Rachael Pecore-Valdez (BS BioResource Research, MS Holistic Science), is trained as a marine and freshwater biologist, works as an educator, and draws nature comics for fun. She is the author of Story Tracks, a comic that follows the mostly true wildlife tracking adventures of Rattler Rae and her pup Osa. She is perhaps best known as the founder of the Wolf OR-7 Expedition, a documentary film about the people along Wolf OR-7's dispersal route, and as co-founder of a kid's nature magazine called EarthBound Journal. She teaches nature awareness and observation, wildlife tracking, tree care, marine and river biology, and basic outdoor survival skills. You can follow her creative work at readingnature.org.
She began teaching for Saturday Academy in 2017 and teaches Nature & Comics, Sea Creature Comics, and Reading Nature.
Rachael speaks conversational Spanish. Additional training includes trauma-informed care, neuroeducation coursework, JEDI training with the Center for Equity and Inclusion, Trauma & Tension Release Exercises (TRE), and a Comics Certificate from the Independent Publishing Resource Center.