The Rosa Parks and Grace Lee Boggs Outstanding Service Award is presented annually to an individual in recognition of their leadership to educate about and promote action that addresses environmental justice concerns at the local, regional, or global levels.  The award recognizes a person that demonstrates the values and inner strength of Rosa Parks and Grace Lee Boggs.  These individuals were unwilling to stand by as they and others suffered injustices because of their skin color or heritage.  Rosa Parks worked tirelessly to address social injustices while Grace Lee Boggs continues working to remedy environmental injustices at 90+ years of age. 

The person receiving The Rosa Parks and Grace Lee Boggs Outstanding Service Award must have made significant contributions to working with and addressing environmental concerns of culturally diverse communities.  Community leaders, educators, researchers, and others that are making significant contributions to their community are eligible candidates for this award.  The recipient should display or have made one or more of the following contributions:

• Used environmental issues or situations for motivating culturally diverse youth to reach their highest potential by providing them with hands-on experiences that build practical day-to-day life skills.
• Used environmental education for empowering community residents to address local environmental concerns.
• Dedication to service and leadership that encourages the participation of multicultural audiences in environmental education.
• Made visible contributions in environmental education by promoting diversity and justice through research, innovations, curricula, legislation, publications, activism, or advocacy.
• Demonstrated excellence in educating the public about environmental issues as they relate to social justice, health and well-being, and environmental justice through print, electronic, or visual media.

Historically, environmental education has not recognized the education efforts of persons working on the social (environmental health, environmental justice) and economic (poverty, jobs) components of sustainability. In part this is because environmental educators in developed countries have tended to focus on nature education, which is a much more limited perspective than how environmental education is defined in the 1977 Tbilisi Declaration. Furthermore, many of the people working in these areas are persons of color, and the environmental education field has under recognized their leadership and achievements thus far. To help address this under-recognition the Rosa Parks and Grace Lee Boggs Award will be presented to a person of color* for the first five to ten years (i.e., through the years 2013 to 2018).

*Persons of color, as used in this award, refers to individuals whose racial/ethnic background is Asian, Black/African, First Nations, Latino/Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander, or other minority group.

To nominate an individual please gather the following information and submit it here>>:

1. Full name of person as it should appear on the award.
2. Title and address of person nominated.
3. Ethnicity of person nominated (e.g., Native American, First Nations, Black/African, Latino/Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander, etc.)
4. Brief summary of accomplishments of person nominated (50-word limit).
5. Explanation of accomplishments of person nominated (500-word limit).  Please include when these accomplishments were made, and specific reasons why you believe these accomplishments demonstrate leadership to educate about and promote action that addresses environmental justice concerns at the local, regional, or global levels.
6. Nominator's personal contact information:
   Name, mailing address, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address.
   (Please note that the nominator must be a member of NAAEE or must have a co-nominator who is a member.)
7. Send two (2) letters of reference or supporting documents from persons that know the nominee and can attest to their accomplishments. This material may be emailed (preferred), mailed, or faxed to:

        Brenda Metcalf
        EEAO
        Attn: NAAEE Parks-Boggs Award
        PO Box 1004
        Lancaster, OH 43130
        Email: brendasmetcalf “at” aol.com
        Fax: 740-653-61007

All materials must be received by June 4, 2010.