The staff at Youth Empowered Action (YEA) Camp is not your typical cast of college-age camp counselors. Our team is composed of folks with teaching credentials, Master’s degrees, and expertise in youth development, as well as specialized and creative fields such as arts activism, grassroots outreach, changing laws, fundraising, yoga, anti-racism, animal protection, gay rights, food justice, and more, plus many years of experience both as peaceful activists for various causes and as educators.
Staff
Nora Kramer
Nora Kramer has worked as an educator and activist since 2001, teaching high school English, environmental education, at after-school programs, and — of course — working at camps, as well as working on numerous campaigns in many capacities for various social justice issues that she cares about deeply.
Nora’s activism has included grassroots outreach, event planning, developing websites, writing brochures, speaking at conferences, coordinating volunteers, phone banking, and more. Nora successfully coordinated the Bay Area’s signature-gathering efforts for the campaign to pass precedent-setting Proposition 2, an initiative sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States to address inhumane farming practices, and then did it again in Cleveland, coordinating the signature-gathering in northern Ohio for a similar initiative two years later. During the school year, in addition to her work for YEA, Nora is the Youth Outreach Coordinator for Mercy For Animals, which advocates to prevent cruelty to animals and to promote compassionate food choices and policies.
Nora has combined her interest in activism and social change with her passion for working with youth through teaching at after-school programs, running a humane-education organization, mentoring school environmental clubs, working with students to get healthier options in the school lunch program, and teaching 9th and 10th grade English. Nora received her teaching credential from San Francisco State University, and has worked at several camps over the years, as a camp director and senior staff. She has training from the Institute For Humane Education, completed the intensive Basic Camp Director Course through the American Camp Association, and was certified in nonviolent conflict resolution with youth through the Help Increase the Peace program.
Recognizing the passion and power teens have to bring about a more just world, and the opportunity to support them through an intensive and unique summer program, Nora developed the curriculum for YEA and founded the camp in 2009. She will be attending each of the 3 sessions of YEA Camp 2013.
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Laura Carver
Laura Carver majored in environmental studies/natural resources and worked for three summers at YMCA camp, as well as at the Boys and Girls Club. She was employed by the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) in Connecticut, a non-profit organization that organizes students around the country on issues of the environment and consumer advocacy.
From there, she moved to upstate NY to work on campaigns with Farm Sanctuary, the premier national organization working on behalf of animals raised for food. After Farm Sanctuary, she worked at the Tompkins County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals with Nathan Winograd, the national leader for the no-kill animal shelter movement. In 2006 she obtained her Masters in Education from Portland State University and a licensure in middle and high school science and math. Laura’s teaching career has predominantly involved working with minority, underserved, or at-risk youth in Portland. As a mother of two, she hopes to use her experience and love of working with young people to inspire the next generation to make a difference in the world. Laura is currently serving as the Portland Group Leader for the Citizens Climate Lobby and is passionate about addressing the climate crisis. Laura serves as the Assistant Director for YEA Camp and lives in Portland, OR.
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Brian Grupe
Brian became involved in activism and social justice in 2007 after discovering a Vegan Outreach brochure at Sacramento State, where he was studying music and philosophy. He went vegetarian immediately and within a few months was a major volunteer in the northern California area for VO scheduling college, high school and concert leafletings and attending protests for other animal rights related issues.
Brian moved to Boston in 2008 to take the position of New England Outreach Coordinator for vegan Outreach. In 2009 he returned to California and became the Nor Cal Outreach Coordinator, a position he still holds today. His work is focused mainly on leafleting and one-on-one discussions with college and high school students at colleges, but he also presents to high school and college classes about factory farming and to local activist groups about the work of Vegan Outreach. As of December 2012 he has visited over 300 high schools and colleges in 14 states and has handed out over 400,000 brochures on factory farming.
Before his work with Vegan Outreach Brian was a music instructor for two summers at Cazadero Performing Arts camp in California. He also taught private music lessons for a number of years and continues to do photography for high school and middle school music events throughout the nation.
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Leanne Alaman
Leanne Alaman has an extensive background supporting youth to empower themselves and find fun, freedom and passion. She facilitated art classes with homeless youth at Drawbridge Expressive Arts, was head Art Instructor at UC Berkeley’s Explorer Camp, supported the success of the Landmark Forum for Teens and The Landmark Forum for Young people, and most recently worked as a mentor for former foster youth with mental illnesses at the Fred Finch Youth Center. Leanne is starting an MA program at Gaia University in Integrative EcoSocial Design with a focus on Education, specifically inventing a revolutionary new structure/curriculum for American schools that will improve graduation rates and leave youth confident, passionate, and compassionate global citizens.
