GEEP - Key Persons
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- Guest Experience Manager, the Marine Mammal Center / United States
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- Founder, International Support Network for African Development ( ISNAD - Africa )
- Founder, International Support Network for African Development ( ISNAD - Africa ) Nigeria
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- Associate Professor, Monash University
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- Environmental Education Researcher, Cornell University
- Environmental Education Researcher, Cornell University / Russia
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- Leader, Caribbean Youth Environment Network Puerto Rico / United States
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- Global Environmental Education Partnership / Global Environmental Education Partnership
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- International Programs Coordinator, North American Association for Environmental Education
Andrew (Andy) David grew up in Washburn, Wisconsin, a small town on the shores of Lake Superior. In 2019, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. in Geography and Political Science and minors in African Studies and Development Economics.
Following his undergraduate degree, he served as an AmeriCorps VISTA at Glacier National Park in a Tribal Liaison role. There, he worked to build trust between local Indigenous populations and the Park to collaboratively manage natural and cultural resources and grow economic opportunities.
Andy recently completed a Master's in Development Practice (MDP) from Emory University, with concentrations in Environmental Sustainability and Monitoring and Evaluation. Throughout his time at Emory, he completed two practicums: one at the Georgia Conservancy (2021) and the other at World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) (2022). At World Agroforestry, he worked on the Regreening Africa project, which restores degraded land across the Sahel through agroforestry and farmer managed natural regeneration.
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- Author, Save Queen Green, Andiamo Entertainment / United States
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- Executive Director & Chief Mermaid, Save Philippine Seas / Philippines
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- Director of Professional Development, North American Association for Environmental Education
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- Professor, University of Wageningen
- Professor, University of Wageningen / the Netherlands
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- Water Warrior, Wikwemikong First Nation / Canada / Read More
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- Candidate, Oregon State University / United States / Read More
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- Co - Founder, Emerging Environmental Changemakers Network, Maine Environmental Education Association
- Co - Founder, Emerging Environmental Changemakers Network, Maine Environmental Education Association / United States
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- Director of Community Engagement, Department of Conservation / New Zealand
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- Founder and President, ThinkOcean / United States
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- Communications Assistant, EcoSpark / Canada
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- Community Programs Coordinator, Nature Kids Lafayette / United States
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- Canadian Parks Council / Canada / Read More
Chloe Dragon Smith is a young Metis woman from the small northern city of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Of Chipewyan and European heritage, she grew up close to her Indigenous cultural values and learned traditional skills for living on the land. This northern upbringing shaped her values today. Chloe is a trained canoe instructor, an open water scuba diver, an avid hiker, and a hockey player. She loves to travel and she seeks out Nature in every new place she visits. She leads by example.Chloe holds a degree in Earth Science from the University of Victoria. While educated in Science, she is keenly interested and has found her niche in working with people on the social/cultural benefits of the natural world. Currently, Chloe works with the Canadian Parks Council, co-chairing an intergenerational citizen working group called Connecting a New Generation with Nature. The working group has created a document called The Nature Playbook: Take action to connect a new generation of Canadians with Nature. It will soon be available online. A draft of this book has inspired the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to adopt The Nature Playbook model as a global best practice and it was featured at the World Conservation Congress this September, 2016. This project spans the continuum of Nature, reaching children and youth in cities, regions, states/provinces, and countries.
This summer, Chloe worked on piloting The Nature Playbook in Yellowknife, her hometown. She is reaching children in parks, showing them fun and simple ways of connecting with Nature. She is also working with organizations to institutionalize Nature-based learning and education opportunities for local and regional children. On a larger scale, Chloe has spoken to many important audiences about her passion for connecting children and youth to nature. In late 2014 Chloe was a plenary speaker at the IUCN World Parks Congress where she spoke to 6000 delegates about the interconnection between Nature, education and culture. Similarly, she was asked to provide an opening address at the Inspiring a New Generation Summit in November 2015.
Connecting people with Nature is important to Chloe because she loves the land and cares about conservation - but most of all, she wants to bring the wonderful feelings she's had outdoors to others. We are all part of Nature, and so spending time outdoors brings us a lot of balance. By helping to create balanced, happy people we can accomplish many societal goals, even beyond conservation.
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- W.I.L.D. Ambassador, Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens / United States / Read More
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- Graduate Student, Portland State University / United States
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- Lead Organizer, Natural Leaders Network / United States / Read More
Connel is a founding member of a new youth conservation organisation, Youth for Wildlife Conservation and was chosen as part of a youth delegation for outstanding youth conservation leaders at the 2016 CITES in South Africa.
