People

MICHAEL J. CADUTO has been sharing his passion for the natural world with others for more than four decades. He is an award-winning expert and leader in natural history, environmental education, climate change education, cultural diversity and Earth stewardship; author of two dozen related books for adults and children, including the international best-selling Keepers of the Earth^® series (co-author), Pond and Brook, Catch the Wind-Harness the Sun and Riparia’s River; master performer of stories and original music; literary and script consultant and international environmental advocate. He has presented to audiences in Europe, the Middle East and throughout North America, and has been featured by NPR and the BBC. His latest (picture) book is The Day the Pond Flew South. Website: www.p-e-a-c-e.net

I am a Life Science teacher at a middle school in Charles County, Maryland.  I have been a teacher for over 20 years but have only been teaching science for 5 of them.   Not only am I a life science teacher to 7th graders, but my family owns a 250 acre farm where we focus on stewardship and conservation.  My husband is also a watermen on the Potomac River where he catches Blue Crab and plants and harvests oysters. Our family acheived the Aldo Leopold Conservation Award in 2021 with our efforts of conservation on the land and water.  Environmental education is near and dear to my heart.

Passionate about environmental conservation, education, and research.

Mountain Watershed Association began its life around a kitchen table. The organization was founded in 1994 to oppose an underground coal mine proposal in the Indian Creek Watershed in the Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania. MWA’s input and organized opposition resulted in the denial of the permit. MWA’s board of directors and dedicated community members realized that to restore the watershed to a viable community, they would have to address the legacy of more than 150 years of extraction and disinvestment in our rural Appalachian region. Since then, MWA has restored more than 70 percent of the Indian Creek Watershed and prevented countless sources of additional pollution in the broader Youghiogheny River Watershed. The organization has expanded to eleven full-time employees, a 17-person volunteer Board of Directors, and more than 2500 members and supporters.

I'm currently enrolled in Antioch University's MS in Environmental Studies program—with a (likely) concentration in Environmental Education and Conservation Psychology. My background in environmental education mostly stems from my work as a divemaster, and throughout my career as a digital marketing / branding specialist for sustainable brands. 

Megan Fink serves as the Partnerships & Policy Manager for the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). Working in the field of Environmental Education for over a decade, Megan brings a robust, place-based, outdoor education background to the NAAEE team. She has built enduring working relationships across the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the Mid-Atlantic region. As a graduate of Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Science and Biology, Megan began her career as an Environmental Educator at the North Carolina Aquariums before joining the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) in 2011. Through several program management positions with CBF she led students, teachers, school administrators, and environmental professionals on ecological, cultural, and historical investigations of the Bay. She also managed a statewide leadership program for high school students, teaching them how to become environmental advocates at the local, regional, and national levels.

Megan earned an Executive Master of Natural Resources from Virginia Tech’s Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability in 2020. In 2022-23, she served as Education Director for the Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park, supervising 15 Environmental Education Programs and expanding their reach to 14,000 participants annually. She also initiated and managed a project to launch a brand-new, nature-based preschool and served on the Maryland State Department of Education’s Workgroup to develop statewide Outdoor Preschool licensing standards. 

Throughout her career, Megan has designed programs that inspire participants to act on behalf of their local natural resources and enhance people’s understanding of and connection to the natural world through compelling environmental education experiences. In her spare time, she can often be found hiking, gardening, paddling, and spending time with her loved ones, including her dog, Ruby, splashing around the Bay watershed!

I work as an interpreter in several parks in Sonoma County, incl. at Pond Farm Pottery, a National Historic Landmark, Armstrong Redwoods, and at the Sonoma Coast State Park beaches. While working with school-age students, my greatest joy is seeing them lose all sense of time and self-consciousness in exploring their surroundings. I aim to create memories that create understanding, curiosity and appreciation for a place, no matter whether it's a cultural landmark, a harbor seal pup, the grassland or a sprouting redwood tree.

Short in stature, but long in my love of learning. My goal is to be a lifelong learner, a wandering wonderer, and a force for good in my personal and professional life. My life was shaped by a childhood of relocations which resulted in my relying on books as a source of stability. Thus began my steady relationship with books of all kinds which I obtained in school and local public libraries. This habit became a career as I parlayed that passion for knowledge into education. The lessons learned during pursuit and my attainment of a Masters degree in Montessori Education positively shaped my adult life as a parent, and as an educator. The philosophy of Montessori matched my own thoughts about the care of self, care of others, and care of the world. These principles of kindness, the ethical treatment of all living things, my love of nature, the power of knowledge, and the importance of personal responsibility guide the way I live life and continues to influence my career path.