Talk is on the Table: Participant Biographies
Liz Baird grew up outdoors, filling her pockets with treasures from her adventures. She still covers her desk with these finds. After teaching science for 12 years, she joined the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences as a teacher-education specialist. Later, she took on the challenges of new technology to launch the museum's videoconferencing program, integrating hands-on materials into the remote sites. As the director of school programs at the museum, she and her staff provide programs for students and teachers across the state. She loves to take people outdoors, to places like Belize or out to sea.
McKenzie Barry is an environmental education specialist with the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District, where she provides all the Education Outreach, elementary through high-school age. She sees approximately 3,500 students a year through hands-on natural-resources activities on topics including groundwater, wildlife, forestry, surface water, and GPS/GIS. She also administers the NRD Outdoor Classroom program (complete with teacher trainings on using the areas), Environmental High School mini-grant program, the butterfly larvae program (targeted to 60 second-grade classrooms), and the Arbor Day program, which provides free trees to 3,000 third-grade students. Ms. Barry also organizes the Earth Wellness festival, which reaches 3,000 fifth-grade students. McKenzie became part of the Healthy Families Play Outside group two years ago.
Dr. Joe Baust, a professor of education at Murray State University, has been working in environmental education since 1978. He is the director of the Center for Environmental Education at Murray State University, Murray, Ky., and past president of the North American Association for Environmental Education. He currently is working with two organizations started by Peter Yarrow, of the trio Peter, Paul and Mary: United Voices for Education (with a focus on creating school environments that are safe and nurturing, as well as arts-supportive), and Operation Environmental Respect (a program to encourage people to respect others, and to create a sense of place in all people so they will take better care of our natural world). The concept is to use the arts to make this connection, from young children through adults.
Attila Bality is an outdoor recreation planner with the Rivers, Trails & Conservation Assistance Program of the National Park Service. His work is focused on helping local communities improve and enhance local parks, open space, trails and river corridors. Many of his projects engage youth in planning and on-the-ground activities. Before the NPS, Attila worked for NM State Parks as the Rio Grande Nature Center director. There, he developed junior ranger programs and children’s nature programming. Attila volunteers with the Boy Scouts of America as an adult leader and is a Leave No Trace Master Educator. His earliest experiences with children and nature were as a YMCA summer camp counselor, where he often got into trouble because he preferred to let the kids play army or build small dams on a creek, rather than go to crafts.
Rick Bjorn was born and raised in New England, and has lived in four of the six New England states throughout his 42 years. He has worked in the criminal-justice field for 17 years, and has a passion for creating programs that are effective in reducing recidivism for first-time offenders and others. As the executive director of the Rutland County Court Diversion and Restorative Justice Center for seven years, he has come to believe that nature, community and leadership can play a major role in transforming the lives of criminal offenders. Rick is drawn to the beauty and diversity of New England and spends time in the mountains, visiting the coastline and attending cultural events in the Boston region.
Karl Brummert is an avid naturalist who has worked in natural science education for over twelve years, developing and presenting programs for all ages. He worked in the education department at The New York Botanical Garden, and later became the director of education at an Audubon center on Long Island. He recently received the Daughters of the American Revolution award for conservation. Karl grew up in Colorado, and spent most of his time outdoors when video games, cable television, and computers were just beginning to draw children inside. He earned his B.S. degree in Conservation and Applied Ecology from Rutgers University. When time allows, he hikes, bikes, canoes, kayaks, goes whitewater rafting, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, and camping.
Brett Bruyere, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Human Dimension of Natural Resources Department, in the Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University. He also directs CSU's Environmental Learning Center, a small nature center located near the CSU campus. The ELC provides educational programs to the campus and Fort Collins community with a mission to connect people to the natural environment through positive outdoor experiences. Brett is part of a regional coalition in northern Colorado that was organized to raise awareness about the importance of nature to child development and environmental stewardship.
Yusuf Abdul-Wasi Burgess -- Brother Yusuf, as most folks call him -- is an environmental educator at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), 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 a member of the Albany School District’s Youth Safety Task Force, a collaborator of Youth Violence Intervention Conferencing and a friend and mentor to many youth, from elementary school to college. As chairperson of the Environmental Awareness Network for Diversity in Conservation (EANDC), he encourages youth to participate in environmental stewardship projects. He is a member of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks and a participant of the Diversity Committee of the New York State Outdoor Education Association.
Dr. Stephan Carlson has worked for the University of Minnesota Extension and the College of CFANS for the last 15 years doing outreach and teaching classes in environmental education. He works in outdoor recreation, informal science education and environmental interpretation. His research is on understanding the components that informal science experiences have on kids, and how to develop quality programs that incorporate these components. He is working on three NSF grants in science education and research. Presently, he is working on an NSF ISE grant proposal to link nature and engineering in outdoor settings for parks and nature centers.
