MEET OUR TEAM
Lee Alexander
Wildlife Guide
Lee Alexander is a retired UNH professor with a background in Forestry and Wildlife Ecology. “Beekeeper Lee” manages and mentors aspiring beekeepers at the Emery Farm honeybee apiary. He also enjoys spending time out-of-doors with others – both young and old – who want to learn about the “birds and bees, flowers and trees.”
Katie Blackden
Art
Katie Blackden is a local artist who enjoys working in a variety of mediums, including watercolor, gouache, acrylic, cyanography, photography, paper mache, calligraphy, needle, wet and dry felt work and quilting. She also plays the cello and loves to sing. She is the proud mom of a Little Otters graduate and has loved volunteering in the classroom over the years. Previously she has taught music, art, nature appreciation, handwriting and paper skills to children and adults in many settings all over the US.
KEARA WELCH
Educator
Keara has been working closely with children of all different ages since 2019. She loves seeing children grow and develop through learning. She believes that an effective learning environment must consist of lots of play, exploration, love, and of course fun. Making a positive impact in a child's life and their education is her number one priority, She just recently graduated from UNH with her masters in Elementary Education and completed her undergraduate degree in Human Development and Family Studies with concentration in child development. She has worked in the past as an infant/toddler teacher and completed two full year internships in kindergarten classrooms. While at UNH, she also worked at the Child Study and Development Center.
Besides working with children, Keara also works at Three Chimney’s Inn as a server and bartender. In her free time, you can find her at the beach with a good book or at the gym. She also spends much of her time with her senior cat named Cedric, who
she adopted two years ago. He turned 14 this year. She is so excited to start this next chapter in her life and is looking forward to meeting everyone.
JANINE BIBEAU
Owner
Educator
Janine adores watching children learn and knows first hand that creating a loving, safe, mutually respectful, and nurturing learning environment has a huge impact on a child’s ability to make important social, emotional, and academic connections. She is passionate about sharing the wonders of nature with children and watching them explore and create relationships with both their peers and the natural world around them. She finds importance in allowing children to make mistakes, explore, and also guide them in order to help develop critical thinking skills. She loves so many aspects of teaching. Although, if she had to pick one, she would say teaching children to read is her favorite.
Janine graduated from UNH with a masters in Elementary Education. She has taught both kindergarten and first grade for 15 years in New Hampshire. She spent much of her career teaching in the Portsmouth schools. She was a reading and mathematics consultant for McGraw Hill where she traveled New England supporting educators with their teaching. She is a certified yoga teacher and has provided yoga enrichment to children in the school setting for 9 years. She also runs a yoga and nature camp in the summer and teaches both adult and children's yoga classes.
Little Otters has been a long time dream, which was birthed out of the pandemic. During that time, being with her family and in nature became even more important. She wanted her daughter to learn and play with her peers without having to be inside for most of her day. Little Otters has allowed Janine to teach the core subjects, but also weave in her love for plants, animals, and all things nature. The schedule at Little Otters was chosen purposely to allow families more time with their children while still preparing them academically and socially.
Janine lives on a tiny farm with her husband, daughter, and their two cats, three goats, and chickens.