Meet the 2022 Team!
Meg Hamilton
Medical Coordinator
Although she has lost count of just how many years she has spent as a Nature Camps camper and counselor, Meg is thrilled to be returning to the woods this summer. She is looking forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting new families as the 2022 Medical Coordinator. Meg currently teaches high school English and is pursuing a doctorate in educational leadership at Johns Hopkins University. Her passions lie in educational equity and experiential learning. When not in the medical corner, Meg can be found building fairy houses, performing in overnight skits, or porch-swinging. Meg will be joined at Nature Camps by her two daughters, Penny (9) and Charley (6).
Tessa Wilder
Director of Arts and Crafts
Tessa Wilder is a life-long artist, a passionate photographer, an avid writer, and a wildlife enthusiast.
After two years in college for graphic design, she has since dedicated her time to digital illustration, drafting novels, and hiking with her dogs. She was, as she often says, “raised on Steve Irwin,” and has a deep appreciation for the natural world. She is knowledgeable particularly in foxes, raccoons, and reptiles, but she has an affinity for crayfish and all other creatures found in the Maryland woods. When she’s not outdoors she can be found watching David Attenborough, practicing Welsh, or browsing antique stores.
Being the oldest of six children and the daughter of a preschool teacher, Tessa has ample experience in supporting and understanding kids, particularly ones with anxiety, ADHD, and those with an extra bit of spunk. She loves most their constant curiosity and their eagerness to explore the world around them.
As Director of Arts & Crafts at Nature Camps, Tessa hopes to encourage campers to create their own personal works of art in a supportive, patient environment while also incorporating the enthusiastic energy of summer camp. Here’s to carving soapstone, writing in a handbound nature journal, bracelet-making, whittling figurines, and so much more!
Nathan Hamidi
Director of Aquatics and Pool Operator
Nathan Hamidi, now the proud holder of three quarters of a degree in biological sciences with a minor in German language, has been drawn to the woods from the moment he rolled into it. A camper at Nature Camps since 2001, he has gone through every stage of the program and is excited to return as Director of Aquatics and Pool Operator.
Nathan utilizes his strong background in music, science, and group activity leading to his work at camp. He has held many jobs ranging from musician to busboy to librarian. To him, being a staff member at a camp such as Nature Camps is deeply fulfilling and of the highest personal value.
Josie Halushka
Junior Counselor
Josephine "Josie" Halushka is writer of small poems, a walker of deep woods, and a lover of all animals.
After attending Nature Camps as a camper for most of her life, she is beyond thrilled to bring the magic of Nature Camps to campers as a Junior Counselor. Josie enjoys exploring and always seeks to expand her collection of factoids on the world we occupy. A Scholastics American Voices medalist for poetry, she spends much of her time reading and writing.
Before working as a counselor, Josie has volunteered at elementary schools and preschools, babysat, and organized a reading program for children aged 3 to 7. She is happiest when encouraging children's growth, wonder, and kindness.
As a Junior Counselor, Josie is looking forward to supporting her campers as they run, swim, sing and so much more.
David Heroy
Volunteer
As a kid, David spent nine summers at Nature Camp while attending Gilman School. Since 2008, he has been teaching Environmental Science and Outdoor Leadership at Headwaters in Austin, TX. He published research on climate change and did field work in Antarctica and Bangladesh. His research was presented at Cambridge, UK and was written-up in the journals Science and Discover, among others. But David found his true calling in teaching and being with youth.
He has a BA from Colgate, a MS from William and Mary, and a PhD from Rice. After college, he attended NOLS, Outward Bound, and led backpacking trips in California under his own LLC. Finally, David was Assistant Guide for 1st-3rd graders at Parkside Montessori, led a cabin at Global Youth Peace Summit, and taught at Lee College in Baytown, TX.
Perhaps his proudest achievement was founding Blackwood Nature Camp in Hempstead, Texas, which received a national award and is still going today. But best of all, in 2003 David met a beautiful architect named Erica Keast at a swing dance class. They got married, have two girls named Cleo and Marion who are attending Nature Camps this summer, and their dog's name is Hero.
Christine Sajecki
Volunteer / Guest Instructor
Christine Sajecki is an artist practicing in Baltimore, Maryland. She mostly works in encaustic, a malleable and sculptural paint made of beeswax, pigment, damar resin, and other materials harvested from her environment. She works the surfaces with brushes, torches, gouges and blades. Sajecki brings this excavation and accretion of surface to other media and drawings through her process.
Her paintings have been included in many juried and solo exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe. Her work appears in print in several albums, periodicals, and books of poetry and fiction. She has been a guest lecturer, teacher, or resident artist at several institutions and community centers nationally and internationally, including the American Visionary Art Museum, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Clayton State University, the Creative Alliance at the Patterson, The Providence Center for Adults with Disabilities, Maryland Institute College of Art, Savannah College of Art and Design, and FundAHrte in Panama City, Panama.
