Mountain SOL Instructors – Cheat Mountain Campus
Ivan Stiefel and Maureen Farrell are our outdoor education instructors at the Cheat Mountain campus in Randolph County. They live on Cheat Mountain outside of Beverly, WV, in a yurt with their three dogs. They specialize in wild and cultivated mushrooms and herbs. They sell gourmet and medicinal mushrooms at their farmers market and at a few local shops. Ivan is a 2008 Brower Youth Award recipient and former literature teacher at World Class Kayak Academy. Ivan likes to take long walks in the woods, remember how to be a human and not a machine, drink yerba mate and kayak. He received a B.A. in English and Philosophy with honors from West Virginia University.
Maureen is president of the Elkins farmers market association and sells gourmet and medicinal mushrooms at their farmers market and at a few local shops. She also makes herbal salves and extracts from local herbs. Maureen loves to share her knowledge of the natural world and engage others in a healthy relationship with their ecosystem.