Tim Corcoran
I was born in 1954, in San Francisco, California. My Irish heritage, as taught to me by my uncle and my grandfather, has linked me deeply to Earth peoples’ philosophy of life.
I first went to the woods at age six. I knew then that this was my home. At seventeen I spent four months alone in the Canadian Wilderness practicing Earth living skills.
I began a career teaching wildlife conservation, in 1974. During this time I learned how to communicate with the spirits of the animals I worked with.
My most recent and important wilderness experiences have been greatly enriched by the teachings of Tom Brown Jr. the well known tracker and author.
In 1992, with Headwaters Outdoor School, I realized my lifelong vision to share what I have learned from the Earth and to inspire people to discover their own connection with the Earth.
Julie Boettler
Julie has been a part of the Headwaters family for many years. She first came to Headwaters as a student, then as an apprentice. She now works as Headwater’s camp cook and caretaker.
She loves to listen to your stories, so come prepared to share, while she serves you up one of her superb and satisfying meals.
Jean Sage
I live on the land that we consider a national park with abundant wildlife and nature’s dynamic life-force. This piece of earth has for twenty years called to me to co-create earth art. Each piece I have created was given to me as I sat or stood silently listening to the wind and birds, my mind emptying of worldly things. The images of what I would create or rather co-create bubbled up like the springs on the land. Each piece is result of different decades that I spent reflecting on my life, the sometimes-overwhelming challenges that became the thresholds for the changes. Each piece is a physical manifestation of a Rite of Passage. Creating Rites of Passage for the various stages of our life has become a calling. If you would like to know more about me and Rites please click HERE.
Taeo Knight
Originally from Santa Cruz, Taeo’s journey at Headwaters began when he was 13 years old. He quickly became an apprentice and began devoting his summers to working and being on the land. After a decade of being at Headwaters, he has been teaching for 6 years and is now our Backpacking trip leader. Taeo holds a Wilderness First Responder certification (WFR) and has extensive first-aid knowledge and training.
During the off season, Taeo is very passionate about aquaponics and holds a BA in Sustainable Community Development from Prescott College. His goal is to bring sustainable agriculture to communities that have little to no access to healthy, fresh foods. He is currently in the process of designing and completing his first aquaponics facility at Prescott College in Arizona. In his spare time, he is an avid photographer and enjoys off-roading in the mountains.
Zander Balthasar
Zander first came to Headwaters when he was 14 as a work-trader and has been returning ever since. He fell in love with primitive skills and has been mastering the art of friction fires, tracking, and foraging wild edible mushrooms, berries, and nuts. His ability to create a friction fire in under an hour stem from his deep connection to nature that he has been fostering since childhood. While forever a student, he has been teaching these skills for the last 4 years and supports Headwaters during the entire teaching season, spanning from spring to fall.
Zander is also skilled in farming and gardening and helps upkeep the school’s greenhouses and beehives. He is also passionate about cooking and has trained under a Michelin star chef. When he’s not on the land, he’s working at a farm in the Santa Cruz mountains and surfing, hiking, and reading during his time off.
John Brennan
JB was initially attracted to the power of Nature by attending camp on Lake Winnipesaukee in rural New Hampshire in the 1940’s and in 1950 reading Wildwood Wisdom by Ellsworth Jaeger.
John is a veteran Sierra Nevada long distance hiker, an eager Mt. Climber having summited major peaks in the West and Hawaii, and a resolute telemark skier. JB has been an apprentice with Tom Little Bear of the Esselen Tribe since 1991. He pours and sings in the Esselen Sweat Lodge. JB started studying shamanic healing in 2003 with teachers from diverse shamanic backgrounds. He provides services as a shamanic healing practitioner.
In 2003 he received the gift of wholly immersing himself in Nature on a regular basis by moving here to Hammond Ranch and building a strawbale home.
Steph Bogdanova
Steph hails from all over the world (Russia, Sweden, Canada, and the Bay Area) and has finally made her home at Headwaters. She first came to the land 11 years ago and has found her passion in teaching students to love nature. She specializes in cordage, weaving, beading, and other crafts. Along with Headwaters, she ran the Forest School program at Odyssey School of Denver for a year where she worked with diverse students ranging from kindergarten to eighth grade. Steph is also a certified Wilderness First Responder (WFR).
Steph holds a BA in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz with an emphasis in conservation biology and graduated with highest honors. Outside of education and research, Steph loves to hike, travel, and hang out with her dog Nox.
TJ Putnam
TJ has been coming to Headwaters since he could walk. He recently moved from Austin Texas and fell in love with teaching so decided to make Headwaters his permanent home and continue his passion in teaching alongside Nature.
He recently ran the apprentice program which allowed him to build a deeper connection with students and help them receive and meet their personal goals while here for the summer.
When not teaching on the land he lives down in Santa Cruz County where you can find him surfing, exploring the woods, or attempting to catch fish at a local lake.
Caitlyn Hanlon
Sequoia Tautrim
Robin Blisswagner
Robin Bliss-Wagner has been teaching and mentoring children, teens, and adults in Deep Nature Connection, survival skills, bird language, and tracking since 2004. Through his unique approach to mentoring, he inspires participants to connect with nature, themselves and community. His own love for the wilderness led him to visit and learn from the Nharo Bushmen of Botswana, live in the stone age without modern items in Washington and Idaho with Lynx Vilden’s Four Seasons Stone Age Living Project, and complete the Kamana Naturalist Training Program by Jon Young. Since 2014, he has been learning from Martin Prechtel in Bolad’s Kitchen. He has also completed many solos in nature with minimal gear, and brings inspiring stories and skills from these experiences into his teaching. Robin is Waldorf graduate, and received his BA in Bioregional Studies with highest honors from UC Santa Cruz. Also a blacksmith and fiddler, he lives in Southern Oregon with his wife and their three sons.
