Team Member Group: Staff

Max was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida and spent his youth swimming in springs and enjoying the outdoors as a Boy Scout. After earning a BS in Biology from the University of Tampa, he began his career in natural resources management as an SCA NNIS intern at the Huron-Manistee National Forest in Michigan. This sent him down the path of a career in forestry and he field crew positions in Michigan and Illinois before finding EcoForesters and moving to Asheville in July of 2023. Max is a lover of nature, from wetlands to prairies to mountains, and enjoys hiking and exploring Western NC. Max is also a huge nerd! He spends his free time as a connoisseur of board games, a collector of Legos and comic books, and an avid Dungeon Master.  

Annabelle grew up in the heart of Charlotte, North Carolina, always playing in the dirt in her mom’s garden. She went to the University of North Carolina at Asheville and earned her B.S. in Environmental Science with a focus in ecology. During college, she fell in love with all things woody plant related. After graduating, Annabelle did a myriad of jobs, everything from managing a farm to building green spaces on top of roofs to working in a seed warehouse. These job experiences furthered her love of plants, especially native plants, and led her to find Ecoforesters! In her free time, you can find Annabelle exploring caves, finding new waterfalls, looking for flowers, or baking. 

I grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana until relocating to North Carolina at age 12. North Carolina’s diverse and beautiful landscapes captured my interest immediately upon arrival. I attended Western Carolina University where I earned my B.S. in Environmental Science. I have worked in many different conservation positions over the years and have enjoyed every bit of it. The field work I have done has been incredibly rewarding and I look forward to continuing the discipline. Outside of work you can find me hiking with my wife and dog or training martial arts with friends at the gym. 

Jordan grew up in eastern Pennsylvania where he watched the open space he spent most of his childhood in get swallowed up by housing developments and urban sprawl. This observation made an impact on him and sparked a desire to protect natural resources. He continued developing a love for the outdoors through activities such as hiking, gardening, fishing, and scouting. These interests led him to pursue an education in Natural Resource Management. After graduating from The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry he worked for multiple forestry and agricultural programs including The New York State Department of Conservation, The University of Idaho’s Inter- Mountain Forest Tree nutrition Co-op, and Washington State University Puyallup Research and Extension Center. His love for discovering how natural communities function, and the effects management can have on these communities, is continuously exercised here in the southern Appalachian forests.

Willow grew up in Berkeley, California, spending the majority of her childhood in redwood forests and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. After moving to North Carolina, her family took annual trips to the Asheville area, where she fell in love with the mountains of WNC. At the age of four, she declared she was going to be a biologist, and eighteen years later she graduated from the University of North Carolina Asheville with a bachelor’s degree in biology. She spent her undergraduate years working as a tutor for UNCA’s Writing Center and researching snakes in the Caribbean. After experiencing firsthand the amazing plant and animal diversity of the Appalachians, she knew it would be difficult to call anywhere else home. Her passions led her to EcoForesters, where she worked as our Social Media Coordinator before coming on full-time as our Development Associate. In her free time, you can find her out on the trails, at the gym, or curled up on the couch with her husband and two cats.

Mackenzie is a Minnesota native who spent her summers in the northern portion of the state ever since she was young and developed a deep passion for the outdoors and for teaching others about their surroundings. She followed this passion into her schooling at North Dakota State University and achieved her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Natural Resources Management focusing in Forestry and Extension. She grew up visiting Hendersonville to visit her grandparents and in 2021 she achieved the life long goal of moving to the Asheville area to be closer to her family and to start her own journey into the forests of Western North Carolina. In her spare time you can catch her working on a variety of hobbies varying from sewing or painting in her at-home art studio to white water rafting with her close friends and family.