Facilitators

Evan Gardner, founder and core staff member of "Where Are Your Keys?"

Evan Gardner, the creator and a core staff member of WAYK, has been teaching languages and language revitalization to teachers and students using his “Where Are Your Keys?” fluency game since 1992. Evan has worked extensively in education from early childhood to university. He has worked for the Oregon School for the Deaf, Portland Public Schools, Salem Public Schools, International Red Cross Youth Quito Equador, Red Cross Youth Havana Cuba, and has taught English as a second language throughout Central and South America. He has been teaching Chinuk Wawa (Chinook Jargon) locally since 2002 including teacher development for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and Chinuk Nation. Evan holds a BA in Spanish from Southern Oregon University.

Willem is a core staff member of "Where Are Your Keys?"

Willem Larsen, core staff and partner in WAYK, has 15 years experience in community education, working for non-profit institutions (Oregon Zoo, OMSI), and as a co-founder (Cascadia Wild!, TrackersNW), focusing the past two years in the area of community language revitalization with Chinuk Wawa. Willem pioneers efforts using social media to teach language revitalization and distribute curriculum, via internet technologies such as Skype, twitter, streaming video, blogs, and podcasts.

Dustin Rivers is a language revitalization activist in his home community of the Squamish Nation.

Dustin Rivers is a language-instructor, cultural teacher, and trained “Where Are Your Keys?” facilitator. He has been working exclusively in his home community of the Squamish Nation as a grassroots coordinator of the Squamish language revitalization. He has been a community organizer for 4 years, worked in numerous non-profits within the arts sector, and been apart of cultural activities in his own community either through canoe families, tribal journeys, or Squamish Nation departments like Ayas Men Men or the Squamish Valley Education Department. He has been developing pilot-programs using the “Where Are Your Keys?” method with great success after being trained by Evan Gardner and Willem Larsen. Dustin brings on the ground experience is implementing successful approaches to language revitalization through community-based initiatives that focus on conversational aspects of the language mixing auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning styles.