Led by educators. Rooted in experience.
Elemental Roots E.D.U. is guided by a team of passionate educators, community leaders, and nature-based learning experts who share a common purpose: to nurture curiosity, connection, and confidence in every child.
Our leadership combines decades of experience in charter school administration, early childhood education, and experiential program design. Together, we’re building a school that honors the rhythms of the natural world and the potential of every learner.
Meet the Board
The Elemental Roots Governance Board provides strategic guidance, accountability, and support to ensure long-term sustainability and alignment with the school’s mission. Board members represent a diverse mix of educational, business, and community leadership backgrounds — all committed to growing high-quality, equitable learning opportunities in the Northwoods.
Emilymae King
PRESIDENT-
My name is Emilymae King-Ryden. My focus is building connections & promoting intergenerational support geared around relationships raising a resourceful family with our Natural Resources, Nature & our most precious resource, our children. I am the Director at Terri's Treehouse Early Learning Outdoor Immersion Center, and a Tier 2 Educational Trainer. I teach Hula Hoop Meditation, Forest & Nature Therapy Guide, Wilderness 1st Responder, a Board Member of the WMS were I am the chair for Conservation and Stewardship and Co–Chair for Marketing. I have my Administrator's Credential and Early Childhood Technical Diploma, I teach at Nicolet Area Tech College, in the field of foraging locally. I am the Founder of Flora and Mycology of the Northwoods & Maecylium Momentos focusing on connections with the outdoors. I am also Co-Founder of Artistic Alchemy. I love being active and refuse to be boring. I hail in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with our 4 children, husband, and of our flora and fauna. I believe it takes a Village to raise the human capacity for quality of living and those connections with Earth to be sustained and happy. I am excited to be the President Of Elemental Roots E.D.U. and offer my skills and my ability to support all the talented folks involved while also connecting the thriving community for our students to experience learning with all the relationships we have in our community.
Joni Derdzinski
VICE PRESIDENT-
My name is Joni Derdzinski (Joni Clare) and I offer pathways and leadership in education, creativity and the healing arts. I have completed my Introduction to the Early Childhood Profession course and have been working with Terri’s Treehouse for two years between substitute teaching and leading the Elemental Roots Edu Enrichment Program. I also love being a songwriter, performer and music instructor teaching private lessons in the Northwoods. I have been singing and performing for most of my life and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Music degree from UW-Milwaukee in 2015.
I became an AmSat certified Alexander Technique teacher after having completed a 1600 hour certification in 2018 from the Oregon Center for the Alexander Technique. I offer the community private instruction, community workshops plus community and private sound baths as I am a Certified Vibrational Sound Practitioner. I am a mother of two and this is what I am most passionate about. I value resiliency and providing quality time for imagination, exploration, practicing healthy habits and being outdoors. Being on this governance board not only allows me to help bring forward this unique school to this community, but I also get to learn a great amount about myself and what a child truly needs to thrive in this present day.
Daniel Gavronski
TREASURER-
Retirement has a way of opening your mind as to who you have become and why. I was fortunate to grow up in a rural natural environment, near the Fox Valley of Wisconsin, offering plenty of opportunities for exploration, nature based play, self inflicted challenges (and wounds), amazement and wonder. My parochial education thru high school was more than a struggle for me with its strict regimen, discipline and behavioral expectations. Needless to say my after school escape to the “woods” was my true education and joy. What really made an impact on me were the two summers at YCC ( Youth Conservation Corp) camp in Manitowish Waters. It brought me back to my “woods”, but at a higher and more engaged level.
My entire professional career was with forestry/paper related companies in financial, operational and executive roles. These experiences offered the opportunity to serve on boards and advisory groups all with a focus on children’s welfare, mental health and education.
When first introduced to Terri’s Treehouse it was a true awakening. Self confidence, social skills, inquisitiveness, leadership traits were all evident in my interactions with the children. The methods and process of developing and educating children drew me into getting involved. When Emilymae shared the vision to start Elemental Roots, it was a no brainer. I had to join the team. What Terri and Emilymae have created is truly a blessing and gift for the community. I see the Treasurer role as a support function to ensure our amazing and dedicated board and staff have the resources needed to provide the best possible learning experience to our children.
Being involved in this important mission has helped me understand who I have become, and now I know why. My wife and I now live in Manitowish Waters. We are blessed that our four children, seven grandchildren and extended family and friends are able to enjoy and experience the magic and wonder of the Northwoods.
