Eliza Minnucci, formally a pre-K and K teacher for ten years, is currently a full-time mom and a part-time forest teacher in Vermont, USA. In 2013 she founded the Ottauquechee School Forest Kindergarten Program in which she took her public school students outside one day, every week, all year. People took notice (National Public Radio and The Atlantic Education Blog, among others) and now Eliza leads professional development workshops and courses supporting other teachers in taking their classrooms outside for frequent and consistent play and learning in nature. She also continues to teach kindergartners outside each week, when she isn't on maternity leave.

Eliza's work is informed by her time spent working in a public school Spanish classroom on the South Side of Chicago while getting her undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago '03, teaching preschool in Seattle, and then time spent living and teaching in an Athabascan village in Northern Alaska. She attended the Upper Valley Educators Institute '08 and New England College '09 in New Hampshire for her teaching certification and graduate degree, before teaching Kindergarten in Quechee, VT for six years. Eliza is currently working on a booklet providing the details of taking your public school class outside for a day each week; keep an eye on forestkinder.org for the announcement of it's publication. However, mostly these days she is outside with her infant and toddler boys in the woods where she makes her home off the grid in central Vermont.