2012 FIELD INSTITUTE INSTRUCTORS

ZCFI courses are taught by quality instructors who are experts in their chosen fields.

Sandy Bell
Sandy Bell is a resident of Springdale, Utah where she works as a freelance graphic designer. Among her clients are national museums and several national parks. She recently completed the design of ZNHA's "Water, Rock, & Time," learning more about geology along the way. She has been sketching and keeping journals through all of her world travels and finds much inspiration in the wilds of the west.

Dr. Allen Brown
After receiving his graduate degrees at the University of California Berkeley, Dr. Allen Brown served as a biologist and Dean of Natural Sciences at Fullerton College for more than 35 years. During this time, he led tours of the southwest and Baja California for over 30 years. Allen now lives in Rockville, Utah with his wife, Anne.

Anne Weiler Brown
Anne Weiler Brown has an AFA from Sullins College, and did MFA studies at Brown University. She recently moved to Rockville, Utah from an established art career in Laguna Beach, California. A longtime exhibitor in the Sawdust Art Festival there, she also participates in juried art shows throughout the United States. Her work is represented in private and corporate collections throughout this country. Anne works on canvas in mixed media with predominately water based media and also creates work in Adobe Photoshop.

Mark Colberg
Mark Colberg is an assistant professor of geology at Southern Utah University. He received his Ph.D. in 2001 from the University of Georgia. He is a metamorphic geologist with research interests in the northern Snake Range in Nevada and Beaver Dam Mountains of southern Utah.

Dr. Ben Everitt
Ben Everitt has a bachelor's degree in geology from Princeton and a doctorate in geography from Johns Hopkins. With his wife, Cindi, and his son, David, Ben moved to Salt Lake City in 1977 to work for the Utah State Geological Survey in its newly developed earthquake hazards program. After 25 years as a geologist for the State Division of Water Resources, he retired in 2004, and lives in Ivins, Utah.

Walt Fertig
Walt Fertig has a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Wyoming. Walt has extensive experience as a working field botanist. He has worked for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U. S. Geologic Survey, and the National Park Service among others. His field studies have occurred through much of the Rocky Mountain West and southern Utah area. He is also an accomplished botanical illustrator, having had his illustrations published in three books and 25 government technical publications. His plant knowledge is encyclopedic, and his enthusiasm for all things flora is boundless.

Sarah Horton
Sarah Horton is the Zion National Park Archaeologist. Ms. Horton received a B.A. from Appalachian State University in North Carolina and M.A. from Northern Arizona University. She has worked with the National Park Service since 2000. Prior to that date she worked as a private archaeological consultant throughout the Southwest since 1987. Ms. Horton has inventoried more than 35,000 acres in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, and recorded over 1500 archaeological sites.

Dr. Ken Kingsley
Dr. Ken Kingsley has worked for over 35 years as a consulting ecologist, conducting plant and animal surveys in the Southwestern U.S. He has been a volunteer naturalist for several national parks and Arizona state parks, and lives in Zion National Park with his wife, Amy Gaiennie, a seasonal interpretive ranger. He earned his Ph.D. in Entomology at the University of Arizona, his Master of Science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with a thesis on the mammals of the Grapevine Mountains in Death Valley National Park, and his Bachelor’s degree at Prescott College.

Rebecca Lieberg
Rebecca Lieberg began work with Zion National Park in 2005, and is now the lead Biological Science Technician for revegetation, where she runs the Native Plant Nursery, organizes volunteer groups, assists the exotic plant team, and trail and fire restoration efforts, and generally tries to get dirty on a daily basis. She is also a member of Zion's Search and Rescue team, which allows her to play with ropes and climb around a lot on slickrock. Becca loves all things desert as well as cooking, reading, and yoga.

Steve McKee
Steve McKee is a botanist from Ohio who has adopted Zion National Park for part of each year. In Ohio he directs the Richland County Park District, where he has been an interpretive naturalist since 1978. He also teaches field botany and ornithology at Otterbein University and has directed an environmental education program in the Appalachian Mountains. He received his M.S. in botany from Miami University in Ohio. He is passionate about native plants, especially ferns.

Michael Plyler
Photographer Michael Plyler is a long-time resident of Utah and runs his own studio, Michael Plyler Photography, in Springdale. In 1993 he won a Visual Artists’s Fellowship from the Utah Arts Council. Originally trained as a field archaeologist, his background in this ensures that participants will learn about natural and cultural history as well as photography. Michael’s photography has been widely exhibited and published both in this country and abroad. He has led photo workshops from Central America to Spain. As a resident of Zion Canyon, his intimate knowledge of the park and its surrounds ensures exciting workshops. Michael is also the Field Institute's Director as of July, 2005.

Lisa White
Lisa White works as a landscape architect for Zion National Park. She graduated from Utah State University with a degree in Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning in 2002, and has worked for the Park Service ever since.
Lisa has worked on various projects involving sustainable, historical, and recreational landscapes.