Sheri Amsel

Sheri Amsel’s interest in the outdoors began during her teenage years in Vermont. Trained and mentored by a wilderness guide and naturalist, Sheri began taking groups of kids to the Adirondacks and Green Mountains and then out west to the Rockies. Attending a small private school in Vermont, Sheri snowshoed to class, climbed peaks for PE, and learned the names of local birds, trees, and wildflowers.

Sheri went on to earn degrees in Botany and Zoology and a Master’s degree in Biomedical Illustration and Anatomy. After an internship with the scientific illustrators at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, Sheri spent several years teaching science at Plattsburgh State University while illustrating interpretive signage for nature centers. She has since published more 25 nonfiction children’s books and field guides and visited more than 500 schools with science and outdoor programming.

In 2005, Sheri released exploringnature.org—a life-science website with more than 5,000 pages of illustrated resources for use by schools worldwide. The site receives more than 15,000 page views a day and is used in 19 countries.

In 2009, Sheri was awarded the Elizabeth Abernathy Hull Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Environmental Education of Youths by the Garden Club of America.

Sheri lives with her husband and their dog in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York.