2008 Grassroots Gathering

Cheryl Charles Opening Comments

Cheryl Charles, Ph.D., is President of the Children & Nature Network and has worked closely with Richard Louv to develop training and education for emerging regional leaders in the children and nature movement. Cheryl also is co-chair of the Education for Sustainable Development Working Group of the Commission on Education and Communication, World Conservation Union (IUCN-CEC). She has served for nearly 20 years as national director of the two most widely used environment education programs in North America, Project Learning Tree and Project WILD, and has received many awards for her leadership. She is an innovator, educator, sought-after speaker and author who, for the past decade, also worked as an organizational executive with many of the nation’s key chief executive officers. Recently, Cheryl developed an annotated bibliography of 20 premier studies focusing on the positive impact of the children-nature connection.