Session Schedule

Get to know the National Weather Service in more depth, including the products issued leading up to and during hazardous weather. As preparedness is paramount, our discussions about hazardous weather will focus on how to get information, as well as safety and preparedness strategies. We will also highlight the various online resources and readiness programs offered by the National Weather Service.

Presenter:

• Jaclyn Anderson, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, National Weather Service Detroit

Jaclyn Anderson is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist from NWS Detroit. She has worked as a Meteorologist and Incident Meteorologist in the NWS for over 10 years at various locations across the country before arriving in southeast Michigan.

This lively presentation will help you take advantage of building and renovation projects to thoughtfully integrate interpretation into building, exhibit, and landscape design to meet your site’s interpretive goals.

Using a case study of the new Gateway Center at the Mississippi Gateway Regional Park in Minnesota, you’ll learn key questions to ask, discover opportunities to explore in your own project, and see the spectacular results of this thoughtful collaboration.

The presenters include the Outdoor Education Supervisor for the Gateway Center, and an architect on the project. They’ll provide an orientation to the site goals laid out in the long-range plan, the Gateway Center building goals, key interpretation themes, and space needs within the building and throughout the larger site. The presenters will then discuss the timeline and process for decision-making and collaboration during the design process.

At the end of the presentation, the presenters will outline questions to ask your exhibit, landscape, and architectural partners; outline opportunities to explore in your own project; and share ways to ensure that interpretation is deeply embedded throughout your site and facilities.

Presenters:

• Amber Sausen AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, Principal, Alliiance
• Patty Maher, Outdoor Education Supervisor, Mississippi Gateway Regional Park, Three Rivers Park District

Amber Sausen is an architect who leads projects that connect people to the world around them, with a special emphasis on park facilities, visitor centers, outdoor recreation, and performing arts spaces. Amber is a principal at Alliiance in Minneapolis, MN.

Patty Maher works on a team of 15 staff who provide nature and outdoor recreation programming and amenities in a community-focused park along the Mississippi River.

What does it really take to run and grow a thriving nature-based preschool? This workshop offers a field-informed look at the systems and strategies that support high-quality programs. Participants will explore day-to-day operations such as scheduling, curriculum design, and risk-benefit approaches to outdoor learning, alongside the bigger-picture elements that sustain a program over time.

We’ll dig into staffing structures and recruitment and retention strategies that help maintain consistency and quality. The session will also guide participants through key questions to assess readiness for growth, offering a framework for scaling a program in ways that align with mission and capacity.

Along the way, participants will deepen their understanding of how to operationalize nature-based early childhood education within real-world constraints, strengthening their ability to lead programs that advance environmental education and connection to the natural world.

Presenter:

• John Vincent, Chief of Early Childhood Education, ODC Network

John Vincent serves as Chief of Early Childhood Education for the ODC Network, overseeing five nature-based early childhood sites and leading strategic initiatives to advance outdoor education across Michigan. A lifelong advocate for children, John found his calling in early education. He believes deeply in getting kids outdoors, nurturing their curiosity about the natural world, and helping them build the foundational skills that will set them up for success throughout their educational journey. John's impact on outdoor education in West Michigan has been transformative. He spearheaded the expansion of the ODC Early Childhood Network, including building a nature-based early childhood campus within a former strip mall—transforming over 20 acres of neglected woods into a thriving educational space with trails and conservation areas that embody ODC's mission. He led the development of Gentex Discovery Preschool, a first-of-its-kind on-site partnership providing top-tier, nature-based care and education for Gentex Corporation employees, serving children from birth through kindergarten entry and offering second-shift care to meet the needs of working families. Currently, John is leading statewide efforts to align nature-based education with Michigan's Universal PreK expansion, building sustainable business models for childcare through corporate and community partnerships, and supporting early childhood leaders in advancing their own nature-based programs. John graduated from Grand Valley State University and taught special education at the K-12 level. Before coming to ODC, he worked for a Head Start grantee, where he advanced to Deputy Director of Early Childhood Services in Northeastern Michigan, overseeing 120 preschool classrooms in 21 counties. Outside of work, John enjoys spending time with his wife and three children in their new community in West Michigan and at their family cottage in Manistee.

Most nature centers run on a patchwork of disconnected tools: one system for donors, another for camp registration, a separate platform for email, a website that does not talk to any of them, and spreadsheets holding it all together. It works until it doesn't. Staff burn hours on duplicate data entry, members fall through the cracks, and leadership cannot see the full picture of who supports the organization and how.

In this session, Reflection Riding and Lake One will walk through what it actually takes to move from a fragmented stack to a unified operations platform that connects marketing, fundraising, donor management, camp registration, and membership into one source of truth.

You will hear the unvarnished version of the journey, including:

• How to know you are ready (and the readiness signals that mean you are not). A practical framework for evaluating organizational, data, and team readiness before you sign anything.
• How to evaluate vendors without getting sold to. What to ask, what to ignore, and how to separate platform capability from implementation reality.
• How to manage the build without losing your team. Change management lessons from the middle of a live transformation, including how to set expectations with staff, board, and members.
• What the unified experience actually looks like once camp families, donors, members, and event attendees live in the same system, and how that changes what your team can do.

You will leave with a readiness checklist, a vendor evaluation rubric, and a clearer picture of what year one of digital transformation really looks like at a nature center, told by people in the thick of it.

Presenters:

• Mary Corson, Managing Director, Reflection Riding Nature Center & Arboretum
• Ryan Ruud, Founder and CEO, Lake One
• Casey Goodrich, Technical Consultant, Lake One

Mary Corson is Managing Director at Reflection Riding Nature Center & Arboretum in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Ryan Ruud is Founder and CEO of Lake One, an Accredited HubSpot Solutions Partner focused exclusively on nonprofits and purpose-driven organizations. He has spent more than a decade helping purpose-driven teams replace duct-taped tech stacks with systems that actually serve their work.

