The Pajarito Environmental Education Center is operated by a Board of Directors, staff members, and devoted volunteers. Learn more about the staff and board members below. To contact us, please use the e-mail addresses below or the contact page.
Jillian Rubio
Executive Director
505.662.0460
jillian@peecnature.org
she/her
Jillian comes to Los Alamos by way of Brooklyn, NY and Tucson, AZ, amongst other places. She is an avid explorer, recent nomad, and everyday yogi. Jillian describes herself as, “readily distracted by birds, wildflowers and the beauty of the natural world”. Her 20+year career in Environmental Education has included roles such as: Chief Program Officer at NYC Outward Bound Schools; Director of the Prospect Park Audubon Center; Board Member of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE); and President of the Arizona Association for Environmental Education (AAEE). She holds a BS in Natural Resource Management from the University of Arizona and an MPA in Public Policy and Nonprofit Management and Leadership from the NYU Wagner School of Public Service. Jillian loves to walk slowly through nature, cook elaborate meals, read long books, write short stories, take lots of pictures, and dig in the dirt. She joined the PEEC staff in May of 2022.
Kristen O’Hara
Director of Programs
505.662.0460
kristen@peecnature.org
Since her early childhood growing up in Santa Fe, NM, Kristen has had an overwhelming curiosity about the natural world. Sparked by her parents’ love of gardening and native plants, this curiosity has grown into a burning passion to share the natural world with diverse communities. After receiving a B.S. in Biology at the University of New Mexico, Kristen pursued a career in informal education, creating public programs, teaching school groups, and sharing conservation science with communities throughout the east coast at various nature museums, botanic gardens, and conservation organizations from Maine to Georgia to the Hudson River Valley in New York. Kristen joined the PEEC team in 2020 as the Director of Interpretation and looks forward to creating new exhibits and continuing to craft stellar programs! In her spare time, Kristen loves to hike (she’s always on the lookout for herps and pollinators), run, travel, garden, and watch movies.
Beth Cortright
Operations Manager
505.662.0460
beth@peecnature.org
she/her
Beth spent most of her childhood running around the creeks and forests in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her parents always stressed the importance of volunteering and environmental protection, and it seems like it stuck. The biology department at the College of Mount St. Joseph was able to harness Beth’s outdoorsy nature, infect her with a travel bug, and enable her love of biology. A combination of good memories from visiting family in the southwest and caving expeditions in Carlsbad resulted in Beth moving to White Rock in 2012. She wasted no time getting involved with PEEC, first as a volunteer, then through an Americorps program called Public Allies, and finally joining the staff. Beth loves to get outside and explore and enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for nature, including hiking, caving, camping, and rock climbing.
Nicole (Nic)
Visitor Services Manager
505.662.0460
nicole@peecnature.org
she/her
Nic, known to most of her friends as Pigeon, was born and raised in what was, at the time, an underdeveloped city in New Mexico. Her love for the outdoors started when she was young, spending time in the open desert and exploring the mountains with her dad. Her desire for exploration led her to the Pacific Northwest for almost a decade. While there, she obtained her first non-profit job at a botanical conservatory, supporting a non-profit while learning about the care of plants from many different climates. She states, “The memory of walking through the cactus house and watching the hummingbirds lose their minds over the blooming cacti, or getting to watch a corpse flower bloom, will forever live in my brain.”
She values the beauty of the outdoors and all its creatures. She enjoys collecting rocks, sleeping outside, hiking, climbing, and most things in between. “For me, time stops for anything from a beautiful sunset to an insect on the ground”, says Nic. She is a ceramic artist who has been inspired to incorporate the colors and textures of the desert, nature, and sky into her current work. Most importantly, she also has a cat named Pea (Penelope), a sweet little wizard that you’ll probably hear her talk about. Nic started at PEEC in March of 2025.
Casey Lundberg
Marketing & Communications Manager
505.662.0460
casey@peecnature.org
she/her
Growing up in Montana, Casey had many opportunities to explore the outdoors. As a child, she was tasked with picking up garbage around her dad’s construction sites but was often distracted by the creatures she found instead. Casey spent many summers helping build and later play at her cousins’ cabin in Island Park, Idaho where she loved to explore (and often get lost on) the trails. Casey studied Strategic Communications and Advocacy where she worked with nonprofits as a co-manager of Adopt-a-Grandparent and as a volunteer for VOICE Advocacy. While in college, she discovered nature photography. With a background in Camper Experience and Marketing at Kampgrounds of America, Casey brings over five years of expertise to PEEC. She specializes in optimizing workflow efficiencies and is dedicated to helping PEEC promote its diverse range of activities as we continue to expand and grow. Throughout her career, Casey has had the privilege of collaborating with experts in the Customer Experience field and has contributed to graphic design projects as well. In her free time, Casey enjoys thrift shopping, DIY projects and finding new ways to organize and reorganize her home again and again. Casey joined the PEEC staff full time in June of 2024.