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- Senior Knowledge and Learning Manager, Education Outside
- Senior Knowledge and Learning Manager, Education Outside / United States
Danielle Diuguid has spent her career building community through science and environmental education. She's currently the Senior Knowledge and Learning Manager at Education Outside, where she supports the professional development of Education Outside's instructors and the programmatic impact initiatives for 55 partner schools across the San Francisco Bay Area. Danielle began as an instructor with Education Outside four years ago, where she launched an outdoor education program at a low-income San Francisco public elementary school. At this school, she collaborated with fourth and fifth grade students and UC Berkeley's Center for Cities and Schools to successfully plan, design, and build the school's new learning garden, transforming the schoolyard from grey to green. The project was showcased by the San Francisco Board of Education as a model for project-based, experiential learning and highlighted in local and national media publications as a student-driven initiative to engage and act on behalf of the local community and environment.
Inspired by her roots, where her grandfather was one of the first black men in the United States to receive a PhD in chemistry, Danielle is committed to creating transformative educational experiences and pathways for underrepresented students in the science and environmental fields. She's helped lead diversity, equity, and inclusion programming for Education Outside and across California, presenting workshops at regional and international conferences. She also served as a local perspective during the California Department of Education's Environmental Literacy Steering Committee visioning sessions on their statewide regional education network. She's currently tasked with creating the architecture and resources that will equip Education Outside's instructors to successfully deliver educational programs, setting the foundation that will allow Education Outside to shift from a regional to national organization. She's honored to bring environmental programming to public schools and students across the country.
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- Environmental Health Coordinator, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
- Environmental Health Coordinator, WE ACT for Environmental Justice / United States
A native to San Francisco's southeast region, David first became exposed to environmental injustice in parks closest to his home. Unlike the parks he would frequent for soccer tournaments or weekend picnics in the city's northwest, David found himself a victim of crime across several parks just blocks from his house. These parks were unsafe, lacked maintenance, and too often seemed disregarded. In 2004, David joined the Inspiring Young Emerging Leaders Program at the Crissy Field Center where he laid down roots in environmental education, stewardship, and environmental justice.
Ten plus years later, David continues to follow in the steps of his mentors at the Crissy Field Center. His passion is to empower those he works with to speak up about issues they are facing and to ensure that their voices are heard. He has developed multilingual environmental education programs, incorporated advocacy/political education components into said programs, set up town hall meetings and events with elected officials, and used citizen science/community based participatory research to strengthen campaigns. As the Environmental Health Coordinator at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, David manages a ten week educational course titled the Environmental Health and Justice Leadership Training Program, liaises between WE ACT and its academic partners to translate environmental health research back to the community, and organizes the Healthy Homes Campaign where he sits on steering committees for two coalitions: Asthma Free Homes and Stand for Tenant Safety. With WE ACT, David also served as a judge for the National Environmental Health Association Innovating for Environmental Health App Challenge and is currently a member of the American Public Health Association's - Environmental Health Coalition.
Prior to working at WE ACT, David collected qualitative data around park usage as a social assessment field researcher for the NYC Urban Field Station. He also led environmental education and stewardship programs for the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department as well as the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. As a result of these programs, the parks he once found to be unsafe and underserved are now in the hands of various volunteer groups and youth who share a role in helping to improve the parks on weekends and on monthly cleanup days. David holds a BA in Environmental Studies/Biology from UC Santa Cruz and an MA in Environmental Conservation Education from NYU
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- Education Coordinator, Nisqually River Foundation
- Education Coordinator, Nisqually River Foundation / United States
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- Student, Cornell University / United States
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- Co - Founder, Our Poles Our Planet / Canada
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- STEM Programs Manager, USC Joint Educational Project / United States
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- Software / Mechanical Engineer
Eden Full Goh is a software/mechanical engineer interested in building products to solve society's biggest problems. She is the inventor of the SunSaluter, a low-cost mechanism that optimizes solar panels while providing clean water for rural, off-grid communities in eighteen countries. The SunSaluter is a solar panel rotator designed for the developing world. Using only the power of gravity and water, the SunSaluter enables a solar panel to follow the sun throughout the day, boosting efficiency by 30% and producing four liters of clean drinking water. It is 30 times less expensive than conventional motorized solar panel rotators, much more reliable, and consumes no electricity itself. To implement the SunSaluter technology in communities around the world, Eden started SunSaluter, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to improving energy and water access in the developing world. The team believes that a market-based approach is necessary to bring the SunSaluter to those who need it most, so the organization helps local entrepreneurs establish for-profit businesses around the technology.Named one of the 30 under 30 in Forbes' Energy & Industry three years in a row, one of the US Chamber of Commerce's IP Champions and Ashoka's Youth Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Eden was a member of the Thiel Fellowship's inaugural class. The SunSaluter has been honoured by the MIT Climate CoLab's Grand Prize, the Westly Prize, Mashable/UN Foundation Startups for Social Good Challenge and the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge. She studied Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science and Robotics & Intelligent Systems at Princeton University. Proudly Canadian, she was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, but now lives in New York City.