Emily Kate Tesmer
SECRETARY-
My name is Emily K. Tesmer, I grew up in Fresno, California and traveled across the country to visit Wisconsin nearly every year with my family until I made the move in 2021 to move here permanently. While in California, I began to fall in love with finding secluded areas to hike where I knew no one else would be, which mostly involved blazing my own trails through the hills and mountains. I began my work with children in 2018 when I became a Special Day Class Instructional Aide for Fowler Unified School District at John C. Fremont Elementary School. I was tasked with teaching these children basic math skills, where I found the most effective way to ensure retainment of information was to explore mathematics experientially. I created games, activities, and worksheets for all of my students to ensure I was meeting them at their own, individualized, levels. In 2019, I made the decision to return to college and pursue an undergraduate degree in Sociology. My initial goal was to become a school counselor, as I found the current counselors to be quite ineffective in their position and I began to pick my way through college without their help.
In June of 2021, I moved to Presque Isle, Wisconsin, where I chose a full time job at the center of this small town - Karsyn’s Korner Gas Station. I chose this employer because I did not want to enter the bar scene, but still wanted to meet the people I now lived near and form connections with them. I worked here for about a year, until I became pregnant and decided to find a more secure job. I then worked as an SDC Instructional Aide for a short period at Tomahawk Elementary School, but eventually found my place at Terri’s Treehouse as a 3K teacher, and later as the assistant program director. During my year as a 3k teacher, I completed my technical degree as an early education caregiver and obtained my BA in Sociology within 2 months of each other.
Working as a 3K teacher stimulated me on a daily basis to create activities for my students, take them outside as much as possible, and incorporate nature into as many activities as we could. Working firsthand with children in the daycare setting made me realize how important freedom, play, and firsthand experience/problem-solving was to children. Comparing this with the modern tendencies of caregivers and parents to make children sit for long hours in guided activities and enroll their children in a remarkable number of extracurricular, coached, activities, along with the societal tendency to silently exclude children/families in public spaces or when planning events, made me feel very uneasy with the direction things seem to be going and strongly influenced my decision to stand behind the Elemental Roots E.D.U. and do my best to support it as it aims to support the most important group of our society; children. In doing this, I was voted in as board secretary for the Elemental Roots E.D.U. Board and look forward to working towards our goals.
Abby Nies Janowiec
DIRECTOR-
My name is Abby Nies. I am an educator, writer, and outdoor-enthusiast. I have an undergraduate degree in secondary English education and a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from UW-Madison with a focus in literacy. In the many places where I have lived over the last twenty-five years, I have held positions as a high school English teacher, journalism teacher, literacy specialist, reading interventionist, and alternative education teacher. In every school where I have taught, in addition to my direct work with students, I am drawn to engaging in systems-level reflection and action toward improvement. Specifically, I am interested in equity in education, curriculum and instruction, educator effectiveness/professional development, and school/building culture, all topics that are, at this unique moment in time and for many reasons, under significant strain. In addition to education, I have experience in journalism and publishing. In addition to assisting with its launch, I look forward to being part of an important role that I think Elemental EDU will play moving forward in the greater North Woods–that of serving both as a model and hub for conversation and action around best practices in education. I settled permanently in the North Woods with my two kids in 2022. I have built connections with many area schools, and I am committed to helping support the education of area youth. I am honored and excited to be on Elemental EDU’s Board.
Heather Stricker-Orlovsky
DIRECTOR-
My name is Heather Stricker-Orlovsky. I am a conservation biologist and educator by trade, with specialties in forest ecology, mammals, and prairie ecosystems. I am also a GIS (geographic information systems) professional, and have a quirky love for making maps. I have done fieldwork across the US, studying species and their habitats ranging from lynx and wolves to sturgeons and bats, and have done extensive ecological work with Indigenous tribes and cultures. I currently teach college courses for students majoring in ecological and sustainability sciences at Unity Environmental University.
While hard ecological sciences make up much of my background, my interests have broadened since becoming a mother, with a newfound passion in childhood nature-based education and the broad connections people have with nature. To pursue this passion, I began a Doctorate of Education in 2020, where I explored place-based learning, developmentally and age-appropriate environmental education, and map-making as a method of forming a sense of place in children.
Outside of my professional roles, I have two young children that have spent the majority of their formative years learning naturally and organically on our own land in the Northwoods, helping to care for our ducks, rabbits, chickens, dogs, and cat. I have lived in the Northwoods for almost 15 years and love the connections we’ve made to the lakes, rivers, and forests of the area. I am excited to bring my personal and professional experiences to this role and help to foster connections to nature, a love of learning in children, and family connections to the outdoors that bring a multitude of benefits for children and adults alike.
