People

The Houston Arboretum & Nature Center is a 155-acre non-profit urban nature sanctuary whose mission is to provide education about the natural environment to people of all ages and to protect and enhance the Arboretum as a haven and as a sanctuary for native plants and animals.

Kylie is an informal science educator with over a decade of teaching experience in museums, zoos, aquariums, and nature centers. She earned her Master's in Teaching Biology in 2022 and currently teaches science classes for children and families at the American Museum of Natural History. Kylie is also a producer for Biology on Tap: a free monthly science communication series for adults.

Meet Parker McMullen Bushman, Chief Operating Officer of Inclusive Journeys, and founder of Ecoinclusive Strategies. Parker is a dynamic speaker and facilitator that engages organizations in new thinking around what it means to be a diversity change-agent in conservation and environmental education.

Elizabeth brings 20 years of professional experience in and outside the classroom to the 2018 ee360 Fellowship cohort. She started her career in Wildlife Biology working on the Spotted Owl Demographic Study and Sensitive Endemic Plant Species Project in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. She taught Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Science in various schools both public and private, urban and suburban. She is an avid volunteer for various community organizations, including serving as the Chair of the Houston Regional Group of the Sierra Club and being an active member of the Houston Climate Movement, Zero Waste Houston, and the Coalition for Environment, Equity, and Resilience. Elizabeth has launched campaigns and projects and collaborated in different ways to educate the public and advocate for the natural environment, such as the Single Use Plastic Rating Tool, Young Adult Sustainability, Rapid Response, Post Harvey recovery, 5th Ward Beautification, and the Spotlight on Sierrans series. Elizabeth has strong interests in air quality, climate change, plastic pollution, women’s issues, youth engagement, and environmental ethics and justice.

About Elizabeth‘s ee360 Community Action Project

Elizabeth is very excited to be an ee360 Fellow. She seeks to assist Breathe DC as it expands its Community Health program to include air quality education to high schools in metropolitan DC. Together, with technical assistance from the Baltimore-Washington Chapter of the Air and Waste Management Association, they will create clean air advocates. They will establish and support a network of students from area high schools to monitor air quality and share geographic and seasonal ozone and particulate data. High schoolers will ultimately convene at a student-led conference to ask community leaders, from the government, business, and nonprofits, for mitigation strategies for local ozone and particulate pollution. The project essentially bridges environmental education to advocacy, inspiring young people to engage in civic life.

Trevor Claiborn is a 4-H Extension Assistant at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, KY. Trevor, through his character and program “Farmer Brown Tha MC,” has directly engaged more than 10,000 students and parents through in-class presentations, community events, summer programs, church camps, conferences, tours, afterschool programs, and urban gardening workshops. Trevor has led community garden initiatives for 8+ years in Lexington's West End and Northside communities as well as presentations around the country. In Trevor’s free time, he enjoys hiking, creating music, reading, and most importantly, spending time with his family.

About Trevor‘s ee360 Community Action Project

For his ee360 Community Action Project, Trevor seeks to enhance his knowledge of environmental science, and build strong national and international networks to collaborate and create progressive, effective, and inclusive programs in Kentucky and beyond. Because of a lack of representation, historic negative connotations, lack of diversity in decision-making positions, discriminatory practices, and disconnection from green spaces, African Americans, who once made up 15% of farmers in the 1920’s now make up less than 2% of primary farm operators. This group makes up only 4% of degree holders in agriculture as of 2016.

“Hood 2 Farm” addresses this dynamic through partnerships with fellows, community members, and stakeholders, developing culturally conscious audio and video productions and intentional marketing materials to be distributed in target communities, online, and in the classroom. Hood 2 Farm will also offer presentations, community-based workshops, and tours, to encourage black youth to pursue academic and career paths in agriculture and environmental sciences and shrink the academic and economic disparities within agriculture in Kentucky, and eventually nationally.