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Marisela Alvarez
Marisela earned a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Education at Mills College, Oakland, CA. There she completed a year-long program with the Institute for Civic Leadership, having focused on environmental justice and social inequalities of access to safe outdoor natural spaces. While abroad in East Africa she studied ecology, environmental policy, and conducted research on community perceptions of biodiversity conservation. Marisela has worked with several youth organizations over the years with a focus on at-risk youth in underserved communities from Oakland and the Bay Area. She has facilitated activities with middle-school and high-school students around wellness, mindfulness, ecology, natural history and herbal medicine, environmental issues, job-skills, and empowerment. Marisela is certified in Wilderness First Aid by the American Safety and Health Institute and CPR. She currently works for the Marin County Outdoor School in Petaluma, CA. Marisela supports the efforts of YEA camp partly because of her desire to help build socially and environmentally sustainable communities by promoting health, wellness, and ecological literacy among youth.
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Mary Beth King
Mary Beth majored in Sociology with minor in Theater and Women Studies. She has a passion for youth and activism, and YEA Camp brings these passions together. As a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts, she attended camps as a child, worked on staff several summers and directed Girl Scout camps for 9 years. Empowering young women to be themselves, make friends, and find their inner strength is what led her to running camps, the same thing she received by attending them. She believes there is no place like summer camp, and only when you experience it, can you truly feel the “magic”. She also trains and teaches kids yoga, has volunteered as a big sister through Big Brothers and Big Sisters and facilitates the youth program at the annual World Peace Yoga Jubilee.___________________________________________________________________
Pike Long
Pike Long is a recent graduate from San Francisco State with a degree in Youth Empowerment for Social and Environmental Justice, a major she created herself. Since her first protest at the WTO in Seattle in 1999, Pike has been involved in social justice organizing, and is committed to creating positive change by empowering young people with
skills and information. She lives in San Francisco’s Mission District, and has traveled in over two dozen countries since 2000. Pike helps run the San Francisco LGBTQ Speakers Bureau, is a board member of Lyon-Martin Health Services.
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Nicole Green
Nicole is the Director of Animalearn, the education program of the American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) located in Jenkintown, PA. She has worked for AAVS for over 12 years, helping to enlighten students, educators, and other concerned individuals about the harmful use of animals in research, testing, and education.
In addition to working for a national non-profit animal protection organization, Nicole has been active with a variety of animal protection issues for over 20 years. She hosted her own radio show at New jersey’s Rowan University entitled “Speak Out for Animals,” and wrote a NJ newspaper column called “Animals and Us.” Nicole has also served as a State Coordinator for the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance. Nicole recently received her MA in Education & Innovation with an emphasis in Humane Education from Webster University. She also holds a BA in Communications Journalism.
Nicole worked as a YEA Camp NJ staffer and was truly inspired by her experience at camp. Read the blog she wrote for YEA here.
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Melanie Kessler
Melanie has been working to involve youth in their communities and to bring meaningful and active leadership activities to families, schools and programs for the past 12 years through her consulting work with environmental nonprofits. Melanie just finished her M.Ed at Antioch University along with a K-8 Public School and Waldorf Teaching certification and uses a unique blend of outdoor leadership, ritual and community building tools to develop classrooms and programs of trust, reverence and creativity. For 5 years, she worked as a professional bicycle advocate, encouraging families and youth to reduce global warming and have more fun by replacing car trips with human-powered transportation. In her free time, she leads bike tours dressed as a superhero, cooks and grows food, and finds excuses to get lost on a wander or bike ride among the beautiful rural roads of the Green Mountains. This winter, Melanie is continuing her adventures with her 2 month old smiling new baby, Ezra Adamah Kessler.
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Heather Kennedy
Heather has been working to educate people & decrease the stigma around HIV/AIDS since she lost a family member to the disease when she was in her teens. She volunteers weekly with her local health department on the HIV Prevention Team by helping to organize events, performing HIV & Hepatitis C testing & counseling, and teaching people in her community how to protect themselves from communicable disease. Heather has traveled to Kenya to see the impact of AIDS there firsthand with an organization called Slum Doctor Programme, where she volunteered in a girls boarding school. She sponsored a young orphan Kenyan woman through this secondary school and now provides support and friendship to her through college so that she may help to end AIDS in her own community.Click here to view the Alumni Staff page.