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 also worked as an organizational executive with many of the nation’s key chief executive officers.
Avery Cleary is the executive director of Hooked On Nature. She has a background in education, intuitive management, and community organizing. Her experience as a mother, founder of the Learning Tree Nursery School, board member for five non-profit organizations and 20 years of community service give her a unique perspective on the movement to connect children and nature. The idea for Hooked On Nature grew out of her work with the mayor’s office and police department in Rutland, Vt., where she helped the city create Rutland’s United Neighborhoods. She has one grown daughter and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.
Kathe Crowley Conn is president and executive director of the Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Madison, Wis., and founder of Nature Net, a regional consortium, and an advocate for place-based education. She was invited to present Nature Net and its community-based approach at a U.S. Department of Education Invitational Summit, and has advised groups around the country on the benefits of regionally organized and locally based programming. She is a former board member of North American Association for Environmental Education, and currently co-chairs its International Commission on Community-based and Non-Formal Environmental Education. She was awarded the “Educator of the Year” Award from the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education, and has created award-winning programs that connect children and families to the land.
Susie Davis is an educational co-ordinator and environmental educator at the Sandia Mountain Natural History Center in the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Center is a joint project of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science and the Albuquerque Public School system. The Center develops and implements outdoor environmental education programs for students, teachers, and the public. Susie has worked in environmental education for five years and was a high school science teacher for three years. She has edited and published an activity guide, written grants, and taken many wilderness survival, and nature awareness classes. She is a member of the Organizing Task Force for the New Mexico No Child Left Inside Outdoor Education Initiative – a collaboration which has been working to increase the effectiveness and scope of outdoor and environmental education in New Mexico. She grew up near Ann Arbor, Michigan, and has also lived in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Ohio.
Beth Dillingham has a degree in Environmental Studies from the University of California, and a Master of Arts degree in teaching from Washington University in St. Louis. Beth has been involved in environmental / outdoor education in New Mexico for 17 years. She ran the Sandia Mountain Natural History Center for Albuquerque Public Schools, and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. She also worked as the education coordinator for The Rio Grande Zoo (part of the Albuquerque BioPark). Now, as the superintendent of the Rio Grande Nature Center for New Mexico State Parks, she oversees a facility that serves more than 130,000 visitors a year. A major focus of the Center is providing education programs to schoolchildren, teachers and families.
Richard J. Dolesh is the director of public policy for the National Recreation and Park Association in Washington, D.C., and is responsible for legislative advocacy, Congressional relations, and development of national public policy for parks and recreation. Rich worked for 28 years for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, advancing to become chief of the Natural and Historical Resources Division. He served as the director of the Forest, Wildlife and Heritage Service at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources from 1999 to 2001, before coming to NRPA in 2002. He is chair of the Rivers and Trails Coalition, and represents NRPA on the Coalition for Recreational Trails, and serves with many other coalitions advocating for parks and recreation at the national level.
Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D., is board secretary for the Children & Nature Network and 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. Marti is a much-honored developmental psychologist specializing in parent-child attachment, child-abuse prevention, and children's mental health, and a well-known speaker and author in those fields. Marti also appears weekly on Twin Cities television and hosts a weekly radio show, "Good Enough Moms," with her daughter, Erin Erickson Garner. Marti 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.
Jennifer Garrett, staff naturalist at the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center since January 2007, received her Range and Wildlife Management degree from Texas A&M University - Kingsville. In 2003, Ms. Garrett received a Conservation Graduate Fellowship from the Welder Wildlife Foundation to complete her master's in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M. The foundation, which is based on a 7,800-acre ranch in south Texas, is dedicated to wildlife education and research. Ms. Garrett worked half time for the foundation from 2003-2006, serving as conservation educator as she worked on her thesis. In her current position, she teaches people of all ages about the natural world, focusing on hands-on science-based experiences.
Jack Greene is an educator, naturalist, and activist with eight children and seventeen grandchildren. Since leaving the classroom as a Logan High School science teacher two years ago, Jack has been heavily involved with all things leading to a sustainable future for his grandchildren, including Utah Bioneers, C&NN, Stokes Nature Center, Utah Society for Environmental Education, North American Association for Environmental Education, United Nation's Decade for Education for Sustainable Development, and the Cache Valley Multicultural Center. Jack is currently volunteering for Mt. Rainier National Park, where he is working on various sustainability projects and meadow roving in Paradise meadows.