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- Environmental Education Outreach Specialist, NOAA / United States
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- National Park Service / United States
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- Executive Coordinator, SustainUS
- Executive Coordinator, SustainUS / United States
Garrett Blad is a climate justice activist, educator, systems thinker and doer, collage artist, and performance poet from (small town you have never heard of) Indiana. He is currently Executive Coordinator of SustainUS, a youth-led organization advancing justice and sustainability by training and empowering young people to engage in advocacy. He works at multiple scales of change-making to build a more just and sustainable world - from the United Nations climate negotiations to his alma mater where he co-launched a fossil fuel divestment campaign. Garrett is committed to using the power of story to build strong relationships and communities to advance social change. He envisions a future where no child in Indiana, or anywhere, fears the air they breathe, the water from the kitchen tap, or the soil in their front lawn will poison them. All of Garrett's work seeks to reimagine and reorient our economic, educational, and political systems to facilitate a speedy transition to a democratic, sustainable, and peaceful world. Garrett has a degree in Environmental Science and Sustainable Policy from the University of Notre Dame.
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- Member of the Executive Committee
- Senior Education Specialist, US Environmental Protection Agency
- Senior Education Specialist, US Environmental Protection Agency / United States
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- Environmental Education Consultant
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- Global Education Coordinator, WWF Finland
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- Executive Director, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful
- Executive Director, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful / United Kingdom
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- Honorary Member, Foundation for Environmental Education ( FEE )
- Honorary Member, Foundation for Environmental Education ( FEE ) Denmark
Jan Eriksen was the President for the Foundation for Environmental Education from 2004-2016 and Vice President from 1996-2004. The Foundation has developed five internationally recognized programs, including Eco-Schools, The Blue Flag, The Green Key, Learning about Forests, and Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE). The Foundation has MoUs with different UN bodies, including UNESCO, and is deeply engaged in the work for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The Foundation has 85 members in 75 countries.
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- Kaiārahi - Waste Advisor, Para Kore - Zero Waste / New Zealand
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- Co - Founder, the Plastic Connection / Canada
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- Student, Wildlife Researcher & Nature Educator, Langur Project Penang ( LPP ) Malaysia
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- President, HOPE / United States
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- Deputy Director, Fundacion Para La Tierra / Paraguay
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- Member of the Executive Committee
- Executive Director, North American Association for Environmental Education
- Executive Director, North American Association for Environmental Education / United States
Judy Braus brings to her role as NAAEE Executive Director a wealth of experience in the environmental education profession, with a focus on conservation education, diversity and inclusion, and using the power of education to help create healthier communities that empower local communities, stakeholders, and individuals to help restore and protect the environment. She comes to NAAEE from the National Audubon Society, where she was the Senior Vice President of Education and Centers, overseeing an extensive nationwide network of nature centers and educators. Prior to that, she led the education programs at World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the U.S. Peace Corps, and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).
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- Outreach Coordinator, Coal River Mountain Watch
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- Founder and Director, Centre for Environmental Education
- Founder and Director, Centre for Environmental Education / India
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- Global Environmental Education Partnership / Global Environmental Education Partnership
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- Executive Director, International Student Environmental Coalition / United States
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- Founder and President, Green Hope Foundation
- Founder and President, Green Hope Foundation / Canada
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- Director of Residential Programs, Energize NY
- Director of Residential Programs, Energize NY / United States
- Director of the Homeowner Program at Energize NY
Lauren Brois is the Director of the Homeowner Program at Energize NY, a community based non-profit located in Westchester County, NY. Energize NY guides homeowners through the process of making home energy efficiency improvements while taking advantage of NY State and utility incentives. Through her work, more than 1,300 Westchester homes have become more energy efficient, saving homeowners a total of $2.5 million annually and reducing greenhouse gases by 2,600 tonnes. Lauren also works with local officials, community organizations and volunteers to best deliver Energize NY's resources to homeowners, including creating educational content and social media messaging. This spring, Lauren was a featured speaker at the Better Buildings Summit in Washington, DC and profiled the creative marketing and community-based messaging she has pioneered during her nearly five years at Energize NY.
