2022 Conference Keynote Speakers

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All featured speakers were live-streamed and accessible to both in-person and virtual conference participants. Plenary sessions were recorded and will be available for on-demand viewing for two weeks after the presentation.

Wednesday, October 12, 6:30 PM MST

Mayor Regina Romero

Mayor of Tucson, Arizona

Raised by immigrant farm-workers in Somerton, Arizona, Regina is the youngest of six children and began breaking barriers early on as the first member of her family to vote and the first to graduate from college. She is a proud graduate of the University of Arizona and holds a post-graduate certificate from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

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Kim Noble

U.S. EPA

Kim Noble is the Senior Advisor in the Office of Public Engagement and Environmental Education at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to joining the EPA, Kim was the Chief Operations Officer for Green The Church (GTC), an initiative that engages Black congregations in the fight against climate change, and for environmental justice. Kim has spent the majority of her career working to improve the social, environmental, and public health outcomes for vulnerable communities. Kim continues to build and manage relationships with community-based organizations, African American faith leaders, and grassroots coalitions. Kim attended Fort Valley State University and received her B.A. in Mass Communications. She is passionate about making sure children are in a healthy and safe environment and families have access to available local, state, and federal resources.

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Administrator Regan

U.S. EPA
Michael S. Regan was sworn in as the 16th Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency on March 11, 2021, becoming the first Black man and second person of color to lead the U.S. EPA. Administrator Regan is a native of Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he developed a passion for the environment while hunting and fishing with his father and grandfather and exploring the vast lands, waters, and inner Coastal Plain of North Carolina. As the son of two public servants—his mother, a nurse for nearly 30 years, and his father, a retired Colonel with the North Carolina National Guard, Vietnam veteran, and former agricultural extension agent—Michael Regan went on to follow in his parents' footsteps and pursue a life of public service.

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Julie Packard

Monterey Bay Aquarium
2022 NAAEE Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

Julie Packard is executive director of the acclaimed Monterey Bay Aquarium, which she helped found in the late 1970s as the nation’s first major public aquarium dedicated to interpreting marine life of a single region. Julie is an international leader in the field of ocean conservation and a leading voice for science-based policy reform in support of healthy oceans. She is equally a strong advocate for advancing equity and diversity in the sciences, including endowment of scholarships that support individuals from historically marginalized communities and aquarium programs that help young women develop confidence and identity in the sciences.

Julie Packard’s remarks will be presented virtually during the in-person opening ceremony.

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Alison Hawthorne Deming

Alison is the author of five nonfiction books, including A Woven World: On Fashion, Fishermen, and the Sardine Dress from Counterpoint Press and Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit from Milkweed. She is also author of five poetry collections including Stairway to Heaven and Science and Other Poems, winner of the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets. She co-edited with Lauret E. Savoy the anthology The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World. Her work is anthologized in the Norton Book of Nature Writing and Best American Science and Nature Writing. Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, she is Regents Professor Emerita at the University of Arizona.

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Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer

State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Indigenous Knowledge for Education and Sustainability

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, which was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. Kimmerer is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

This session will be presented virtually.

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Jerri Taylor

Sustainable Forestry Initiative

Jerri Taylor leverages successful tools and resources to build support programs for diverse young people as they navigate green careers. She leads the career pathways programming, the Green Mentor program, and the Green Jobs employer training efforts. Jerri also supports the Chief Sustainability and Diversity Officer in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across all SFI pillars. She is an experienced K–12 professional school counselor and has dedicated her professional life to connecting youth with resources and opportunities. Jerri holds a Master of Education and Human Development, with a concentration in school counseling from George Washington University, and a bachelor's in family and consumer sciences from the University of Maryland.

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Leander Lacy

Owner and Founder, Lacy Consulting Services, LLC, Denver, Colorado
Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey

Lacy Consulting Services helps environmental organizations and sustainability-minded businesses meet their goals of improving human and community well-being through conservation action. Leander is trained traditionally as a wildlife ecologist and received his MS in human dimensions of natural resources with thesis work on how to improve the quality of life of the urban poor through environmental action. He also worked on global teams with The Nature Conservancy and advocated for increased social science and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in conservation projects.

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Awards Luncheon and Plenary: Educating for Change

Join us for NAAEE's annual awards luncheon and closing plenary focused on Educating for Change, our conference theme. Join moderator Sheila Ridge Williams and five outstanding speakers, including two of our EE 30 Under 30 Awardees, as we hear different perspectives about how environmental education can lead to positive change in communities around the world.

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Renata Koch Alvarenga

EE 30 Under 30, Class of 2022
EmpoderaClima, Brazil
Renata is a leading voice on gender and climate justice in the global youth movement. At 22 years of age, she founded EmpoderaClima, a multilingual organization that raises awareness of women’s empowerment in climate decision-making and advocates for girls’ education for climate action. Renata is a Belfer Young Leader Fellow and Master in Public Policy candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is currently wrapping up work as a Climate and Sustainable Development Fellow at the UN Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth.

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Scott Sampson

California Academy of Sciences
Scott Sampson is a paleontologist, author, public speaker, museum executive, and passionate advocate for connecting people with nearby nature. He serves as executive director of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California. He is known to children and parents around the world as "Dr. Scott," host and science advisor of the hit, Emmy-nominated PBS Kids television series, Dinosaur Train, produced by the Jim Henson Company.

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Nick Okafor

Nick Okafor (he/him), a strategist and design researcher, founded trubel&co, a culturally-responsive technical education platform that champions youth to disrupt society for the better. trubel&co manages Mapping Justice, a free summer course instructing under-resourced youth in STEM on how to design geospatial tools for social change. Previously, Nick was a Senior Associate at Sidewalk Labs (Google's urban innovation arm), where he drove incubation for new urban technology advancing sustainability, affordability, and inclusion in cities. Nick is also a doctoral student at Stanford University, where his research focuses on the consequences of disruption, abolitionist technologies, and business models that incentivize responsible urban innovation.

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Jack Baker

EE 30 Under 30, Class of 2022
Pangolin: The Conservation Podcast
Jack is the creator of Pangolin: The Conservation Podcast, a show that celebrates the stories of under-appreciated species and amplifies the voices of underrepresented groups. He is a passionate speaker and conservation educator, who works for both the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Having previously completed an MSc in Conservation Studies from the University of St. Andrews, Jack recently re-entered academia and is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh where he is studying the impact of living collections on the climate and biodiversity crises.

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Gerry Ellis

Gerry’s award-winning career as an international wildlife filmmaker, photographer, and writer spans three decades and features work appearing in National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, the New York Times, Ranger Rick, and more. Gerry is the author and/or photographer of more than a dozen books, including two in the highly acclaimed National Geographic Kids Book series. He is the founder of GLOBIO, a global awareness nonprofit that creates environmental films and provides visual support to wildlife conservation organizations around the world while educating the public about our shared environmental challenges. His current film work is featured on the GLOBIO YouTube channel, Apes Like Us. He is also host of the new Talking Apes podcast.

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Sheila Williams Ridge, Moderator

Child Dev Lab School, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota
Sheila has a bachelor’s degree in biology, a graduate degree in education, and more than 20 years of experience as an early childhood administrator and educator. She is co-author of Nature-Based Learning for Young Children: Anytime, Anywhere, on Any Budget, published by Redleaf Press. Sheila serves on several boards that focus on early childhood education, nature-based learning, equity in education, environmental education, conservation, and K–12 education.

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