Chairman Richard Louv

Richard Louv is chairman of the Children & Nature Network and the author of seven books, including his most recent, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder" (Algonquin). He is the recipient of the 2008 Audubon Medal. Past recipients have included Rachel Carson, E.O. Wilson and Jimmy Carter. He has served as an adviser to the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World award program, is a member of the Citistates Group, appears often on national radio and television programs, and speaks frequently in the United States and overseas. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other newspapers and magazines, and was a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune and Parents magazine. Married to Kathy Frederick Louv, he is the father of two young men, Jason, 25 and Matthew, 19. He is working on his eighth book, but would rather be fishing.

President and CEO Cheryl Charles, Ph.D.

Cheryl Charles, Ph.D., is co-chair of the Education for Sustainable Development Working Group of the Commission on Education and Communication, World Conservation Union (IUCN-CEC). Cheryl is an innovator, educator, author and organizational executive. Cheryl served for close to 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 numerous awards for her leadership.

Vice President Martin LeBlanc

Martin LeBlanc is national youth education director for the Sierra Club, where he oversees the organization’s youth programs and advocacy efforts relating to children and nature. His advocacy work has been focused, for the most part, on California, New Mexico and Washington State, as well as at the federal level. Martin also has been instrumental in forming partnerships with military and health organizations around the issue of children and nature. He was a founding board member of the Children and Nature Network. Previously, Martin worked as an outdoor educator in Seattle, and served as an outdoor-education advocate for Texas Parks and Wildlife in Austin, Texas. He is currently chairman of the No Child Left Inside committee in Washington State, as well as a member of the North American Association for Environmental Education's Advocacy Committee. Martin believes that "the next generation of American children deserves a special place in nature so they can be empowered to solve the environmental challenges of the future."

Board Secretary Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.

Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D., is a Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota, where she is Director of the Irving B. Harris Training Programs in the Center for Early Education & Development and Co-Chair of the President's Initiative on Children, Youth & Families. A developmental psychologist specializing in parent-child attachment, child abuse prevention, and children's mental health, Marti is a well-known speaker and author in those fields and has been honored by state and national organizations for her outstanding contributions to psychology. With an interest in translating research for general audiences, Marti also appears weekly on Twin Cities television and hosts a weekly radio show, "Good Enough Moms," with her daughter, Erin Erickson Garner. Marti is passionate about the role of nature in children's development and hopes to spur not only a movement to reunite children with the natural world, but also more rigorous, extensive research on this critical topic in human development.

Member Yusuf Burgess

Brother Yusuf, as most folks call him, is an Environmental Educator at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation where he coordinates the DEC Diversity Program and is responsible for an urban outreach to increase the diversity of their Summer Youth Environmental Education Camps. He is member of the Albany School District’s Youth Safety Task Force and mentor to many youth from elementary school to college. As a concerned and dedicated youth professional he exposes young people to the natural world with engaging outdoor recreation activities. Part of his approach is to take urban youth on camping, boating, hunting, fishing, hiking, and skiing excursions. Getting them involved in pursuits that take them outside the often-constricting worlds they live in.
Yusuf serves as the current Chairperson of the Environmental Awareness Network for Diversity in Conservation (EANDC); he is a Champion of the Eagle Eye Institute of Massachusetts and their “Learn about Forest” Programs and a founding member of the Diversity Committee of the New York State Outdoor Education Association. He is a graduate of the Leadership Training Institute of Hofstra College and is currently pursuing a course of instruction in Environmental Education and Urban Planning at the New York State Empire College.

Member Stephen R. Kellert, Ph. D.

Stephen R. Kellert is the Tweedy Ordway Professor of Social Ecology at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He also recently became a Partner in the company, Environment Capital Partners, a private equity firm focusing on investments in the environmental industry. His work focuses on understanding the connection between human and natural systems with a particular interest in the value and conservation of nature and designing ways to harmonize the natural and human built environments. He has served on committees of the National Academy of Sciences, and has been a member of the board of directors of many organizations. He has authored more than 150 publications, including Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Foundations (with P. Kahn, Jr., MIT Press, 2002). A new book, Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science, and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life, co-edited with J. Heerwagen and M. Mador, will be published in 2008.

Member John Parr - In Memoriam

John Parr was a co-founder of CIVIC RESULTS, a non-profit organization that assists governments, businesses and non-profit institutions to collaboratively plan and implement initiatives that create measurable change in the physical, social, civic and human infrastructure of communities and regions.
[+] read more about John Parr and his legacy

Managing Director Amy Pertschuk

Amy Pertschuk is managing director of C&NN and part of the strategic planning and implementation team. She designed and developed C&NN's online strategy and continues to manage the ever-expanding Web site resources to serve the needs of the growing children and nature movement. Her work includes outreach and communications with network members as well as grassroots leadership. Amy is especially active in the regional children and nature campaign in Northern California, where she lives. She also serves as a member of the board of directors of Hooked on Nature, and was a co-founder of eNature.com, the Web’s premier nature-discovery resource: www.enature.com

Senior Associates

Children & Nature Network Senior Associates are experienced practitioners and leaders who provide technical expertise in support of the movement to reconnect children and nature.

