“A tree without roots is just a piece of wood.”
- Marco Pierre White
Earthworms was founded 1991 with the simple idea that if kids could experience and enjoy nature they would love, value and ultimately protect the natural world around them.
Founder & Contributors
About Ryann Stein
Founder of Earthworms
Ryann Satz is a mother, mentor, and voice for the sacred intelligence of childhood. She lives with a deep reverence for the natural world and an insatiable curiosity about what helps us grow—individually, collectively, and across generations.
She believes we are here to live with love and grow through learning—and that before we can rise into our fullest expression, we must first be rooted in connection. To ourselves. To one another. To the Earth beneath us.
That belief has shaped her life’s work.
Ryann’s passion for service began young. At nine, she was already speaking publicly to raise money for causes close to her heart. As a child in Florida, she volunteered with Wildlife Rescue, cared for injured animals, and spoke often about conservation and endangered species. At ten, she partnered with the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa to co-create Earthworms, a hands-on environmental education program that later became the museum’s Life Lab exhibit.
That early calling never left her—it simply grew deeper. Earthworm Kids is the living continuation of that seed: a program designed to help children build lifelong, loving relationships with themselves, the Earth, and the world around them.
In 2014, Ryann lost her sister to addiction. That grief became a doorway to deeper questions—about childhood, connection, and what allows some of us to flourish while others fall. What she’s come to understand is this: the same wiring that makes us vulnerable also makes us powerful. And whether we rise or unravel depends not on who we are, but what we’re connected to.
Today, Ryann lives in Florida with her husband and three children, where life is full of muddy feet, shared meals, and everyday wonder. She continues to use her voice to support causes that matter—most recently through her work as a certified Benefit Auction Specialist—but it’s her quiet, steady devotion to family, to helping children grow in connection with themselves and the Earth, and to the rhythms of real life that define her truest work.
She believes we should hold a sacred space where children can remember where they came from—so they can rise into who they are meant to be.