Executive Director
Chiara D’Amore, Ph.D. is the founder of the Community Ecology Institute and of our Columbia Families in Nature and Roots & Wings Learning Community programs. She holds a M.S. in Environmental Science and Engineering and a Ph.D. in Sustainability Education and teaches graduate courses in environmental sustainability, civic ecology, and climate action. Her overarching work is focused on understanding the effects of time spent in nature on personal, social, and ecological well-being. She is dedicated to helping create a healthy, beautiful and abundant future where people and nature thrive together.
Community Outreach Coordinator
Veronica is an Atholton High School graduate who is now finishing her psychology degree at the University of Maryland College Park. She previously worked as a coordinator for the children’s program Special Friends at CEI's neighbor, Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center. She is also bilingual and worked as the Lab Coordinator/Supervisor for the program Juntos en Pareja, which provides support services for Latinx couples. Her passion for nature bloomed when she started scuba diving at 10 years old. Veronica is an artist, musician, and environmentalist who is excited to be a part of the team bringing nature, sustainability, and art to her hometown.
Teaching Team
Meet our wonderful Roots & Wings Teachers!
Lindsay Kreisher - Roots & Wings Learning Community Director - is an experienced educator with a BA in Conflict Analysis and Dispute Resolution from Salisbury University. She is dedicated to serving the community through children’s programming that promotes independent learning, creativity and environmental civility. She utilizes her mediation and restorative justice trainings to support her in community work with young people, including programs for at risk youth populations, acting as a volunteer mediator and teaching Conflict Resolution at Howard Community College.
Farm Manager
Taylor has been around the world working on organic farms, learning about other cultures and exploring the natural world. After working on a number of organic vegetable farms he ran a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and market garden in Westminster, MD for four years. He now works as an educator, teaching gardening, woodworking, and primitive skills/nature connection. He is excited to share his skills in the garden, the woods and the workshop with Roots and Wings! Taylor is a musician, poet, gardener, canoe-tripper and lover of the natural world.