People

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. 

My name is Diego Hernandez and I am a professional animal keeper. I am a graduate from the Zoo and Aquarium Science program at Davidson and Davie County Community College. I have worked for the North Carolina Zoo and currently work at Rowan Wild at Dan Nicholas Park in Salisbury, North Carolina. I've been in this field since 2018 and have expanded into environmental education. In addition to animal care, I am also proficient in educational programming and am a certified interpretive guide. 

A former middle school science teacher with a background in geology, I joined Rocky Mountain Conservancy in 2022 to help revive our Field Institute after a two year hiatus. I'm excited to lead the program into it's next chapter. I care deeply about the outdoors, protecting wild spaces, and helping people learn about the natural world. I can think of no better place to do that than spectacular Rocky Mountian National Park, and am honored to carry on the Field Institute's legacy of connecting our participants with expert instructors and helping them forge a deeper understanding and love of our public lands.

Valerie Allgrove is a writer, photographer, and educator who has been studying nature for many years. In 2026 she received a Master Naturalist certificate from the State of Connecticut. While she is a generalist, she also has areas of specific concentration including Monarch Butterflies, Pegmatite Minerals, American Hazelnuts, Wild Orchids, and Foraging.

Valerie has won awards for her informational videos, photograps, and presentations. Her lifes's goal is to increase others understanding and enjoyment of the natural world.

The website www.pleasantgardensct.com documents many of Valerie Allgrove's enthusiasms and writing.

Dr Amelia Farber is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute of Education at the University of Reading. She was previously an Environmental Change Research Fellow at Reuben College in the University of Oxford and a postdoctoral researcher within the Department of Education at the University of Oxford working on Net Zero and climate change education. She is an environmentalist with passions in environmental and climate education, environmental emotions, polycrisis awareness and action, ecological justice (including humans), and equity. She holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford’s Department of Education, which focused on learning from younger children in the Galápagos Islands what they know and how they learn about their local ecology and environment. Her work is child centric, ecocentric, and seeks to learn from historically and contemporarily excluded human and more-than-human voices. She advises EcoEducate, a nonprofit focused on sustainability education within Latin America,  and teaches and mentors undergraduate and postgraduate students in education and the social sciences. She worked for nine years in multinational tech start-ups and scale-ups running international partnerships, enablement and training, and business development, and holds a Masters degree in Latin American Studies, and Bachelors degrees in Anthropology and Music from Stanford University

I am a retired hydrogeologist with a strong interest in sharing my interest in and love of the natural world.

Anne Umali has been working in the environmental education field since 2000 and has built a strong passion for teaching and training others, especially when it comes to leadership training, community engagement, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Anne's connection to NAAEE goes back to 2013 when she was the project manager for the U.S. EPA’s National Environmental Education & Training Program (EECapacity, then ee360, then later ee360+). Today she's the Director of Leadership, Conservation, and International Programs at NAAEE.