Colleen McLean is originally from Durham, North Carolina. She attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.  While there she was able to advance her wilderness leadership skills as a trip leader at Seahawk Adventures as well as discover her love for teaching in the Watson School of Education. As part of her education program she completed teaching experiences in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and San Pedro, Belize. Both experiences involved working with middle grade students.

Colleen first heard about the FBRA for Girls from a family she took down the Nantahala River while working as a river guide. Although Colleen loves whitewater, her real passion for the outdoors started with hiking. In 2015, Colleen solo hiked a 500 mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail and recently summited Mount Kilimanjaro.

Colleen believes that learning is best observed by students working in groups to complete a common goal. Her lessons involve guided student exploration and she encourages students to use prior knowledge, life experiences, and their investigations of new material to solve problems. Colleen could not be more thrilled to explore, interact, and experience science with the rising 7th grade class.