Casey Goodrich is a Technical Consultant at Lake One, where he leads technical architecture k and product development for nonprofit operations on HubSpot.

Effective boards are shaped through thoughtful strategy and ongoing investment. This workshop explores practical approaches to recruiting and sustaining a board that can confidently guide your organization into the future.

Participants will learn how to build a recruitment pipeline that extends beyond personal networks, with a focus on inclusive and equitable practices that bring diverse perspectives to the table. We’ll examine what drives long-term board engagement and satisfaction, and how to foster a culture rooted in accountability and shared purpose.

The session will also cover how to design an onboarding process that sets clear expectations and equips new members to contribute with confidence from the start. Finally, participants will explore tools and approaches to strengthen board meetings and support more effective governance overall.

Presenter:

• Paul Acosta, Executive Director, Sibley Nature Center

A fifth‑generation Texan, Paul has led the Sibley Nature Center as Executive Director since August 2018. His previous role as Associate Director at the Nonprofit Management Center allowed him to strengthen nonprofits throughout the Permian Basin through hands‑on consulting, training, and advocacy. With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in History and a certificate in Nonprofit Management, Paul brings a strong blend of academic grounding and real‑world experience nonprofit leadership. He has contributed his expertise as a board member for a nature preserve, a private school, and a cancer support organization. At the end of the day, Paul’s most meaningful titles are Dad to his 10‑year‑old daughter, Kai, and husband to Valerie.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to create exhibits for a visitor/nature center/ museum? When engaging with a design/build exhibit firm what information will they need to help you execute the best project possible? Is there a compelling story that you are wanting to tell? What is the process to get that story from dreams/concepts to reality. Are you familiar with the exhibit design/build process? Schedule, scope and budget is only part of the process. In this informative session we will cover all the above questions and more. If you are thinking about an exhibit project, wondering how exhibits go from conception to reality, or are just curious to learn how the process works, visit this session, win some prizes, have fun and get your questions answered.

Presenter:

• Joe Reynoso, Account Executive, Taylor Studios, Inc.

Joe Reynoso has been in the exhibit world for over 15+ years first working with fortune 100 clients helping them create their trade show experiences. Prior to that he worked for the UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) Foundation as a development officer raising over $450 million for the Santa Monica/ UCLA Medical Center and the Westwood UCLA Medical Center. For the last 3+years his passion has been assisting museums, nature and visitor centers navigate the waters of creating engaging exhibits and telling stories that are impactful. A lifelong learner at heart, museums and visitor centers have shaped Joe's life, and now he helps them tell their stories.

How do nature centers remove barriers to connection with their local communities? How do you build authentic, meaningful relationships that make all people feel welcomed, included, and part of your center or organization? How do we move from providing to partnering?

We'll talk about ways that we can build bridges, remove barriers, and have real, meaningful nature-based opportunities for people that have geographic, language, mobility, transportation, and/or other potential barriers to participation and ways that we as nature organizations can collaborate with and work alongside to lift up, connect, and support our communities. Building community partnerships is a powerful way to build relationships and expand the reach of our work, but it also requires our organizations to be listening, learning, showing up, and following through on our word.

This session is for you if you have specific groups or organizations that you’d like to connect with, you want to brainstorm new and creative ways to develop partnerships, or if you have a great partnership experience to highlight. Let’s share our successes and challenges with creating thriving, purposeful, collaborative work that connects us and our communities. We’ll consider how to understand who comes to your programs and sites, who doesn’t currently participate, how to explore the region around your facility, and brainstorm ways to move your organization into more authentic community outreach and engagement.

Community engagement is messy, rewarding, and meaningful!

Facilitator:

• Erin Parker, Community Outreach Interpretive Services Supervisor, Huron-Clinton Metroparks

Erin Parker is the Community Outreach Interpretive Services Supervisor for the Huron-Clinton Metroparks, a 13-park regional park system in five counties in and around Detroit, Michigan. Erin and her team build bridges into communities ranging from rural to urban, bring our nature programming into schools where our staff are embedded in the schools teaching alongside teachers 2 times weekly, into assisted living centers where we conduct programming for multiple senior audiences and their caregivers, early childhood centers where we focus on empowering teachers and staff to conduct nature-based activities on their school grounds, and more! We love to creatively engage our diverse community on site and bring nature experiences to them through partnerships, events, scholarships, and more.

Nature center leaders are driven by a powerful sense of purpose — but how do you know if your work is actually making a difference? And how do you communicate that difference to funders, community members, and your own team?

This interactive workshop explores the why and how of tracking organizational impact. We'll start with the big question: why measure progress at all? Together, we'll examine how strong evaluation practices help you stay true to your mission, make the case to funders, and share your organization's story in a way that resonates.

From there, we'll dig into practical methods for gathering and synthesizing evidence, including a look at what your organization is likely already collecting. You'll leave with a clearer sense of how to connect the data you have to the outcomes that matter most.

Through guided peer conversations and hands-on activities, participants will strengthen their use of key strategy and evaluation tools, including logic models and strategic plans. The goal isn't measurement for its own sake, it's using these tools actively to improve your work and sharpen your organization's focus.

Whether you're just beginning to think about impact measurement or looking to deepen an existing practice, this workshop will give you frameworks, peer insights, and practical next steps you can bring back to your organization.

