Executive Board Members
President: The Honorable Jamey Hueston
Jamey is a sitting judge in Baltimore City. She is the founder and Judge-in-Charge of The Baltimore City Drug Treatment Court and Chair of the State Problem Solving Courts Committee which oversees all Problem Solving Courts in the state. She is also a Founding Member and is currently on the Executive Board of Directors of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. She is also the founder and Chair of the Baltimore City Teen Court and Chair of the State Teen Court Association. Jamey is deeply committed to protecting the environment and learning and teaching ancient and modern methods to foster human awareness of nature and to encourage mankind to walk more lightly on this earth.
Vice President: N. Roderick McCracken, Jr.
Rod has been a federal attorney since graduating law school seven years ago and he has served in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Germany, and Afghanistan. Rod has been fascinated by nature since an early age. He has studied at various outdoors schools, taken survival treks, and taught informally.
Secretary: Kimberly Katzenbarger
Kim currently serves as the Deputy General Counsel for the District of Columbia Department of the Environment. Kim is passionate about environmental conservation and the human imprint on the planet. Therefore, she strongly supports Ancestral Knowledge’s mission to teach ancient and modern technologies, activities, and philosophies that support a sustainable lifestyle.
Treasurer: Jonathan Murray
Jonathan is a Senior Design Engineer at Eaton Aerospace, where he is currently the lead design engineer on the Engine Bleed Air System (EBAS) for the new Rolls-Royce, Trent XWB engine (which will be utilized on the new Airbus A350 XWB), which promises to be 8% more fuel efficient than the current industry leader.
Outside of his career, Jonathan has always had a close connection with nature, which started with the daily explorations of the woods in his back yard as a child, and expanded after embarking upon a cross country road trip with his family to visit many of the national parks. During college, Jonathan was able to build upon this connection to nature by spending the majority of his weekends exploring the natural areas in the surrounding states by bike, canoe, or foot, and where he led trips for the outdoors club at University of Maryland which he helped to resurrect. He then went on to become a guide for the fledgling outdoors program as the first student employee, and during this time took classes on wilderness living with the Tracker School in NJ, and the Wilderness Awareness School, in WA. After getting married, he also founded and ran the Maryland Area Trackers Club (now defunct), and ran outdoor programs for a short time with his wife through the local recreation center to expose at-risk youth in the community to the outdoors.
Jonathan is also a co-founder of Ancestral Knowledge, and more recently, he has started a family of his own, with two young children and a third on the way.
Board Members
Amy Beam
Amy has been teaching preschool and school-aged children for more than thirty years. For more than to dozen years she has taught at the schools of Metro Montessori in Washington DC and Maryland. She is the owner of Camp Shady Grove and Kid’s Love Nature! summer camp programs and is the founder of the Beyond The Walls Nature Awareness Programs which teaches children, their parents, and teachers throughout the year. She regularly leads nature awareness workshops and retreats for staff development which award required continuing education credits. She is also on staff at Montgomery Montessori Institute and Metro Teacher Training Institute, The Art of Mentoring at the Vermont Wilderness School, and Coyote Mentoring at The Living Earth School. Amy has presented at the American Montessori Society’s International Conference and the Building Strong Naturalist Communities retreats. She has appeared in The Washington Post, Families Only Magazine, Montessori Life, and local Gazette newspapers. She is featured in the upcoming documentary Mother Nature’s Child and can be seen on YouTube in Mother Nature’s Child Trailer.
Amy’s service with Ancestral Knowledge will greatly expand the organization’s mission to the young community. She has also been invited to serve on Smithsonian Institute’s National Science Resource Center’s Advisory Board.
David & Karen Friedman
David earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 1981 and graduated Cum Laude. He then earned an MBA from the University of Baltimore in 1991. David has owned a business, Innovative Packaging, since 1995.
Karen earned a BA in Elementary Education from Towson University in 1987 and is now a first grade teacher at Edmonson Heights in Baltimore County.
David and Karen have 4 children ages 12-19, and they got involved in primitives skills 9 years ago for their 4 children. Primitive skills have helped their children academically, physically and kept their egos grounded. “It was one of the best decisions we made in the development of our kids.”
Evan H Bergwall, II
Evan is currently employed by the Federal Government. Evan started his career in Pensacola, FL were he was an active community leader. From the ages of 18 to 23 Evan worked as a business development officer at a bank as well as volunteered with Red Cross disaster relief, was elected Treasurer of the African American Heritage Society, and was asked to assist a task force to identify and locate economic and social disparities in Pensacola. From there, Evan moved his drive to Washington, DC where he soon found his way to the political stage running both Federal and State Campaigns before accepting a position with the Federal Government.
Outside his career in Washington, Evan has studied primitive and survival skills under many teachers and schools and has practiced on two continents. Now an active board member, Evan brings talents such as fundraising, program, and marketing development to Ancestral Knowledge. During his time with Ancestral Knowledge he has been a proven leader and looks forward in making Ancestral Knowledge grow and thrive.
Julie Ann Biedrzycki
Julie is from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and considers herself lucky to have been raised on and in the Chesapeake Bay. She studied Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Maryland and has been working in environmental education for 6 years. As a college student, Julie worked in afterschool programs in elementary schools where she was inspired to stay involved with youth and the community, and thus found a way to fit these goals in with her field of study by working in environmental education. She has taught ages 3-18 in varied programs from federally funded (Prince George’s County schools) to non-profits (Student Conservation Association), and is currently at Franklin Montessori, a private school in NW Washington DC, where she is sharing nature with preschoolers by taking them to Rock Creek Park and roaming the forest with them! Julie brings both experience and enthusiasm as a board member for Ancestral Knowledge.
Ximena Daza de Canelas
Ximena has a BS in Field Biology and a MA in Wildlife Management. She has several years of experience conducting ecology research, focusing in freshwater turtles.
Ximena is from Bolivia and had been working as an Environmental Consultant and Project Manager in different organizations. During her work experience Ximena developed and implemented campaigns for wildlife conservation and environmental policy issues. She supervised biodiversity conservation and management projects in Latin America and the Caribbean and published numerous educational materials and articles related to environmental and conservation problems in Bolivia and Latin America.
Ximena moved to the United States several years ago and she currently inters with NatureServe in Washington DC. She has also spent the last few years working with the “Beyond the Walls Program” at Jefferson Montessori School. Ximena loves to work with children and connect them to nature.
Dan DeVries
Dan works on protecting National Security Information and Information Systems for the Department of Defense. He is passionate about learning primitive skills and passing on the knowledge to all ages. He has been studying and practicing primitive skills for three years. Although more of a generalist he does specialize in survival skills.
Dan lives just outside Baltimore where he also keeps honey bees.
