Beginnings
Elizabeth Gardner started walking and writing to reframe her world when she was very small. Losing herself in the wilds of wherever she was, in those hidden pockets tucked just out of sight — climbing trees, hunting for salamanders, collecting chestnuts — and in the wilds of her imagination, too, helped her make sense of the world. She didn’t add photography to the mix until a class in high school brought her into that world just beyond — and into a space that reminded her to trust in the slow down, to the small details that caught her eye. An Exeter/Williams grad, Liz has spent much of her adult years happily immersed in the intersection of the educational and natural landscape, teaching creative movement and dance, designing curriculum and nature-based enrichment programs for schools and local families, homeschooling her two sons, and working as a content creator, writer, educational consultant, and tutor. After a breast cancer diagnosis hit in 2008, Liz returned to the things that had sustained her as a child — walking long miles, communing with the natural world, taking photographs, and writing about her experience (in her Flip Side of Forty blog). Ever since, the world has shimmered with a new kind of beauty and urgency.
She published Here. In the Undertow of Wonder in early 2020, the first of what she hopes will be a happy stack of books of her writing and photographs. When not walking the dusty road, dancing, or taking in live music, Liz runs FlipSwitch Coaching, working with college-bound students and small businesses to help them unearth their stories and discover their most authentic selves. She’s currently designing new online classes, downloadable workbooks, and The Dusty Road podcast to more fully integrate her work and expand the reach of her interactive, creative programs, with the hopes that more students and adults might feel inspired to build self-awareness, presence, and resilience amidst ongoing uncertainty and change.
