ThorpeWood Staff
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Sam grew up on the East Coast. He attended the University of Washington, School of Forest Resources, and earned a BS in Forest Management. He began raising his family in the Pacific Northwest where he lived for ten years before moving to Texas for 4 years. Sam arrived in Frederick County in 1994, and began his work as Executive Director of the organization best known as "ThorpeWood." He is passionate about ThorpeWood's mission to at-risk youth and believes that the customized programs we provide can change lives.
Earlier in his career, Sam worked for Union Carbide Corporation in Welding Products and Industrial Gas Marketing. He also worked as a political appointee in the Reagan-Bush administration, assigned to U.S. Department of State, Office of Protocol, and in Dallas, Texas as Director of International Affairs for the City of Dallas. Then as a career federal employee as Deputy General Manager of Blair House, the President's Guest House. Just prior to ThorpeWood, he went to The White House, as an Usher, managing the Food and Beverage Department of The Executive Residence. Together, Sam and his wife, Virginia, have 8 children and 8 grandchildren spread out from Rhode Island to Georgia to Colorado. They spend what little free time they have visiting their growing family or hosting them on Catoctin Mountain. Sam and Virginia enjoy annual family visits to the Adirondacks, the largest state park in the U.S. Both love water and gravitate to it whenever possible. Part of the reason is their passion (mostly Sam's) for kayaking (touring, not fast moving river kayaking). Sam also enjoys hiking, biking, reading, and cooking (bread making). |
Erin Ingham
Administrative Specialist
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Erin grew up in Northern Virginia as a city kid with her sights set on law school. After completing her undergraduate degree at St. John’s College in Annapolis, she began studying law at George Washington University. Erin finished the first year, but soon came to the difficult realization that a career as a lawyer was not what she wanted. She decided to move to Thurmont and happened to discover Thorpewood while looking for a place to live. Very excited about the work Thorpewood was doing with at-risk youth, Erin began assisting with some of the programs. When the opportunity came, she was thrilled to come on board full time as an Administrative Specialist.
In her spare time, Erin also enjoys teaching yoga in the Frederick area (www.yoga-edge.com). She is certified to teach Power Vinyasa and Hatha yoga by the Frog Lotus Yoga Studio in North Adams, MA, and is also registered with Yoga Alliance. Yoga is something that has brought a great deal of healing and strength to her life, so Erin is particularly glad to be able to share the practice of yoga with others. |
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Julie Parlaman
Events Coordinator
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Julie joined the staff of ThorpeWood in November of 2000. Prior to coming to ThorpeWood she worked for 17 years in D.C. for Youth For Understanding, a high school student exchange. During this time Julie had the opportunity to visit many countries and work with high school kids around the world. Although she enjoyed it very much, the work was far from home and family.
After a few job changes, moving closer and closer to home, Julie was thrilled with the opportunity to come to work at ThorpeWood.
Although Julie’s responsibilities have been varied over the past several years, she is now focusing entirely on event coordinating. ThorpeWood hosts a varity of events, including wedding ceremonies and receptions, business meetings, retreats, workshops, and community activities.
Together, Julie and her husband, Ed, have three daughters, Lindsay, Kelly and Hannah. Julie also enjoys horseback riding and other outdoor activities. She is also very busy keeping up with their daughter, Hannah, who is in high school. |
Bill Prudden
Program Director |
Bill Prudden comes to TW with a combination of classroom and field teaching experiences. He taught for three years at an alternative high school in Prince George's County, Maryland, working with many disadvantaged and special-needs students, and has spent the last three years writing and conducting environmental education field studies in national parks throughout the D.C. region.
Bill earned his B.A. in history from Mount Saint Mary's University and his M.S. in Curriculum & Instruction from Hood College. In addition to those formal learning experiences, he is a member of an informal graduate-level research team at Hood which studies the interaction of natural and anthropogenic disturbances with invasive species and herbivore pressure in local forests.
Bill's time at ThorpeWood is split between managing a native plant landscaping project and developing new curriculum for use with at-risk youth. He also sneaks out occasionally and goes for long walks on ThorpeWood's trails.
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Gail Webber
Program Specialist |
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Gail grew up tramping the woods of northwestern New Jersey, turning over rocks to look for "critters." In her undergraduate work at Iowa State University she majored in zoology and minored in psychology, education and botany. She later did graduate work in the education of special needs children at Trinity/Catholic and also received an MS from Hood in biomedical technology.
Gail taught secondary science at both the junior high and high school levels for 32 years, finishing with three years at an alternative school in Prince George's County. Summers off from school provided Gail the opportunity to work "short term" for NASA, NIH (Herpes research) and Beltsville Agriculture Research Station (Trichinella research). Gail has also worked as a veterinary assistant. In addition, she has taught adults in different capacities including science methods for Loyola's MEd program and PRAXIS biology preparation for teachers. Gail has written lesson modules for another environmental non-profit and helped prepare teachers to present them. She has also taught classes at Frederick Community College.
At ThorpeWood, Gail coordinates the Tale of Two Watersheds program, working with Hood College staff to help teachers teach students to collect authentic stream survey data from streams near their schools and then complete restoration projects. Student data, validated by Hood Environmental Studies staff, can then be used by MBSS as "red flag" data.
Gail also assists in developing new curriculum for use with at-risk youth and grant writing to help fund these programs.
In her spare time, Gail is a free-lance writer whose outside interests include voracious reading and all kinds of animals including her horses, cats and the family poultry flock - turkeys, guineas and chickens.
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