About the Directors

Beth and Paul BockovenBeth and I would like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves to all of you! We are thrilled to be able to put our knowledge, skills, and experience into the Green River Preserve. Our family has been warmly welcomed and our daughters Cecilia (age 6), and Carson (age 8) can’t wait for this summer and the chance to meet more of the community. In many ways coming to GRP is like coming home for me! I first got into environmental education working with the National Wildlife Federation’s Wildlife Camps. What attracted me then and now is a deep belief in the importance in giving children first-hand experience with all the beauty, and joy in the natural world and the power of summer camp for gaining confidence, learning new skills, and making friends.

At Wildlife Camp I had the opportunity to teach environmental classes here in North Carolina and in Colorado, I lead Leadership Training Programs, extended backpacking trips, teacher’s workshops, and directed seasonal programs and staff. In between summers I also managed to graduate from Macalester College, in St. Paul Minnesota, with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology, work as an Instructor at the Keystone Science School in Colorado, bicycle from the Twin Cities to North Carolina, and work as an instructor in a pilot outdoor school program at Kanuga Conferences. I stayed at Kanuga and became the first full-time director of the program, a residential environmental education program, the Mountain Trail Outdoor School. I served as the director of the MTOS from 1992-2005. During that time, I also directed other outdoor education and camping programs at Kanuga including: the Trailblazer Adventure, an expeditionary backpacking program for 15 and 16 year old campers; Camp Bob Summer, a traditional summer camp for at-risk and disadvantaged children; and Camp Kanuga, Kanuga’s traditional summer camp program. In 2005, I became the Director of Camping and Outdoor Education and in 2006 was promoted to Vice-President of Camping and Outdoor Education.

My wife, Beth, and I met in 1993, right after she graduated from Davidson College. She worked as an environmental educator for the Mountain Trail Outdoor School. She then went to the Carolina Raptor Center in Charlotte, NC where she was the Wild Wings Instructor, which involved traveling all over NC and SC with a van full of permanently disabled birds of prey and giving educational programs to schools K-12. Her summer camp experience includes working at Camp Ton-A-Wondah and while at the Raptor Center she developed a raptor program specifically for summer camps and traveled extensively to camps in western North Carolina. She followed this experience with a Master’s program in Biology where she conducted research on peregrine falcon restoration in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and studied extensively the plants and natural communities of the Southern Appalachians. After graduate school, she worked for the North Carolina Chapter of The Nature Conservancy from 1999-2007. For TNC, she supervised the ecological management of projects and preserves totaling over 17, 000 acres. She loves to tromp around in the woods and look for plants!

We are both so happy to be at GRP, and are excited that Missy and Sandy have given us this opportunity and entrusted us with "their baby", to which they have devoted so much time, energy and love! We also understand how serious our obligation is to the parents and campers of the Green River Preserve and we look forward to continuing the high quality traditions of GRP!

Missy and Sandy, Executive Directors