Welcome to the Environmental Education Section of the National Association for Interpretation!

“The rare moment is not the moment when there is something worth looking at but the moment when we are capable of seeing.” Joseph Wood Krutch

Section’s Mission
To serve our membership by providing an atmosphere, context, and opportunity to share information, skills, and issues about environmental education world wide.

The Heart of Our Section is Our Membership
Our members are truly global—existing in every state in the US, 6 of the Canadian provinces, and in 10 countries across the globe. At present there are 491 members.

The EE Section "Star Thrower" Award 2009 Recipient — Clay Heilman
Clay Heilman is the president of Nature Vision, a small non-profit environmental education organization based in Redmond, Washington. The program originally belonged to King County where it became a premier environmental education outreach program for the community, reaching over 20,000 students annually. However, a county-wide budget cut in 2003 cancelled this award-winning, hands-on, minds-on program. Three former naturalists, including Clay, were determined that the message was too important to cease presenting, and persuaded King County to allow their collection to be taken and the program restarted as a non-profit organization.

Through Clay's determination, hard work, and perseverance, Nature Vision has grown to serve over 44,000 students annually. Nature Vision presents a wide range of school programs about natural and cultural resources to school-aged students, families, and adult groups. Clay manages and supervises all aspects of the organization, managing and training staff, writing and revising curriculum, building community alliances and partnerships, promoting and marketing Nature Vision, and developing and managing contracts and subcontracts with cities, water districts and King County, and much more.

Clay holds a strong belief that a director should always be involved in all parts of an organization and along those lines has never stopped teaching. Her skill as an educator is incredible, and her passion for the work shows daily as she fosters stewardship in everyone she encounters and works with, particularly in children. Her dedication to the work is a true inspiration, and knowing the time and effort she puts in with so little compensation really shows the true meaning of this work.

A great example of her vision is the Water Education Program, created in 2003, to link students with in the community with the native habitats and impacts on water quality. The program started with the City of Redmond, garnering notice in the community, and more collaborators evolved to include; Woodinville Water District, the Northshore Utility District, King County's Redmond Bear Creek Groundwater Protection Committee, the City of Bellevue and many more (see www.naturevision.org/Partners.shtml for a complete list of partners). As a result of her creating and maintaining these collaborative efforts, Nature Vision received the 2007-2008 Environmental Education Association of Washington's Award for Organizational Excellence. In 2007, Nature Vision's teaching team also received the Michael Mercer Water Conservation Educator award from the Partnership for Water Conservation.

Over the past three years, Clay has received grants from private funders to bring Nature Vision programs to Title 1 (low income) schools free of charge. Many of these schools have not had the financial ability to bring in outside presenters of any sort. This past year alone Nature Vision was able to provide 400 free classroom presentations. These grant monies have also enabled schools to provide field trip opportunities to its students, many of whom reside in the inner city and have never had outdoor experiences. These programs provide students with opportunities to understand the

The preceding paragraphs just scratch the surface of Clay's hard work and dedication to the field, which spans the last three decades. Nominator Julie Nelson sums her up best when she writes: "Recently after a three day outdoor event, Sammamish Watershed Festival, for local fourth grade students, Clay said happily that 1100 students had participated in the three day event. I will never forget what she said next, "If just one student got it then it was all worth it." Clay is the definition of a star thrower."

Past Recipients of the Star Thrower Award
2008 — LuAnn Thompson
2006 — Dr. Larry McBiles

The EE Section National Workshop Grant 2009 Recipient — Jennifer Bowman
Jennifer Bowman is a graduate student pursuing a Masters Degree in Environmental Education at Antioch University New England.

She is currently working as an intern at a watershed center in Vermont to create interactive displays, exhibits, programs and activities that teach the local communities about the Connecticut River watershed in which they live.

Newsletter
Connection is the Section’s quarterly newsletter. The newsletter features timely articles, "EE for Everyday," a feature story, article or interview, regional events, resources, calendar of events, and Section administrative and fundraising efforts.

Contributions to Connection are always welcome.
Deadlines for submission are: March 15, June 15, September 15, and December 15. Materials should be sent electronically to amy@mainstdesign.com. If you have any questions about submissions, please contact Amy at the above email address or 617-876-9111 x 18.

Companies may wish to consider underwriting an issue of Connection – it provides excellent exposure to the thousand or so members of the Section and to potential commercial interpretive markets, particularly in the autumn issue, which is used for recruitment purposes at the National Interpreter’s Workshop (NIW). Individuals or companies wishing to have advertising space in Connection, please contact Amy Perron at amy@mainstdesign.com.

Calendar of National EE Events
2010 National Interpreters Workshop -- November 16-20 in Las Vegas, NV
2010 International NAI Conference -- April 13-17 in Townsville, Queensland, Australia
NAI Certification Program Schedule -- Dates vary
Regional and Section Events -- Dates vary

Section Officers

Regional Representatives
Regional representatives form the geographical network and contact infrastructure of the Section. Those interested in being a regional representative are invited to review the roles description for the position and contact the Chair of the Section for further information.

Regional Representative information is being updated.

For submissions, comments, and questions contact Jenny Seitz. Please include NAI in the subject line.

Last updated January 26, 2010