Brigitte Griswold is the Manager of The Nature Conservancy’s Internship Program for City Youth, a partnership with environmental high schools in New York City designed to connect urban and underserved youth with the natural world. Since 2003, Brigitte has worked to double the number of paid summer internship opportunities for minority youth on Nature Conservancy preserves. She has secured over $500,000 to expand the program to six new states in addition to New York. In 2004, Brigitte launched a new partnership with the Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment, modeled after the existing 13 year partnership with the High School for Environmental Studies. She also developed a suite of conservation activities during the academic year to encourage alumni’s continued interest in the environment following the summer field season. Brigitte initiated the program’s first ever third party evaluation and assessment, and significantly enhanced the pre-program wilderness safety and training activities. Brigitte serves as an advisor on the Conservancy’s Diversity Council and Task Force, co-leads the Education Advisory Panel of the National Forum on Children and Nature, is a volunteer of the Prospect Park Alliance, and a member of the Bluepoints Classroom Speakers Bureau on shellfish restoration. She is interested in bridging the gap between young people of color and the conservation movement and is an avid supporter of site based and outdoor learning. She graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BA in English literature, and lives in Brooklyn with her overweight cat and miniature Chihuahua.
Joe Hackett has worked as an Adirondack guide since 1978, specializing in father/son and mother/daughter wilderness adventures. Hackett has been fortunate to turn his avocation into a vocation by developing a following among travelers who appreciate remote and wild land. A co-founder and life member of the NYS Outdoor Guides Association, he helped revive the occupation in the early 1980s. His weekly outdoor columns run in more than a dozen newspapers, and he is in demand as a scout and authenticity consultant for television, film and commercial projects. While he works and plays in the wilderness, his greatest pleasure is time spent with his wife, Maria, and daughters, Meadow and Willow.
Steve Hagler brings a wealth of experience in education programming to his role with the Stewardship Council. Steve spent 15 years with the San Francisco Unified School District, where he helped raise the level of academic achievement and personal growth of low-performing youth in San Francisco schools. From 2004-2005, he served as a teacher on special assignment, teaching and developing experiential and outdoor education programs for the district's county and continuation high schools. He also worked in the district's Risk Management Office, where he helped create outdoor and experiential education field trip protocols. In 1991, Steve founded the Galileo Outdoor Adventures Program (GOAPe) and utilized experiential education and intervention methodologies to teach and engage at-risk youth.
Paul B. Hai is program coordinator for the Roosevelt Wild Life Station (RWLS) and Adirondack Ecological Center (AEC) of the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). Mr. Hai lives and works in the Adirondack Mountains, where he develops partnerships with and program content for regional high schools and colleges. With an institutional mission to increase the conservation literacy of New York State citizens, Mr. Hai’s programs use natural history, inquiry-based activities and outdoor experiences as the foundations for teaching the process of science. Mr. Hai and ESF are committed to leaving no child inside.
Mary Hardcastle is the coordinator for the Leave No Child Inside initiative in Baltimore, Md. She has a long practice in the fields of theatre and filmmaking and creates projects that promote strong and caring relationships. Mary also teaches communication courses at Goucher College and the Community College of Baltimore County. She lives in the Jones Falls Watershed of Maryland with her husband and two teenagers.
Ann Harrison is chief of the Bureau of Environmental Education for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, oversees four environmental education centers, four summer residential camps, educators in New York City and on Long Island, and central office staff who produce brochures, displays and education materials for use statewide. She manages the Diversity Program, which partners with community-based organizations to conduct After School Conservation Clubs in 10 non-profit agencies in New York City, and to provide outdoor recreation and education experiences for urban youth who would otherwise not have such opportunities.
Kyla Hastie, who is the Southeast region external affairs partnerships and outreach coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is a native of Huntsville, Tex. She holds a B.A. degree from Southwestern University, and a Master of Public Affairs and Master of Science in Environmental Science from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Kyla began her career in conservation with The Nature Conservancy in 1996, working in government relations. In 1997, she moved to Darien, Ga., where she worked for TNC’s Altamaha River Bioreserve. In 1999, she began working for the Fish and Wildlife Service as the public affairs specialist, and has held various outreach-related positions in the Southeast region. She lives in Athens, Ga., with her husband and two daughters, Emma, 5, and Sara, 2.
Jason Holm returned to his Midwest home as the assistant regional director (External Affairs) for the Fish & Wildlife Service in 2006, after 16 years in Hawaii. Previously, Holm was the deputy chief of public affairs for U.S. Army, Pacific, and the public affairs officer for Pearl Harbor Shipyard. Holm received his B.S. from the University of North Dakota, and his master’s degree from Hawaii Pacific University. He has published articles and photos throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Holm has been recognized as a Kentucky Colonel, and by Pacific Business News as among “40 Top Businesspeople Under Age 40.” He is involved in several civic activities, including visiting and working with orphanages in Uganda and Kenya.
