Medicine Council

Mike Douglas

Director

Mike was born and raised in a small town in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. He grew up surrounded by endless forests and majestic cedar swamps. His deep love of all things wild and natural reaches further back than he can remember. Mike began his career as an instructor of nature and survival skills at Boy Scout camp in New Jersey in 1983. Since that time his passion for nature, awareness, tracking, primitive skills and philosophy has taken him around the globe in search of teachers and the opportunity to learn. He has been a student of Paul Rezendes, Tom Brown Jr., Jon Young, and many others. Mike's passion for learning and teaching “primitive” techniques has earned him a unique reputation in the scouting community and among professional educators. In 1995 he was the recipient of the Marion Rich Waterman Mayer Award from the University of Maine College of Education. Mike currently teaches 7th grade science and social studies. Mike credits his patient wife Karen and his children, Ryan, Dakota, and Emily, with their love and support in helping him to make time to live his dream – teaching earth skills.

Deneen Bernier

Administrator

Raised in Lebanon, Maine, Deneen has lived, studied, and worked in southern Maine throughout her life. After earning a B.S. in Therapeutic Recreation from the University of Southern Maine, her employment interests led her along a varied path of assisting people towards improved quality of life. Her exposure to primitive skills began in 2006 with the Maine Primitive Gathering, White Pine Programs, and MPSS. Participation as a student and later volunteering with each of these organizations, Deneen has been blessed with wonderous opportunities to reconnect with nature. Attending the Building Strong Naturalist Communities conference, Winter Count, and Rivercane Rendezvous has strengthened her commitment to sharing sustainable ways of life and the power of community.

Karen Douglas

Administrator

Karen Douglas graduated from the University of Maine in Orono in 1995 and has taught in public schools across central Maine. She has written two books and specializes in early reading strategies. She is nearly finished with her graduate work and will earn a Masters Degree in Literacy.

Candi Huber

Web Designer

Behind the scenes at MPSS is Candi Huber, the silent but crafty web guru. She spends much of her time hanging out with her children, working as a freelance graphic designer, and teaching Mal Stephens, head instructor/web updater, how to use Typo3. Typo3 is MPSS's amazing web content management system which organizes the entire website. Together Candi, Mal and Typo3 created the MPSS website that you see today! Take a look at more of Candi's work at http://www.candihuber.com.

Mal Stephens

Head Instructor

Mal grew up in the vast suburban landscape of southern New York. Luckily, back then kids were still allowed to frequent those secret in between places that had not been turned into lawn. He also would travel by train and then walk seven miles to his uncle's farm to go camping and fishing. After college, a stint in the Army, and starting a small business, Mal moved to Maine where he built his own home. In 2001 he took his first course at the Maine Primitive Skills School; this led him to take classes at the Tracker School, Wilderness Awareness School, and Earthways. He has taught at The Environmental Schools, Nature's Classroom, White Pine Programs, and the Maine Conservation School. Mal is a Registered Maine Guide, and holds a Level II certificate from CyberTracker Conservation in Track & Sign Interpretation. Presently, he is running guided trips for folks who wish to get hands on survival experience- see our Guided Survival Trips page. You can contact him at mallorystephens(at)yahoo.com

Lou Falank

Instructor

Lou Falank works in the public education field and is a Registered Maine Guide. He is a certified volunteer outdoor education instructor for Maine's hunter, bow hunter, and ATV safety courses and is an examiner for the Junior Maine Guide Program. He spent 6 seasons with the Maine Conservation School in Bryant Pond planning and facilitating diverse outdoor programs for children, adults, and educators. He has also run after school programs teaching wildlife lessons, nature observation, and survival skills for students K-5. Lou currently resides in Binghamton, New York, and is in the process of setting up an MPSS satellite school. You may email him at louis_falankjr(at)yahoo.com

Arthur Haines

Instructor

Arthur is plant instructor at MPSS, as well as T-shirt model. He is by trade a plant biologist and field taxonomist and has written, along with Tom Vining, The Flora of Maine. Arthur is currently the Research Botanist for the New England Wildflower Society. He lives in Bowdoin. You can contact him through his website www.arthurhaines.com.

