By day, Aaron Williams is a construction project manager for Penn Services in St. Louis. By night, he is a community leader, serving on the boards of 4theVille, Northside Community Housing, Sumner High School, Urban Land Institute, and more. He is dedicated to cultivating a sense of pride and appreciation in neighborhoods through community development, cultural preservation, and design-based practices.

Brad Kovach is the founder of Terrain Magazine, an outdoor recreation and active living publication based in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a writer, editor, content director, and creative project manager with over 25 years of experience working across multiple media platforms. His primary focus is to create engaging and informative content that provides exceptional experiences for the target audience and drives actionable results. Brad's favorite outdoor activities include mountain biking, canoeing, hiking, trail running, and exploring the many remarkable natural spaces found in the Midwest.

Chamaya Steward-Moore is a Program Coordinator at Adam’s Park Boys and Girls Club. She graduated from Southeast Missouri State University, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Health Communication with a minor in Social Work. Chamaya has also been employed as a Youth Development Professional with the Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Missouri. Chamaya has a strong passion for helping and caring for others. In addition, she loves to learn new things and spend quality time with her family. 

Charles Bryson is currently the Policy Catalyst for Trailnet, the St. Louis regional nonprofit advocating for Safe Streets for All. His duties are to advocate with local and state elected and appointed officials and the general public on policies and practices that increase safety of walkers, cyclists, and vehicles on sidewalks and streets.

Charles has served in various aspects of human service; from a Case Worker and Case Manager at various programs for persons who were homeless in Baltimore, St. Louis, and Springfield Il., Director of the Urban League Head Start Program in Springfield Il and Executive Director of Harrison Youth Center in Peoria Il. 

Charles had a 25-year career in State and City governments, including Area Representative for Missouri Housing Development Commission, Neighborhood Development Executive, Senior Policy Advisor, Director of Department of Public Safety, and Director of the Civil Rights Enforcement Agency for the City of St. Louis.

Dennis is a recent retiree of the Missouri Department of Conservation, where he worked for 40 years. Dennis believes spending time outdoors is beneficial to one’s physical and mental well-being. As a Conservation Educator he especially enjoyed teaching children and adults skills to enhance their enjoyment of the fish, forest, and wildlife resources of Missouri. 

You'll often find Elizabeth engaging people in conversations about nature and culture in St. Louis on long walks, cookouts, and dance parties outside. She is the Community Program Manager at Great Rivers Greenway where she works to connect St. Louisans to our rivers, parks, and communities on greenways throughout the region.

Kentaro Kumanomido (he/him) was born and raised in St. Louis, MO, where he currently serves as the Lead Environmental Justice Community Organizer for United Congregations of Metro East (UCM), a faith-led organization focused on empowering individuals to expand the public sphere and shape the decisions that affect their lives.  At UCM, Kentaro's work is focused on centering equity within the spheres of energy transition, floodplain management, and transportation in Illinois. In addition to his work at UCM, Kentaro co-owns and runs Wildfruit Projects, a queer-feminist art gallery and garden located in Dutchtown, South St. Louis.

Leah Clyburn has been a long-standing community activist and organizer in the St. Louis Region for more than 10 years. Her love for Missouri is rooted in the longstanding relationships built throughout her childhood growing up as one of the few families of color in South County in the early 90’s to her diversified community in South City as a young adult. Leah also has a background in the healthcare system, which catapulted her into community organizing to challenge the unjust treatment for women of color and their families, children, immigrants and the poor. Her career in community organizing has included reproductive justice through a faith-based lens, School to prison, environmental justice & climate change movement, and statewide policy initiatives. She believes that when Black women prevail, we all prevail. Leah is currently working as a Senior Training Partner with a Conservation Organization, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Connecting Points Consulting, the Vice President of Progressive Workers Union, and Board Member of Rise and Thrive.