William H. “Bill” Hopple III is the executive director of Cincinnati Nature Center, a position he has held since 1996. Previously, he served for 10 years as director of development and alumni affairs at his alma mater, Cincinnati Country Day School. Bill has a Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in biology/ecology from Cornell University, and a Masters of Science in biology/ecology from the University of Cincinnati. He also taught physical and life sciences for seven years and worked in a variety of outdoor programs, including as a mountaineering instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School in the 1970s. Bill is a co-founder of the Leave No Child Inside - Greater Cincinnati collaboration to promote the critical importance of all children having frequent experiences in nature for healthy physical, emotional and intellectual development.
Lisa Jemison is a Naturalist at The Wild Center. Jemison has been at the Wild Center for two years working in education and exhibit development. She's in charge of public programs and developing activities for the Naturalist Cabinet, the Center's hands-on discovery room. Lisa has an MS in Ecology from the University of Connecticut, where she did her graduate thesis in museums as places to teach experiential ecology. She's been a research assistant in wildlife biology, genetics and conservation biology with NSF grant funding for programs that included radio tracking of endangered wood turtles in Connecticut and behavioral research on guanacos in Patagonia.
Tracie Johannessen is education director at North Cascades Institute, a non-profit environmental education organization in northwest Washington State. She is a fourth-generation Northwesterner who believes that caring grows from direct experience in nature, and that knowledge leads to empowerment. Ms. Johannessen earned degrees in biology and education, and has worked as a field biologist in Arctic Alaska and as a biology teacher in Zimbabwe, Africa. She was hired by the Institute 16 years ago to start a camping-based school program in North Cascades National Park called Mountain School. Since then, she has overseen the development of watershed education programs for schools, summer youth programs targeting under-served youth, teacher workshops, volunteer stewardship programs and an environmental education graduate residency program in collaboration with Western Washington University. She is the author of several curriculum guides.
J. Allen Johnson, J.D. served as a member of the board of directors of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) from 2003-2006. He is currently the chair of the Environmental Justice Commission for NAAEE, and was recently a panelist on the web cast, "The Color Of Tomorrow," where diversity strategies and inclusion were topics. J. Allen is a contributing writer for the publication, "What's Fair Got to Do with It?" and is frequently published in local newspapers as a guest commentator on issues of social justice, equity and the relationship of Environmental Education and Environmental Justice. He received his A.B. degree from Wabash College and Juris Doctor degree from Valparaiso University School of Law.
Diane Chisnall Joy is coordinator for CT (Connecticut) Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) No Child Left Inside Initiative, and oversees the CT State Parks Interpretive Program. She is director of Kellogg Environmental Center and Osborne Homestead Museum, and State Coordinator for the national environmental and conservation curricula: Project Learning Tree and Project WILD. She is the recipient of the 2007 Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 1 “Environmental Merit Award” and the CT Department of Environmental Protection’s “Commissioners Award” for her work with the DEP’s “No Child Left Inside” Initiative.
Marty Kenahan brings a varied background of non-profit experience to the role of Regional Coordinator for the Chicago Wilderness Leave No Child Inside initiative. Marty is working within the 200+ Chicago Wilderness member organizations to network existing opportunities for children in nature while at the same time leading an outreach effort to faith based organizations, the education sector and health care providers. Past professional responsibilities include work with INSPIRE – a national program of the Lilly Endowment “Sustaining Pastoral Excellence” project and serving as Executive Director of Coprodeli USA, the American division of an international NGO which supports economic development and humanitarian aid projects in Peru.
Ben Klasky is the executive director of Islandwood, an outdoor education center located on Bainbridge Island, Wash. Prior to joining Islandwood, Ben was executive director of Net Impact, a global organization of MBAs focused on corporate social responsibility. Ben also co-founded an online fund-raising company and a successful day camp in the Bay Area, advised Fortune 500 companies at Deloitte Consulting, and taught third grade as a Teach For America corps member in a severely under-resourced Louisiana school. He holds an MBA and a master’s in Education from Stanford University. As a volunteer, Ben has served on several education-related non-profit boards, has been the chair of New York City's chapter of Inner City Outings, and has mentored a student for 10 years through Harlem Education Activities Fund.
