Our Team
With more than 25 years of nonprofit environmental education experience, we are dedicated to helping others understand, appreciate, and care for the natural world.
Catherine Alexander
Catherine’s childhood in Western Oregon was spent exploring the forests surrounding her family’s farmstead. After studying fine art at the University of Oregon and Portland State University, she worked in the New York art world for a decade before relocating to Sarasota, Florida, where she taught art and ecology programs and studied and illustrated subtropical orchids at the Marie Selby Botanical Garden.
After returning to Oregon she co-founded Red Alder Group, a collaborative dedicated to promoting science literacy and ecological awareness. Catherine oversees Red Alder programs, including curriculum development, instruction, communications, and community partnerships.
In addition to her professional roles, Catherine is a natural science illustrator and is the parent of Drew, a web developer with the soul of a Zen Master. She loves hiking in the Cascade foothills.
John Savage
John graduated from Oregon State University in 1979 with a master’s degree in Natural Resource Economics. He served as the Director of Oregon’s Department of Energy and was later appointed as an Oregon Public Utility Commissioner before retiring in 2017.
In addition to his role as a naturalist-advisor and nonprofit consultant with Red Alder Group, John is the President of the Willamette Valley Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Oregon, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute of Applied Ecology and the Thompson-Patch Scholarship Fund. In his free time, he leads native wildflower hikes and is a volunteer English-language tutor for several Ukrainian families who have resettled in the Salem area. He is also compiling a guide to the native plants of Bush’s Pasture Park in Salem, Oregon.
Our Educators
Each spring, we recruit, hire, and train a team of seven talented young professionals who provide direct instruction for our outdoor school and summer camp programs. Each educator has a teaching or science degree and several also have teaching licensure and/or Spanish fluency. Their enthusiasm for natural science, cultural studies, and outdoor recreation informs their work and supports them in building positive relationships with the students in our programs.
Red Alder Group is committed to continuing the legacy of Straub Outdoors, a nonprofit that provided nature-based programs for elementary and middle school youth, as well as professional development opportunities for young adults, for more than 20 years. Many of the educators in our programs go on to teach in classrooms of their own or launch careers in science and natural resource management.