People

I provide conservation and environmental-themed learning experiences for K-12 students, families, and adults at MSU, W.K. Kellogg Biological Station and serve on the Board of the Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education.

My passion is helping environmental organizations create conservation movements that grow.

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.

Judy Braus brings to her role as NAAEE Executive Director a wealth of experience in the environmental education profession, with a focus on conservation education, diversity and inclusion, and using the power of education to help create healthier communities that empower local communities, stakeholders, and individuals to help restore and protect the environment. She comes to NAAEE from the National Audubon Society, where she was the Senior Vice President of Education and Centers, overseeing an extensive nationwide network of nature centers and educators. Prior to that, she led the education programs at World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the U.S. Peace Corps, and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).

 

 

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!