Ashleigh Lusher
Gift Shop & Programs Coordinator
505.662.0460
a.lusher@peecnature.org
she/her
Ashleigh has loved animals for as long as she can remember. Some of her first memories in nature are taking trips with family to Estes Park and Yellowstone. It was while hiking through these beautiful landscapes and seeing the wildlife that lived there that she knew she had found her passion. Ashleigh attended college at Texas A&M University and studied Wildlife Ecology. She also found her love for teaching, minored in education, and student taught in a high school biology class. Prior to graduating, she interned with the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska as an instructor for their outdoor science camp. She enjoys skiing and hiking with her dog, Lincoln. Ashleigh joined the PEEC staff in September 2019.
Elizabeth Watts
Educator & Planetarium Manager
505.662.0460
elizabeth@peecnature.org
Elizabeth has been camping and hiking basically her entire life. Growing up, every summer was spent camping across the country with her family. She still remembers her first visit to New Mexico 35 years ago where she earned her Bandelier Junior Ranger Badge and ate a tortilla burger in Taos. She has been involved in informal science education since volunteering at a hands-on science museum as a teenager and continued that work in college and graduate school. Elizabeth earned a B.S. in Physics at Birmingham-Southern College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Texas at Austin. She moved to Los Alamos in 1999 and loves that she can be hiking on a trail within 5 minutes anywhere in town. While staying home with her young kids, she enjoyed bringing them to many of PEEC’s programs and is excited to be able to work here to help more children learn about the great area we live in. Elizabeth joined PEEC’s staff in August 2018.
Beth Sanchez
Lead Educator and Curriculum Designer
505.662.0460
beths@peecnature.org
Beth grew up in Northern New Mexico. Her earliest outdoor experiences came from toiling in the family garden, pushing cattle from pasture to pasture in the Carson National Forest, and dare-devil swimming in a nearby reach of the Rio Grande. In high school she attended New Mexico Forestry Camp, where her eyes opened to the possibility of tying her love of nature to a career choice. She went on to get a biology degree at the University of New Mexico and Humboldt State. After applying her degree as a fisheries biologist for the Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest, Beth realized her love of the outdoors and protecting natural places was tied to how people fit into the landscape. With that mindset, she joined the Peace Corps as a permaculture volunteer, where she worked in eastern Panama to connect people with sustainable farming practices. After the Peace Corps she returned to New Mexico, where she melded the social and natural worlds with her work at two non-profit environmental education organizations, the “Rivers and Birds” watershed program and the “Mesa Prieta Petroglyph” recording project. From there, Beth became an educator in New Mexico public schools, working for 10 years as a classroom teacher. Her dream has always been to share experiences with children so they can learn to love and respect nature, she started that dream at PEEC in August of 2022.
Izza Bello
Early Childhood Educator
505.662.0460
izza@pajaritoeec.org
Born in a rural part of Chiapas, Mexico then growing up in the inner city of Los Angeles, Izza always felt calm nearest to the few trees that were around. It was not until she went on her first hike, at the age of 21 that she finally felt like she belonged. “Now, I see pictures of where I was born and it makes sense, I was a fish living out of water; I belong in the woods”. As the first in her family to graduate high school and go to college, she is currently enrolled at UNM for Special Education with a Spanish Endorsement. Her soul’s mission is to make the outdoors accessible to everyone. Izza loves the educational opportunities that PEEC creates for students, and fell in love with PEEC when she first moved to New Mexico in 2018, accompanying her then two-year-old son to Nature Playtime. She is very excited that she is now the one who will be teaching this program she loves so much. Izza enjoys hiking, camping, and rock climbing with her son, partner, and two pups. In her spare time she has begun wood carving and wood printing and is excited about making art once more. She started working at PEEC in October 2023
Sarah VanHoosier
Environmental Educator
505.662.0460
sarah@pajaritoeec.org
Sarah grew up in Indiana and got quite the change in scenery when she moved to New Mexico. Her passion for the outdoors began at a young age and persisted into her adult life. She has previously worked as a state park naturalist and a camp counselor. She graduated from Indiana University with a BS in Environmental Health. Sarah enjoys hiking, caving, and exploring new places. She joined the PEEC staff in November 2023.