Lauren is a highly committed Environmental Educator with a strong record of influencing community behavior and government policies through innovative education programs, creative marketing strategies and strong community relationships. She is passionate about environmental stewardship and dedicated to creating a more sustainable community by reducing waste.
Outside of work, Lauren is a familiar presence at numerous sustainability initiatives across Westchester County. She is a member of the Advisory Board of Bedford 2020, her town's sustainability organization founded to reduce Bedford's carbon footprint 20% by 2020. Lauren's recent projects include launching a Community Compost program, starting Single Stream Recycling and supporting the Greenlight Awards, a sustainability competition for local high school students which allows them to showcase their solutions to environmental challenges. Lauren also volunteers with Green Ossining, hosting the largest Earth Day Celebration in Westchester County, NY and helps organize the monthly Ossining Documentary and Discussion Series
Lauren got her start in the environmental movement as an undergraduate at SUNY New Paltz, where she was the campus Recycling Coordinator. She spearheaded new environmental initiatives such as consumption demonstrations, recycling-themed gameshow competitions and a dorm move-out program. A certified NY State teacher and sustainability specialist with over 9 years of experience in reducing waste in community settings, Lauren is proud to be engaging with communities, building relationships, and using the power of education to create behavioral and environmental change.
Leah Davidson is a young Canadian social entrepreneur passionate about innovative and immersive approaches to environmental education. In high school, she received a scholarship to travel to Antarctica on an educational expedition with Students on Ice. Inspired by the beauty and fragility of this remote ecosystem, Leah collected art, poetry, and creative writing from the students and staff on the expedition and published the first youth anthology focused on Antarctica, which is now used as an educational resource by the International Polar Foundation.
Her efforts in youth environmental education have tried to make the study of conservation more interdisciplinary and integrated with psychology, art, and human emotion. Since people have many different learning styles, Leah believes sustainability should reflect a variety of interests and teaching methods. Leah started speaking in schools and delivered over 50 environmental presentations to audiences as diverse as retirement homes, kindergarten classes, TEDx, and the Montreal Science Center. As a student at the University of Pennsylvania, she worked with 30 schools to integrate climate change into their curricula and partnered with 15 green business to launch Act for Antarctica, a campaign that encouraged students to pay it forward with conservation and environmental education projects. This resulted in over 1000 acts across five continents submitted over the course of a year. Participating schools hosted Lights Out awareness days, started recycling clubs, held documentary screenings, and created environmental art exhibits.
In university, Leah co-founded the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities (PPEH), an interdisciplinary research and academic program bridging art and sustainability that has led to an academic minor, graduate certificate, tenure-track faculty hires, annual research fellowships, an artist-in-residence program, and curated community events, such as a Faith and Environmentalism Conference. This program has raised over $1.5 million, most recently from a Mellon Center grant. Leah continues to work on changing the way that climate change is communicated to be more constructive and hopeful. She has served different UN agencies: as a writer/blogger on climate change and environment for UNICEF and as a delegate/speaker at the UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Japan, where she co-drafted a policy statement distributed to UNESCO Commissions worldwide. Most recently, her adventures took her to Denmark, where she participated in UNLEASH, a Global Innovation Lab for the Sustainable Development Goals, working on Sustainable Consumption and Production solutions. Leah hopes to further develop the emerging discipline of the environmental humanities and reach people through new media, digital technologies, and a message of love for the natural world.
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- Education Coordinator for Friends of the Rappahannock
- Education Coordinator, Friends of the Rappahannock / United States
Lowery Pemberton Becker is the Education Coordinator for Friends of the Rappahannock (FOR) in Virginia. FOR is a grassroots, membership-based nonprofit organization with a mission to be the voice and active force for a healthy and scenic Rappahannock River. Lowery's initial love for the Rappahannock River began during her childhood with family gatherings and countless days spent within its waters. That love was strengthened into a career desire while attending Rappahannock High School and the Chesapeake Bay Governor's School where marshes were her classroom. After graduation, Lowery attended the University of Virginia and received a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Sciences with a Specialization in Environmental and Biological Conservation. Following college, Lowery was an Americorps VISTA with FOR where she worked to expand FOR's voice into the tidal watershed and raise awareness of water quality issues. Lowery joined FOR as the Education Coordinator in 2013 and has since received her Master of Education from the University of Mary Washington.
