Meet Our Camp Staff
Eagle’s Nest counselors are passionate about bringing joy to our campers and filling their summer with meaningful fun! Our counselors are creative, skilled, thoughtful and caring. They enjoy the outdoors and have a love for working with children and youth. Most importantly, they are attentive to the physical and emotional needs of children and to keeping them healthy and well.
Eagle’s Nest takes pride in the quality of our camp staff. Eagle’s Nest has one staff member to every four campers, and all staff members must be at least 18 years old and have a year of college or equivalent experience. We maintain a careful selection process to hiring highly skilled and educated counselors and teachers. We carefully choose counselors who are creative, mature, engaging and fun-loving.
Click on a staff member’s photo or name to learn more about each person.
Elizabeth Waite-Kucera (Noni) is the Executive Director of Eagle’s Nest Foundation and serves on The Outdoor Academy Advisory Board. She graduated from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., with a B.A. degree in anthropology. Previously, Noni was Camp Director at Eagle’s Nest Camp from 1993-2003 and Business Manager from 1989-1999 for Eagle’s Nest Foundation. She has also been the Swimming Director, and Paddling Director. Additionally, Noni developed Eagle’s Nest whitewater canoeing and Hante Bicycling programs.
Noni’s grandfather, Alex Waite, head of psychology at Rollins College, founded Eagle’s Nest Camp in 1945. Helen and Mo Waite, Noni’s parents, served as directors for the Eagle’s Nest Carolinas’ Camp for Diabetic Children. Her mother served as director of Eagle’s Nest Camp and executive director of Eagle’s Nest Foundation for many years. Noni spent her childhood years growing up at camp and is honored to carry on the mission of Eagle’s Nest as Executive Director of the foundation.
Paige graduated with a B.A. degree in English from Salem College in Winston-Salem. While studying education in college, she applied to work at Eagle’s Nest Camp because she loved her own camp experiences as a child and thought that working at a camp would give her invaluable teaching experience. Her first summer at camp, Paige helped direct the musical and taught soccer. Throughout college, she continued to spend her summers at Eagle’s Nest teaching everything from ceramics to swimming to Explorer’s Club and leading Hante Appalachian Trail treks and bike treks. After graduating, she started working full time with Eagle’s Nest and has now worked here for more than 15 years. During that time, she served as the Hante Director, Head Counselor, Junior Counselor Coordinator and Associate Director. Her husband, Andy, whom she met at Eagle’s Nest, is also an educator.
Cara, a North Carolina transplant from Ohio, now calls Brevard and the Blue Ridge Mountains “home.” After hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2014 she took the role of Paddling Director for ENC before moving to the development office full-time.
Not only is Cara a skilled paddling instructor, she’s a talented experiential educator and an avid outdoorswoman. She holds a BS in Recreation from Ohio University and has worked in the field of outdoor education since 2003 as a wilderness instructor, outdoor program manager, camp counselor and challenge course facilitator. Cara spends her free time paddling, climbing, and hiking, tending to her impressive garden, and adventuring with her family.
Molly Herrmann joined the Eagle’s Nest staff in May of 2014 as the Camp and Hante Registrar and Winston-Salem Office Manager. Previous to joining the Eagle’s Nest, Molly was a PhD candidate at the University of Buffalo in the History Department studying slavery in Charleston, SC. Molly brings to the Eagle’s Nest her passion for experiential education and a love of outdoor activities. In her spare time, Molly can be found hiking, camping, or playing with her two dogs
After being born and raised in the concrete flatlands of suburban Chicago, Ed was ready for some place different. It began with attending the University of the South, where he studied ecology and fell in love with camping and trail running amongst pristine old-growth deciduous forests. After graduating in 2016, he passed on that love of nature by teaching biology and environmental science at a boarding school in western Maryland. But as his summer trips to Bolivia, Patagonia, Tanzania, Japan, and Alaska compelled him to lead backpacking and canoeing trips at residential camps in Maine, he realized his passion for the outdoors came from experiencing it for oneself. Thus, he moved west to earn a Master degree in outdoor adventure and expedition leadership from Southern Oregon University, where he gained a foundational understanding of experiential education through research, planning, leading, and teaching in the field. In 2022, he found his way back to southern Appalachia, joining the Eagle’s Nest community as the Hante Adventures and Outdoor Program Manager. He is excited to facilitate new experiences for participants so that they can learn and grow from the challenges they encounter.