Camille Kich
DIRECTOR-
My name is Camille Kich. I’ve had the privilege to grow up in northern Wisconsin, surrounded by beautiful lakes, rivers, trees, animals, and all kinds of nature. Living and learning from the land is how I grew up. Since my youth, I’ve left the Northwoods, and the country, traveling throughout South America, teaching English in Spain, learning yoga in India, and eventually finding my way back here. I’ve realized that a lot of people in the world didn’t grow up how I did. People didn’t have the same connection to the earth that I did and it made me sad to know they didn’t find simple joy in gazing at a lake, or going for a walk outside. I wanted to see how I could help respark a natural connection. So, in Spain, I volunteered for an organization called Forest School, a program to bring children into the forest and let them play and learn with it. I didn’t know how much of a passion for connecting children with nature would grow in me until I realized that connecting children with nature was just another way of connecting them to themselves. I’ve seen kids gain confidence in who they are, become expressive, loving, creative, and truly shine like the lights they are. I’ve seen the changes in kids and that’s all I want to do; be a part of bringing nature back to human nature. This charter school is doing exactly that and I am very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it.
Carol Warden
DIRECTOR-
My name is Carol Warden. I’ve resided in the Northwoods of Wisconsin since 2010 but my heart has lived here long before I did. The beauty of the outdoors in our little place here on Earth is something to behold, protect, and enjoy! I was motivated to be on the Board for Elemental EDU because it embraces the Outdoors as one of our best teachers in life.
I spent the last fifteen years working on our lakes as a research scientist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Trout Lake Station, located in Vilas County. I maintain long term data for seven lakes that include parameters around water chemistry, fish populations, zooplankton populations, sedimentation rates, water levels, algae abundance, and ice cover duration. I received my master's degree in Water Resources Management at UW-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Study. Prior to my work in freshwater, I served in the US Navy for five years aboard an aircraft carrier as a photographer. I spent my formative years in northeast Wisconsin, swimming, building forts, and riding bikes. I continue to enjoy the outdoors spending all my free time canoeing, skiing, ice skating, hiking, swimming, and paddle boarding.
Lauren Vandenberg
DIRECTOR-
My name is Lauren Vandenberg. My primary areas of focus are on the interconnectedness of literacy across all curricular areas, and recognizing that students take many different and very personal paths as they learn and process information in their educational journeys, and as facilitators of that growth and learning, we need to be open to their varied learning styles and open to new methods and modalities of presenting those lessons. Education should never be considered a “one size fits all” solution, and as a retired educator with a twenty two year career in public education, I feel the system has been stuck in that rut for far too long.
I am excited to be a governance board member for Elemental Roots EDU because experiential and dynamic learning encourages our children to realize their connection to the natural world, fosters curiosity and critical thinking skills, and encourages communication and creative problem solving in every area of study. I believe that students who are invested in those foundations from an early age will develop patterns that will drive their learning for a lifetime.
I am the mother of four: two daughters and two sons, and the grandmother of six who range in age from two to nine. I am a retired educator who spent the majority of my career teaching eighth grade English Language Arts. I also taught high school English for many years with classes spanning grades 9-12. Early in my career, I was an early childhood and early elementary paraprofessional in special education. I have a bachelor of science degree in Broadfield English Education from UW-Madison, a Master of Arts in Education from Viterbo University, and a lifetime teaching license for the State of Wisconsin.
In addition to being on the board of Elemental Roots EDU, I am also involved as a volunteer librarian at the Boulder Junction Library, and am an officer and active volunteer with the Friends of the Library. I am also active in the Natural Lakes homeowner’s association as chair of the Social Committee, and a member of the Communications Team, the Road Committee, and a volunteer with projects for the Invasives Committee and Clean Boats, Clean Water. My hobbies include biking, kayaking, hiking, snowshoeing; I’m trying to take full advantage of the incredible natural beauty and resources of the Northwoods. I enjoy travel adventures across the US and Canada, in addition to pursuing a multitude of artistic and creative projects in a variety of media.
I am excited to be a part of Elemental Roots EDU and to work with the enthusiast, varied and dynamic people who are working to bring this concept to fruition. As a lifelong learner whose mantra is “Stay Curious”, I truly believe that the earlier those patterns and foundations for encouraging learning are set, the more young students will feel empowered to take ownership and autonomy in their education.
Chamomile Nusz
DIRECTOR-
I come from a Real-world experience translated to thoughtful collaboration.
As a founder of three operating charter schools (elementary, middle, and virtual) and another on the way (high school, 2022), I have a great passion for innovative educational options for students.
Most recently, I joined the team of the Wisconsin Resource Center for Charter Schools (WRCCS) supporting schools around Wisconsin. I also provide support services to over 60 schools across the United States as the Membership Services Director for the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education. What inspires me is the amazing schools, leaders, and pioneers I get to work with and the joy that ensues when a problem is tackled and professional learning takes place. I am a mother of two committed to starting a school for my children and my small rural community because a schooling alternative did not yet exist here. Seeing how it's shaped not just my children's promising futures but transformed an entire community. I can see such a big picture unfolding and it's starts with our youth in Wisconsin.