Nancy Herron

Nancy Herron has over 30 years experience in conservation education, volunteer management, community leadership and non-profit administration. Currently she manages the state nature and fishing education programs for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, as well as educational technology, web and program evaluation efforts. Nancy was a reporter and columnist, and a teacher for pre-school through college level and children with disabilities. A former VISTA volunteer, Nancy was instrumental in organizing and capacity-building for multiple non-profit organizations such as a five-county hospice, a Literacy Volunteers of America affiiliate and a respite care center for handicapped children. She has been a featured speaker at national conferences on educational technology, best practices in conservation education and volunteerism. Nancy serves on multiple state and national boards, including co-chair of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ Education, Outreach and Diversity Committee, the Association for Conservation Information and special committees for the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation and Project WILD. She is active at the local, state and national level for the Children and Nature network and is passionate about bettering our children's future. Nancy is the recipient of multiple awards for educational innovations and leadership. She loves to hike, kayak and explore the natural world. She has two grown sons and lives with her husband in Austin, Texas.

Clifford E. Knapp

Clifford E. Knapp has been an experiential educator for most of his 40-year career, working in K-12 schools and at the university level. He has held positions of science teacher, outdoor education director, and professor of outdoor/environmental education at Southern and Northern Illinois Universities. He holds educational degrees in Junior High Education (B. A.), Administration and Supervision (M. S.), and Curriculum and Instruction (Ph. D.). He has also served in summer camp leadership roles for several years and co-directed his own camp dedicated to human relations and adventure skills. His interests include nature study and interpretation, values education, reflection/processing skills, indigenous cultures, curriculum development, place-based education, and environmental ethics. He has published 10 books and over 100 articles and book chapters, mostly directed toward promoting outdoor teaching and learning.

Page Lambert

Page Lambert has been leading creative outdoor writing adventures for ten years, often working in partnership with organizations such as The Women's Wilderness Institute, the Grand Canyon Field Institute, and the Aspen Writers Foundation. Author of the memoir "In Search of Kinship," a collection of stories about rearing her son and daughter on a small ranch in Wyoming, she believes: "Our vitality, and the vitality of our children, comes from an intimate and enduring relationship with a specific landscape. Telling simple stories to one another about the places we love is fundamental." She is a founding member of the Wyoming chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, a board member of the Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation, and an active volunteer with The Horse Shelter of Santa Fe. She is also a member of the Quivira Coalition, a collaborative organization of environmentalists and ranchers. Page has been the recipient of two Literary Fellowships from the Wyoming Arts Council, and her stories widely anthologized. Her work can be found in such publications as Parabola: Magazine of Myth and Tradition, as well as in books, including: "Homeland: Ranching and a West that Works"; "Writing Down the River: Into the Heart of the Grand Canyon"; and "The Stories that Shape Us: Contemporary Women Write about the West."

Kathy Baughman McLeod

Kathy Baughman McLeod is a Senior Adviser to the Children & Nature Network and co-founder of Healthy Development, Inc. Kathy has built a career around the complex relationships of environment, community development, land use, public finance and policy. She is currently the president of the board of the Florida Greenways and Trails Foundation, and a director of the Florida Council for Sustainability -- a program of the Collins Center. Kathy has held leadership positions with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, The Nature Conservancy, and The Trust for Public Land. As Program Director of the Florida Communities Trust at the Florida Department of Community Affairs, she administered a $66 million annual grant program for local governments for the acquisition and creation of community parks, open space and trails related to the Florida Growth Management Act. Kathy has presented to and appeared before many major organizations.

Bob Peart

Bob Peart (BSc, MEd) is a registered professional biologist, with a background in biology and education. He has worked for the past 30 years in parks planning and advocacy as well as public conservation education. He has worked at both professional and senior management levels within government agencies including Parks Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Service and the BC Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs. Bob has also held Executive Director positions with conservation NGOs such as the BC Outdoor Recreation Council and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society as well as serving on many other conservation organization boards. In the area of public education he has similar senior level experience having served as the Assistant Director of the Royal BC Museum. Drawing on his diverse experience, he also served as Executive Assistant to BC Cabinet Minister the Honourable John Cashore in the portfolios of both Environment and Aboriginal Affairs. His work has been extensively linked to aboriginal communities especially in British Columbia.

Consultants to C&NN

Dean Stahl is an editor, writer and researcher, the author of Dolphins (Child's World Inc.) and co-editor of Abbreviations Dictionary (Taylor & Francis/CRC Press), a desktop reference.

Chris Krueger is an internet producer, providing internet strategies and technology and was Co-founder, President, and Executive Director of eNature.com.