Back to Earth guide team hiking through forest

our team

You're only ever as good as your people

Meet the mentors, climbers, builders, farmers, jewelers, poets, singers, dancers, medics, leaders, teachers, healers, and ceremonialists who devote themselves to this work

Who We Are

Mentors who hold space for the real questions

Our guides are experienced wilderness educators, mentors, and passionate advocates for youth development. Each brings unique skills, perspectives, and a deep commitment to supporting young people on their journey of self-discovery.

We maintain a 6:1 participant-to-guide ratio to ensure personalized attention and meaningful relationships.

13

Guides on staff

6:1

Guide ratio

100%

Wilderness First Responders

Guides hiking with youth through wilderness

"Grown-ups worth asking the questions that really matter."

Leadership

The Founders & Leaders

The visionaries who built Back to Earth from a shared love of wild places into a transformative movement

Eli Marienthal
Co-Founder, Executive Director

Eli Marienthal

Eli is a lifelong learner and educator, Co-Director of Back to Earth and a founding faculty member of WILD. He is trained through The Tracking Project and is a NOLS alumnus and certified Wilderness First Responder.

"Everything else was to build the trust. So that they knew that they could ask me and get a real answer."

Read bio & learn more
Jesse Sachs
Co-Founder, Director of Operations

Jesse Sachs

Jesse has always found beauty and belonging in the mountains. He's been backpacking in the Sierras since infancy, trained with NOLS in high school, and has been at the helm of Back to Earth since 2014.

"We do so much to create the culture where you build the trust so that young people can see that there are grown-ups worth asking the questions that they really care about."

Read bio & learn more
Mark Sanchez
WILD Scholars Program Manager

Mark Sanchez

Mark is a Holistic Lifestyle Coach, event producer, multi-disciplinary artist/musician, backpacker, and dancer. He has been a holistic wellness coach for 18 years and started guiding with Back to Earth in 2023.

"Every kid deserves this opportunity, regardless of their background or circumstance."

Read bio & learn more
Our Guide Team

The Mentors in the Field

Click any guide to read their bio and learn more about their journey

What Sets Us Apart

What Makes Our Guides Special

Deeply Caring

Our guides genuinely care about each young person and create spaces of emotional safety and belonging.

Highly Skilled

All guides are Wilderness First Responders with extensive backcountry experience and technical expertise.

Culturally Responsive

We bring diverse backgrounds and perspectives, honoring each participant's unique identity and experience.

Earth-Connected

Our guides model deep connection to the natural world and inspire reverence for the living earth.

Training & Standards

Guide Training & Standards

We maintain the highest standards for guide training, safety, and ongoing professional development

Required Training

  • Wilderness First Responder (80-hour certification)
  • Leave No Trace principles and ethics
  • Youth development and adolescent psychology
  • Trauma-informed care practices
  • Council facilitation training
  • Risk management and emergency protocols
  • Cultural competency and inclusion training

Ongoing Development

  • Annual WFR recertification
  • Monthly guide team meetings
  • Seasonal training intensives
  • Peer mentorship and feedback
  • Continuing education in youth development
  • Debriefs and reflective practice
  • Community building and self-care
From Participants & Parents

What They Say About Our Guides

"The guides didn't just teach us skills — they held space for us to grow. I've never had adults believe in me like that before."

WILD Alum

Age 16

"What impressed me most was how the guides created an environment where my son felt safe enough to be vulnerable. That's rare and precious."

Parent of WILD Participant

Berkeley

"Our guide saw something in me that I couldn't see yet. He pushed me just enough to realize I was stronger than I thought."

WILD Scholar

Age 15

"Everything else was to build the trust. So that they knew that they could ask me and get a real answer. We do so much to create the culture where you build the trust so that young people can see that there are grown-ups worth asking the questions that they really care about."

— Eli, on what it means to be a guide

Our Lineage

Who Taught & Trained Us

Back to Earth didn't grow in isolation. We stand on the shoulders of extraordinary teachers, organizations, and traditions that shaped who we are and how we show up for young people.

Back to Earth founder Eli Marienthal was a competitive slam poet with Youth Speaks as a young man. Youth Speaks runs poetry and creative writing workshops around the Bay Area.

Eli credits his mentors at Youth Speaks and his experience on the YS national team with helping him find his voice and navigate adolescence. The art of speaking truth — of finding the words for what lives inside you — is woven into everything we do at Back to Earth.

