Chris Pennington

Chris Pennington is a new member of the Bear Valley Education Trust. Chris is a native Californian who has divided her time between the ocean and mountains, with some time spent living in Europe as well. Chris has a degree in studio arts, one in Environmental Community Planning, and a teaching credential. Chris and her husband have lived in Big Bear since the early 80’s and raised their children here. After working in environmental planning she decided to try teaching and began in Lucerne Valley- where she continued for 31 years until retiring 2 years ago. She has taught everything from Kindergarten to Eighth grade. She has always been interested in technology and the sciences and used those interests to help her students learn. She was active in helping her district create, design, and open a state of the art STEM lab for her elementary school. Chris is proud that her classroom has always focused on creating lifelong learners who were open to new ways of doing things. Chris has always felt called to help those who most need it. Combining this with her love of animals she founded a nationwide Morgan horse rescue 20+ years ago and has remained an active board member. Wanting to give back to her community Chris joined the Bear Valley Sheriff’s Posse doing mounted search and rescue. She has been a member of this team for 26+ years including holding board positions for many of those years. This has allowed Chris the opportunity to explore the local forest around the valley and use her various skills in helping others. Having always been interested in the environment and how we as human beings can use science and technology to best take care of it Chris and her husband put their beliefs into practice and built an environmentally friendly strawbale house, the first, and maybe only, of its kind in the valley. Chris lives by the motto that if something needs to be done don’t wait for others to do it, get involved yourself. A chance meeting at a community gathering, a discussion about the necessity of STEM learning, and Chris was soon happily involved in the Bear Valley Education Trust. She looks forward to helping continue the good work the Trust has already been doing!