About Our Founder

DAWN BELLO - FOUNDER & CEO

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Dawn founded the Outdoor Wilderness and Leadership School in 2010.  An avid outdoorswoman, wilderness first responder and survival skills instructor, Bello first developed outdoor skills training for adjudicated and at-risk youth, inner city children and women. Later, she developed programming for families through the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department - an effort that mushroomed into today's wildly popular Texas Outdoor Family program.  Bello also managed TPWD's Houston Urban Outdoor Program for which she created a wide variety of outdoor educational curricula.  Through many partnerships, HUOP reached tens of thousands of participants in the Houston area and across the state.  Bello has written outdoor and environmental curricula for several educational organizations, museums, nature centers, outdoor learning centers, state parks, schools and community organizations.  She played an instrumental role in university level programs, developing a STEMs camp for UT Brownsville and partnering on several efforts with Texas A&M. Dawn served on the launch team of the Houston Wilderness inter-agency collaboration and as one of TPWD's inaugural "Magnificent Seven" - the team which developed interpretive and educational master plans for recreational and cultural centers throughout the state of Texas.  Today, Bello serves as the President/CEO of OWLS and Dean of the School of Terrestrial Studies.  She also creates master plans for natural and cultural sites as well as training programs and curricula through her consulting agency, Beyond the Curve, LLC.

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SPEAKER:

NRPA and SEAFWA 2013 Annual Professional  Conference,

TRPS, NWTF, NWF, TFEA, DU,

UT, TAMU and Lone Star College, also

numerous community organizations 

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CERTIFICATIONS:

NOLS Wilderness First Responder

NASAR Air Scent Handler & Hug-A-Tree 

Instructor Trainer,:  Project Wild, Aquatic Wild, NASP, Angler Education, Hunter Education, Wilderness First Aid;

Instructor: ACA Kayak Touring & PLT 

NAI Master Planner, Guide, Trainer

UT Project Management

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See Dawn's complete Dossier here.

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