"Finding your voice is finding yourself."

— Youth Speaks

Visit youthspeaks.org

The founders of Back to Earth owe particular gratitude to John Stokes of The Tracking Project. Eli Marienthal completed seven years of mentor training with John Stokes.

The core of that training was the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address — a beautiful piece of ritual technology for greeting and thanking the web of life. Some years ago, Haudenosaunee elders asked that the Thanksgiving Address be shared out to bring some peace to the world.

We carry the mandate to lift up the Thanksgiving Address. We teach it to all of our participants and encourage them to utilize it to activate their relationships with the natural world and to access their gratitude for the life on this planet.

"A beautiful piece of ritual technology for greeting and thanking the web of life."

— On the Thanksgiving Address

Visit thetrackingproject.org

The founders of Back to Earth were mentored by George Bertelstein, the spiritual leader of Medicine Path NAC in Berkeley, CA.

His instruction and support have been critical to the blossoming of WILD over the years — helping shape the ceremonial foundations and spiritual integrity of our programs.

Visit medicinepath.org

Back to Earth co-founders Jesse Sachs and Eli Marienthal have both completed training courses with NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School). NOLS is a leader in outdoor education internationally.

Jesse completed his first month-long NOLS course in high school. The confidence and experience he gained through that expedition allowed Jesse to take Eli backpacking when they were teenagers. Jesse also completed a semester-long course in backpacking, mountaineering and canoeing, as well as an outdoor educator course in mountaineering with NOLS when he was in college.

Back to Earth draws on the core wilderness competencies and risk-management philosophies of NOLS, and Back to Earth guides are certified as Wilderness First Responders through NOLS Wilderness Medicine.

Visit nols.edu

Jesse Sachs is a fully qualified, Level 6 Qigong teacher in the Ren Xue system — a comprehensive framework for life cultivation rooted in ancient Chinese wisdom.

The practices of Ren Xue — presence, inner stillness, and harmonious living — inform how Jesse shows up as a guide, mentor, and leader, and flow through the culture of Back to Earth programs.

Visit renxueinternational.org
Honoring This Land

Land Acknowledgements

We offer deep gratitude to the Indigenous peoples whose lands we live, work, and travel on. This acknowledgement is not a substitute for action — we pair our words with financial support and ongoing relationship.

The founders of Back to Earth grew up and now live, own property and work on unceded Ohlone territory in the ancestral lands of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan, now known as Oakland and Berkeley. We honor the ancestors who tended those lands and waters, and we support their descendants through paying Shuumi Land Tax.

We recognize that we have inadvertently benefitted from the genocide waged against the Ohlone people and the theft and continued occupation of this land.

We believe that philanthropic and other institutions, as stewards of wealth that has been accumulated through the extraction of Indigenous lands and the exploitation of communities of color, have a particular responsibility to contribute to the healing of the lands they occupy and to enter into a restorative relationship with their local Indigenous communities.

We pay the Shuumi land tax to support justice for indigenous people.

Pay Shuumi Land Tax

It is a blessing for us to be able to guide trips in Yosemite National Park. We acknowledge that Yosemite and all public lands in the Sierras are on unceded native land.

We name the legacy of genocide in the settling of California, and give gratitude to the ancestors of the Southern Sierra Miwuk people in particular as they tended much of what is now called Yosemite.

We support the Southern Sierra Miwuk with an annual donation to help with wildfire recovery and the struggle for federal recognition.

southernsierramiwuknation.org

Back to Earth has run programs in the ancestral lands of the Nisenan and Maidu people, what is now called Nevada City.

We have also had the good luck of knowing and working with Tsi'akim Maidu Chairman Don Ryberg at Pata Panaka, an ancient village site that is being re-awakened.

We are grateful to have a relationship with Don Ryberg and his family and community, and have had the privilege of introducing him to Back to Earth participants.

"We honor the ancestors who tended these lands and waters, and are grateful for opportunities to know, pray with, and support native life in California."

Back to Earth

Guide teaching in wilderness
Join Our Team

Become a Guide

Are you passionate about wilderness education and youth development? We're always looking for skilled, compassionate guides to join our team.

We seek guides who bring diverse perspectives, deep wilderness skills, and a genuine commitment to supporting young people. If you have experience in outdoor education, youth mentorship, or related fields, we'd love to hear from you.

Apply to Join Our Team