Biography
Rachel is the faculty coordinator for the OSU Land Steward Progam and has been with OSU Extension since 2011. She oversees the Land Steward fall training, volunteers and mentors, community education classes, and Living on Your Land conference. Rachel grew up in Minnesota on a family dairy farm. After studying environmental biology and botany at Humboldt State University in California, she served as a forestry volunteer in the Peace Corps in Ecuador, where her project resulted in the conservation of 2000 acres of endangered tropical forest. She lived in Oaxaca, Mexico for twelve years where she stewarded three acres of land and two daughters. In Oaxaca she had a family-owned, cultural and natural history tour business. Through Arizona State University, Rachel completed her Master’s degree in botany while in Oaxaca. Her thesis is an illustrated flora of native woody species. Prior to the Land Stewards, Rachel worked for OSU Extension coordinating a community watershed outreach and education program. She has been providing professional development and teaching outdoor science and natural resource education in Oregon since 2008. Since moving to Oregon in 2006, Rachel has walked many wild miles of land as a professional field biologist performing inventories and assessments for plants, birds and mammals in the Pacific Northwest. In her free time, you'll find her outdoors when possible, hiking, camping, canoeing, x-c skiing, and always keeping an eye on what the plants, birds, land stewards and other creatures are up to.
