Ruthanne Buck attended her first four Family Nature Summits with her sisters and parents in the late 80’s and early 90’s. In 2022, she was lucky enough to provide her son, Joseph, the world-changing experience of attending a Family Nature Summit. Ruthanne leads a mission driven strategic consulting firm that works with organizations and companies that are striving to make equitable and positive change for a better world. During her career, she served in the Obama administration, worked with the American Federation of Teachers and has led major field and political operations on behalf of progressive issues, agencies and candidates, with a particular focus on education.

Ruthanne is passionate about the rights of all humans to live free, safe and proud. She was raised in Alexandria, Louisiana; educated at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts; and lives in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Geri returned to FNS in 2014 after a 10-year hiatus. She has been involved in FNS management since 2017, first in programming, then moving up to the Board of Directors. Starting in 2018, Geri served as President for two years, before taking over the Treasurer role for two years. Since 2022, she has continued to maintain the FNS accounting and aids the Director of Operations in Event Planning. Geri is a firm believer in volunteering her time and talents. Prior to FNS, she served as HOA president, restructuring the Bylaws to ensure financial solvency for the future. Serving as her children’s elementary school foundation treasurer, she helped raise funds for a sports track and musical instruments. Geri also spent two years as PTA president for her children’s middle school, which was named the number one PTA in the state of Georgia under her tenure.

Geri spent her career in various forms of melding management and budget, including roles as a  Project Coordinator for Satellite Systems at Lockheed-Martin Space Systems, Marketing Analyst for Industrial Products at Mayfield Consulting, and Pupil Personnel Officer – Cobb County School System. Now retired, Geri splits her time between FNS, travel, and working as a background actor in many of the films and TV shows produced in the Atlanta area.

Leigh Ann attended her first Summit at nine years old.  Twenty Summits later she is very proud to be a member of the board and a long time teen leader within the organization.  Growing up in Summits gave her not only lifelong friendships and memories, but also the drive to care for the environment and all its flora and fauna.  Leigh Ann has lived in and around Chicago all her life and works in real estate with her husband Jake.  She has also been in hospitality for over twenty years, all while turning her passion for gardening and native plants into a small business. She was a long-time volunteer at a local wildlife shelter as an animal keeper and educational ambassador to the public and loves traveling, especially learning about different cultures and eating as much as she can along the way. Reveling in all that nature and the outdoors have to offer is her favorite hobby, mostly in the form of hiking, kayaking, and taking way too many pictures.  

Alan has been attending summits since before he was a teenager, and credits his lifelong love of the outdoors to the fun and educational experiences he had at the Summits. Alan works in marketing for Meta Platforms, and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, daughter, and son. Before joining Meta Platforms, Alan worked as a senior executive at a startup he helped build called Guidebook Inc., which provides technology to event organizers. He has also worked as a newspaper reporter for the LA Times Corp., and a press officer for the University of Rochester.

Rachel Davis is a lifelong Appalachian and dedicated naturalist with a passion for wildlife, observation, and fostering appreciation for nature. Influenced early by her father, she developed deep knowledge of animal tracking, native plants, and Appalachian folklore. Her diverse educational background includes arts, marketing, business, and community development.

Professionally, Rachel is a small business owner, event planner, and nature tour guide with New River ATV. She has also played a central role in the New River Birding & Nature Festival as Marketing Director, co-host, and local guide since 2007. In 2008, she helped establish the New River Birding & Nature Center, where she leads outdoor education programs and supports bird research through its IBP MAPS station.

Jim Davis is the Senior Manager of Sales Enablement at isolved, a leading HR Tech firm. With over a decade of B2B sales experience and multiple President’s Club awards, Jim now focuses on training and empowering their national field sales team. Outside of work, Jim’s creativity shines through his graphic design projects and his collection of nine murals painted for local schools. An avid sports fan and beach enthusiast, Jim enjoys spending time with his family—his wife Emily and their children, Poppy and Louie.

Jane Buck Fillette is a STEM teacher and outdoor educator based in Alexandria, LA. Before becoming a teacher, Jane worked in diverse fields including ecological research, non-profit volunteer coordination, and community organizing. Her passion for nature was sparked during her childhood experiences attending Family Nature Summits. She and her family are active participants in FNS and are deeply invested in the organization’s mission. Jane also served as an educator for the Junior Naturalists program at the most recent Black Hills Summit. Outside of teaching, Jane enjoys gardening, birding, cooking, and spending quality time with her husband Bryan and their two children, Claire and Simon.

Ralph began his career working in a few different fruit and vegetable stores in New York in the 70s, and eventually opened up his own store. After a few years, he began trucking produce from the market to different grocery stores on Long Island and made that into a lucrative business. One of the owners of the market hired him and he worked at the market for 28 years as a dock foreman and eventually an operations manager. After retiring in 2008, he went back to his start and drove trucks for the movie industry in NYC. He took his family to their first Summit in the late 80s and loved everything about it, especially the ending slideshow that allowed him and his family to relive all of the fun they had and friends they had made. After a long hiatus, Ralph came back last year, this time with his grandchildren, and loved it all over again. His grandchildren are dying to return, and he’s happy to be a member of the board to help shape what’s to come.

Janine Gorrell is an educator and school leader who cares deeply about creating schools where children feel known, connected, curious, and excited to learn. Throughout her two decades in education, she has worked as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, early childhood director, principal, and division head. She currently serves as the Early Elementary Division Head at New City School in St. Louis, Missouri. She attended her first Summit in 2026 and can’t wait to bring her family back in 2027.

One of Janine’s greatest passions is finding ways to get children outside and making outdoor learning an intentional part of their everyday school experience. Janine sees access to nature as an important part of creating more equitable learning experiences for children. Not every child has the same opportunities to explore nature outside of school, and she believes schools have an important responsibility to make these experiences available to all children. At New City, Janine supervises the Outdoor Learning Committee and has helped lead the school’s vision for creating outdoor spaces that are extensions of the classroom. She believes that helping children develop a relationship with nature also helps them develop a deeper sense of responsibility for one another, their communities, and the world around them.

Kris Havens works with nonprofits, political and civic engagement organizations, and Fortune 500 companies to conduct research, analytics, and in-depth assessments to inform strategic initiatives including communications, branding, messaging, advertising, advocacy and digital engagement. Kris served for more than 15 years as a senior executive for national education organizations, most recently as the Chief Strategy Officer of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the Vice President of External Affairs for Educators for Excellence, and the Communications Director of the American Federation of Teachers. In each of these organizations, she redesigned communications, increased engagement, and improved brand awareness and reputation. She is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and lives in the foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains with her 6-year old son.

Chris Hoechstetter currently lives in Denver, CO. He is a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and has been attending Family Nature Summits since he was a child. In fact, he attended every summit from his first until his 25th, earning his robin’s egg blue scarf at age 26.

Chris is eager to join the summit board because this community has always been a monumental part of his life. Having grown up attending the summits, he looks forward to bringing his own children in the future. Chris cares deeply about the organization and wants to help ensure its continued success for generations to come.

Aiden Sabo has been a part of the Family Nature Summits program for 13 years. Having grown up with the program, nature has become a big part of Aiden’s life. He enjoys exploring the outdoors and learning about the natural world, always finding something new and interesting to discover. Through Family Nature Summits, Aiden has been able to build on his love of nature while continuing to learn, explore, and appreciate the world around him.