Adventure Works™  |   Griot Works™  |   Restoration Works™  |   Wilderness Works™ special events   |    volunteer   |    mission & values   |    about   |    home     About Us Jourdan Keith, Founder and Director Recently voted Seattle Poet Populist, Jourdan has been featured in Seattle Magazine, Seattle Woman and ColorsNW. Jourdan Keith is the Founder and Director of Urban Wilderness Project because she believes that connecting to the natural world is critical to restoring communities, reducing domestic violence, building relationships, and acknowledging and healing historical injustices. QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE Proven supervisory and leadership skills with a demonstrated ability to build cooperative relationships. Thirteen years of experience as an educator including six seasons of wilderness trip leadership. Over nine years experience creating, planning and organizing activities and workshops. Environmental Restoration Project lead for UW Restoration Ecology Network, project management, trail building and natural restoration experience for Seattle Parks and Recreation, North Cascades National Park and USFS. Poet, Storyteller, and Teaching Artist Jourdan Keith is 2006-2007 Seattle Poet Populist and a 2006 Jack Straw Writer. A student of Sonia Sanchez, she is a poet, naturalist, educator, and storyteller. Her poetry and stories blend the textures of political, personal and natural landscapes to offer voices from the margins of American lives. She was awarded an individual artists grant from the City of Seattle Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs in 2004 for the writing and performance of her choreopoem, The Uterine Files: Episode I, Voices Spitting Out Rainbows. She is 2005-2007 Writer-in-Residence with Seattle Arts and Lectures. She was a 2001 Writer-in-Residence at the Cottages at Hedgebrook, and a teaching artist for Book-It Repertory Theater, Powerful Schools and the Nature Consortium. Her poems, essays and articles have appeared in magazines, and newspapers, as well as, on the radio, television and in video, including, when it rains from the ground up, the anthology, Ma-Ka, Diasporic Juks. (Sister Vision Press). "Umbilical Topography", a collection of new works is forthcoming in 2007. Outdoor Leadership Jourdan Keith is the founder and director of Urban Wilderness Project and a co-founder of Urban Wilderness Foundation. A 2001 NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) graduate, she is committed to increasing access to the outdoors youth and adults. She is certified as a Wilderness First Responder by WMA. She has led 7 backcountry wilderness trips for high school students and numerous day hikes for middle school and adult participants. A former Recreation Supervisor in Yellowstone National Park, she is comfortable creating safe, enjoyable outdoor experiences for all ages. Naturalist and Environmental Educator Jourdan Keith served as the Lead Outdoor Environmental Educator for YMCA Camp Orkila on Orcas Island where developed curriculum, taught classes, created activities, and planned lessons, in map and compass, wilderness preparedness, sustainable living, forest, marine and fresh water ecology. It was here that she began to incorporate storytelling as a teaching tool. She facilitated the climbing wall, low and high ropes courses for 3rd-8th graders and drug rehabilitation and at-risk urban youth. She developed materials and curriculum for outdoor living skills and sustainable living programs and adapted the environmental science program to suit Home School students in K-6th grades. Her work as an Environmental Specialist for the 7 Teepees Program in California gave her an opportunity to develop a program for Oakland youth traveling to the forest for the first time. Again, she incorporated storytelling and exploration as a way for reluctant campers to discover the natural world. Restoration and Trailwork Experience Jourdan's passion for building and healing human communities and ecological communities go hand in hand. She has worked to restore the West Duwamish Greenbelt as a naturalist and lead through the University of Washington's Restoration Ecology Network, Urban Wilderness Project and the Nature Consortium. She brings her knowledge of ecosystems and certification as a Washington Native Plant Steward to the project planning and maintenance of restoration sites. She combines her work skills training from both the US Forest Service and Student Conservation Association to assess usability and construction needs. Wendy (Onion) Carrillo Constantly attempting to learn and to educate through art, Wendy (Onion) Carrillo is dedicated to creating sustainable change and developing a community environment with healthy relationships. The relationships she's already sustained span from national to international, creating a foundation of support for her art. She opened up on the scene in Seattle by Hosting an event called "Ladies First" 2000, that focused on putting the voices of women first. She has preformed spoken word and done workshops at National incite conferences in New York, Chicago and Santa Barbara. She has also preformed for M.E.Ch.A. at regional conferences. Onion has also been blessed with the opportunity to perform in Cuba for the students of the University of Havana in 2003 with the Every Women's Delegation. Onion has performed locally in Seattle at Sisterfire and later shared the stage with Sirens Echo for International Women's Day. In 2004 she was again blessed with the opportunity to tour, with her favorite Puerto Rican Hip Hop / Punk band RICANSTRUCTION. For over a year Onion also worked with the Female Hip Hop Alliance in Olympia, where she from time to time could be caught studying at The Evergreen State College. Onion is currently working on an anthology Letters to a young woman in Hip Hop, containing submissions from women in Hip Hop all over the world, to encourage younger women to keep their heads up. She desires to be genuinely supported as an artist by the community and loved, in turn she tries to constantly send love back the best ways she knows how... through art. Francesca Lo Francesca Lo currently serves as the Assistant Director of the University of Washington's Pipeline Project, which provides educational and service opportunities for undergraduates through tutoring and mentoring in local and regional schools and community organizations. She has also worked for other youth leadership development and environmental service-learning programs, including the Seattle YMCA Earth Service Corps and Denver-based Earth Walk and has served as the Coordinator of Leadership Programs in Brown University's Office of Student Life. Fran believes that the Urban Wilderness Project helps to inspire a sense of curiosity and love of nature and empower all of us, no matter the age, to realize that we are part of the intricate web of life and have the responsibility and potential to sustain it for future generations. Su Theida Su Theida was a crew member for the Young Adult Conservation Corps in 1979 and has been working as a conservation service professional ever since. A certified outdoor leader, through the Wilderness Education Association at North County Community College, Su was formerly the Regional Director for the SCA (Student Conservation Association). She has also worked as a Program Manager, Technical Instructor for trail construction and restoration, Environmental Educator, Trail Crew Leader/Foreman and Backcountry Ranger. Currently Su is the Programs Director at EarthCorps. She is also a mom and re-evaluation counseling teacher. Her vision for the world is a place where children can grow up in healthy, nurturing environs of all kinds - physical, emotional, social, mental, spiritual, etc. Roberto Ascalon Roberto Ascalon is a celebrated poet and educator throughout Seattle. He teaches at Nova High School and for Arts Corps, as well as Seattle Arts and Lectures Writers-in-the Schools program. He is adult mentor for YOUTH SPEAKS. He has experience doing trail maintenance/construction, riparian work. He served as an America Corps member for the Northwest Service Academy out of Trout Lake, Washington. He worked for Habitat for Humanity through Northwest Service Academy and is looking forward to returning to the woods. Contact Us Jourdan I. Keith, Founder & Director 206-579-5848 urbanwildernessproject@yahoo.com P.O. Box 18874 Seattle, WA 98118 © 2004, Jourdan I. Keith site design by Kind Of 7.com