Martin LeBlanc is vice president of the Children & Nature Network and the National Youth Education Director for the Sierra Club. He describes himself as a troubled youth who had his life turned around through an outdoor experience as a teenager. Martin has worked as an outdoor educator in Seattle, and served as outdoor-education advocate for Texas Parks and Wildlife. He believes that we "owe the next generation of American children a special place in nature so they can be empowered to solve the environmental challenges of the future."
Brooke Levey is a native of New York where she spent the first 21 years of her life. She moved to Nebraska from Belfast, Maine where she worked for Audubon Expedition Institute (AEI). AEI is a traveling undergraduate and graduate field program in environmental education/studies. Students and faculty travel together throughout the United States and Canada studying the Earth’s ecological, social, and economic conditions firsthand. Currently, Brooke works for the University of Nebraska—Lincoln where she is an Extension Educator. As the state coordinator for Project Learning Tree and Project WET, two of the most widely used environmental education programs in the United States, and founding member of Healthy Families Play Outside, she is actively working to integrate the environment into the lives of educators, students and families both during and outside of school.
Richard Louv is chairman of the Children & Nature Network and the author of seven books about family, community and nature, including, most recently, “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.” He has served as a visiting scholar at Brandeis University, executive editor for the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, and as an adviser to the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World program.
Pat Marks is the associate director of the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center, with responsibility for directing education and conservation programs at the 155-acre sanctuary. Ms. Marks has been a naturalist and environmental educator in the Houston area for more than 30 years, and has worked with a variety of students, ranging from children to adults. She has a B.S. degree in Wildlife and Fisheries sciences from Texas A&M University, and is a Certified Interpretive Guide, one of four environmental educators in the state to have earned certification from the Texas Environmental Education Partnership.
Patricia A. “Patty” Merk, Ph.D., CFLE, creates programs for children and families as area extension agent and regional specialist for the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Phoenix. As a certified family life educator, she provides programs in the areas of preschool and child-care teacher education, focusing on early brain development. Patricia has 20 years’ experience in training parents and child-care professionals in child development. Currently, she is developing “Hands-On Nature,” a day-camp curriculum for use with 4- and 5-year-olds. She has also worked as a 4-H Youth Development Agent in Arizona, providing camping and outdoor experiences for school-age youth. Dr. Merk grew up on a 500-acre farm in southern Indiana as the fifth of eight children. The farm, now 270 acres, has been in her family for 137 years, and is largely a conservation area.
Heather Moffat is director of education at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. For nearly twenty years, she has taught science education emphasizing outdoor experiences to a wide range of grade groups, from preschool to graduate students. In addition to being an educator, Heather is also a paleontologist and her field work has enabled her to enjoy first-hand the value of spending time in nature, as well as its vital importance to understanding how our dynamic world works. Heather holds a M.S. in Earth & Environmental Sciences from University of Rochester, a second M.S. in Geological Sciences from University of Southern California and an A.B. from Smith College in Geology.
Shelly Morrell lives and works in Fort Collins, Colo., and is a strong supporter of the Children & Nature Network. Ms. Morrell earned an M.A. degree in Human Dimensions in Natural Resource Management from Colorado State University, and holds a secondary educator's license for Colorado. She has worked in environmental education for 15 years, most recently as education division director with Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory.
Marcie Oltman is the director of Tamarack Nature Center in White Bear Township, Minn., and had worked eight years with the Minnesota Children's Museum in St. Paul as early childhood environmental education coordinator. She also is a principal in the exhibit design/build firm Kidzibits, Inc., in Minneapolis, where she develops exhibits for children's museums around the country and serves as a consultant on exhibit and building design, early childhood environments and early childhood environmental curricula. She is the founding chair of the Minnesota Early Childhood Environmental Education Consortium and editor of “Natural Wonders: A Guide to Early Childhood for Environmental Educators.” Marcie has a B.A. in Biology, an M.S. in Environmental Education and Interpretation, and is a state-certified early childhood educator with an M. Ed. in Early Childhood Education.
John Parr is director of the Children & Nature Network and 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.
Anne Pearse-Hocker is a photojournalist and writer currently living in Virginia. She spent several years as a news cameraperson for KMGH-TV in Denver, and later at CBS News and ABC News in Washington, D.C. Her black-and-white photographs of the siege of Wounded Knee were displayed at the Gustav-Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, and are currently at the National Museum of the American Indian research facility in Suitland, Md. She became active in wildlife advocacy at the local and state level when she retired from the news business, and has served on various appointed boards and committees. She also is a Master Falconer, flying a peregrine falcon.
