Mickey Abate joined Sonoma Ecology Center as an Environmental Educator in October, 2025.

Rooted in Sonoma Valley and shaped by a lifelong relationship with its ecology, Mickey Abate brings both local insight and reflective curiosity to her new role as Environmental Educator at Sonoma Ecology Center. After time spent traveling, studying, and teaching beyond the region, Mickey found her way back home through hands-on work at Sonoma Garden Park, where she served as a seasonal intern and deepened her connection to Sonoma Valley’s nature and community. Now stepping into her new role on Sonoma Ecology Center’s Education Team, Mickey is excited to help foster ecological awareness and stewardship, continuing a legacy that helped shape her own appreciation for the natural world.

I was born in this valley, and grew up walking, biking, and swimming here. Traveling across the U.S. in adulthood, it was difficult to shake the impression that my home made on my worldview, and after a few years away, I moved back, focusing on that question. Shortly after, I started working with students at a Mandarin Chinese immersion middle school in Oakland.

Following an academic path focused on the relation between theory, method, and practice, I began a master’s degree in Ecology, Spirituality and Religion in 2024, at the California Institute of Integral Studies. As part of my curriculum, I entered the Sonoma Ecology Center’s Seasonal Internship Program, and spent 100 hours over the course of four months in service at the Sonoma Garden Park. When it was over, I happily stayed on.

Being brought onto the SEC’s Education team has been a wonderful opportunity to continue a legacy that in part fostered my own appreciation of the world. I love that teaching ecological building blocks can create an awareness for the small and grand webs of life that spawn salmon, grow tomatoes, and decompose matter. My start on the team has been an in-depth engagement with the dynamics of teacher and student when working with nature, which itself continually teaches me.

My day to day might consist of going to one of our local grade schools to teach a relevant lesson on the ecology of Sonoma, taking a class outdoors for a field trip or gear maintenance to support our adventures with the land.

When I’m not at work, I can be found baking, shoveling compost at the Garden Park, or sketching. While studying and writing, a CD on repeat is The National’s album Boxer. Sometimes, I manage to sneak away to do a favorite activity, spending time a book.

If you see me around, please feel free to tell me your best joke!

I leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

“Have mountains, and waves, and skies, no significance but what we consciously give them, when we employ them as emblems of our thoughts? The world is emblematic. Parts of speech are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind. The laws of moral nature answer to those of matter as face to face in a glass. ‘The visible world and the relation of its parts, is the dial plate of the invisible.’ The axioms of physics translate the laws of ethics”

 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, 1836