She is looking forward to sharing her artistic skills with campers as a volunteer / guest instructor. Christine will be joined at Nature Camps by her son August who is also looking forward to exploring the woods this summer!
Tucker Hubner
Counselor - Teen Adventure
Tucker Hübner is a recent high school graduate who plans to pursue a major in electrical engineering, but despite his passion for a technical career, he has an immeasurable love for nature and everything outdoors and has been a part of the Nature Camps community since 2009.
With Nature Camps being closed the last two summers due to Covid-19, Tucker has been occupying his time with activities including learning to ride his unicycle, going on long bike rides and playing D&D virtually with his friends. With Nature Camps reopening, Tucker is eager to come back with undiminished love and joy for the Camp experience. Being a part of the Teen Adventure program, Tucker is excited to relive all his favorite trips that he loved participating in as a Teen Adventurer - now from the perspective of a Counselor. When camp was last open, Tucker was a Counselor Intern and from this experience he has learned a lot about working with children. He plans to use this experience to ensure every Camper can have the opportunity to love Nature Camps as much as he has over the years.
Amy Sampson
Volunteer / Guest Instructor
Amy Sampson first cultivated her love of nature as a camper on Cape Cod, a camp counselor in rural NJ, and a backpacking trip leader in the White Mountains in NH. For the last 20 years, Amy has lived in Baltimore City, but you can still catch her in the outdoors, hiking across town from her home in the Remington neighborhood to her job as an English teacher at Baltimore City College High School. Amy has been the head of the English Department at "City" for over a decade. She loves collaborating with students and teachers to write well and understand literature. When she's not pointing out symbols in The Great Gatsby, you can find her snuggling her cat Nissa, listening to her husband Burke play guitar, or hunting pirate treasure with her son Roy, who will be joining her at camp this summer. This will be Amy's first summer at Nature Camp. She looks forward to working with campers to combine a love for words with a love for nature.
Ethan Ostrow
Junior Counselor
Ethan started at Nature Camps as a camper when he was 9 years old, and is very excited to become a counselor this year! Later, he was Teen Adventurer and took part in the C&O Canal Biking Trip, “a life experience that taught me a lot about myself, working as a team, and being out of my comfort zone.” As a TA, he loved being in charge of “Games in the Field” and other sporting activities at camp. He also loves hiking, and carving wooden tools and soapstone sculptures.
When not at Nature Camp he can be found on the soccer field, playing club soccer around the mid-Atlantic Region. He also digs rocks - literally. He has been on several rockhounding trips to mines and dig sites in New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, hunting fossils, amethyst, kyanite, amazonite, Herkimer diamonds, and other minerals. This Fall, he will be a freshman at the College of Wooster in Ohio, majoring in Environmental Geoscience.
Jason Boughton
Volunteer / Guest Instructor
Jason was born and raised in Washington State and spent many summers as a camper in the Cascade mountains. He went on to study film and visual art at The Evergreen State College and earned an MFA at Columbia University.
After curating and teaching experimental film (and baking bagels) in Seattle, Jason moved to New York City where he: worked as a graphic designer, art handler and bicycle messenger; produced and edited video for television and elsewhere, and produced puppet shows and cabaret acts for worker solidarity training.
Now Jason lives in Baltimore with his spouse Deborah and their children Karin and Jude, both of whom will be at Nature Camp this summer.
Jason has been a full-time parent since Karin came in to their lives. They are all part of the Greenmount School community, where Jason is an on-call substitute and teacher's assistant.
Caspian Leigh
Junior Counselor
Caspian Leigh is a recent Towson High graduate who has a strong desire to preserve and protect the natural world for our future. He is new to Nature Camps and eager to learn even more about nature and its many benefits for people, especially kids. He is ready to go to Drexel University in the fall to study Mechanical and Civil Engineering, but is also a music and theatre kid.
Caspian has been to several sleepaway camps throughout his life. As a kid he would go all the way out to Ohio to an Amish farm camp that his dad went to when he was a kid. He interacted with all sorts of farm animals and loved the environment. And with so little light pollution, the stars filled the pitch-black sky. He even saw a meteor shower there. Once he "aged out", he went to a YMCA-owned camp and learned more about the woodland environment and about working with kids of varied ages. Eventually he wound up in the "camp that must not be named," Camp Puh'Tok, Nature Camps former neighbor with whom campers had a friendly rivalry.
Now he is a counselor at Nature Camps. He is creative, plays guitar, and is ready for anything and everything this experience will offer. Most of all, Caspian looks forward to sharing the Nature Camps experience with campers this summer.