People

Grace joined the NAAEE team in September 2021 and works as an Event and Executive Coordinator. She was raised in western Massachusetts where she developed a deep appreciation and love for the surrounding environment. Grace began her journey in Washington, DC by attending American University, where she earned both her BA and MPA in 5 years. She studied a combination of environmental studies, public health, public administration, and nonprofit management. She comes to NAAEE with a background in programming for youth development, education, and in-person and online farmers markets.

Dr. Firrdevs Burcak is  an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Biruni University. Her award-winning doctoral research focused on enhancing the quality of outdoor learning environments in preschools and supporting teachers’ effective use of these spaces. As a Visiting Scholar at the University of Minnesota Duluth, she collaborated with Professor Julie Ernst on research into nature’s impact on young children’s resilience and curiosity.

Dr. Burcak’s academic interests center on supporting children’s development and learning through nature-based learning with a particular focus on fostering resilience in both children and educators as well as promoting social-emotional learning and emotional well-being. In addition to her research, she has completed the Compassion-Based Resilience Teacher Training led by Dr. Joe Loizzo at the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science and the Resilience Expert Training led by Dr. Michael Ungar at the Resilience Research Centre. Dedicated to advancing nature-based learning in early education, she engages with educators, school leaders, and families through seminars and workshops focused on nature pedagogy. She is the author of Outdoor Learning Environments in Early Childhood Education: Design & Effective Use.

Favour Eragbie is a leading global environmentalist who is driven by the principle that you can only protect what you know about. She strongly advocates for climate education, climate justice and youth development.

Sarada has a Masters in Ecology, and has worked in environmental consulting as well as environmental education.  She has worked in organizations such as Chicago Botanic Garden, Three Rivers Park District, Pittsburgh Botanic Garden and Communitopia, where she developed and taught hands-on programs for all ages and helped design interactive exhibits and spaces.  She is passionate about increasing access to nature for everyone, especially for young people. She is a 2023 CEE-Change Fellow. 

Ecotherapist. Climate Psychology Speaker. Photographer. Writer. Teaching  people how to be resilient in an uncertain world. 

Camp Skyelmar's mission is to be a positive difference in the world. We provide tranformative educational experiences to children across the world by instilling values of kindness, friendship, and respect. Located in Maine's Sebago Lakes Region, Skylemar's 220 acres are the perfect site for summertime-memories. 

Lori Mann has more than 40 years of experience in environmental education at the local, state, and national levels. Lori joined the NAAEE staff in 2012 as Program and Conference Manager and now serves as Director of Conferences and Programs. In this capacity, she manages all aspects of the NAAEE annual conference and coordinates several national projects related to building capacity to deliver high-quality environmental education. 

I am currently a non-formal education working as a graduate assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. I have a BS in Conservation Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and am working towards a MS in Natural Resources from the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point. I have experience teaching high school environmental science and chemistry.

Emily Schaller's appreciation of the natural world started during her childhood in Connecticut playing in the mud with her brother, hiking in the woods with her dad, and picking flowers and berries with her mom. She was a dedicated Girl Scout for 10 years, which helped instill in her a love of exploration and a sense of civic responsibility. 

She pursued her interest in connecting people to the natural world and inspiring action to sustain it by earning her MS in Ecological Leadership and Education from the Audubon Expedition Institute of Lesley University. This unique program included 3 semesters of living and learning outdoors while traveling across different bioregions of North America in a retrofitted school bus. This transformational experience provided her with a deeper knowledge of herself as well as the role she could play in building connections between people, their communities, and their place. 

She has since developed and delivered a variety of environmental education experiences for all ages at Naturebridge Yosemite, Teton Science Schools, and the University of Michigan's Center for Education Design, Evaluation, and Research (CEDER). Emily currently supports professional learning programs offered through Shelburne Farms' Institute for Sustainable Schools, focusing on education for sustainability, climate education, and food systems education.

Tina Harte Ballinger is a Project Support Specialist for the NASA Langley Science Directorate's Education Team. She is also the founder and Project Manager for the NASA GLOBE Goes to Camp Project providing informal outdoor environmental education opportunities to communities across the United States. She has over 30 years of experience in STEAM based instruction and curriculum development with a M.S. in Secondary Science Education from the Univeristy of Tennessee at Martin with an emphasis in Geoscience.  

To achieve success in drive mad, players must master speed control and precision driving, as even the slightest miscalculation can lead to crashes and setbacks in their quest to conquer challenging tracks.

I am the Sr Director of Operations at Heritage Conservancy. Through partnerships with schools and educators as well as through direct community engagement, we promote Heritage Conservancy’s mission to protect and care for the lands of our region and to engage with and share the history that unfolded on these lands.