Bob Peart is a biologist with a master’s degree in education, runs his own business and is involved with a number of projects related to land use, conservation, environmental education and First Nations. He has volunteered and been involved with conservation and parks-related issues for over 30 years, and has worked as assistant director at the Royal BC Museum, the executive director of the Outdoor Recreation Council, been a political adviser to cabinet ministers (Aboriginal Affairs, Environment/Parks), the provincial co-chair of the Central Region Board in Clayoquot Sound, and the executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society-BC chapter. Bob is a founding director of The Kesho Trust, and on the boards of the Fraser Basin Council, the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, and the Elders Council for BC's Parks. He is an honorary director for the Grasslands Conservation Council of BC, The Land Conservancy of British Columbia and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
Ed Pembleton has taught a wide variety of students in settings ranging from the sandbars and prairies of the Platte River to the corridors of Congress. A Missourian trained as a biologist and classroom educator, Pembleton taught in public schools and nature centers before becoming a Kansas-based field representative for National Audubon in the Midwest. In 1987, he moved to Washington, D.C., to direct Audubon’s water-resources program, and began teaching 535 distracted Congressional pupils. In 1994, he went independent, working as a photographer and an outside the Beltway water-resources consultant to non-profit organizations and the Department of Interior. In 2000, he returned to the Midwest to join Pheasants Forever as director of the Leopold Education Project, with a mission to educate individuals to develop a personal land ethic. (See www.lep.org for more information on this creative, interdisciplinary program.)
Amy Pertschuk is managing director of the Children & Nature Network and a co-founder and COO of eNature.com, the Web’s premier nature-discovery resource. From 2000 - 2005, Amy managed eNature’s operations and led program development and fund-raising efforts for eNature’s partnership program, reaching out to like-minded agencies and organizations with programs and initiatives to support a broad range of regional educational efforts.
Akiima Price has more than 14 years’ experience using the natural environment to provide hands-on strategies for positive youth development, and is a respected source for environmental-education curriculum development and implementation in the Washington, D.C. area. Akiima got her start as a fellow in the Career Conservation Development program in 1991, a program of the Student Conservation Association. Since then, she has consulted and worked for environmental organizations throughout Washington, D.C., including Earth Conservation Corps, The Nature Conservancy, Discovery Creek Children's Museum of Washington, the Anacostia Watershed Society and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore. In September 2007, Akiima will serve as chief of Education and Programs at the New York Restoration Project.
Stephanie Ratcliffe is the Managing Director of The Wild Center. Ratcliffe joined the Wild Center four years before its opening bringing over 20 years of experience to the new museum’s start-up design team. The Wild Center is a new kind of natural history museum that mixes the indoor and outdoors in unusual ways. There are waterfalls inside, and exhibit labels can be found in the woods outside. Ratcliffe holds a MAT/Museum Education from George Washington University and has also worked for the Maryland Science Center, Brooklyn Children's Museum and the Smithsonian.
Cheryl K. Riley is vice president of education and outreach for Pheasants Forever (PF). Her 30-year career in conservation/outdoor education has included working for the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, and the National Wildlife Federation, as well as private consulting. Her career emphasis has been connecting youth and families to the outdoors through education and personal experiences. Cheryl has created a number of state and national programs, including the Outdoor Skills Education program for Missouri, Pennsylvania’s KARE program, and NWF’s NatureLink family program. Most recently, she formed PF’s first National Youth Leadership Council, to empower young people to be conservation leaders. Cheryl has undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Mary Roscoe is the coordinator of the San Francisco Bay Area “Leave No Child Inside” movement. She was the co-chair of the organizing team for “An Evening with Richard Louv” on Sept. 28, 2006, at Foothill College in Los Altos, Calif. Mary was the administrator at Waldorf School of the Peninsula for over 12 years, and taught courses in administration at Rudolf Steiner College in Los Altos and San Francisco. She is a board member of the Institute for Social Renewal and works with Waldorf schools to create accessible-to-all tuition policies.
Rafael Reyes recently signed on as project director for ecoAmerica, following his role at As You Sow, where he directed communications and development strategy. Rafael was born in Latin America, has taught in Indonesia, and worked for 15 years as a high-tech business consultant, with an expertise in project management and systems architecture design. Rafael is a Sierra Club board member, and an award-winning volunteer organizer for highly successful grassroots advocacy and organizational development initiatives. He holds an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from U.C. Berkeley, and B.A. degrees -- with honors -- in Anthropology and Computer Science from U.C. Santa Cruz.
