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Commissions
Commission List, Chairs, Board Liaison
| Commissions | Chair | Coordinator |
|---|---|---|
| Arts & Culture Members of the Arts and Culture Commission hope to help NAAEE members celebrate their artistic vision and recognize how the arts inspire us to make the world a better place, expanding the role of the arts in environmental education while assisting in the advancement of excellence in EE. The commission will offer professional development and resources for educators at the NAAEE conference. Plans include a workshop and symposium, film festival, photography contest, book signings, and live performances. | Mike Skelly Deb Thrall |  Joe Heimlich |
| Conservation Education Those who work with natural resource agencies and organizations continue the rich tradition of helping people learn about the world by providing them with resources to make informed decisions related to sustaining natural resources on both public and private lands. | Aaron Morehouse | Joe Heimlich |
| Elementary/Secondary Education Students around the world best serve the environment and our Earth by learning critical thinking and problem-solving concepts and skills. Through vibrant discussion and action, the Elementary and Secondary Commission seeks to provide children with education that lets them be better global citizens through understanding the interrelationships between plants and animals. | Diane Pruneau Jane Eller | |
| Environmental Justice The EJC will examine linkages among environmental justice (EJ), environmental education (EE), and environmental health (EH) and explore how these fields could collaborate to ensure a quality and sustainable environment for all people. It serves as vehicle for networking with these other fields and sharing knowledge among the fields. The EJC expands on the work of the Board’s Diversity Committee, which has been planning conference strands, reviewing proposals for the annual conferences, and promoting diversity projects, all roles of NAAEE’s commissions. | J. Allen Johnson | Joe Heimlich |
| Higher Education Recent focus has been on making EE a part of the training of teachers-to-be, but higher education encompasses many fields. The Commission has its roots in such disciplines of environmental science and research, along with teacher education. Discussion of how higher education impacts environmental literacy and environmental efficacy is a part of the Commission’s dialogue. | TBA | Joe Heimlich |
| International Through the work of the IC, NAAEE will respond to the needs of the environmental education profession globally as well as locally. A major goal of the IC is to serve as a networking arm of NAAEE, provide a platform for sharing and exchange of experiences, and act as a resource for environmental educators worldwide working with environmental issues. | Peta White Michael Marzolla | Joe Heimlich |
| Nonformal/Community-based EE “Nonformal” is a broad term that covers education practiced outside the K-12 and higher education settings. Nonformal audiences can encompass ages from babies to grandparents. Settings can be as diverse as government, industry, and community facilities. The Commission’s challenge is to find common ground among these practitioners on which they can share experiences. | Jeanne Troy Kathe Crowley Conn | Joe Heimlich |
| Research Providing expert assessment of issues concerning EE theory and practice is the focus of the Research Commission, which provides an annual symposium for those conducting, reporting, using, or supporting research based findings and results in EE. The Commission’s work advances efforts to link real-world EE instruction and research. The Commission also provides mentoring and networking opportunities. | Ron Meyers | Joe Heimlich |
| Service Learning | Lisa Bardwell | Joe Heimlich |
| Sustainability Education The Commission’s initial challenge is to help explain sustainability, still relatively new to some. A key forum for this effort is the Commission’s sustainability strand, workshop, and symposium at NAAEE’s annual conference, which spread the concept that one’s everyday actions create a lifestyle that can produce a more healthy, habitable, and equitable world for all beings. | Jaimie Cloud Richard Jurin | Joe Heimlich |