While you may see Lowery leading field trips on FOR's 12 acres nature preserve, tubing through rapids with campers, teaching kids how to paddle in tidal tributaries or sitting on the alphabetical rug in a Head Start classroom; her main passion has been a program called A River Runs Through Us (ARRTU). In 2000, Virginia signed the Chesapeake Bay Agreement making Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEE) a mandatory, yet unfunded, educational component for every student in the state. MWEEs incorporate environmental education and awareness through strengthening background information, attending field experiences, taking action and reflecting. MWEEs are not one-day experiences; they require student growth through experience in order to create behavioral change. Through funding from NOAA B-WET, Lowery has taken ARRTU, a program created in partnership with organizations from Three Rivers Environmental Educators, and expanded it from one school to nine within seven counties. Lowery works with each teacher to create a school-specific program with lessons, action projects, field experiences and reflections. A MWEE is not a one-size-fits-all program and many details and components go into each. Students are not the only individuals met by Lowery's programs. Professional developments for teachers and administrators are also included to strengthen the integration of environmental education into the curriculum. Since 2014, ARRTU has taught 1,218 students, met with 111 teachers and administrators and depended on 21 partner organizations. She is excited to see the program grow and watch more students get inspired!
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- Founder and Board Chairman, Fishing for Families in Need / United States
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- Head of the Pacific Biodiversity Institute 's South American
Lucila Belén Castro, 29, completed her biology degree at the National University of Cordoba, Argentina and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Institute of Ecology and Animal Diversity at the University of Cordoba. She received an Argentinian government fellowship to fund her studies in conservation biology.
Lucila grew up in central Argentina on the shores of Mar Chiquita, one of the largest inland waterbodies in South America. She has been engaged in wetland protection since the age of 15 and studied flamingo migration patterns on Mar Chiquita for her undergraduate degree. Lula has worked with a wetland and flamingo conservation group since 2010 and has served as a young scientist on the board of the International Society for Salt Lake Research since 2014.
Lucila is head of the Pacific Biodiversity Institute's South American office, working on the political and scientific prerequisites for three new national parks including one at Mar Chiquita. She has almost single-handedly motivated whole communities and high-level stakeholders around the shared vision of new national parks in Argentina.
Despite her youth, Lucila has quickly blossomed into a seasoned and skilled educator, negotiator, and scientist who has presented her work internationally at top congresses around the world. She is a vibrant and dynamic force in education, research and conservation. She has worked extensively in environmental education giving talks and participating in several social campaigns with students and with local communities, giving presentation both in South America and in North America.
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- International Programs Coordinator, North American Association for Environmental Education
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- Michigan Sustainability Cases Community Engagement Specialist, University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability / United States / Read More
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- Coordinator, Global Partnership on Nutrient Management ( GPNM ), United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP )
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- Director General, Center for Environmental Education and Communication ( CICEANA )
- Director General, Center for Environmental Education and Communication ( CICEANA ) Mexico
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- W.I.L.D. Ambassador, Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens / United States / Read More
Marquese Fluellen does not have the schedule of a typical high school student, but he has worked hard to claim it as his own. In addition to being a multiple-sport athlete, participating in soccer, cross country, and tennis, Marquese is also dedicated to saving plants and animals in the wild.
In 2016, Marquese, was inducted into the inaugural year of the Wildlife Immersion and Leadership Development (W.I.L.D.) Program, a city-partnered Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens program to address teen engagement and environmental literacy. Marquese both transformed the program into a stronger community resource and was personally instrumental in leading the program to award-winning heights. To date, the W.I.L.D. Program has won awards on the state level from The Florida State Department and the Division of Cultural Affairs and Citizens for Florida Arts, Inc., as well as on the national level from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Over the 2016/2017 year, Marquese has become the face of his community and a voice for the environment. He has trained to be a junior horticulturist; helping create, construct and start the W.I.L.D. Garden Project which will deliver organically grown fruits and veggies to the local homeless shelters. Marquese also created an outreach program, Snack Attack, through which he and his peers deliver to the neighborhoods that have been influential in their lives and to schools that are predominately African-American. He is also a certified animal trainer and environmental educator, dedicated to challenging the stigmas within his community surrounding animals, plants and their importance to the ecosystem.
Today, you can find Marquese recruiting teens from neighborhoods like his for the W.I.L.D Program or spearheading an invasive plant removal at the local beach. Tomorrow, he could be teaching his neighbors how to "Take Action" in saving salamanders or training a hyacinth macaw for an educational presentation. Nevertheless, every day, Marquese is deliberate in showcasing that representation and inclusion matters.
"Take Action, even if it's a little. Because a little bit of this can make a whole lot of that. And THAT is what will preserve our environment." - Marquese Fluellen
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- WWF Austria "Generation Earth" Www.Generationearth.at Austria / Read More
MaryAm Ghadiri is a 4th year PhD students at the Center for Global Soundscapes at Purdue University. While her background is on ecology and wildlife conservation, the focus of her current research is on informal learning and environmental education. Her experience as a freelance environmental journalist made her interested to connect environmental science to public especially, youth. She has actively engaged in communicating my research to the community through numerous talks for different societies and especially to children.
