People

As a dedicated educational leader and lifelong learner, I am committed to cultivating school communities where every student and educator can thrive. With diverse teaching and leadership experience in both domestic and international settings, I bring a global perspective, a strong instructional focus, and a deep commitment to equity and excellence in education.

My name is Tess and I am a student leader and founder of Climate in Every Classroom, a youth-led initiative brings climate education into all subject areas and ensuring teachers have simplified resources and confidence to teach climate change. We are developing a workshop model led by a coalition of organizations for our volunteer’s K-12 teachers with continued follow-up throughout the school year designed to help schools easily integrate climate topics across disciplines and to make climate learning more accessible, and connected to everyday education. We’re looking to expand climate literacy and build practical, scalable approaches to environmental education within schools.

I am a teacher of 4 1/2 years at PGCPS. I have worked in the education sector most of my adult life. I love the Arts and all that it enlightens. I am the eldest of eight children. 

I am a special education teacher working in a K-5 elementary school which hosts a specialty program for Talented and Gifted Students. I work directly with about 20-25 students a year, but work in multiple classrooms to teach more than special education. 

I have a degree in Environmental Studies with a minor in Sociology. Additionally I have work experience in environmental social media marketing as well as intership experience in marine biology. 

NAAEE’s Senior Director of Capacity Building, Sarah Bodor comes from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, where she held a number of program management and leadership positions throughout the organization. She worked closely with state education agencies in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to develop and pilot standards-based curricula and provide teacher professional development. Her background also includes communications and fundraising. In 2008, she served as the writer of Maryland’s Children in Nature Plan, which resulted in passage of Maryland’s environmental high school graduation requirement.

Sydney spent the bulk of her childhood learning and growing under the canopy of the southeastern deciduous forests that make up her home state of Virginia. She earned her B.A. in International Studies with a minor in Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Following her undergraduate schooling, she began working as a youth environmental educator, leading her to eventually pursue her M.A. in the University of Utah's Environmental Humanities Program to study how nature-based programs can better support nature-connections across diverse groups. While in Utah, she also co-founded Camping in Color, an overnight program designed for black youth and their families in the Salt Lake Valley area to enhance a sense of belonging, appreciation, and engagement in the outdoors. She joins the Natural Start Alliance team excited to further her work in making quality early childhood environmental education more accessible to all.

I am a mother of 2. I have been a teacher for 25 years. I am a crafter.

I am a 5th grade teacher at North East Elementary School