Educational consulting often involves strategy, reviews and paperwork. Unless you’re Kathryn Kurtz. In that case, it also includes chanterelles.
Kristin Edlund recalls the day Kathryn visited a property in Riverview School District to identify opportunities for outdoor learning. “She was crawling through brambles and finding chanterelle mushrooms and helping us envision what we could do with that property,” explains Edlund, Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning at RSD. “She could see what the property needed, but also what kids could do there. It’s rare to find someone who can work as effectively at the systems level as at the individual level.”
That combination of skills has been a hallmark of Kurtz’s decade as PEI’s executive director, an era coming to a close as she retires at the end of September. During her tenure, PEI weathered formidable challenges and saw unprecedented growth. As an outdoor education organization, PEI might have shrunk during COVID-19. Instead, under Kurtz’s leadership, PEI pivoted to a virtual learning model and eventually developed a hybrid system that empowered teachers hungry for alternatives to screen time to continue getting students outside. By 2025, PEI’s staff had grown to 18 people and seemed poised to expand further.
Sheila Wilson worked closely with Kurtz as the Program Supervisor who managed the implementation of Outdoor Learning Grants through the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). “Navigating the relationship with state, tribal, local, and federal entities is a challenge,” says Wilson. “It takes a specific skill set. Kathryn has a really clear vision about what our region needs to bring together education, sustainability and natural resource management. She’s always been fearless in talking to leaders and promoting the work of PEI, its partners and the schools, teachers and students they work with. It’s inspiring.”
“Kathryn had a unique ability to see the strengths in people and organizations and help them work together. She led with authenticity, curiosity, and respect, 0.leaving partners feeling heard, valued, and invested in a common purpose.”
— Manulife Forest Investments General Manager Robert Bass
Ellen Ebert served as Director of Secondary Education Content and Science in the Secondary Education and Pathway Preparation Division at OSPI and remembers when Kurtz first arrived at PEI. “She came with this powerful vision and it was evolving,” says Ebert. “As she developed her knowledge, her vision kept expanding.”
Collaboration and partnership also expanded as PEI grew under Kurtz. Robert Bass is the General Manager of Manulife Forest Management and a former PEI board member. “Kathryn had a unique ability to see the strengths in people and organizations and help them work together,” Bass maintains. “She led with authenticity, curiosity, and respect, leaving partners feeling heard, valued, and invested in a common purpose.”
Sometimes that meant working across the aisle on legislation to support outdoor learning. Within OSPI, Kurtz ventured outside of STEM to connect with English Language Arts (ELA) teachers, according to Ebert. “She even wrote a couple of equivalencies that were math and ELA-oriented, and no one has done that kind of work,” says Ebert. “She’s a great collaborator and is willing to push other people to work harder.”
That includes the PEI board, says current board president Leslie Druffel. “I’ve been the recipient of Kathryn’s support, encouragement, and kindness as well as having easy access to her knowledge, perspective, and enthusiasm for all things connected to PEI,” she explains. “Kathryn has high expectations for herself and for board leadership but has made it clear that working together will open opportunities for us to reach the highest of goals.”
In 2025, PEI faced another challenge: drastic cuts to the state budget that made it necessary to dramatically reduce the staff and enact a plan to keep PEI sustainable while identifying other funds. Kurtz handled the transition with transparency, respect and compassion, giving ample notice and support to everyone on her team, with board support. Contingency planning went into effect; PEI’s reserve funds, built up under Kurtz’s leadership, kept the team afloat and well positioned for the future.
“It was amazing to watch what she did,” says Edlund. “Even though the funding was lost and things had to scale back, PEI was already established as the partner in the sustainability education and career and community-connected outdoor learning spaces.”
Her impact will continue, not just on PEI but on education in Washington State. “A big part of her legacy is that she took the FieldSTEM model into the Career and Technical Education (CTE) world,” says Edlund. “She’s been able to show that FieldSTEM isn’t just about elementary students; it’s also how we prepare our students to go out into the world and make them employable as individuals who understand sustainability.”
Ebert ran into one of those students recently at the Chief Leschi School in Puyallup during an event for tribal youth to share their experiences of fisheries and natural resources. One student from Tulalip shared that he had gotten involved because of a high schooler who had attended PEI’s Environmental & Sustainability Literacy Summit the previous year.
The annual summit provided opportunities for students throughout the state to share climate science projects with agency leaders and to meet with their legislators. “This particular student had older classmates who had presented at that summit and told them they should get involved because ‘this is good work,’” says Ebert. “Kathryn worked passionately on that summit to bring us all together and plan that event. Here it is, years later, and a student who wasn’t even there was inspired. That’s quite a legacy.”
Both Ebert and Edlund doubt that Kurtz will remain retired for long. She has too much energy, too many ideas and too much to contribute, they note. But in the meantime, may she enjoy a well-deserved respite – one we suspect will include chanterelles.