Participants will leave with:

• A stronger understanding of why and how to track mission-driven impact
• Familiarity with multiple methods for measuring and communicating results
• Hands-on experience with strategy and evaluation tools like logic models
• Connections with peers navigating similar challenges

Presenter:

• Carolyn Waters, Ph.D., Principal Consultant, Ranger Rabbit Consulting

Dr. Carolyn Waters has twenty years of experience in environmental education practice and research across the U.S. Southeast, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest. She has published and presented on topics such as training for environmental educators and curricular design that involves young people in environmental decision making. As Principal Consultant for Ranger Rabbit Consulting, she provides strategic services to organizations that connect people with nature, including support for impact measurement, strategic planning, and evaluation. Her participatory approach engages and empowers stakeholders at all levels. Her passion is to work with groups to foster critical thinking, collaboration, and action for social and ecological justice. Based in Louisville, Kentucky, she lives on an urban homestead with her partner, dog, cat, and a handful of chickens.

What does digital storytelling look like in a green space? How does it enrich visitor experiences? What best practices exist for making sure digital storytelling aligns with institutional goals and the capacities of a space? This workshop aims to create a space to pause and reflect. We want to cultivate an environment of thoughtful questions around the real-world benefits of tech in green outdoor spaces, and explore how to strike a balance between a digital and in-person experience.

Participants will understand the workings of Bloomberg Connects, a digital storytelling and interpretation platform, and how it can support their work at nature centers. Participants will come away with a fuller understanding of the digital tools and resources that are available to them, which can help them meet the present moment and better serve a diverse audience. Participants will come away with real-world examples and strategies of how digital tools are being used to facilitate meaningful visitor experiences in green spaces. Participants will understand what they can expect from a digital interpretation platform, how to evaluate a tool and determine how it might support the mission of their organization, and how to build stakeholder engagement around new digital platforms.

Presenters:

• Isabel Cuellar, Community & Partner Success Manager, Bloomberg Connects
• Mary Corson, Managing Director, Reflection Riding
• Michaela Wright, Director of Exhibitions Content & Interpretation, The New York Botanical Garden

Isabel Cuellar, from the Bloomberg Connects team, has worked with recruiting, onboarding, marketing, and community engagement teams. She manages a Botanic Gardens + Living Collection Partners Community within Bloomberg Connects. This experience gives her the perspective needed to moderate this digital adoption conversation.

Mary Corson is the Managing Director at Reflection Riding, a 300-acre nature center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She leads organizational strategy and operations, with a focus on visitor experience, interpretation, and cross-functional initiatives. Mary has played a key role in the development and implementation of Reflection Riding’s signage and digital guide strategy, bringing a practical perspective on how nature centers can thoughtfully integrate digital tools to support engagement, accessibility, and connection to place.

Michaela Wright, Director of Exhibitions Content & Interpretation at the New York Botanical Garden, can address signage options and training tactics that have been used onsite to enhance visitor experiences. Her perspective working at a large institution will help create a diverse array of voices in the workshop.

In this facilitated discussion, representatives of the Michigan Early Childhood Outdoors (MiECO) Hub will share a brief history of the group’s emergence, early history, and aspirations for expanding access to outdoor/nature-based early childhood education. Then, facilitators will guide attendees through a series of discussion questions relating to necessary strategies for coalition-building in this field: building interest, awareness, and pathways for learning about and initiating outdoor early childhood education; cultivating resources and commitments to best practices for the field; and organizing support for broader access to nature for children of all ages.

Facilitators:

• Caleb Carlton, President & CEO, Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative & MiECO Advisory Group Leader
• Brooke Larm, Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative & MiECO Advisory Group Leader
• John Vincent, Chief of Early Childhood Education, ODC Network & MiECO Advisory Group Leader
• Lisa Marckini, Program Evaluator & Administrative Specialist, Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative & MiECO Advisory Group Leader

Caleb Carlton earned a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Applications from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in Environmental Geoscience from Mississippi State University. Before joining the GLSI in 2023, he worked as a residential environmental educator in southern California, then at the Tremont Institute in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Throughout his career he has worked to build durable partnerships between schools and nature-based organizations so that young people have ongoing connections to nature as part of their schooling.

Brooke Larm holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum from Michigan State University, with concentrations in K–12 Administration and Nature-Based Early Childhood Education. She also earned a Certificate in Nature-Based Early Childhood Education from Antioch University New England and a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Michigan State University, with minors in Environmental Science and English and a Spanish K–12 endorsement. Her degree work and professional preparation inform more than twenty years of experience designing integrated, place-based curriculum and advancing high-quality outdoor and nature-based learning for children, youth, and educators.

John Vincent is the Chief of Early Childhood Education for the ODC Network, where he leads a growing network of nature-based early childhood programs serving infants through PreK. With a background in special education and systems leadership, John’s work bridges classroom practice, policy, and implementation to expand equitable access to outdoor learning. He has helped shape Michigan’s nature-based licensing guidance, supported statewide professional learning efforts, and contributes nationally through a NIEER committee focused on integrating nature-based education into public PreK systems. John believes the most powerful learning environments are those that invite curiosity, inclusion, and shared discovery—supporting children and educators alike in learning alongside the natural world.

Lisa Marckini earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Wayne State University. Through her consultancy, Civic Research Services, Inc., she has worked on numerous evaluations and program-development efforts with the environment as a common theme. Since 2007, she has managed the evaluation of the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative. She has expertise in an array of evaluation strategies as well as data management, data visualization and analysis, and facilitation skills.

Participants in this interactive workshop will explore emerging models that strengthen collaboration amongst organizations, stakeholders, public entities, and community members. This transdisciplinary approach gives a curated guide examining how institutions align education, research, practice, and community priorities to create sustained regional impact. The session will begin with breaking down subconscious silos, building trust, and mobilizing these transdisciplinary teams to address complex challenges. This workshop will use a comparative heuristic to guide our collective thinking, rather than a 1:1 prescriptive tool which can best address focused/articulated problems.