Bonnie Klamm
Board President
Bonnie grew up on Whidbey Island, WA where the ocean was her backyard to play in. She has always had a love for wildlife and passion for understanding the natural world. Bonnie earned her bachelors degree in earth and planetary science from the University of New Mexico, and PhD in chemistry from Florida State University. She came back to New Mexico to work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and enjoys rock hounding and fossil collecting in her spare time. Bonnie came to PEEC as a volunteer in summer of 2021, and joined the Board in October 2022.
Robin Gurule
Board Treasurer
Robin grew up in a small town in Arizona, spending her afternoons hiking in the Sonoran Desert. Summers were filled with backpacking in the Washington Cascades and working in her cousins’ apple orchards. She learned realistic bird carving from a friend and pursued it as a vocation for a decade. After earning her accounting degree and CPA from Northern Arizona University, Robin had a long career at Los Alamos National Laboratory, starting in Accounts Payable and retiring in 2018. Now, she enjoys birding, hiking, backpacking, rafting, organic gardening, and folk music and dance, serving as treasurer for the Folk Music and Dance Society Board since 2018. Robin joined the Board in November 2024.
Janet Griego
Board Secretary
Janet Griego is originally from Dixon, a rural Northern New Mexico community. Her father shared his love of the outdoors with his family, taking them camping, hiking, and fishing, all the while instilling a deep regard for nature and the environment. After graduating from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Janet completed a residency at the UNM Department of Pathology followed by a fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas. In 1995, she and her family moved to Los Alamos where her husband worked for Los Alamos National Laboratory. Janet joined Pathology Associates of Albuquerque, working in Albuquerque and Española as a surgical pathologist and Medical Director. Retiring after 20 years of practice, she began volunteering in Los Alamos (including at PEEC) and in neighboring communities. In addition to her volunteer work, Janet enjoys running, gardening, hiking, and baking. Board member since October 2021.
Ed Santiago
Board Member
Puerto Rico is known for its spectacular beaches. Ed Santiago, orthogonally inclined from an early age, always preferred its mountains. One late-twentieth-century day, on a backpacking trip in the Jemez Mountains, he got a funny sensation: this… feels… like… home. A few short years later, it was. His drift into PEEC’s orbit was at first gradual, through friends and classes and Earth Days, and has grown more stable over time. Ed spends weekdays writing Open Source software; evenings and weekends are for cooking, rock climbing, hiking or reading or crosswords or sharing. Or all of the above. Board member since October 2022.
Kristen Dors
Board Member
Kristen Dors was raised in New Hampshire and spent her childhood exploring in the neighborhood woods and on trips to the beach. Kristen’s appreciation for the environment continued in college at the University of New Hampshire where she earned a BS in Environmental Science with minors in water resources management and French. Kristen received an MS in Natural Resources from the University of Connecticut in 1996. Kristen joined the US Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC in 1995 and continued her career with the USEPA when she arrived in Los Alamos in July 1989 with her husband Eric for his Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory. While raising their family (3 boys), Kristen worked in private consulting for Tetra Tech, Inc. for 16 years. Kristen more recently is working doing environmental compliance for the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration. Kristen enjoys time with her family, friends, and dogs. She is working on improving her golf game and learning to fly fish. Board member since October 2024.
Galen Gisler
Board Member
Galen Gisler was born under the dark and starry skies of eastern New Mexico and eventually found his way back to his home state. With a Bachelor’s degree in physics and astronomy from Yale University and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Cambridge (England), Galen went on to postdoctoral positions at the Leiden University Observatory (Netherlands) and Kitt Peak National Observatory (Arizona). He spent two years at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he met his wife Susan. In 1981 he began a 25-year career at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Galen has been involved in a variety of activities including extragalactic jets, particle beams, plasmas, astronomical transients, adaptive processing, and hydrocode simulations of impact processes and tsunamis. In 2006 he and Susan moved to Norway where Galen held a senior research position at the Center for the Physics of Geological Processes at the University of Oslo. They returned to Los Alamos in late 2012 to enjoy the mountains. Galen and Susan have two children: Andy, a systems engineer at Ball Aerospace in Boulder Colorado, and Ellie, an artistic manager at the Caramoor Performing Arts Center in Westchester County New York. In New York they have two grandchildren, Fiona and Rowan, and in Colorado they have a grandson Arden. Board member since October 2019
Nan Sauer
Board Member
Nan Sauer came to Los Alamos in December 1986 as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She and her husband, Jeff, have lived in Los Alamos since that time. Nan is deeply committed to resolving environmental issues and is through her career at LANL and through her personal pursuits focused on environmental education. She is the Senior Director for the Partnerships & Pipeline Office under the Deputy Director for Science, Technology, & Engineering at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Nan has been engaged in a number of Governance Boards for nonprofit organizations. Her most recent position has been as the President and then past President of the Los Alamos Foundation Board. She completed her term in May of 2020. Board member since November 2020.