People

Hola!  I am a San Jose, California native who has been in the field of education for ninteen years.  I have worked in all kinds of educational environments: classrooms, Maker Ed faires, museums and (most recently) at the Martial Cottle County Park visitor center.  

I have my M.Ed in Art Education and an MFA in Comics.  I am, also, a painter and have had my work exhibited at the de Young Museum and various galleries in the San Jose area.  I recently finished a fellowship with the city of San Jose that focused on sustainability through our art practices.  The program was called the Resilient Climate Artist program. 

Colleen supports the NAAEE Coalition for Climate Education Policy communication and coordination efforts and climate change education policy research. She joins us from the National Park Service Chesapeake Bay Office, where she worked closely with the Environmental Literacy and Diversity working groups. She gathered and analyzed data on environmental literacy and educational policies in the Chesapeake Bay region to support the infusion of environmental education and green career awareness into more school content areas. She also supported NOAA’s B-WET grants which aid in the systemic implementation of Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs) into K-12 curriculums. Her interests lie at the intersection of environment, social justice, education, and policy. She will be pursuing a master’s degree in Environment and Sustainability Management at Georgetown University during the 22-23 academic year.

As a former zookeeper at the San Diego Zoo, I have transformed my passion for conservation into a focus on field research and conservation education. My research encompasses conservation education, sustainable land use, and rainforest fragment ecology. With over ten years of experience in the zoo field and hands-on work in Borneo, Costa Rica, Belize, and Laos, I founded Green Dragon Conservation Education (GDCE) to bridge the gap between field researchers and conservation education, integrating mindfulness practices into curriculum development.

Additionally, I teach botany, general biology, and biodiversity courses at Cuyamaca Community College and CSU Dominguez Hills. I firmly believe in the power of multidisciplinary collaboration to create research and education programs that foster mindful, curious, and lifelong global stewards.

As Director of Education and Outdoor Equity at TreePeople, Southern California's oldest and largest environmental nonprofit organization, I oversee a number of programs of informal, place-based environmental education. Our service learning program, Generation Earth, has targeted secondary teachers and students throughout Los Angeles County for 25 years, providing water, waste, and forestry experiential projects. TreePeople’s Outdoor Equity programs support youth and their families to connect with local natural and wildland areas. Through field trips, participants share experiences of their community and explore ways to steward and sustain their neighborhood’s natural resources while they have fun through hands-on learning.