Ira Michaud

Instructor

Ira is an Eagle Scout who has taught environmental education and survival skills for ten years. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Education and teaches 6th grade in Benton, Maine. He has attended numerous national schools in outdoor program management and wilderness skills. Ira has created and facilitated programs for public schools, youth groups and scouting organizations. He currently specializes in tomahawk and knife throwing and grief work through Sacred Fire technologies.

Nick Spadaro

Instructor

Nick has lived in New England for his entire life. Raised in a small New Hampshire town, with only one blinking traffic light, Nick always had access to the real world, the world outside your living room. When Nick was eighteen months old, he tried to run away and live in the woods, free of rules, parents, and society. Sadly, he could not yet reach the doorknob. Inspired by books such as Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain, for most of his childhood Nick tried to run away to the wild. Though his attempts were never very successful, they planted the seed and when he read The Tracker in high school, he knew what he wanted to do with his life. Nick has trained at Tom Brown’s Tracking and Wilderness Survival School, in both New Jersey and California. He has studied at Rabbitstick in Idaho and Wintercount in Arizona, the biggest primitive gatherings in the country. Nick is continuing his training, so that he can become a better, well rounded instructor.

Shawn Brust

Adjunct Instructor

Shawn served 8 years in the U.S. Army and was a student of Charles Worsham of the Nature and Vision School in Madison Heights, VA. He is currently working as a security consultant in the critical infrastructure industry. He lives in a log home he built with his wife and kids in Norway, Maine.

Coby Leighton

Adjunct Instructor

Coby is a Maine native and has lived, worked and played in the Maine outdoors his entire life. He has studied at Tom Brown's Tracker School in New Jersey over the past eleven years and has a B.S. in Forest Management from the University of Maine at Orono. He is a Licensed Maine Forester and a Registered Maine Guide. He has worked on a daily basis since the early 1990's in all terrain, seasons and weather conditions that the northern Maine woods have to offer. He is a carrier of ancient skills and philosophies and is a valuable teaching resource. Coby, his wife Lynda and daughter Maelyn live off the grid and homestead on 111 acres of woodland in Starks, Maine. They have lived in a hand built log hogan with solar power since 1998 and lived only in 12 X 20 camp with no electricity or running water for a year and a half before that.

Isaac Dorr

Elder

Born in 1950, Isacc was raised in a small town in Maine and choose to make his home there as well. Nature and the outdoors have been a love of his since childhood. As a young boy, he grew to appreciate the simple things in life and nature- for they are free to enjoy. Primitive skills have been around since the beginning of time- at first more for necessity but now more often than not for the pleasure of gaining knowledge on this path we call life. Isaac is a Registered Maine Guide.

April McFarland

Elder

April McFarland lives on a small farm in Waldo, Maine. She has co-owned a small businesss in Bangor, Maine for 10 years. Her love for the out of doors has sent her on a journey wonder! With the help from ceremony and guidance from her teachers, she is discovering how to really live.

Chris Whitten

Elder

Chris fulfills the role of medicine person for MPSS and is the archtype of a modern primitive skills practitioner. He has studied with many different teachers in various venues around the world. Presently, he is specializing in plant medicine and energy work. He doesn't eat meat because in a former life he was a cow.

Wells Council

Mal Stephens

Director

Bob Kozman

Council Member

Bob was born into a military family and grew up all over the world from Alaska to Japan. His happiest memories were as a youth on the family farm in Vermont following his grandfather around doing farm chores. Bob has attended classes at the Tracker School, Maine Primitive Skills School, White Pine Programs, and Wilderness Awareness School. Bob feels that the best way to enjoy the skills is to share them in a community of others who wish to learn and practice them.

Mark Merena

Council Member

Mark spent his early years roaming the fields, woods, and streams surrounding his house in southwestern Ohio bringing home anything he could capture. His growing enthusiasm for the outdoors was nurtured by a neighbor who largely fed himself from the wild by hunting, fishing, running trot lines, trapping turtles, and gigging frogs. In 2001, a long held but dormant interest in living off the land was rekindled by a magazine article about a survival school in New Jersey know as the Tracker School. Many classes later, Mark remains terminally afflicted with a need to learn how to live in the stone age.

