Firefly has been director of New Orleans’ Sunship Earth program since its inception in 1984. She has assembled a group of dedicated teachers, parents, and community members to develop, sustain, and expand the program into Teaching Responsible Earth Education (T.R.E.E.) a non-profit organization in 1995. As an Associate Staff member of the Institute for Earth Education (IEE), which created the Sunship Earth, Earthkeepers and Sunship III programs, Sue helps to write, revise and pilot the Institute’s programs. Sue hires and intensively trains all T.R.E.E. Earth Educators in both content and outdoor classroom management. She teaches at all programs and leads overnight sessions. Sue’s experience in education, teaching grades four through seven in St. Tammany and Orleans Parish Public Schools, and Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction provide the foundation for her work.

Waves joined T.R.E.E. in September of 2016 as the Earthkeepers Program Coordinator. Having previously served as an intern for Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve’s Centennial year, she is excited to be able to continue working within the National Park’s boundaries in this new capacity, and to be directly involved in hands-on environmental education. After graduating from Florida State University with degrees in Environmental Studies and Geography, Waves worked as a primitive backpacking camp counselor in Southern Colorado, an after-school program coordinator at a middle school in Southern Maryland, and an ecotour guide in the Caribbean waters of the Virgin Islands. Proud to now call New Orleans home, Waves is grateful to be able to work with T.R.E.E. and share her love of the natural world with new Earthkeepers in training.

Ironwood began working with T.R.E.E. in the fall of 2015 as an Earth Educator for the Earthkeepers, Sunship Earth and Sunship III programs. He began working with students in 2004 as a summer camp counsellor and continued to teach as a tutor and naturalist. He was raised in New Jersey and attended St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. In his free time he enjoys gardening, backpacking and carpentry.