Maya Elson

Raised in the forest, Maya brings their skills as a mycologist, organizer, naturalist and teacher to facilitate connection with the wild world. With an environmental education career spanning 20 years, Maya makes learning fun, engaging and relevant. Even though Maya has been leading mushroom and plant foraging classes for the last 8 years in the Santa Cruz Mountains, each class is unique–tailored to the participant’s interests, season and location. Maya is also a biologist whose work explores the dynamic relationships between fire, soil, and humans, and consults wildfire mitigation and bioremediation projects internationally. Maya holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from The Evergreen State College, a graduate certificate in Ecopsychology from the Holos Institute, and is an MS Environmental Studies candidate at San Jose State University.