People

We Want work wBio about me

Muhammad Nadeem Akhtar is the Head Teacher at Central Model School Khanewal, Pakistan. He is a dedicated Global Schools Advocate and passionate educational leader committed to providing globally competitive education to underprivileged children in a resource-limited setting.

His school proudly received the International School Award from the British Council for promoting global citizenship and collaborative international learning. Through the Connecting Classrooms Project, Mr. Akhtar and his team worked for over six years with UK partner schools, facilitating teacher exchange visits. Teachers from his school visited various cities in the UK including Birmingham, Huddersfield, Derbyshire, Manchester, and Nottingham, while UK educators also visited his school in Pakistan. As part of this initiative, he also received leadership training at the University of Nottingham under the British Council platform.

Furthermore, his school was recognized by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (UK) through the Face to Faith programme for raising awareness about malaria. Currently, the school is collaborating with the JDO Foundation (USA) to promote digital learning through Google tools, equipping students and teachers with 21st-century skills.

Mr. Akhtar continues to lead climate change, environmental, and innovation projects, ensuring his students are not only well-educated but also responsible global citizens.

I am the Vice President of a youth led initiative by name New Visions Agriculture, and I have a bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering. Since 2022, I have been involved and led environmental initiatives , awareness and education from renewable energy training, to climate action and sustainable agricultural practices.And have empowered over 400 youth from 8-35 years on climate action and environment through workshops and training programs.

I'm currently based in Milwaukee working on urban environmental education and celebrating biodiversity with the Zoological Society of Milwaukee. I am an environmental educator working with the next generation of conservationists.

I have been a teacher in multiple capacities since 2008, but really struggled with the limits of classroom teaching in public education. While I often took kids on outdoor field trips, I wanted to go bigger, and create a true outdoor school program. With the support of my school Director, our Charter school developed a full-time, free-to-public Forest Transitional Kindertgarten with a Forest Days programs for our upper grades. I am now the Forest School Coordinator at Wildflower Open Classroom, where I manage the TK program (we have a 3 teachers in the field), and teach the Forest Days program.

As the former Director of Technology, Mary served as the project lead for NAAEE online technology, including the NAAEE website and eePRO, the hub for professional development. Mary had been on NAAEE staff since 1999 and her extensive background in technology, website development, outreach, multi-stakeholder collaboration, security, systems support, and project management experience consistently provided the highest level of support to NAAEE’s team, leadership, and members. 

Mary is now acting in an advisory role, continuing to support the work of the association.

Former Wildlife Educator for Frederick County Parks & Recreation for 12+ Year
Maryland Piedmont Master Naturalist
Middle School Science & Team Lead at Lucy School Environmental & Arts-Based Education