People

I am currently a PhD (DPhil) candidate at the University of Oxford in the Department of Education. My research focus, under the supervision of Dr. Ann Childs and Dr. Steve Puttick, is Environmental Education for students living in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

Gamal Sherif’s commitment to environmental education started in Philadelphia when he served as a high school science teacher. While teaching in an 80 year-old building with unhealthy indoor environmental quality, Gamal realized that this situation was neither just nor sustainable, and that curriculum, instruction, assessment, and policy should be aligned to improving students’ experiences.

Since then, Gamal has served as a curriculum director, a principal, and as a consultant the Center for Teaching Quality, the National Science Foundation, and the North American Association for Environmental Education. As a Program Manager with the environmental education nonprofit EcoRise, Gamal worked with educators, students, architects, and engineers to create a green building network replete with year-round professional development, equitably paid internships, and related credentialing.

Gamal has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from SUNY-Binghamton, a Masters in Teaching from Temple University, and a Master of Science in Educational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2012, he was selected as a fellow with the U.S. Department of Education and since then, has provided guidance on national climate education policy and energy efficiency planning. In 2019, he became an ambassador with the United Nations’ #TeachSDG (i.e., Sustainable Development Goals) program. Gamal is also a credentialed LEED Green Associate.

Gamal and his family enjoy cooking, biking, and gardening. After years of replacing lawn with native perennials, shrubs, and trees, they turned their yard into a National Wildlife Federation-certified wildlife habitat.

Jeanine Ancelet is the principal and co-founder of Audience Focus. She directs audience research and evaluation projects and guides strategic and interpretive planning initiatives for leading museums and cultural organizations across the country.  In her spare time, you can find her in nature serving as a Maryland Master Naturalist and Audubon Habitat Advisor.

Maggie Allen is an Education Specialist at NOAA's Office of Education, contracted through TechGlobal. Beginning her role in the office as a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow, she now coordinates grant and partnership programs, such as a network of 27 aquariums, that work to build a more environmentally literate society. Maggie has a B.A. in Environmental Sociology from Whitman College and a Master's in Marine and Environmental Affairs from the University of Washington, where her thesis focused on how partnerships and policy contributed to a successful indigenous-led social movement against a fossil fuel export terminal in the Pacific Northwest. Maggie has worked as a social scientist for NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center, an AmeriCorps VISTA at the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, and as an environmental educator in the Florida Keys.

 

Kia ora, Ko Sian Crowley toku ingoa. I’m Sian, an environmental educator, programme manager, and volunteer. Through place-based environmental education and nature connection, I’m on a mission to create intergenerational change in our relationship with the environment. Fueled by my childhood memories of nature connection, curiosity and experience, and opportunities I received as a student, I have a goal of improving environmental education across Aotearoa.

I take pride in being able to create and offer new opportunities to the community, whilst inspiring, and empowering other rangatahi along the way.

Taralynn has been a lifelong advocate of animals and the natural world and was inspired to pursue a career in conservation and education. After time in the field, she began teaching as an environmental educator at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York after completing a master's degree in Conservation Biology from Columbia University. There she helped create and implement academic programs based on ecological learning principles and delivered them to students across the New York City metropolitan area. Taralynn helped develop a schoolyard habitat program with the National Audubon Society where she worked with K-12 students to plan and build "living laboratories" or outdoor classrooms.

An avid traveler, Taralynn has combined her passion for protecting the planet and seeing new places. She spent three months living in the rainforests of Madagascar, studying endangered primates as a study abroad student and two months in Ecuador where she led groups of high school students through the amazing experience of creating wildlife habitat and monitoring plant growth in the famous Galapagos Islands. This led her to accept a position as a biology and environmental science teacher at BASIS International School Shenzhen, China. 

Taralynn joined Group for the East End, a regional environmental advocacy, education and conservation organization in 2019 where she works as outreach director. In this position, Taralynn manages a 51-acre preserve, bringing environmental education and nature-based opportunities to the public, from schools to scouts to adults seeking respite, the audience she serves is diverse. She manages habitat restoration projects at preserves throughout Southold Town by removing invasive plants and re-planting with native plants. 

I grew up in wild NY exploring acres of forest and farm. Years later I received a teaching credential and BA of Science in Phys. Ed from SUNY Cortland. My passion for play collided with outdoor education and later forest schooling. 5 years ago I co-founded EverWild's nature immersion program in LA.