BAWT People: Staff and Interns

The people of Bay Area Wilderness Training include several staff listed below, but BAWT could not run our programs, distribute our materials, build our website or fundraise without our wonderful and dedicated volunteer community. For more information about getting involved with BAWT, please visit our volunteer section.

Chelsea Griffie - Program Director

As a young woman, Chelsea dreamed of the mountains and going camping. Unfortunately, she lived in suburban Chicago and her family just did not do that sort of thing. Chelsea began rock climbing in 1993 and began doing backpacking trips as a means of getting to backcountry rock. She was soon hiking and climbing every weekend and before she knew it, Chelsea had amassed significant experience in both. Chelsea moved to Yosemite in 2001 to be close to that rock climbing Mecca. She was the Business Manager of Yosemite Guides, a local guiding service for hiking, bird watching, and fly-fishing and worked in the office of the Colorado Mountain School. She brings BAWT lots of enthusiasm for getting city kids outdoors. Photos of Chelsea periodically crop up in Patagonia catalogs, Essence Magazine, and Sports Illustrated Women. She is also proud to be included in Black & Brown Faces in America's Wild Places, a new book by Dudley Edmonson about Afro American outdoors enthusiasts. Chelsea is medically trained to the level of Wilderness First Responder (CPR-Professional Rescuer/Provider C).

Kyle Macdonald - Founder and CEO

Mr. Macdonald's connection to nature began as a youth, on family camping and ski trips in the Appalachian Mountains of New England. He began working with youth at the age of 17 and worked with urban youth in both in and out-of-school settings in Boston, Detroit and San Francisco, and was a 4th grade public school teacher in New Orleans. In addition to his work as an outdoor educator, teaching backpacking, canoeing and basic rock climbing, he taught environmental education in classrooms around the San Francisco Bay Area, where he moved in 1997 to start Bay Area Wilderness Training. He has lead the organization as itÕs founder since 1999 and shares a deep sense of gratitude for the community that has grown up around and fed BAWT as it has grown to an organization reaching 2,000 youth a year. Mr. Macdonald has been honored by Stanford University’s School of Education, and was recently recognized by E Town Radio with an E-chievement Award for service. Kyle lives with his wife and two small children in San Francisco, California.

Michael Kawalek - Director of Development and Finance

Michael is a San Francisco East Bay native but as a child had few opportunities to go camping. As an adult Michael worked in Special Events, Major Donor, and Membership Development for The San Francisco Zoological Society where his connection to the outdoors and its diverse wildlife significantly expanded. Michael’s concern for endangered species and his desire to assist in their repopulation lead him to vigorously fundraise for the Species Survival Program (SSP). This international Zoological program focused on the breeding of endangered species for release into the wild. Michael has traveled to Zoological Parks and Aquariums across North America to better understand the challenges that endangered species and the SSP face. As his appreciation for these challenges, nature, and our environment grew Michael began camping and hiking more frequently. Michael’s next adventure is to becoming more familiar with his own Northern California trails, campsites, and landscapes. He joined BAWT’s staff and completed our inaugural Frontcountry Leadership Training Program (FLT) in 2010.

Zak Klein - Programs Associate, Camping at the Presidio Coordinator

Originally from Pennsylvania, Zak's outdoor experience was originally fishing with his father, building forts in forests and dams in streams with friends, followed by more frequent and farther-flung backpacking and boating trips as an adolescent. In 2000, Zak thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, an experience which solidified his desire to share with others the delights of backcountry travel and outdoor living. After early work establishing two student-outing organizations and environmental initiatives, Zak worked as a field instructor for NOLS and Outward Bound USA across the country from the Florida keys and the Appalachians to Yellowstone highlands and nearby Big Basin. Zak has instructed whitewater canoe, alpine backpacking, climbing, sailing and caving courses. Serving students from the public school systems in Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Oakland, Zak has witnessed the acute impact of expedition living and experiential learning for students not often exposed to a natural classroom. The simplicity of outdoor living fosters friendship and connection among people in a way that's elusive among 2009's gadgetry and distractions. Knowing that we can reveal a special nook for a camping experience right in San Francisco's Presidio is very unique, exciting and keeps me motivated!

Terry Nail Williams - South Bay Programs Manager

Terry integrates a wealth of experience in adventure-based learning, leadership and organizational development in her work with people from diverse backgrounds within schools, non-profit organizations, and corporations throughout the U.S. and internationally. Her work focused on strength-based experiential curriculum and facilitated programs emphasizing participatory processes, performance, and teamwork. She has a PhD with a specialization in Leadership. Her doctoral studies began with several intensive international community studies and service projects with the Mayan people and their villages including a 40-mile trek through the backcountry of western Guatemala and climbing the highest peak in Central America. Terry has also traveled over 15,000 miles on a bicycle, including a solo 8,000 cross-country journey for a national youth advocacy project, meeting with the President, representatives, U.S. senators, governors, mayors, and community leaders of over 24 states and 150 communities.

Grace Malango-Blake

For Grace, her love of the outdoors has always been intimately connected to a love of adventure and travel. A Berkeley native, Grace recently returned to the Bay Area after nine months of backpacking and organic farming throughout Central and South America. After graduating in 2007 from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, Grace spent the following year teaching in the Portland Public Schools. Though she misses the Pacific Northwest, Grace is thrilled to be working with CAP and making the beauty of the Presidio accessible to Bay Area youth and educators.

Sister Stephanie

Sister Stephanie is a native San Franciscan currently majoring in Business and minoring in Early Childhood Development at CCSF. She's a city girl, but remembers trips to the fishing hole with her mom where she could see the mountains and the subsequent realization that she had a love for the natural world and longed to be outdoors. But the opportunities to go camping and hiking superseded her family's interest and budget, so it was not until later that she became more active in the outdoors. Her first camping experience finally came on one of BAWT's own Camping at the Presidio CAP trips. Since then, she has participated in many other BAWT training programs and taken youth from the housing projects of San Francisco and Vallejo on over 10 overnight and day hike excursions. Now, as part of the programs team, Sister Stephanie is thrilled to have a more active role in providing the experiences that she knows are vitally important to youth's development.

Interns

• Elin Kjoelseth- Marketing
• Andrea Howard- CFK/Marketing
• Laura Kaplan- Outreach Volunteer
• Lilli Keinaenen - Design
• Byron Pittman - CFK/Development
• Rangsan Sanguanchaiyakit- Accounting
• Kati Vastola- Programs
• Yvonne Yeh - Programs