People

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.

Charissa V. Jones (she/her/hers) is the Outreach and Inclusion Coordinator for the Oregon State University (OSU) Extension Service Outdoor School Program and a third-year doctoral student at Oregon State University in the College of Education’s STEM Education program. She is a cultural and community connector with over 15 years of experience in outdoor and environmental education. Originally from Suriname, South America, she is interested in (re)connecting folks to their environments by exploring the intersections of EDIJA (equity, diversity, inclusion, justice, and accessibility), and environmental and outdoor education with a particular interest in exploring how culture filters community sense-making around “environment/outdoor/nature-based” and learning.

I am an environmental economist and board president of Naturwise Columbus. Naturwise Columbus is a local nonprofit with the vision of nurturing young minds to connect and attune to the natural world around them. Our mission is twofold: providing free and accessible educational resources, while also bringing families closer to local institutions dedicated to the study and preservation of nature. 

I develop educational programming that brings environmental monitoring programs to local communities. Science education allows me to embrace a role that combines making environmental education accessible and connecting educaiton to relevant ecological research efforts. I have had many different roles as before becoming an environmental educator including being a collections assistant for a natural history museum and a field assistant to ornithology researchers.

Wendell Berry encouraged us not to find a "better" place, but to make the place we are better.

I'm from Sanford, North Carolina and currently live and work in Guilford County. I graduated from UNC-Greensboro with my BA and MA in Geography with a concentration in Environmental Studies.

I serve as the Director of the Wilderness Program at St. Mark's School of Texas where we send out students on annual camping trips that are staffed by their teaches and coaches. 

Chair of the Canadian Network for Environmental Education & Communication and SDG lead for Scouts Canada. Curriculum creator, writer, and researcher, advocate for outdoors and climate change education. Previously Swedish/Quebec comparative research, and the Sustainability & Education Policy Network.

I love learning about our Earth and sharing that knowledge with everyone I meet. If you're between three and 103, you're my favorite audience! My two favorite areas of environmental education - both to learn about and teach - are foraging for wild edible plants and entomophagy (the practice of eating bugs!). That's right ... I eat bugs!

environmentally educated in the Chesapeake Bay watershed during my most formative time; apprentice of the tropical Dominican Republic & the arid Sonoran Desert; nature writer; current watershed address: Coan River | Potomac River | Chesapeake Bay | Atlantic Ocean

I am a Health, Safety and Environment Manager (HSE Professional, GradIOSH, MIIRSM, WSO Certified Instructor, certified Facilitator Level 2 and AOSH UK certified Master Trainer). I conduct training and awareness sessions related to Environment protection. I am also certified in following environmental fields:

ISO 14001:2015 Lead Auditor,

IEMA Environmental Sustainability Skills for Managers Course Certificate,

IFC PS on Environmental and Social Sustainability

Level 2 Award in Environmental Principles and Best Practices

Level 3 Award in Environmental Management

I'm a climate change environmental educator. As a freelancer I'm is focused on climate change, public lands, interdisciplinary watershed studies, geography, and teaching and learning through my gig, Wild Rose Education. I design and facilitate educator professional development workshops, public lands courses, Arctic STEM programs, and a multi-state regional climate change educator cohort. I have created and facilitated numerous environmental education programs including the award winning Youth Water Leadership Program, and Project Learning Tree Canada's Climate Change and Forests curriculum. 

My expertise includes best practices in watershed and climate change education, adult learning and facilitation, and interpretation. I'm a past board president for Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education, am a member of the NAAEE Guidelines Trainers' Bureau, an Environmental Issues Forums deliberation moderator, Certified Interpretive Guide, Certified Interpretive Trainer, Colorado Certified Master Environmental Educator, Land Ethic Leader, Leave No Trace Level 2 Instructor, Climate Reality Leader, and Wilderness First Responder. Sarah is currently based in western Colorado Colorado.

Tania Marien is a podcast host and environmental correspondent. Her projects draw on her experiences working as an independent environmental education professional, first as the full-time editor, educator, and bookseller at ArtPlantae and now as a podcast producer, writer, researcher, and network builder. Her current project explores how freelance environmental professionals contribute to environmental literacy. She believes that independent professionals are overlooked and that their professionalism and contributions to lifelong learning need to be recognized. Documenting their work is important because it fills the knowledge gap about how people learn about science and the environment outside of the classroom. Tania is also a contributor to The Carbon Almanac.