Ageya Wilderness Center

Our Founders

As your hosts, Patty and Kevin look forward to having you share and play in their beautiful backyard, which extends into the magnificent Kachemak Bay.

Patty Dolese, Program Director

Patty is an avid outdoor adventurer. Patty brings her kayaking skills and natural history knowledge to the Ageya experience. She began kayaking during her college years. She was so enthralled with the experience that she saved every penny to buy her own kayak. To further her skills, she took courses from Outward Bound, NOLS, and Tom Brown. Patty has since guided sea kayak trips and courses in Kachemak Bay, the Kenai Fjords, Shuyak Island, Prince William Sound, and Baja California, Mexico. Patty has been a Special Education teacher for 19 years with the Anchorage School District and has also directed a summer camp for the Anchorage School District’s Migrant Education program for seven years.

Patty has her Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. She spent time as a facilitator and life coach for the Doyon Management Training (DMT), which is a two-year management training program for Doyon Native shareholders. Through this work, Patty and her partner, Kevin, saw the need for a program that taught Alaska Native youth to appreciate the natural history and environment around them, to know how to go after their dreams and to dream big, while learning how to strive for life balance which was what led them to create AWE Camp.


Kevin Dee, Project Director

Kevin was raised in Massachusetts and spent many summers participating in camps. As he got older, he became a camp counselor and eventually a camp director. Summer camps are what initially brought Kevin to Alaska in 1979. Loving the adventure, opportunities, and beauty of Alaska, he moved to Alaska after he graduated with a teaching and art degree in 1981 and became the first Visually Impaired teacher for the Kenai Peninsula School District. Kevin also has a Master’s degree in Education and Administration from Vanderbilt University. Kevin started his own consulting company, KMD Services & Consulting in 1984, providing management consulting, leadership development, coaching, and human resources services.

Kevin designs and facilitates Leadership Training programs nationally. Kevin met Patty in 1990 and helped transform Ageya Kayak Tours over to a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, Ageya Wilderness Education. In 1995, they purchased 80 acres in Homer of an old 160-acre homestead where they had been caretakers. Kevin has since done much of the design and building on the property now referred to as the Ageya Homestead. As the Executive Director for Ageya, Kevin facilitates the behind-the-scenes activities that help make Ageya operational.