Mike Escol - Field Instructor

Mike grew up camping, hiking and backpacking in the mid-atlantic region with his family and friends. As a child, he remembers sneaking through the undergrowth of the forest after dark with a fern crown, hiding and trying to blend in with the forest around him to surprise his friends.

He has spent most of his life in the Baltimore region where he calls home. He has been inspired in recent years by the knowledge that nature can be found anywhere. Mike's journey to a deeper connection with nature began in 2012 at the Spruce Knob Mountain Center, where he learned a few of the survival and awareness skills that we teach at Ancestral Knowledge. The experiences and inspiration gained from the people there stoked his curiosity and propelled his desire to learn more. He continued this journey by completing an intensive adult class at the Living Earth School in Charlottesville , VA in 2018.

He believes firmly in cultivating a relationship with the surrounding environment in which we live, and learning about the connections between various living beings and ourselves. By learning respect, gratitude, and consent with all living beings we can bring ourselves back to a reciprocal relationship with the Earth and each other.

Mike has a passion for wild edible plants, gardening, herbal medicine, nature-based navigation, carving, survival, cross country skiing, and fire making. He looks forward to providing opportunities to share his knowledge with people from all sorts of background in a variety of circumstances

Eden Cornelius - Lead Instructor

Growing up homeschooled, Eden first found the primitive skills community in upstate NY through enrollment in a program called Primitive Pursuits at age seven. From that time until her teen years, she participated in Ancestral Knowledges Homeschool program for many years and attended primitive skills gatherings. In her teens, her time was spent hiking, camping, backpacking, cross-country skiing, and filling her journal with detailed sketches and facts about the wildlife around her.

All of her free time was spent outdoors, building debris huts, making cordage, and adventuring in the forest. Schooled by her fiber artist and aspiring naturalist mother, her love of the natural world was fueled by a rich curriculum with a focus on hands-on learning and her intense interest in insects and plants.

Now, Eden is a multimedia artist and painter who continues to share and learn skills, with a particular passion for pottery, wet felting techniques, needle felting, and natural pigments. With a background in youth leadership, she enjoys working with groups and fostering a creative connection with the earth.

Bill Kaczor - Co-Founder/ CEO 2007-Present

Bill is the CEO and co-founder of Ancestral Knowledge. Bill has worked and studied intensively with the masters in the fields of; youth mentoring, naturalist studies, primitive technology and tracking. He has been teaching children and adults in these subjects since 1998 — Bill was a lead instructor at Children of the Earth Foundations- Coyote Tracks summer camps for 5 years, and two years as the assistant director. He has instructed students at the University of Maryland, Georgetown University, Rivercane & Falling Leaves Rendezvous, Mid-Atlantic Primitive Skills Gathering (MAPS Meet), Bill can often be found instructing at Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School teaching primitive traps, bow making, flint knapping, pottery and hide tanning. In 1999 after 11 years, Bill chose to leave his skateboard/snowboard business and dedicate his life to helping people connect with the Earth through ancient skills. Shortly afterwards, Bill designed and was granted an after school and summer program for the 21st Century Learning Community in Public School District 150 of Peoria, Illinois. This program was successful in that it led the children to a respect for nature, respect for themselves and others, self-discipline and adventure. Bill is a specialist in bow making, stone tool technologies, hide tanning, fire by friction and hunting and experienced in many more skills.

A letter from Tom Brown Jr