Richard Martin
Head of Centre
Richard has a degree from Liverpool University in Marine Biology and is a qualified Primary School Teacher. Richard has had a varied career and has worked as a biologist for various salmon, trout and oyster farms in Scotland, Norway and Pembrokeshire. The oil spill disaster in 1989 in Milford Haven steered him to work for Texaco Oil Refinery at the waste water treatment plant where he helped as part of a team reduce the amount of oil in the effluent by 75%. In recent years Richard has been working as a teacher in primary schools and also volunteers as a search and rescue coastguard. Richard is responsible for bookings, programs and school liaison.
Carol Hopkins
Head of House
Since joining the team Carol has led the expansion of the food service for Rippledown House, Pines Calyx and the tea rooms and has developed and modernised the accommodation at Rippledown house, to provide a vibrant and friendly atmosphere for visiting school groups. Carol has worked in the catering industry for many years, including fourteen years as the head chef of a large local, but internationally based company. Carol then went on to teach in local colleges after gaining a degree in International Culinary Arts and management and teaching qualifications, which came from a passion in passing on skills and teaching youngsters about the benefits of eating fresh food. Carol is responsible for bookings, programs and school liaison.
Dave Jones
Outdoor Animator
Dave has been working within the outdoors all of his life, developing in depth the knowledge and skills for practical sustainable living. Dave’s work at Rippledown is split between teaching children, adolesents and adults and designing spaces for optimum outdoor learning. Dave’s core training was through his 20 year tenure as a Royal Marine Commando – his deep level knowledge and understanding of the outdoors was fostered throughout this time through both the vast array of training programmes and missions he was involved with across many parts of the world. Dave has worked at Rippledown since 1993, mentoring many 1000’s of children and young adults in the process.
Lucy Smith
Centre Assistant
From a young age, Lucy has had an interest in wildlife leading on to a degree in Wildlife Conservation and an Internship with Kent Wildlife Trust. Lucy has worked and volunteered for a number of conservation organisations in the UK and overseas, ranging from zoo keeping, research in the Amazon and assisting on a golden eagle project in the Lake District.
David Ash
Centre Gardener
Dave Ash is the centre gardener at Rippledown. His love for the wild started many years ago when he worked on Fylingdales early warning radar station on the Yorkshire moors. Since then he has extended this interest by volunteering with the Florida State Parks Service for thee six month stints from 2005 to 2007. Here he worked in Lake Louisa and Wekiwa Springs State parks where he was lucky enough to work with Manatees and lots of the native wild life.