Eliza Russell is the director of education programs for the National Wildlife Federation, and directs NWF education outreach activities, including habitat programs, volunteer and youth programs. Previously, Ms. Russell served as the senior volunteer manager and helped to create and strengthen NWF's presence as a nationally recognized volunteer organization, increasing volunteer involvement in all aspects of the organization. Ms. Russell had worked for the National Park Service as a park ranger at Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y., before becoming a member of the lead staff to open the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Ms. Russell also managed and directed the daily operations for the Baltimore's Children Museum - Port Discovery. She graduated from State University of New York at Oswego in 1990, with a B.A. in American History and Museum Studies.
Molly Stevens has served as the executive director and CEO of Westcave Preserve Inc., for two years. Westcave Preserve is an environmental education and conservation center in the Texas Hill Country (near Austin) with a mission to connect kids to nature. Westcave Preserve is taking the lead in framing a regional Children and Nature campaign. Molly also serves on the state Children and Nature initiative. Prior to joining Westcave Preserve, she was the regional managing director for Environmental Defense in Austin for 13 years, and also served as development director for The Nature Conservancy of Texas for three years. She and her husband are raising two sons - in the woods whenever possible.
Peggy Stewart is manager of Outdoor and Environmental Education for the Chicago Park District. She is responsible for citywide partnerships with Chicago Wilderness and other environmental organizations, as well as supervision of camping, gardening and nature programs for youth, teens and families. She introduced the Nature Oasis program, which provides an opportunity for families and teachers to explore and learn about natural areas in the parks though day camps and other hands-on activities. She is currently co-chair of the Education Team of Chicago Wilderness, a consortium of 200 organizations doing restoration and environmental education in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. She works with a strong team, and is responsible for implementing the strategic plan in education, and for broadening the conservation work to reach a national audience.
Sandy Tanck is manager of Interpretation & Public Programs at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. She has spent more than 25 years creating educational programs and activities that engage children with plants and nature, and still loves doing it. She has extensive experience working with schools, including field trips and writing curriculum units, delivering teacher programs, and leading grant-funded partnerships between the Arboretum and suburban, urban and out-state schools in northern Minnesota reservation communities. She led the design of the children’s education facility at the Arboretum, and developed the Sunshine for Dinner interactive exhibits as well as the Under the Oak nature play area housed there. She currently oversees the Arboretum’s interpretation, including family and early childhood programs, guided tours, signage and exhibitions.
Posie Taylor's 30-plus-year career as a camping professional culminated in her service as executive director of The Aloha Foundation of Fairlee, Vt., a non-profit organization serving children, youth and families from around the world through quality camp experiences. She is a member of the National Board of The American Camp Association, past president of ACA's New England Section and currently serves as chair of their National Task Force on Children and Nature. Her years as a summer camper began her lifelong connections with nature, and her camping career has been all about sharing those connections with today's children.
Kellie Tharp has been with the Arizona Game and Fish Department since May 2007, and serves as environmental education manager. She completed her B.S at Humboldt State University in Wildlife Biology, with a minor in Botany, and recently earned an M.S. degree in Environmental Science from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. While in Baltimore, she worked at The Maryland Zoo, directing their summer camp program, which involved teaching on zoo grounds, and taking animals into schools for hands-on biology as part of the zoo’s outreach department. She has also been a high school science teacher (in the Bay Area), a biologist and wild-land firefighter for the USFS, a stream biologist for BLM, and searched for dusky Canada goose nest sites along the Copper River Delta in Alaska for USGS.
John Thielbahr is director of professional education at Washington State University’s Center for Distance and Professional Education. He also has 25 years of private-sector experience in corporate finance, business consulting, economic development, and non-profit management. In his current role, he manages the development, funding and delivery of statewide and national educational programs and initiatives showcasing WSU's scholarship and research, and assists non-WSU constituencies – including corporations, government agencies and non-profits -- with professional training and development. That mission includes on-line educational and certificate programs that relate to issues of importance to society, with a focus on children and the environment. Mr. Thielbahr manages a staff of 10 program managers and coordinators in Pullman (head office) and Puyallup, Wash.
Elizabeth Bonbright Thompson is executive director of the Washington State Child Care Resource & Referral Network, a statewide private, non-profit organization. As such, she is a knowledgeable and effective voice for childcare resource & referral (R&R), and other aspects of early childhood and school-age care and education in Washington State and across the nation. Ms. Thompson has become a valued voice on child-care policy at the national level, especially with Congress. She served for over eight years on the board of directors of the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) and, among other leadership roles, was board president for two years. She recently was re-elected to the NACCRRA Public Policy Committee.