Participants, working in assigned inter-sector small groups, will then engage in facilitated mapping and design exercises to reframe their perspective and identify missing potential partners, shared resource availability, and pathways for increased collaboration. This workshop will conclude with a group synthesis and discussion of next steps; leaving participants with practical tools, actionable items, and new peer connections to support their individual elusive goals.

Presenter:

• Peter Bode, President and Chief Executive Officer, Nature Center at Shaker Lakes

Peter Bode is President and CEO of the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes. Outside of this role, he also serves as the Board President of the Lake Erie Institute, Trustee for the Doan Brook Watershed Partnership, Outreach Council for the Society of Ecological Restoration, and several other regional advisory councils. Through the years, Peter has served a multidisciplinary array of roles for efforts throughout the Great Lakes Bioregion that gives him a unique blend of conservation, environmental education, biostatistical analysis, and UN SDG pursual/ research affording him a perspective as facilitator around discussions curating transdisciplinary collaboratives across industries.

Nature centers and outdoor schools undertake capital projects that often represent the largest investment their organization will ever make. Yet the connection between an organization's educational mission and the built result can easily get lost in the complexity of budgets, timelines, and technical decisions.

This facilitated discussion explores how leaders can keep their mission and values at the center of a capital project from early visioning through design, construction, and ribbon cutting. We'll discuss strategies for stakeholder engagement, how educational philosophy can translate into tangible design choices, and how to assemble a project team that understands and shares your goals.

Facilitators:

• Erica Thompson, Principal, Hennebery Eddy Architects
• Mike Beamer, Project Architect, Hennebery Eddy Architects

Erica Thompson, AIA, WELL AP, LEED — Erica prioritizes sustainable design, community engagement, and occupant health and wellness through her project work. She is actively engaged in planning projects for multiple nature centers and serves her community as an advocate for land use policy, climate solutions, and social equity. Erica is a principal at Hennebery Eddy Architects in Portland, Oregon, where she leads the firm’s Net-Positive initiatives, with a focus on implementing sustainable, adaptive design solutions at all project scales.

Mike Beamer, AIA, LFA, CPHC, LEED — Mike brings 13 years of experience in high performance, energy efficient design to his work on environmental education and public civic projects. As a project architect at Hennebery Eddy Architects in Portland, Oregon, he focuses on designing projects that help support a more just and regenerative future. His current work includes outdoor education facilities targeting Living Building Challenge certification.

Shared Leadership is the idea that decisions are more smarter, more effective, and have greater buy-in when they leverage the collective wisdom of your team. That sounds great ... but how does it actually work in a larger organization? We will be playing a role playing game that models a major decision making process in a larger organization that utilizes the principles of shared leadership. Come ready to be part of the action. Cosplay and d20s are optional. Participants will learn:

• Why shared leadership is important and how it works
• Effective tools to facilitate a decision-making progress while maximizing input and buy-in from the team
• How to avoid getting stuck
• How to organize a medium-sized to large organization around shared leadership

Presenters:

• Michael Larson, Executive Director, Blue Lotus Center
• Lisa Starke, Associate Director, Blue Lotus Center

Michael Larson is the Executive Director of the Blue Lotus Center, a nonprofit nature center for people with disabilities and other profound life challenges in West Bend, WI. He has two adult children and a lovely wife, who is also an executive director. If you find yourself sitting next to Mike you could strike up a conversation with him about biology, religion, board games, the nonprofit sector, and/or shared leadership and collaborative teams as an organizational strategy. Or, for that matter, you can bring up whatever is interesting to you… he just likes talking to people. He is also the DM for an elaborate Dungeons & Dragons campaign, hence the RPG vibes.

Lisa Starke is the proud mother of two grown sons and lives with her husband in Barton, Wisconsin. She is honored to be the associate director of the Blue Lotus Center, a nonprofit that provides access to a relaxing and empowering day in nature for people of all ages with profound life challenges. Her primary areas of focus are building a thriving core of volunteers, monitoring and writing grants, and assisting with programming. She deeply enjoys utilizing important skills gained from her counseling and marketing degrees as well as years of experience working with children with disabilities to help provide Blue Lotus’ wide range of guests with an experience that will have a positive impact.

Do you work in a small square footage-nature center? How do you make the best of it?

Together, we will share and discuss strategies for maximizing revenue-generating indoor programming in small spaces and clever ways of physically setting up small spaces for diverse programming and other uses.

This session will be facilitated first as a gallery walk, immediately followed by a facilitated discussion. Come ready to share and learn from each other about your solutions to small nature center problems! We will have paper for you to write down your ideas, but you are welcome and encouraged to come prepared with anything relevant you have that you can share via the gallery walk.

Facilitator:

• Sonja Melander, Associate Director of Education, Potomac Valley Audubon Society

Sonja is the Associate Director of Education for the Potomac Valley Audubon Society, located in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. She began her career in the environmental education/nature center space during summers as a camp counselor in western Pennsylvania. After graduate school, she worked as the Education and Outreach Officer at Montserrat Volcano Observatory. She then served as a summer Geoscientist-in-the-Park at Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve through the Geological Society of America's GeoCorps program. She then worked for the Mount St. Helens Institute where she remained for 9 years, first as an educator, then as the Science Education Coordinator, and then as the Science Education Manager.

It is important that everyone feels welcomed and accepted in all spaces. The DNR Outdoor Adventure Center creates accessible ways for visitors to engage with all types of our programming. Whether visiting our building with family or their school, participating in a public program or recreational experience (such as fishing or archery), or attending a large expo event we strive to provide a diverse selection of inclusive experiences and continuously improve and raise our standards. We will start our workshop by walking through what our facility has implemented to be more inclusive to all; including our Sensory-Friendly Days available to the public and private groups. We will leave 20-30 minutes with time for discussion on what could be done at your facility!

