ee360 is the North American Association for Environmental Education’s (NAAEE) newest initiative supporting innovative environmental education across the country. NAAEE, through a cooperative agreement with US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and seven partner organizations, including Antioch University New England, is leading an ambitious five-year initiative to support a diverse cadre of environmental education leaders that are better prepared to increase environmental literacy for everyone, everywhere.
The team at Antioch University New England (AUNE) leverages its strengths in group dynamics, facilitation, community-based education, collaborative inquiry, cultural relevance, teaching and learning, curriculum design, and evaluation to contribute to community engagement-focused aspects of ee360.
In particular, the team at AUNE is rolling out the Community Engagement: Guidelines for Excellence by facilitating workshops for environmental education leaders and practitioners across the country. Some key themes include capacity building and civic action, collaboration and inclusion, and long-term community investment. We also develop resources like educational manuals, toolkits, and curricular activities to accompany workshops and other outreach efforts. These efforts explore aspects of key themes more deeply, like inclusive stakeholder engagement, appreciative inquiry, and cultural relevance, among others.
AUNE ee360 team
Current Staff:
Jean Kayira, Antioch ee360 team, Co-Project Director
Jean is core faculty and Associate Director of the Environmental Studies PhD program at Antioch University New England. Her areas of interest include sustainability education, Indigenous knowledge, and postcolonial theory; youth, place, and culture; decolonizing methodologies; participatory forms of education and research; and cross-cultural education and research. She teaches courses such as: citizen participation and sustainable communities; dissertation seminar; place-based environmental education; urban environmental education; qualitative research methods; and program planning and design. Additionally, Jean co-advises Community Garden Connections.
Jean has been engaged in a variety of research working with youth and teacher candidates on issues of sustainability, particularly examining Indigenous knowledge and sustainability, youth identity in relation to place and sustainability, and social and ecological justice pedagogies. For example, in her doctoral research, she explored the possibilities of Indigenous knowledge in furthering student learning in relation to culturally appropriate environmental sustainability. She has drawn on the sub-Saharan African concept of Ubuntu/uMunthu and postcolonial theory to enable a third space (Bhabha, 1994) centered on culturally appropriate Malawian ways of knowing, while at the same time, working in tandem with non-Indigenous knowledge and practice. In broad terms, this study sought to widen the space that meaningfully acknowledges both Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge and practice. To learn more about Jean’s work, visit her faculty webpage.
Libby McCann, Antioch ee360 team, Co-Project Director
Libby serves as Antioch University New England’s Director of Environmental Education (EE) within the Environmental Studies Department. In addition to advising master’s and doctoral students, she teaches graduate courses on such topics as: environmental and sustainability education; program planning and design; inclusive education, program evaluation; urban EE; leadership development, civic ecology & community resilience; sustainable school and community-based food systems; and environmental communications in the digital age & climate change education. Libby collaborates with faculty and students through Community Garden Connections, which works to build local capacity to grow food, address food insecurity, and enhance personal and communal health. Libby holds two degrees in the natural sciences, a doctorate in adult education, and has facilitated a variety of educational programs for youth and adults over the past 25 years. For more information, visit Libby’s faculty webpage.
Luciana Ranelli, Antioch ee360 Team, Outreach Coordinator
Luciana Ranelli’s personal and professional life revolves around the theme of connections as she fosters relationships among people, sees connections between ideas, and invests in connection to place. The ee360 project ties in her passions for communication, inclusion, outdoor experiences, and learning. Luciana works on the Antioch University New England ee360 team, focusing on train-the-trainer workshops for the Community Engagement: Guidelines for Excellence and a supporting Equity and Inclusion Module. Her Master of Science in Environmental Studies with an Environmental Education concentration at Antioch University New England set her up well for teaching, leadership, program management, and staff mentoring endeavors at Teton Science Schools and Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center. Luciana also holds a BA in Biology and Secondary Education from the University of Minnesota, Morris. An unexpected bird sighting stands among the magical nature moments in her most recent memory…and she is always on the lookout for more.
Anna Parker, Antioch ee360 Team, Outreach Coordinator
Anna Parker is a second-year student at Antioch University New England, working towards a Master of Science in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Environmental Education. Anna is passionate about building connections between people and place and strengthening connections within her own community. During her undergraduate studies at the University of Colorado Anna studied anthropology. In these years, Anna became eager to learn from different cultures and perspectives.
Anna joined the ee360 team with almost six years of experience as an environmental educator. For the past three, she lived in Palau running community engagement programs for the Palau International Coral Reef Center. Living and working in Palau ignited Anna’s passion for environmental justice and taught her the role that traditional knowledge plays in local conservation efforts. Anna’s curiosity and ambitions are driven by the human dimensions of conservation and understanding how she can listen to and amplify diverse perspectives in her work.
Susy Mateos, Antioch ee360 Team, Outreach Coordinator
Susy Mateos is a current Antioch University New England graduate student. She joined the ee360 group in May 2020, working virtually from southern California. Susy has experience with community science bird monitoring in the Santa Monica Mountains in California and bird conservation work in Costa Rica. She hopes to engage with rural communities in Costa Rica and incorporate language and environmental education.
Past Staff:
Cynthia Espinosa Marrero, Antioch ee360 team, Education Consultant
Cynthia Espinosa Marrero is a food systems scholar and activist, helping diverse communities grow and learn more about food and environmental systems. Her passion was seeded with her family and neighbors in Yabucoa,P.R. where she grew up. With over 10 years of experience in the food systems, Cynthia is now focusing her expertise in her own consulting business, Pulegium Consulting <http://www.pulegiumconsulting.com/>. Inspired by her ancestral roots, especially her *abuela* (grandmother), Cynthia facilitates trainings and curriculum development for environmental educators, organizations and institutions in the topics of diversity, inclusion, community engagement and permaculture (DICP). Her use of permaculture is unique as she uses the principles, ethics and activities in her design of the trainings she offers. As a volunteer support and Environmental Educator with Latino Outdoors <http://latinooutdoors.org/> and within her own community, she follows her humanistic educator goal of giving opportunities to underrepresented groups to find their inner power, voice, and skills to build a socially just food and environmental system. She has a BA Degree in Sustainable Food Management from UMass Amherst and a Master of Science in Environmental Studies focusing in Environmental Education from Antioch University New England.
Anna Mooney, Antioch ee360 team, Doctoral Student
Anna Mooney serves as the Director of Environmental Education at YMCA Camp Thunderbird in Lake Wylie, South Carolina. In her eight years as an environmental educator, Anna has worked with hundreds of teachers to craft field trips that meet the academic and social needs of students. Inspired by the teachers’ enthusiasm and passion for fair and just education for all, Anna is currently studying culturally relevant environmental education in pursuit of her doctorate in Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England. She also holds a Master of the Arts in Psychology from Hunter College, a graduate certificate in Animal Behavior and Conservation from Hunter College, and a Bachelor of Science in Biopsychology from Wagner College.