Melissa Bates Wilder

Melissa B. Wilder (formerly Wilson) is an ecologist and educator with 23 years in the classroom. Currently, her research focuses on bold strategies to save half the Earth for other species and rewilding Homo sapiens.

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In 2019, she was awarded the “Dean’s Outstanding Thesis Prize” at Harvard University and graduated from their sustainability program with a Master of Liberal Arts. She also holds a master’s certificate in resource management, a master's of science in environmental education, and a bachelor's degree in outdoor education. She is a certified Mentor Teacher from Harvard's Graduate School of Education and a certified maker spaces leader from MIT. She has taught in both higher education and preK-12th grade private and public schools.  

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She became a school innovator, ​following two Category-5 Hurricanes in 2017. Hearing about the devastation, she moved to Virgin Islands National Park to help rebuild Gifft Hill School, a preschool-12th-grade school. There, I developed green infrastructure and created green STEM career pathways. In 2020,  she moved to Santa Barbara to become a STEM Faculty and later the Director of Academic Innovation at the Riviera Ridge School. My work focused on building STEM and Arts programming.

 

In 2020, her documentary "Stay Wild" was accepted into eight film festivals and won three environmental awards. In 2023, she was awarded the Santa Barbara Environmental Teacher of the Year. Beyond running the Little Blue Creche, she is the Wildlife Program Coordinator for Los Padres ForestWatch and a teaching assistant for Harvard University's online program. 

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Her favorite days are spent along the edge of the ocean, overlooking far vistas, hiking steep peaks, getting lost in the back woods, or paddling through a creek or mangrove. She happily live in the gateway to Channel Islands National Park and am excited to bring green education to Ventura!