Our Team
Our Champions, Collaborators and Cheerleaders:
Sian Crowley
Founder & Programmes Manager
Fueled by her childhood memories of nature connection, curiosity and experience, and opportunities she received as a student, Sian has founded and established multiple new programmes engaging tamariki/children, and rangatahi/youth in nature connection, conservation and restoration work. She takes pride in giving back to her community by creating and offering new opportunities, whilst inspiring and empowering rangatahi inside and outside of the classroom to become environmental leaders.
With over 10yrs experience in conservation, restoration, environmental education she has now worked with tens-of-thousands of students and community members across the country, from kindergarten right through to adults.
As a keen photographer and designer her passion projects have sprouted into a symbiotic hub of activity, enabling us to expand our reach, combining her skills, with those of collaborators to provide large-scale environmental education projects.
Maya Templer
Lead Illustrator
Maya Templer is currently studying a Bachelor’s Degree in Animation, Interactive Technology, Video Graphics and Special Effects at Griffith University in Brisbane.
Maya brings a wealth of experience working on educational content, particularly with a sustainability focus. She previously worked on the popular Aotearoa/New Zealand children’s television show, What Now, as a designer. She has won several awards for her comics over the last 3 years, including Best of Fest at Ōtautahi Zinefest. Her work has been featured in 5 different comic collections.
One of the biggest projects she has completed was a card game helping young people learn about the New Zealand 2023 General Election. The research for this project covered 45 different political figures and a total of 85 individually illustrated cards. Through this initiative, she learnt more about breaking down complex ideas through art. The game was featured by some of New Zealand’s largest media broadcasters - The Spin Off, Radio New Zealand, TVNZ2 and the Student Radio Network.
Ella Walmsley
Environmental Education Consultant & Cheerleader
Ella Walmsley is most comfortable in a forest or poking around rocks.
She brings experience in environmental education and outdoor instruction to The Seed Pod as a volunteer consultant/sounding board.
Ella has worked and volunteered in education spaces covering freshwater, marine, waste wise and restoration topics. These roles have filled her cup through working with enthusiastic environmental and outdoor individuals who inspire and support their peers. She takes pride in having developed fun learning resources to engage all ages of learners including schools and community groups.
In her own time Ella can often be found in a forest, mountain biking, poking around in a river or hiking up a mountain.
Angus Crowley
Data Scientist & Cheerleader
Angus Crowley is a talented data scientist who helps The Seed Pod out as a volunteer.
Angus loves statistics and numbers as much as he loves rockclimbing and gardening. He has always been fascinated with data and he enjoys finding hidden patterns and insights, as well as solving complex challenges. Having data helps us to understand our community better and therefore provide the best enviornmental education programmes we can with greater impact globally.
Outside of data, Angus enjoys bouldering, taking his dog for walks in the park, and getting into the garden; weeding and caring for his beautiful native seedlings and kai/food crops. He has lived in many places globally and has many incredible stories to tell; including camping in the desert in Egypt, finding yabbies in streams in Australia, climbing sea cliffs in Scotland, and touring around Aotearoa/New Zealand in a van.
Behind the scenes, Angus is our biggest cheerleader, supporting his wife (Sian) as a sounding board, editor, and encourager.
Our Cheer Squad
Our Wonderful Community!
Our guests and listeners over in The Seed Pod. (podcast) community are wonderful cheerleaders who have shared a space with us to nerd-out, share stories, and shout out The Seed Pod on their channels.
Our cheerleaders also include you! Thank you for being here as part of our community. We really appreciate you.