Workshop objectives include:

• Learn how to expand access to your programming, including large scale events.
• Expand knowledge of accessibility tools and resources available to be more inclusive.
• Better understanding of needs that your guests may have and how they could be met while visiting your location.
• Techniques and training for staff learning and awareness.

Presenters:

• Katie Gillies, Assistant Director, DNR Outdoor Adventure Center
• Danielle Wilemski, Educational Programmer, DNR Outdoor Adventure Center

Katie Gillies is the Assistant Director for the DNR Outdoor Adventure Center. Katie has worked at the OAC since the doors opened in 2015, in multiple roles. She oversees the OAC's general facility operations, guest experience and customer service, and group reservation processes. With a strong commitment to accessibility and inclusion, she serves on the OAC’s accessibility and marketing teams alongside the OAC's education staff to support and promote inclusive programs across the facility. She also works alongside the accessibility team to ensure staff are appropriately trained on available offerings and resources, to maintain a welcoming and informed experience for all visitors.

Danielle Wilemski is an educator for the DNR Outdoor Adventure Center. She has worked passionately to connect guests of all abilities to the outdoors and created Sensory-Friendly Days at the OAC. Sensory-Friendly Days have grown into monthly offerings for families and individuals for adventure. In 2025, Danielle launched Sensory-Friendly Days for schools and summer camp which has turned into a monthly availability. These days give groups an opportunity to visit the OAC when they are closed to the public, smaller capacity, and the same building standards as public Sensory-Friendly Days.

How can the places we create reflect the values we hold? This workshop explores how mission, vision, and values can serve as guiding tools in shaping the built environment of a nature center or environmental organization. Through guided exercises and collaborative discussion, participants will work directly with their organization’s existing values to explore how those principles can inform decisions about land use, facilities, programming, and visitor experience.

Together, we’ll examine how concepts such as stewardship, sustainability, resiliency, access, education, and community can move from abstract ideals into tangible spatial choices. Participants will gain frameworks and prompts to help guide future building and planning efforts, using mission-driven thinking as a filter for decision-making.

The session will also feature a case study of the Wild Bear Nature Center, highlighting how organizational values shaped the design process and influenced key decisions throughout a major development project. Topics will include navigating financial constraints, sustainability goals, regulatory realities, community partnerships, and long-term operational needs.

Designed as a studio-style conversation, this workshop will give participants the opportunity to reflect on their own organizations and identify mission-aligned next steps for future growth and development.

Presenter:

• Linnaea Stuart, AIA, LEED AP, NOMA, Principal Architect, Arch11

Linnaea resides in Colorado where she is a licensed architect and principal at Arch11, a Colorado based firm dedicated to resilient and impactful design. With an interest in searching for unique projects in her field, Linnaea's work has focused on the design and construction of cultural landmarks, including Wild Bear Nature Center a new net-positive education center in Nederland, Colorado. Her passion lies in turning great ideas into tangible, built realities driven by thoughtful collaboration, meticulous attention to detail, and creative problem-solving. During her free time, she enjoys taking early morning walks with her dog, Ladybird, and tasting new culinary treats at all times of the day.

Nature-based early childhood education, particularly nature preschools, is becoming more popular in the nature center world. Yet, how do we know we’re doing it well? The Nature-Based Education Rating Scale (NABERS) is a tool developed to help identify the quality and level of “natureness” for those PreK and K-3 programs using adding nature to their curriculum. This session will first identify the core principles of Nature-based Early Childhood Education (NbECE) and then discuss tangible measures of quality. Participants will leave able to identify nature-based practices in the program structure, staffing, physical environment, community partnerships, and family engagement.

Presenter:

• Rachel Larimore, Ph.D., Chief Visionary, Samara Early Learning

Dr. Rachel A. Larimore is a researcher, educator, consultant, and former nature-based preschool director. For nearly 30 years her work has focused on the intentional integration of nature to support young children’s holistic development by learning with nature to expand their worlds and live rich, full lives. She has written multiple books including Preschool Beyond Walls: Blending Early Childhood Education and Nature-Based Learning, Evaluating Natureness: Measuring the Quality of Nature-based Classrooms in Pre-k Through 3rd Grade, and her newest book Reimagining the Role of Teachers in Nature-based Learning: Helping Children be Curious, Confident, and Caring. Rachel is the founder and Chief Visionary of Samara Early Learning, an organization focused on helping early childhood educators start nature-based schools or add nature-based approaches into their existing program. Prior to founding Samara, she spent more than a decade starting and directing one of the first nature-based preschools in the United States.

Nature centers and outdoor learning environments are uniquely positioned to strengthen both science achievement and literacy development through meaningful, content-rich experiences. This interactive workshop explores a literacy-infused outdoor learning model grounded in the Science of Reading, experiential learning theory, and standards-aligned science instruction.

Using a 5th grade organism classification field investigation as a case study, participants will examine how structured literacy practices — including academic vocabulary development, morphology, informational text structures, oral language routines, and evidence-based discussion strategies — can be intentionally embedded into inquiry-driven environmental education experiences without sacrificing student curiosity or engagement.

Participants will engage in practical strategies for designing interdisciplinary learning experiences that connect reading comprehension with authentic scientific observation and investigation. The session will also highlight how nature centers can serve as essential academic partners by building background knowledge, strengthening disciplinary literacy, and supporting equitable access to rich learning experiences for diverse student populations.