Mike Rockwell

Council Member

Mike spent his childhood in the rural south. Like most boys his age, he spent most of his free time outside, but unlike others who enjoyed group sports or playing with toys, his time was spent building forts and treehouses. He used his own intuition to make traps, bows, arrows, and spears. As he grew older and moved into a more urban setting, these skills began to wane. A chance magazine article inspired him to take classes at the Tracker School. This became the catalyst that reignited his love for primitive skills and helped reconnect him to the wild. He studied flintknapping with Jack Cresson, teaches at White Pine Programs, and is a Wilderness Awareness School Kamana student. He strives to master the skills that would support a complete hunter/gatherer existence and also share these skills with all who wish to learn.

Chris Wood

Council Member

Chris has been exploring and playing in the woods since childhood but became seriously involved with primitive skills in the mid 90's. His primary interest is the use of plants for edible and utilitarian purposes. Currently his passion is bow making which he has been pursuing since 2004. His undergraduate degree is in Forestry Conservation from U Mass Amherst. He has worked as an arborist, land manager, plant researcher, and has traveled extensively. Presently he is working on his Master's degree in Conservation Biology at Antioch University in Keene, NH. Chris' interest in primitive skills lies in the process and derives great satisfaction in producing something with his hands.

Mark Young

Council Member

Mark is a third generation fisherman from York, Maine. He received his Captain's license at 18, and by 21 he was running 100' trawlers in Kodiak, Alaska. Mark is a graduate of Boon Island Tech and an apprentice of Raymond Weare, master basketmaker. His love for the woods drew him to MPSS where he further expanded his knowledge of the outdoors. Presently, he makes baskets and bows in his spare time.

Connecticut Council

Andrew Dobos

Director

Andrew Dobos grew up in the northwest corner of Connecticut playing in the woods, wondering what was really going on out there, and longing to be a real part of it. After earning a bachelor of fine arts degree in sculpture from Montserrat Collage of Art, Andy worked for a well known pipe organ builder in Gloucester, Massachusetts for three years. By 2002 Andy had moved back to Northfield feeling the need to pursue a more focused life in nature. Since then he has taken classes with Walnut Hill Nature Center, learned from members of the Two Coyotes School (to which he owes great thanks for making the skills attainable), and gained great insight from his time spent with the other instructors of MPSS. During this time Andy also worked as an EMT for three years and is currently the coordinator for the Whole Earth Homeschool Programs at Great Hollow Wilderness School in New Fairfield CT.

Deneen Bernier

Council Member

Raised in Lebanon, Maine, Deneen has lived, studied, and worked in Southern Maine throughout her life. After earning a B.S. in Therapeutic Recreation from the University of Southern Maine, her employment interests led her along a varied path of assisting people towards improved quality of life. Her exposure to primitive skills began in 2006 with the Maine Primitive Gathering, White Pine Programs, and MPSS. Participation as a student and later volunteering with each of these organizations, Deneen has been blessed with wonderous opportunities to reconnect with nature. Attending the Building Strong Naturalist Communities conference, Winter Count, and Rivercane Rendezvous has strengthened her commitment to sharing sustainable ways of life and the power of community.

Bethel Council

Kevin Pennell

Director

Kevin came to the MPSS as a student and discovered a family and a community that honors Mother Earth, all her inhabitants, and the ancestors that preceded us. As a guest instructor, Kevin offers the Ancestral Healing series beginning with Becoming a Hollow Bone. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Spurgeon College and is an Usui and Karuna Reiki Master, Certified Hypnotherapist, Ancestral Healing Practitioner, and Psychic Empath. Kevin is the author of "Two Feathers: Spiritual Seed Planter" a biography about the life and spirit of Ken Two Feathers. As a healing facilitator, Kevin devotes his life to being a "Hollow Bone," a tool for Creator and the Universe to bring about compassionate healing and teachings honoring our ancestors. He is available for private therapeutic sessions, readings, past life regression therapy, gatherings, and lectures. Kevin and his life partner Vickie Cummings operate Spirit Wings at 14 Maine Street in Bethel, Maine. Visit them on the web at SpiritWingsBethel.com or call 207-824-2204