Lesli Moylan identifies as a mom, wife, friend, audiobook lover, hiker, biker, plant nerd, and lazy composter. Lesli is also the Executive Director of the Missouri Environmental Education Association, an organization dedicated to helping educators of all stripes (classroom, nonformal, peer-to-peer) inspire others to care, understand, and act for the environment.  Whether it's on her back stoop or deep in the forest, time in nature benefits her in so many ways, and she’s grateful to be in roles where she can help others find that same connection. 

M. G. Ouroboros is the Cites Program Coordinator at The Nature Conservancy in Missouri. She has deep roots in St. Louis City and continues to work in the neighborhoods she grew up in. She draws from her experiences working in non-profit food security, urban agriculture, and conservation organizations. She finds network building and engaging conversations most rewarding and it fuels the work she does. Gabe is glad to support the mission and work of River City Outdoors and looks forward to seeing how the human-nature relationship evolves in our region.

Born and raised in St. Louis, MO, Nick developed a passion for taking care of the planet, food justice, and working with youth. In 2014, he began a 3-year stint as an AmeriCorps VISTA and State member. He taught professional development skills and engaged over 200 high school and college students in service-learning projects, managed over 100 volunteers, led educational field trips for youth in the Ferguson-Florissant school district, facilitated workshops on organic farming principles, permaculture, and inclusive urban agriculture spaces.

From 2017-2020, Nick was a Youth Educator for Seed St. Louis (formerly Gateway Greening). He taught over 300 students in the St. Louis Public School District about science, nature, and urban agriculture. Currently he is working as the Founder of Ujima and George Washington Carver Farms. Nick is inspired daily by the greater St. Louis area, his family, close friends, and colleagues.

Rebecca Rodriguez-Anderson has had a passion for nature since she was a little girl,but took a little longer to realize that passion would be her career one day. Growing up in University City, Missouri, wildlife was not something easily seen or experienced. Throughout her childhood, she would take many fishing trips and outdoor adventures with her grandparents and mother. In high school, she participated in an ecological restoration project with Missouri Botanical Garden. Rebecca went on to attend University of Missouri- Columbia (Mizzou) where she majored in Animal Sciences with a minor in Captive Wild Animal Management. While attending Mizzou, she participated in undergraduate research, additional courses, and Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS) to give her a better understanding of the opportunities available. After graduating, she joined Missouri Department of Conservation in a term position for two year to gain additional experience in the field of interpretation and education at Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center in Kansas City, Missouri. In January 2014, Rebecca hard work paid off when she gained a permanent naturalist position with the Department at Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center. In 2016, she gained her MA in Education and Innovation for Global Sustainability from Webster University. In 2019, Rebecca had the privilege to move into a naturalist role based in Tower Grove Park to serve more of the St. Louis City and nearby areas. Now 11 years later with Conservation, Rebecca continues her passion of urban conservation education by inspiring others to seek appreciation and understanding for nature. The best parts of the job is that no two days are alike, there is always something to learn and others to help you connect to yourself and the world around you!

Theodore M. Smith (Theo) is the Outdoor Learning Spaces Coordinator for The Green Center. The Green Center is an arts and environmental education organization dedicated to helping people connect with the natural world through:Hands-on Experience, Restoring Native Habitats and Encouraging Artistic Expression Inspired by Nature. Theo has a lifelong love of trees, plants, rivers, and parks. As a lifelong St. Louisian it has been a pleasure in my personal and professional lives to work towards the improvement of St. Louis' public spaces through habitat restoration, park cleanups and water quality monitoring. 

Zasmine Johnson, a native of St. Louis, serves as Programs Manager at the Clark-Fox Family Foundation working with the Blueprint4 program. She also serves as a consultant with Gladiator Consulting where her focus is authentic community engagement and assisting local organizations in anti-racist and anti-biased programming, structures, and implementation. She serves on other boards and organizations and has a passion for the advancement and betterment of black children in St. Louis.