Presenter:

• Christina Maldonado, Director, Oatland Island Wildlife Center

Christina Maldonado serves as Director of Oatland Island Wildlife Center, where she leads standards-aligned environmental education programs designed to connect experiential learning with measurable academic outcomes. With more than 25 years in education, including roles as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, school administrator, and K–5 District Science Content Specialist, she specializes in interdisciplinary learning experiences that integrate life science, literacy, and inquiry-based instruction. Christina is currently pursuing an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership with research focused on the impact of standards-aligned experiential learning on student engagement and achievement. She is passionate about positioning nature centers as vital partners in advancing science learning, literacy development, and educational equity.

 Nature centers are being asked to do more with technology than ever before: visitor engagement tools, digital interpretation, database systems, camera traps, acoustic recorders, environmental sensors, digital exhibits, trail-use monitoring, and a growing wave of AI-enabled workflows. The real challenge is rarely choosing a tool. It is deciding what technology is actually worth the staff time, budget, maintenance, training, and long-term commitment a nature center can sustain.

This interactive workshop helps nature center leaders make practical, mission-aligned decisions about technology adoption. Too often, tools get adopted reactively, because something seems exciting or a peer organization is already using it, before there is a clear plan for staffing, maintenance, interpretation, or long-term value. Nature centers are especially exposed to this pattern because they work across education, land stewardship, public programs, exhibits, and operations all at once, usually with lean teams.

Participants will work through a simple Technology Planning Canvas to identify one priority use case at their own center, define the audience or operational need it serves, assess site constraints, weigh risks and tradeoffs, and build a realistic 12-month roadmap for one or two pilot efforts. Pilots might range from a camera trap network, a sensor deployment, or a digital exhibit. The session emphasizes outcomes that matter to nature centers: stewardship, interpretation, education, visitor experience, communications, and operations. It is not about technology for its own sake.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to identify where technology can create meaningful value at their center, evaluate choices based on mission fit, staffing capacity, maintenance burden, accessibility, privacy, and budget rather than novelty, and write clear objectives and success criteria for a pilot. They will leave with a draft 12-month roadmap that includes roles, training, documentation, data workflows, replacement and upkeep needs, and evaluation, plus a reusable planning framework they can bring back to staff, leadership, and boards.

The goal is not to convince people to use more technology. It is to help leaders decide where technology genuinely strengthens their mission, where it may create unnecessary burden, and how to pilot new tools in ways that are realistic, inclusive, and sustainable. The session is designed to be facilitated outdoors or in a low-tech setting, using printed worksheets, small-group discussion, and peer feedback rather than slides or demos. Participants will walk away with something concrete they can use immediately, not just ideas to think about later.

Presenter:

• Shah Selbe, Engineer and Conservation Technologist, FieldKit

Shah Selbe is an engineer, conservation technologist, and National Geographic Explorer working at the intersection of open-source technology and field science. He is CEO and Executive Director of FieldKit, a nonprofit building open-source environmental monitoring hardware, a data platform, and field-training programs used by researchers and communities in roughly a dozen countries. Before moving into conservation through Stanford's Center for Ocean Solutions, Shah was a satellite propulsion engineer at Boeing. He is a Rolex Award Finalist, a Hackaday Prize winner, a Nelson Institute Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a PopTech Social Innovation Fellow, and a former National Geographic Society Fellow. He serves on the board of International Bird Rescue.

Leadership at nature centers often pulls us inside — into budgets, staffing, strategic decisions, and putting out “fires” — while the landscapes that first inspired our work wait quietly outside the window. In this workshop, we will step away from the noise and constant inputs of daily work and turn to the natural world for perspective, renewed energy, and a deeper sense of purpose.

Through a guided walk and shared observation, participants will pay close attention to the living systems around them — the persistence of plants, the movement of pollinators, and the relationships that allow ecosystems to flourish over time. Together, we will explore what these patterns can teach us about responding to challenges, supporting healthy workplace cultures, nurturing long-term partnerships, and staying grounded during uncertain moments. Participants may discover that careful observation not only changes the way we see the landscape, but also the way we approach our work, our decisions, and one another.

The workshop will also invite participants to reflect on their own “pulse point” — the work that motivates and sustains them — and to consider how a clearly shared sense of purpose can inspire and align staff, board members, donors, volunteers, and visitors around a common vision.

Participants will leave with practical ways to use observation as a leadership tool, along with renewed appreciation for how the natural world can restore perspective, spark creativity, and strengthen the way they lead.

Presenter:

• Tavia Cathcart Brown, Executive Director, Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve

Tavia Cathcart Brown is Executive Director of Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve in Goshen, Kentucky, a 170-acre public charity serving 60,000 visitors annually. A trained botanist, she brings an ecological lens to leadership, education, and conservation. Her work includes the development of nationally recognized native gardens, habitat restoration initiatives, and expanded access to nature. Tavia is co-author of Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and Southern Appalachians, a field guide to 16 states, and co-author/lead photographer of Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, recipient of a Gold Nautilus Book Award. She hosted a KY Educational TV show, Kentucky’s Secret Gardens, nominated for an Emmy Award. She regularly presents on ecology, stewardship, and interpretive storytelling, and how close observation can inspire curiosity, care, and conservation.

Join us for an all-encompassing discussion regarding endowments and their benefits to organizations and mission delivery. We'll give examples from our own organizations and explore how you can maximize the opportunities that endowments provide. Whether you already have a significant endowment or haven't (yet) started one, you'll gain new perspectives on how an endowment can impact your organization.

Facilitators:

• Kitty Pochman, Executive Director, Linda Loring Nature Foundation
• Brooks Paternotte, Executive Director Emeritus, Irvine Nature Center
• John Myers, Executive Director, Indian Creek Nature Center

Kitty Pochman is the Executive Director of the Linda Loring Nature Foundation (LLNF) in Nantucket, MA, whose mission is to preserve the biological diversity of the 275-acre property, connecting people to nature through education and research. Kitty is a previous ANCA board member and a past President who continues to serve on the Governance Committee.

