Welcome Maritza La Mont to KBO!
Maritza was born in Medellin, Colombia, and was an infant when she and her family emigrated to South Florida, where she grew up. In her childhood, she enjoyed many subjects and activities in school like art, singing, playing simple instruments, writing, learning about world cultures, geography, animals, and biographies. She recalls simple pleasures of visiting with her neighborhood friends, playing on the street, or at the front or backyard of someone’s house, family outdoor picnics at the beach or “urban camping” at the Keys, or fishing at neighborhood canals with her brother, among other activities.
Later, while attending the University of Tampa, Maritza loved the field outings of her biology classes- seining and encounters with a puffer fish and snapping turtle. After receiving her BA in psychology and biology, she was reintroduced to camping, but at an entirely new level- in Florida’s central state parks and in the mountain woods of Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, where she also was initiated in the exhilarating adventures of white water rafting and kayaking. Through these experiences, she realized how much she loved the mountains and the wholesome feelings of rural, small-town living.
After the birth of their son, Gabriel, Maritza and his father instilled their enthusiastic appreciation for excellent music, literature, humor, word and hand-crafting, and the love of the outdoors and natural history through camping trips, hikes, museum trips (ad nauseam- according to their son), and many other ways, such as attending workshops and volunteering at local city parks, which eventually led them to serve as bird banding assistants for the Klamath Bird Observatory, not long after moving to Ashland, OR in Fall 2009. For approximately a year, it was a significant, enriching, and rewarding ingredient to their community service while homeschooling.
After rearing her son, Maritza served in various community roles such as Education Assistant and Special Education Assistant in the public schools, Equine- Assisted Therapy Volunteer, Interpretive Naturalist in Oregon State Parks, and Summer Art Camp Director for the City of Medford, OR. In December 2024, Maritza received her BA in art from the University of Oregon, where she also served as an Art Studio Education Assistant at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art for two years. She was missing her son and Ashland, and in June 2026, she was presented with an opportunity posted in the KBO’s “Call Note News” for a grant-funded Environmental Education Assistant. She seized it and began serving as a Community Outreach Assistant in mid-July.
