through participatory experiences. This, coupled with 16 years of extensive work and cutting edge development as a contractor and consultant in the field of environmental education, lead him to found TrackersNW and the Trackers Family of programs. Based on his work, research and experience in survival, bushcraft, traditional skills and tracking, Tony also taught extensively for the graduate sustainability program at Portland State University, including founding their Naturalist Training Program. He has facilitated wildlife tracking, outdoor entrepreneurial and adventure education workshops for the Forest Service, Audubon Society of Portland, countless parks and interpretation agencies, universities, colleges and much more. Currently, he is a lead facilitator for the TrackersTEAMS Immersion Program. Tony is also authoring a definitive guide and workbook on tracking and naturalist training with Michelle Keefer, set to publish in fall 2009.

Mary began her quest for adventure as a young girl in New York, spending as much time as possible outside, exploring her and her neighbors' backyards. Using imagination to discover the stories of the forgotten forest down the road, Mary found herself in the different, and more exciting, world of nature. The small wooded area has since been turned into a heartbreaking condominium complex, but the charm of the woods never left Mary.

In 2000, with a degree in Physics from Binghamton University, Mary went into teaching both math and science. In 2004, when the four walls of the traditional classroom started to feel claustrophobic, she left to pursue a different sort of education, one that is experiential and infused with the spirit of adventure and freedom she loved as a child. Through several exciting years of teaching and learning in non-traditional settings, Mary has had the opportunity to lead groups of teenage volunteers in Dominica and Mexico, work as a sea kayak guide in Maine, take climbing trips throughout the US, and to Canada, Mexico and Thailand, and travel in Central and South America, volunteering for different organizations along the way. Mary circuitously made her way to Bend, Oregon in 2006. She has spent the past two years exploring the front and backcountry of Oregon, particularly Central Oregon, as an educator for the Cascade Science School, an outdoor school run by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. When not working, Mary enjoys many of the outdoor activities Central Oregon has to offer, skiing, mountain biking, climbing, and pleading with the weather not to freeze her vegetables, again.

With safety as a top priority, Mary is currently certified as a Wilderness First Responder, Open Water Lifeguard, and has a Class B Commercial Drivers License.

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 arts, teaching kids and women about safety and strength. She is a self-defense instructor with our Women's programs and is a Trackers International safari representative to Botswana and beyond. Molly is also an avid cellist in the Central Oregon Symphony, snow boarder, fluent speaker of German, dabbler in languages such as Italian and Portuguese and lover of cats.