Brooks Paternotte started developing his affinity for spending time outside while on weekend camping trips with friends and neighbors growing up. After thirteen years at Irvine Nature Center, Brooks is stepping down from his role at Irvine and now serves as Executive Director Emeritus.

John Myers has been executive director of Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa since May 2013. Working with the organization’s board of directors, John leads the strategic planning and growth of the organization ensuring that its vision to create champions of nature is achieved.

For the past 7 years, Appalachian Headwaters has experimented with nurturing environmental self-discovery, stewardship and leadership within a diverse, exploratory place-based experience the broader coal-dependent communities buy into. Participants will learn some of the key takeaways from this journey, explore frameworks for baking environmental ideas into camp culture and youth-focused programming, and develop their own ideas for unlocking youth motivation in their programs – from preschool to beyond graduation.

Presenter:

• Kevin Johnson, Education Director, Appalachian Headwaters

Kevin has worked in community-based environmental education for 25 years - in Texas, Maryland and Central America, and his home in West Virginia for the past 15. Kevin is trained as an environmental engineer and likes to apply a problem-solving approach to engaging diverse audiences in place-based education. Kevin is the Education Director of Appalachian Headwaters, where he runs a wide variety of programming including camps, high school internships, field trips and other community programs. Kevin is the Chapter President of the Greenbrier Master Naturalist Chapter, a beekeeper and a chocolate maker.

Nature center buildings serve a unique purpose: supporting experiences in the outdoors without overshadowing them. This session explores mission-driven approaches to planning and designing buildings that strengthen the visitor experience and deepen connection to place.

Drawing on years of experience, presenters will share seven guiding strategies for creating spaces that truly serve people who would rather be outside. Topics will include assessing the building’s purpose, identifying the right location and scale for development, creating welcoming outdoor spaces, and designing experiences that resonate with a variety of audiences.

Learning objectives include:

• Discover how nature-based buildings (and their surrounding sites) can respect the land while better supporting your mission
• Learn about smart site and facility planning ideas from experts with decades of experience
• Explore sustainability strategies that fit your values, resources, and identity while going beyond mere greenwashing
• Understand how a thoughtfully executed master planning process can support and enhance fundraising

Presenters:

• Erik Hancock, AIA, LFA, NOMA, Partner, The Kubala Washatko Architects
• Therese Hanson, Project Architect, The Kubala Washatko Architects

Erik Hancock, AIA, LFA, NOMA believes in the power of collaboration to make buildings that are beautiful, humane, and interconnected with the living world. As a TKWA partner, he seeks to more fully integrate the firm’s wholeness-based philosophy, both in design outcomes and in studio culture. Erik is an experienced designer, architect, and project manager, as well as a nationally-recognized leader in planning and design for outdoor camps and nature-based educational facilities. Erik’s undergraduate and graduate training in music performance and education provide a uniquely empathetic perspective on this complex and challenging project. On a typical work day Erik can be found accompanied by his miniature schnauzer, Mojo—the studio’s unofficial emotional support animal.

As a project designer, Therese Hanson enjoys being involved with each phase of a project as it evolves from just a good idea into remarkable spaces that bring people joy. Each project is unique, but all projects need vision, a collaborative spirit, and an embrace of the details; Therese endeavors to bring these characteristics to every team. She believes that it is our responsibility to leave the world more beautiful and more whole than when we found it, and each project is an opportunity to make that a reality.

 Field Tours are a great way to expand your natural history knowledge, share exciting experiences with participants, and add a new financial opportunity to your organization. This workshop will walk through how to plan, market, and prepare for multi-day trips to both in-state and out-of-state locations. These trips are designed to focus on a variety of natural history topics.

In this workshop we will discuss:

• How to plan, market, and prepare for trips that take participants away from their facility for overnight field tours.
• How to make these experiences safe and available to a wide variety of participants (taking into account age, physical abilities, and health conditions).
• How to properly price these field tours to cover lodging, food, experiences, short-distance transportation, and a nature center (or other facility) contribution.
• Examples of previous field tour itineraries and the presenter will explain the decision-making process for the entire document, including how to ensure many natural history topics are showcased (geology, birding, cultural history, botany, special features of the area, etc.).
• The general time it will take to plan and prepare for each trip and the best times of year to begin choosing a location/general area, creating and marketing an itinerary, start booking accommodations and experiences, getting together interpretive resources, and scouting locations.

Presenter:

• Madison Christol, Naturalist/Land Steward, Seven Ponds Nature Center

Madison Christol is a Naturalist and Land Steward at Seven Ponds Nature Center located in Dryden, MI. She has helped plan and lead several field tours to a variety of locations. She earned her B.S.F.R in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at the University of Georgia's Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Seven Ponds Nature Center has been running both Birding and Natural History Field Tours for almost 40 years.

Come learn the integration of art, place-based experiences, and immersive installations within nature centers to deepen visitor connection and inspire return visitation. By introducing rotating exhibits and seasonal activations, it keeps the experience fresh, engaging, and relevant—encouraging guests to return throughout the year.

Mission based art exhibitions are creative partnerships with artists and the broader arts community, while also opening opportunities for earned revenue, grants, and collaborative programming. These experiences serve as an accessible entry point for new audiences, transforming first-time visits into lasting relationships and strengthening a sense of belonging in nature.

Through innovative, visually compelling, and interactive experiences, the speakers will position nature centers as dynamic destinations—places where art, environment, and community come together to inspire exploration, connection, and sustained engagement.

