Matt Schnabel developed his appreciation for the forests and conservation from growing up on a farm in rural Ohio and from both his parents being natural resource educators.  He studied elementary education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and graduated with a B.S. in Education in 1999.  He worked for Lexington County School District One for 7 years as a middle and high school science teacher and as a S.T.E.M. coach at an elementary school.  He studied at Clemson University and graduated with a Master’s of Parks, Recreation, & Tourism Management with a Master’s Minor in Biology in 2004.  He worked for the North Carolina State Parks as a park ranger at South Mountains State Park in Connelly Springs, North Carolina and obtained his North Carolina Environmental Educator certification.  He moved back to Columbia, South Carolina and worked at Saluda Shoals Park as an educational park ranger.  During this time, he studied at Central Carolina Technical College in Sumter, South Carolina earning an Associate in Natural Resource Management in 2008.  Matt began working full-time for the South Carolina Forestry Commission in June 2015 as the assistant, then Coordinator of Environmental Education helping to coordinate the SC Sustainable Forestry Teachers’ Tour, Wood Magic Forest Fair, Project Learning Tree, and other outreach programs.
Matt has been married to his bride, Celeste, for 19 years.  They have three wonderful children: Trevor (17), Eliza Jane (14), and Kate (12) who attend the White Knoll schools in Lexington, South Carolina.