Sacramento Splash is blessed with an enthusiastic and creative
team of educators. Some are professional scientists, while others
are former classroom teachers, but they are all united by a
passion for sharing the wonders of nature with children and their
families.
Mackenzie has a passionate vision and a personal mission to
protect the environment through everyday activism and strategic
leadership. She comes to Splash after serving as a Governor Brown
appointee focused on climate policy and spent the past few years
overhauling California’s procurement process to be more
environmentally sustainable. In addition, Mackenzie is appointed
to the Mayor’s Commission on Climate Change to further discuss
policy and systemic impacts on the environment.
Born and raised in Rancho Cordova, Katie Hartle attended one of
Splash’s field trips when she was in fifth grade with her mother
as a chaperone. She was very impressed with what she experienced.
Not long after that, her mother, Lu-Anne, started working at the
Splash Center. Katie has been around ever since.
Lu-Anne has always been fascinated with water and the critters
that live in it. She became especially fond of salamanders when
she was 6 years old and her parents brought home an Eastern Newt
to help her recover from having her tonsils removed.
Meghan discovered Splash by chance while looking for a
nature-based storytime for her then 18-month-old son. The moment
she walked through the doors, she knew Splash was different and
something she wanted to be part of. Within a few months,
she was a volunteer, helping Lu-Anne
Spencer-Hartle with the care and feeding of the rescue
animals in Critterville. She has been at
Splash ever since.
David has worked as an environmental educator, teacher, park
ranger, and naturalist for 40 years. His degree in Biology from
the University of Michigan and extensive field experience have
given David an intimate understanding of, and a deep love for,
nature and wildlife.
Bethany developed empathy for the natural world and desired to
connect with it at a young age. She grew up catching insects with
nets and examining them in her grandparents’ backyard, traveling
with her family on camping trips all over the western U.S. and
spending hours in her backyard dreaming in nature.
Nancy joined Splash in 2004, after retiring from teaching
elementary school science for 17 years. One of her favorite
Splash jobs is to go out very early in the morning to the vernal
pools to scoop up the critters that students view through
microscopes in the Splash Education
Center. Sometimes she even sees a coyote trotting home after its pre-dawn hunt.
Melanie has always had a love for the outdoors and especially
animals. This love all began with annual family camping trips and
when the time came to decide what to study in college, Biology
was a natural choice.
“If you will stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable.” - Rainer Maria Rilka
Sir Hiss-a-Lot was hatched sometime around 1993. When Sir Hiss
was a baby snake, he was captured by a boy who didn’t know that
you should never keep a wild animal as a pet. Nonetheless, the
boy took excellent care of him for about 10 years…
