We are blessed to have found some amazing and aligned facilitators to work with our group. Here is some information about our them and how they ended up as part of the Wild Soul Team.

Ted Packard

Program Director and Lead Wild Tenders Instructor

Ted Packard is a mentor, naturalist, ancestral skills craftsman, storyteller, and musician. Since 2011, he has mentored youth in wilderness survival, edible and medicinal plants, animal tracking, bird language, and the innumerable intricacies of growing into the human body, heart, and mind.  He is trained in the eight shields model, having attended Wilderness Awareness School in Western Washington and has worked in a variety of nature programs for children, both large and small. Ted believes that humans learn best when they are immersed in nature, in play, and in community.

Annika Fae

Program Coordinator and Staff Mentor

Annika grew up in the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest amongst soft moss, forests of sword ferns, and towering dripping evergreens before relocating to Southwest Colorado in 2018, where she has fallen in love with this land of red/gold bones, sweeping vistas of snowy peaks and sagebrush mesas, and lightning fast lizards.
A Waldorf Early Childhood teacher by training, Annika has worked with children ages 3-7 for seven years in various settings, including her own Waldorf-inspired preschool and Waldorf schools like Brightwater and Olympia Waldorf.
Annika’s passion for nature connection began in 2012 when she joined the Art of Mentoring program at Wilderness Awareness School (WAS), followed by the 9-month Nature Instructor Training. She went on to teach at WAS and Vashon Wilderness Program (VWP), mentoring youth aged 7-12 and helping to lead instructor teams. She also worked as a camp counselor and held leadership roles at WAS summer camps.
As a mentor, Annika loves sharing the 8-Shields philosophy with new instructors and guiding them in their own growth. She has also served on the leadership teams for the Art of Mentoring and Coyote Mentoring programs. Annika is a certified Level 3 Tracker through CyberTracker having completed the tracking intensives at both Raven’s Roots and WAS.
Outside of nature mentoring, Annika enjoys creating art with clay, dancing Lindy Hop, and working as a Feldenkrais practitioner to help others heal and move with ease.

Heidi Patton

Leaf-Hoppers Lead Instructor

Greetings! I’m Heidi Patton. Born in the suburbs of Portland, OR, I spent far more time in organized sports than playing in nature as a child. After moving to San Francisco for college however, the over-stimulation of the big city led me to take solace in nature - especially the Presidio, a natural area where I ended up becoming a teacher for a nature-based children’s program. When I graduated, I moved down the coast to study naturalism and lead farm and wilderness field trip programs for inner city children. I’ve been inspired to find ways to be in the wilderness with children ever since! In addition to my work at Wild Soul, my son and I spend much of our free time camping, harvesting wild food and herbs, making fires, and singing songs of gratitude to our glorious Mother Earth.

Kelly Sheridan

Wild Tenders Instructor

Kelly Sheridan, is the assistant Wild Tenders instructor, a Durango local, mother, nature lover, outdoor adventurer and a lifelong learner. Kelly got her undergraduate degree in Education and Performance Art at Prescott College. Since then she has been a biodynamic farmer, an herbal medicine maker, a private chef, and more. She has a masters degree in Acupuncture, as well as an Open Focus Coaching and Biodynamic Craniosacral certifications. Kelly enjoys exploring the intersection between the earth and health and understands that these two inform each other deeply. Since becoming a mother she set an intention to share the gift of the earth with her daughter and the larger population of local children. It is her goal to encourage safety, sense of place, healthy relationship, curiosity, deepening skills, and wonder in the children she works with.

Robin Brodsky

Leaf-Hoppers Instructor

I grew up around the marshes, ponds, and beaches of a small community on the east coast. We fished and swam the Atlantic in summer. Winter gave us the gift of ice skating when the ponds froze and snow allowed us to sled in the hills. It gave me a great sense of freedom and joy. Pulling our sleds up the hill countless times was great exercise.

A nearby state park offered a mysterious wood filled with old hardwood trees. Our imaginations ran wild. We built forts, dug tunnels, and began to see the world that existed underneath the trees and forest floor. There is so much going on there. And I loved getting dirty! My dad maintained a large vegetable garden in summer from which the family ate quite well. In his retirement he switched to flowers. Our house often had the sweet fragrance of fresh cut flowers that my mother put in a vase in our dining room.

I landed in Durango 24 years ago after taking a job in Utah as a guide in a therapeutic wilderness program. I met the desert and fell in love. I was introduced to Ancestral Skills, and I witnessed lives transformed through the powerful mirror of nature connection.

I hold an M.A. in Adventure Based Psychotherapy and worked as a clinician for about 10 years.

Needing a new direction to freshen my perspective, I got involved with Vision Fast and Council work through the School of Lost Borders. I currently serve on the Advisory Council of the Wilderness Guides Council, an offshoot of the school. A few months ago, my good friend and colleague from my days in Wilderness Therapy connected me with Durango Wild Soul. I am thrilled to be apprenticed (you’re never too old, right?) with some remarkable teachers and mentors in Nature Connection. It’s awesome to watch children learn outside of mainstream, “Reading, Writing and ‘Rithmatic.” I see the power of creating beautiful and whole individuals through this work. It takes all my previous experience to the next level.

I have traveled extensively around the globe on foot, bicycle, planes trains and automobiles. I am fluent in Spanish; play guitar and I love to cook. I am thrilled to be a part of the Wild Soul Community.

Ashley Grandkoski

Executive Director, Wild Soul Parent and Co-Founder

As a homeschooling parent looking for holistic and alternative educational options for her children, Ashley has been a driving force in the creation, growth and maintenance of Wild Soul. Her background in, herbalism, acupuncture, energy healing and shamanism, combined with a deeply intuitive understanding of the kind of education needed by today's children gave her an instant understanding of, and appreciation for, the 8-shields philosophy. Though administration is not her deepest passion, building an organization that supports healthy and forward-thinking ways of life certainly is. She works in service of creating the new systems that will contribute to resilient culture, robust community, thriving children and new, more sensical, educational paradigms. Her children, currently 9 and 12, are happy attendees of the program.

Kyler Grandkoski

Operations, Budget and Facilities Volunteer, Wild Soul Parent and Co-founder

Though Wild Soul was born out of our need as a family, the organization itself fit right in with much of my experience, background and passions. I grew up exploring and loving time in the outdoors, seeing it as one of the most supportive and healing parts of life - camping, rafting, snowboarding, hiking and traveling. As an adult, I've worked in the non-profit sector for more than ten years, helping with a variety of community-oriented and environmental projects. I've also volunteered in many organizations working to build community and resilience in land use, agriculture and food systems. Through my own business, I offer facilitation services, supporting planning and strategic development for non-profit organizations. I'm happy to bringing this skill set in support of Wild Soul.

In this video, Ted shares some insights into his approach with the kids: