About Ann

Ann Linnea, mentor and guide

Since the closure of PeerSpirit, Inc. in December 2022, Ann has enjoyed increasing local involvement in educational outdoor settings. She jointly teaches the “Holistic Farmer” curriculum that is part of the year long Organic Farm School program. She serves on the Whidbey Camano Land Trust educational committee and the South Whidbey Elementary Environmental Education initiative.

Continuing years of membership in the Wilderness Guides Council, she is an active member of its Elder’s Council. As a wilderness guide for over 50 years, she has maintained her Wilderness First Responder certification through the National Outdoor Leadership School.

Ann also manages the Brian Schimpf Memorial Scholarship which in its first ten years has paid out over $55,000 in scholarships to students entering the Denver Health Paramedic Program. And Ann has served as the chairman of the well committee for her local homeowner’s association since 2015. In this rural setting, such associations govern local water systems, roads within the neighborhood’s boundaries, and access to the beach: a rigorous practice in micro-democracy and cooperation.

Living with attention to the natural world, her passion for kayaking, hiking (most often with her corgi, Vivi), bicycling, swimming and gardening remain weekly delights.

She considers it an honor and a privilege to be the nature grandmother for her two LA grandchildren. She is in close touch and support with her beloved daughter, Sally, and her partner, Joe. She treasures being close to all three of her sisters and an active aunt in her large extended family. She and her partner Christina Baldwin are still in their vibrant golden years.

Ann Linnea, writer

Ann is a writer and author. Her writing embodies the stewardship of wild things which has characterized her life and work. She began her writing career in Utah, authoring hiking and skiing guides as a U.S. Forest Service naturalist in the 1970’s. In 1991, Ann co-authored the award-winning Teaching Kids to Love the Earth. In 1992, she became the first woman to circumnavigate Lake Superior by sea kayak (an 1,800-mile journey). Deep Water Passage, A Spiritual Journey at Mid-Life (1995, Pocketbook), describes her extraordinary physical courage and even more extraordinary spiritual trial and transformation. In 2002 she worked with a local environmental education organization to publish A Journey Through the Maxwelton Watershed.

Ann, 1992, taken on her kayaking trip around Lake Superior.

In 2010 she co-authored The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair (Berrett-Koehler) with Christina Baldwin as a legacy contribution to two decades of pioneering circle work. Through their company, PeerSpirit, Inc., Linnea and Baldwin traveled extensively across North America, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand to train practitioners and facilitators in the Circle Way. This work was given to a network of colleagues who have continued to expand their teaching and global outreach through www.thecircleway.net.

Also published in 2010, is her full color Keepers of the Trees—A Guide to Re-Greening North America (Skyhorse publishers), the result of decades of devotion to making natural history accessible through fascinating stories.

Ann is the author of the following books:

The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair, with Christina Baldwin (Berrett-Koehler, 2010)
Keepers of the Trees: A Guide to Re-Greening North America (Skyhorse Publishing, 2010)
A Journey through the Maxwelton Watershed, (Washington State, Water Quality Grant, 2002)
Deep Water Passage, A Spiritual Journey at Mid-Life (Little, Brown, 1995; Pocketbook, 1997)
Teaching Kids to Love the Earth with Marina Lachecki, Joe Passineau, and Paul Treuer (1991 Pfeifer-Hamilton/ University of Minnesota Press).

Anthologized essays include:

Arctic Refuge, A Circle of Testimony, compiled by Hank Lentfer and Carolyn Servid (Milkweed Editions, 2001) “Leaving a Legacy”

Soul of Creativity, Insights into the Creative Process, edited by Tona Pearce Myers (New World Library 1999) “Two Dragonflies and a Volcano”

Gifts of the Wild, A Woman’s Book of Adventure(Seal Press, 1998) “Superior Spirit”

Another Wilderness, New Outdoor Writing by Women, edited by Susan Fox Rogers (Seal Press, 1994) “Superior Spirit”

Memberships & Organizational Collaborations:

Photo of Ann doing a journal writing exercise in the desert with her grandson, Jaden, when she and Christina took him on a two-week rite of passage trip at age 10.