MaryAm led the design of a unique youth STEM curricular materials about the soundscape ecology called YELLs (Your Ecosystem Listening Labs). Soundscape ecology is an ecological topic that its main focus is on sounds as indicators of environmental health. She works with diverse group of people, scientists, ecologists, graphic designer, and camp educators to design and implement YELLs. The soundscape curricula is accessible to visually impaired students as well, as their hearing sense is their main sense facilitating their abilities to become accomplished soundscape ecologists.
The material is designed to get youth (grades 5-7) out in nature and encourage them to listen to the soundscapes around them and make sense of the environment through the lens of soundscapes. MaryAm's goal is to encourage participants, in particular visually impaired students not only gain better understanding of environment around them through different observation techniques but also pursue their further education in the area of science, mainly ecology.
As an international student from Iran, MaryAm also worked with a group of environmental journalists from Iran to present their photos in a photo exhibition called "Iran beyond Politics" to educate students and scholars at Purdue University about the natural and cultural aspect of my country, Iran. She was the curator of this photo exhibition and the main coordinator working internationally and nationally with different people to make the exhibition happen. The result of the photo exhibition led to a TEDx Purdue invitation for a talk which took place on April 2016.
Currently, she serves as an AAAS Emerging Leader in Science and Society Fellow. Parts of the fellowship duties entail working with local people and stakeholders on the topic of drinking water. The fellows set out to investigate the role of contaminants and their impact on the resilience of drinking water system in the Greater Lafayette regional area. The outcome of the session will be reported to stakeholders on a state and federal level and will assist future policies.
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- Fundadora, Pampanos Verde Corp
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- Director of International Programs, North American Association for Environmental Education / United States
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- Founder, Farming the Future / United States
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- Co - Founder, Shaping Young Eco - Changemakers, Guyana Youth & Environment Network
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- WWF Global Education Co - Coordinator
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- Community Development Officer, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful
- Community Development Officer, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful / United Kingdom
Nicola has been employed as the Community Development Officer at Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful since 2011. She holds an MSC in Sustainable Rural Development and Project Management and a BSC in Geography from Queen's University in Belfast.
Nicola joined Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful through a placement from The Conservation Volunteers initially to provide advice and support to volunteers through Northern Ireland's national clean-up campaign, The Big Spring Clean. Nicola ensured volunteer participation in The Big Spring Clean grew year on year and brought with it the support of strategic partners, particularly all 26 Local Authorities. Such was her success that the campaign duration was extended from a fortnight to the full month of April each year. The campaign now involves over 110,000 people annually, representing approximately 6% of the Northern Irish population.
Nicola quickly added running the Coast, River and Lough Care programmes to her work. This supports a further 4,000 volunteers who clean up our coast line removing marine litter on an ongoing basis. She has continued to grow the number of groups getting involved, the number of people volunteering and the amount of rubbish removed. On a small number of beaches monitored quarterly she has managed volunteers who have removed over two thirds of a million individual pieces of litter since starting the project in September 2012. More recently, Nicola has added the Live Here Love Here campaign to her work load. In this she is inspiring individuals to take positive environmental action within their communities through developing a sense of civic pride. Under Nicola's leadership the campaign has developed over 230 Adopt A Spot groups across Northern Ireland.
Nicola also manages a Small Grants Scheme, enabling communities to carry out environmental and sustainability projects to grow civic pride. The scheme, in its first three years, awarded over a quarter of a million pounds to community groups in Northern Ireland. This funding programme not only ensures sustainable environmental action, but also helps to break down barriers between communities. Nicola encourages collaborative work so that different communities, often viewed as opposing communities, can come together, work together and build trust together through non-contentious environmental action that benefits everyone.
Nicola's enthusiasm, strong work ethic and drive for positive environmental action has resulted in her recruiting and working with over 100,000 volunteers every year across Northern Ireland. Her name is well known for her friendly and approachable nature. Children as young as five have been inspired by her, communities respect her, and people are always keen to express their high regard for her work ethic and passion. Nicola wants to ensure everyone plays a role in helping to protect the environment. She has led on all volunteering programmes for Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful and is proving her leadership through success in all areas of her work. Her passion for the environment does not stop at 5pm. She is often present at litter picks and spruce up initiatives throughout the country at evenings and weekends. Nicola believes that you can only lead if people want to follow, and she has ensured that her work always results in people wanting to follow her example.
