People

I am the national evaluator for NOAA's B-WET program. Formerly, I was a professor of environmental and science education (12 yrs), a federal national program manager (8 yrs), and a marine biologist. I have researched science curriculum design, taught education theory, and was a field-based environmental educator.

I am the Outdoor Learning Specialist in the Math and Science Bureau at the New Mexico Public Education Department. I have been an educator for over the past 15 years in both New Mexico and Colorado, I most recently was the Director of Environmental Education and Technology at Cottonwood School (Corrales, NM) but spent my previous five years at Department of Cultural Affairs at the Sandia Mountain Natural History Center (Cedar Crest, NM) as an Environmental Educator and Certified Wilderness First Responder. I am excited to connect the work that has been done through the Senate Memorial 1 Task Force, Environmental Education New Mexico (EENM), Department of Cultural Affairs, and teaching! I have  bachlors degrees in environmental engineering, technical writing, with a masters curriculum and instruction, and a teaching license. 

Ariel joined the NAAEE team in September of 2021 as a Senior Administrative Assistant. Prior to this role, she has over 15 years of administrative experience in a laboratory and office setting. She is originally from the suburbs of Illinois and moved to Washington DC in 2009, where she attended Howard University. She received her B.A. in Psychology at the College of Arts and Sciences with a minor focus in Administration of Justice. She aspires to travel the world to learn and experience cultures outside her own. Should Italy be next?

I am an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist and I work primarily in human-animal studies, environmental education, and sustainable food systems.

See my books:

Animals in Environmental Education: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Curriculum and Pedagogy

Animal Edutainment in a Neoliberal Era: Politics, Pedagogy, and Practice in the Contemporary Aquarium

 

NAAEE’s Senior Director of Capacity Building, Sarah Bodor comes from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, where she held a number of program management and leadership positions throughout the organization. She worked closely with state education agencies in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to develop and pilot standards-based curricula and provide teacher professional development. Her background also includes communications and fundraising. In 2008, she served as the writer of Maryland’s Children in Nature Plan, which resulted in passage of Maryland’s environmental high school graduation requirement.

Hello! My name is Cassie Poray and I am a soon to be college graduate from Ohio State University. My degree is in Natural Resource Management with a specialty in Parks and Recreation Visitor Services. I am looking to create opportunities to get youth outdoors and help them foster a connection with the world around them. I have worked as both a camp counselor and an outdoor educator in addition to working as an intern for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. A fun fact about myself is that I am a part of the inagural class of female Eagle Scouts.

In addition to my work with Impact by Design where I focus on behavior change campaigns for conservation, I am also a PhD candidate at the University of Florida in Martha Monroe's lab in the School of Forest Resources and Conservation where I focus on psychological connection to nature and STEM EE.