Betsy Townsend is co-chair of Leave No Child Inside of Greater Cincinnati. Betsy heard Richard Louv interviewed on a public radio station early in 2006, rushed to buy “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” and made a commitment to help save them. She met with a number of organizations in Cincinnati, including the Cincinnati Nature Center, whose director, Bill Hopple, had also met with local organizations about forming a collaborative. In June 2006, Leave No Child Inside of Greater Cincinnati was formed, and has since focused on making connections with other collaborative efforts in the Greater Cincinnati area, primarily in the health and education fields. Currently, they are facing a need to define the organization’s structure to accommodate the new groups wanting to affiliate.
William “Bill” Vanderberg is the Dean of Students at Crenshaw High School, Los Angeles, and has been an active member of the Sierra Club, Boy Scouts of America, and numerous other community-service programs, with a particular interest in finding ways to make environmental issues more relevant to minority communities. He has worked to engage underserved youth in outdoor environmental experiences, from which he hopes they gain a sense of ownership and responsibility of their natural environment -- along with the many benefits kids get from playing in the dirt. His community service work includes: consultant, Building Bridges to the Outdoors program, Sierra Club; chair, Urban Environment and Parks, Angeles Chapter, Sierra Club (2002 - 2005); and founder, The Hiking Crew – since 1994, he has led day hikes in the Santa Monica Mountains for Boy Scouts to earn their hiking merit badge.
Mark Weaver is a registered Landscape Architect (BLA- Michigan State, MLA-Virginia Tech), who, from 1979 to 1989, worked on the West Coast and in the Midwest in leading landscape architecture firms. He was assistant professor at Auburn University from 1990 to 1995, teaching undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Architecture. In 1995, Mark joined the National Park Service to serve as park landscape architect at Ozark National Scenic Riverways. Mark now represents the NPS Rivers and Trails program in Wisconsin, where he coordinates community trail and natural area planning. He is active in international projects through the Department of the Interior International Technical Assistance Program, and works on projects in Guatemala, Honduras and Ecuador.
Jan Weems has been the Coordinator of the Discovery Room for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for the past six years, but her career in environmental education began in 1982 with the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission and Southwest Florida Conservancy. Beyond her involvement with the Museum’s new initiative “Take a Child Outside” week, she is an active member of the NC Outdoor Learning Environments (OLE) Alliance, a collaborative group of NC early childhood professional dedicated to improving quality of outdoor environments for children in child care and public school pre-K settings throughout the state.
Terry Welsh represents the Alberta Recreation & Parks Association, which is very interested in being an active supporter of the Children & Nature Network. Terry is employed with the City of Brooks in Southern Alberta as the director of Recreation & Parks Services, and is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys hiking, camping, photography and other outdoor activities. Over the years he has been active with youth sports and programs, both as a volunteer and in his work. His passion for the outdoors and work experience has led to a strong belief that the need for children to experience nature must be fostered at a community level.
Jeff Williamson was recently named the President of the Arizona Zoological Society. The Arizona Zoological Society is a 501(c)(3) Arizona not for profit corporation founded in 1961 to engage in the conservation of wildlife and habitat and to operate the Phoenix Zoo as a zoological garden and recreation destination that engenders affection for and appreciation of nature. He had been the CEO/President and Executive Director of the Zoo since August of 1996. Before that he was the Zoo’s Deputy Director for three years. Prior to his work in Phoenix he was Deputy Director of the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. Williamson is a life-long conservationist who grew up on farms and has spent his career trying to integrate the interests of people and nature. He is involved with many regional conservation organizations is routinely a panelist on land conservation, water, urban development and wildlife habitat conservation issues. Mr. Williamson is an advocate for sustainable community, and sees today’s zoos as places to advocate for integrated relationships between people and nature.
Jen Wright has worked in the environmental-education field for the past 10 years in a variety of positions, from educator to manager. Currently, she is vice president of education at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, in Michigan, and her responsibilities include facilitation of six full-time educators and a variety of part-time individuals. On any given day she can be found helping with programming, creating budgets, writing business plans, writing grants or developing new program ideas. She oversees the Leave No Child Inside initiatives that the staff adopted and has been charged with staying on top of the latest research and developing issues within this campaign.
Dr. Dennis Yockers has a B.S. in Environmental Science with a science education certification, M.S. in Environmental Studies, and a Ph.D. in Fisheries and Wildlife with an emphasis in Environmental Education (EE). He has 28 years of professional experience in EE with the State of Wisconsin. He has worked as the environmental education coordinator for the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Public Instruction. Since 1994, he has been on the faculty of the Wisconsin Center for EE in the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. He teaches EE courses, coordinates the master’s EE program for teachers, and consults with national and Wisconsin agencies, schools and organizations on various EE programs and initiatives. For more than 30 years he has consulted with schools on outdoor site use and development.
Biographies, submitted by attendees, have been edited for brevity