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- Senior Manager, International Programs and EE 30 under 30, North American Association for Environmental Education
- Senior Manager, International Programs and EE 30 under 30, North American Association for Environmental Education / United States
Nina comes to NAAEE with a background focused on community-based conservation and social inclusion, from working with mangrove-dependent communities in Madagascar to coordinating a global advisory group to promote women's land rights. After a childhood spent living in Asia and Latin America, Nina is particularly passionate about working across cultures to combine her interests in the environment, sustainable development, and social equity. Nina has a Master's in Environmental Management from Duke University, and through her Master's project worked closely with a community-based wildlife management and environmental education project in Gabon, where she conducted community mapping in 10 rural communities to better understand their priorities and concerns related to their natural resources.
Paola Flores is a twenty-two year old recent college graduate of UC Berkeley. She grew up in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, where it was difficult to create ties or relationships to outdoor spaces such as national parks or forests. Recreating these places was not a reality for her family as they did not have the knowledge, the funds, or the time to visit these spaces. It was not until later in life that she had the opportunity to camp with her family, during which they were able to reconnect with the land that her ancestors once sowed and lived off of in her home country.
Low income neighborhoods of color are often excluded from outdoor experiences, due to their socioeconomic status. Marginalized communities must have the same opportunities to enjoy and build genuine connections to the land around them because it is crucial these lands be protected and enjoyed by all. Outdoor spaces need to evolve into more diverse, equitable, and inclusive areas for populations who are currently not taken into account. It is Paola's belief that the best way to make these spaces culturally relevant is through the cultural teachings of people's true origins and relations to the land, in hopes of invigorating a sense of reclamation for these spaces, and ultimately promoting enjoyment out of the land they originated from.
As a teacher intern in KIDS for the BAY and an intern at Rosie the Riveter WWII Homefront National Historical Park, Paola's goal was to treat each student with respect and the individuality they deserved. She attempted to learn each participants narrative in order to create lasting personalized connections to the land, alongside the environmental lessons taught inside and outside a classroom. As youth committee lead for the "Youth, Equity, & Inclusion: The Next Generation of the National Parks Service Convening" she helped plan a youth lead and driven conference that allowed youth voices to be heard by local environmental nonprofits and Bay Area park managers. In my current fellowship with the National Park Service over the next year, Paola hopes to continue helping conduct programs whose aim is to diversify the outdoors.
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- Senior Policy Researcher, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies ( IGES )
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- Assistant Forest Officer, District Forest Office
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- Education for Sustainable Development Programme Manager, National Union of Students ( UK ) United Kingdom
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- Education Specialist, Topeka Zoo and Conservation Center / United States
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- Development Officer, Conservation, the National Recreation and Park Association / United States
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- Environmental Education Manager, Parks & People Foundation / United States
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- Education Officer
- Education Officer, Centre for Environment Education
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- President, Go Healthy STL, VolunTEENnation.Org
- President, Go Healthy STL, VolunTEENnation.Org / United States
Sophie Bernstein is a high school junior from St. Louis, MO. She started growing an organic vegetable garden in her backyard to help fight hunger in her community. After visiting area food banks to donate her crops, she discovered that there were limited fresh produce options available for families utilizing the food banks. Sophie took action and engaged her peers to help, build, plant and maintain raised vegetable garden beds at low-income pre-schools in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. Sophie and her team of volunteers have built 22 raised garden vegetable beds at area pre-schools and shelters. She has donated over 9,500 pounds of produce to local food banks.
Sophie's Pre-School Garden service learning projects gives urban pre-school children and their families access to fresh produce and the opportunity to learn from high schools students about plants, life, and health in an outdoor environment. By offering young children the chance to plant seeds, learn about the garden from teens, watch their crops grow, and harvest the crops directly from their play-place, to put that freshest possible fruits and vegetable directly into their mouths, a lasting connection is made between the source of food, healthy eating habits, positive community role models, and a love and wonder for the earth.
Sophie was selected for The Alliance for A Healthier Generation Youth Advisory Board for her commitment to promoting health and fitness in her community. When Sophie is not out in the garden, you can often find her in the outfield trying to catch softballs for her high school team, hiking with her dad or throwing the discus for her high school track and field team.
