Our Team

Our team consists of talented educators, from diverse educational and outdoor backgrounds who bring a balance to traditional academics with outdoor nature immersion.

Dawn Robinette

FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR

Growing up, Dawn spent endless hours playing and exploring the untamed natural areas of Wisconsin. As a young adult, Dawn pursued a career in architecture and interior design. She graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a bachelor of Architecture in 1993, where the school’s philosophy of Learning By Doing resonated with her. After establishing a design firm and retail store with her husband, she returned to her studies at the University of Washington in 2005 to pursue a teaching career. While at the University of Washington, Dawn’s master’s thesis was based on design-build and she spent 9 months, as a teacher’s assistant, working on a design-build project in which her class built a multigenerational home for the indigenous community of Yakima, WA. Dawn also taught young adults at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Art Institute of Orange County. When Dawn became a mother, she returned to her roots of romping about and playing in the outdoors. She saw, through the eyes of an adult, the value of nature in childhood and the impact it had on her own daughter. After enrolling her child in a nature kindergarten program, a seed was planted and Dawn began her own nature school combining her passions for learning by doing and the outdoors. Since those early days the school has grown and Dawn has spent many a day learning more about nature, primitive skills and how best to share that with children in inspiring and meaningful ways. Other than spending time frolicking about in nature with children, she enjoys running barefoot daily as the sun rises.

Stacey

Co-Lead Teacher for Grades 1-4

Stacey began working with schools in 2008. She started teaching professionally in 2011 as a science and math teacher for grades 6-12 at a private school in Orange County, where all classes were taught one-to-one.

She believes in a whole-brain, multi-sensory approach to education, meeting the child where they are intellectually and emotionally, working toward making academic concepts relevant to the child's interests. Most of all, she believes Nature is our greatest teacher.

Inspired by nature-based educational experiences, she has a love for many ancestral skills including cordage, weaving, fire by friction, plant identification, building shelter, and environmental awareness.

Stacey grew up in rural coastal South Carolina and graduated from a small liberal arts college on the west coast of Florida with a BA in Biology. New College of Florida is an honors college that embraces an individualized approach to education by replacing grades with narrative evaluations so the student can focus on their personal education and life goals. It was a profound experience that laid the foundation for Stacey’s individualized approach to education.

Luke

Co-Lead Teacher for Grades 2-8

Luke Hefele is a multifaceted individual—artist, musician, naturalist, and educator—whose journey began in Pennsylvania. His educational roots at Germantown Friends, a Quaker school in Philadelphia, instilled in him the philosophies of inner light, peace, simplicity, and community, which remain foundational in his life.

Through his Quaker education, Luke discovered the Brazilian art and social tool of Capoeira, becoming a devoted student under the guidance of his lifelong mentor, Mestre Doutor. With over two decades of experience in Capoeira and 14 years of teaching both children and adults, Luke earned the prestigious title of Contra Mestre in 2022—a distinction rare among practitioners outside of Brazil.

Beyond martial arts, Luke has delved into tracking, wilderness survival, and philosophy, studying under Tom Brown Jr. at the Tracker School since 2007. From 2012 to 2020, he ran programs in Sonoma County, focusing on lineage-based movement arts at his dedicated space, "SHDWBX." Collaborating with the Sebastopol Community Center, Luke initiated culinary arts, movement arts, and wilderness curriculums at local charter schools.

For Luke, the essence of education lies in fun and enjoyment itself. He firmly believes that fun is the most potent avenue to learning, striving to empower all his students to unearth their unique human potentials. Currently engaged in various pursuits, including writing a book on parenting and pedagogy, creating art, recording and performing music, Luke's central focus remains on living an exemplary life and being a nurturing father and mentor.

Kaleigh

Grade 1 Instructor: Queen Bee

My name is Kaleigh Nunn and I am Ohmapi’s first grade teacher! I graduated from Chico State University in 2022 with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Management in Sustainability. Throughout my budding career I have primarily focused on opportunities associated with holistic healing for the collective and I found that many of these opportunities naturally occurred in harmony with the natural world. I have created mindfulness groups that encouraged intentional time spent tapping into our truest selves while being cradled by Mother Earth. I have offered safe spaces for emotional processing, and I have managed teams to help extend these offerings to as many people as possible. I am very passionate about nurturing the youth and their development in nature because returning to this natural connection we humans have with this world has been the key to a lot of transformative healing in many clients I have worked with in the past. If we can start these kiddos off on the right foot, I know that it won’t only do wonders for their little souls but also for our collective future.

Elysse

Kindergarten Lead Instructor

Daisy & Holly

CANINE INSTRUCTORS AND THERAPISTS

Daisy and Holly share with our students their expertise and passion in hunting and chasing other animals, most notably, squirrels and pocket gophers. They are happy to teach others how to sniff the world and dig for ground dwelling animals. Daisy and Holly not only provide the children of The Ohmapi Nature Project hands-on learning of canine behavior they also offer endless hours of entertainment and cuddles.