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- Co - Founder, Eco - Schools Leadership Initiative ( ESLI ) United States
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- Co - Lead, Environmental Health and Justice Leadership Training, WE ACT for Environmental Justice / the University of Pennsylvania / United States
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- Director, Artist & Facilitator - in - Training, Co - Design Engage
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- Head of Education and Markets, WWF - Malaysia
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- Habitat and Education Coordinator, National Wildlife Federation / United States / Read More
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- Member of the Executive Committee
- Director General, Environmental Protection Administration, ROC ( Taiwan )
- Director General, Environmental Protection Administration, ROC ( Taiwan ) Taiwan
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- Assistant Coordinator - Outdoor Voices Youth Leadership Initiative, Outdoor Outreach
- Assistant Coordinator - Outdoor Voices Youth Leadership Initiative, Outdoor Outreach / United States
Months after moving to California at age 10, Vincent Culliver's family found themselves homeless on the streets of downtown San Diego. For someone who has experienced trauma at a young age, the fear of the unknown can be paralyzing. Vincent found Outdoor Outreach, a San Diego non-profit that showed him that more was possible, starting with standing up on a surfboard, or topping out on a climb.
Today, Vincent is an assistant field staff instructor at Outdoor Outreach, where he has the opportunity to help kids who are struggling with a lot of the same issues he has. By using the outdoors as a place for young people to learn and grow, he is helping inspire other San Diego teens to respect and protect the parks, trails and beaches where they play. Without connection to the environment it is hard for young adults in under resourced communities to see the value in it all.
Being at Outdoor Outreach has empowered Vincent to have his voice heard, providing opportunities for him to affect conservation policy at the local, state and national levels. Vincent has testified to the California Resources Secretary, Director of California State Parks and Secretary of the Interior; and the recommendations of he and his colleagues have been integrated into key California policy and legislation, including the Parks Forward Commission Final Report and the $3.1 Billion Parks Bond approved by the State Assembly. As a voice for change, Vincent can help advance equitable access to public lands for youth from low-income, "park-poor" communities.
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- Partner & Designer, Level Studio Inc
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- Member of the Executive Committee
- Coordinator in Environmental Education at the Department of Comprehensive Planning
- Department of Comprehensive Planning, Environmental Protection Administration, ROC ( Taiwan )
- Department of Comprehensive Planning, Environmental Protection Administration, ROC ( Taiwan ) Taiwan
Wen-Feng serves as a coordinator in environmental education at the Department of Comprehensive Planning, EPA Taiwan. She was the main contact coordinator for IEP environmental education programs from 2014 to May 2019, including GEEP and KMS programs. Also she was in charge of the US-Taiwan Eco-Campus Partnership Program from 2014 to June 2022.
She is now in charge of the Demark-Taiwan environmental education partnership & environmental caring designs competition program. Wen-Feng is also responsible for a national environmental volunteer contest planning and statistics, collaboration EE programs with other government sectors, and EE programs of Taiwan local governments.
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- Professor Emeritus, University of Bath Centre for Research in Education and the Environment
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- Environmental Engineer, SMEC Asia Limited University of Bristol Doctoral Candidate
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- Founder and Education Director, Outdoor Wildlife Learning Hong Kong
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- Environmental Project Manager, Global Environmental Enhancement Incorporation
Ya-Ling is a passionate and dedicated environmental educator with a marine ecology and environmental management background. She is also a well-trained instructor for the global and native overfishing teaching module (for middle and elementary school students) in Taiwan. Recently, her animal artwork has been exhibited as part of a large EE campaign in October 2017 in Taiwan.
Ya-Ling has conducted ecological investigations in mangrove forests and witnessed serious water pollution. She realized how the animal population changes in various polluted regions from the river to the ocean. With this experience, her concern for the environment and what she learned from the lab made her start to emphasize the importance of knowledge transfer from scientists to the public. She began trying to solve environmental problems by understanding more about environmental communications to people and society.
After graduating from University of Queensland with her MS of Environmental Management, she worked in a lab focused on the health of coral reef and coastal impacts. In addition, she helped train students as "Coral Ambassadors" to represent Taiwan and to visit the U.S. as part of an exchange program for middle school students. Her great achievement was conducting the application work for the National Environmental Education Award and helping the National Marine Museum earn the top honor. She believes that carrying out quality EE and promoting people's awareness of marine biodiversity are the keys to success in environmental conservation.
Ya-Ling's work is now focused on EE policy and strategy for the Ministry of Education (MOE). In this role, she has brought a selected team of top EE promoters (principals and teachers) from Taiwan, as representatives of the Ministry of Education, to go abroad to Korea as part of an exchange program with Korean principals, teachers, and nature centers. In addition, she is part of an initiative to promote EE in schools by systematically linking it to the National Curriculum, and to extend the insights of EE teaching in regard to social, economic, political aspects for different learning stages of school children. Since the mechanism and law for school EE already exists, she aims to upgrade the strategy for designing basic through advanced levels of EE and to help all the counties and cities build their recognition of their land and environment.
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- Professor, Director of Environmental Education Extension Center, Aletheia University / Taiwan