Facilitators:

• Leigh Ann Miller, Ohio Centers Director, National Audubon Society
• Sandy Libertini, Sr. Manager Community Building, Ohio Centers, National Audubon Society
• Carolynn Paten, Director of Programming & Guest Services, Dow Garden

Leigh Ann Miller serves as Ohio Centers Director for Audubon, a strategic leadership role overseeing the organization’s two Ohio-based Centers: The Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus and Aullwood Audubon in Dayton. In this role, Leigh Ann excels at unifying staff, programs, and day-to-day operations across both Centers, creating exciting opportunities for collaboration, shared learning, and collective impact throughout the state. Previously, Leigh Ann served as Director of Development at The Dawes Arboretum, where she built and strengthened philanthropic strategy, cultivated community and corporate partnerships, and successfully developed a vibrant volunteer program. She brings a deep passion for telling an organization’s story and leveraging data analytics to advance philanthropy and mission-driven outcomes. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Temple University.

Sandy Libertini is a creative marketing and events professional, currently serving as Senior Manager, Audubon Ohio Centers Community Building where she oversees all aspects of delivering meaningful relationships and connecting the community to Audubon at both Ohio Centers (Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus and Aullwood Audubon Center, Dayton) through public programs, informal education, Art at Audubon, volunteers and membership.

Carolynn Paten is the Director of Programming & Guest Services and leads the teams responsible for ensuring all guest experience offerings are of the highest quality, compatible, and true to the Dow Garden’s mission. Carolynn earned a Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Communication and Business from Saginaw Valley State University and is currently pursuing her MSOL at Northwood University.

Join us to explore a series of case studies on high-performance and sustainably designed facilities, that support conservation missions and carbon reduction efforts. emersion DESIGN is passionate about creating highly sustainable, cost effective, and beautiful places, spaces, and buildings. One of our key areas of expertise is collaborating with nature-centric organizations seeking high levels of sustainable design.

In this workshop, you will learn about:

• Opportunities within New Construction and Renovation, that support reducing an organization's carbon footprint
• The differences in Embodied vs. Operation Carbon for facilities
• Potential funding mechanisms, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, to support Geothermal and Solar installations

To explore these topics, we'll look at a variety of case studies, including:

• Cincinnati Nature Center's New Conservation Field Station with On-Site Net Zero Energy
• Modernizing Great Park’s of Hamilton County’s Seed Nursery, which included rehabilitating an over 100-year-old seed drying barn to an event center — while creating a renovated bat habitat for an existing colony
• Renovating a blighted building to a modern office for Pepper Construction; while achieving Historic Preservation with Historic Tax Credits, On-Site Net Zero Energy, LEED Gold, and WELL Gold Certifications
• Utilizing Mass Timber for Cincinnati Public Radio's New LEED Gold Headquarters

Presenters:

• Brett Macht, RA, LEED AP BD+C., Architect and Principal, emersion DESIGN
• Nikki Goldstein, RA, LEED AP BD+C, Design Architect, emersion DESIGN

Brett Macht, RA, LEED AP BD+C.Brett is an architect and principal of emersion DESIGN, the world’s first architecture and engineering firm to have a LEED Platinum office. With over 15 years of experience, Brett serves as emersion’s Cultural Market Leader, focused on master planning, design, and construction administration for high performing, regenerative, learning environments and cultural facilities. Brett has managed and designed complex, multi-phased projects ranging from small renovations to 250,000 sf educational facilities. He is personable, people focused, and values true collaboration. He always strives for high levels of team communication to ensure that expectations are clearly identified, met, and exceeded when possible. Brett enjoys working on home improvement projects with his wife; and building everything from woodworking projects to Legos with his children.

Nikki Goldstein, RA, LEED AP BD+C, is a design architect at emersion DESIGN. In the ever-changing nature of architecture, Nikki uncovers the best possible outcomes at the intersection of cost, function, & aesthetics. With expertise in visualization, Her thoughtful approach and inquisitive nature allows her to sift through multiple design solutions to find the right fit for all stakeholders.

Teambuilding is an effective and fun way to engage youth on field trips in nature, and sets the tone for other outdoor/environmental educational activities. Through intentional team challenge activities, nature center professionals can create a space of belonging for every participant and open the door to positive learning experiences in nature. Teambuilding is also an effective tool for managers, and can be used to form a cohesive staff that believes in and promotes a center's mission in their daily work.

In this hands-on workshop, learners will discuss:

• The challenges youth (including staff members) face to their mental, emotional, and social health
• The concept of risk
• How to mitigate physical and emotional risk in your programs
• How to effectively utilize risk to build resiliency
• How to develop team challenge curriculum at your facility, from ground games to low ropes courses
• How to modify exercises to promote accessibility

Attendees will discover and participate in engaging ice breaker and team challenge exercises for groups of all sizes and ages, and learn the importance of appropriate sequencing.

Presenter:

• Emily Grant, Camp Explore, Special Events, Marketing at the Michigan DNR Outdoor Adventure Center

Emily Grant has facilitated challenge courses and led outdoor programming for all ages and abilities, at camps and nonprofits across the country. Today, Emily is committed to connecting the youth of the Detroit Metro area to nature and outdoor recreation opportunities. She founded Camp Explore at the Outdoor Adventure Center to fulfill her desire to get every kid outside.

As nature-based education expands across schools, nature centers, and community programs, many organizations are investing in professional learning to support educators in shifting their practice outdoors. Yet less is understood about how educators actually become nature-based practitioners over time. This presentation shares findings from a cooperative inquiry dissertation study that examined the developmental progression of educators as they moved from taking traditional lessons outside to developing a sustained nature-based pedagogical identity. Drawing on experience theory, attention restoration research, and practitioner reflection, the session introduces a conceptual model describing key phases of educator growth: initial buy-in, experiential meaning-making, recognition of student outcomes, and eventual ownership and advocacy. Participants will engage with research-informed insights and practical implications for supporting educator development in nature centers and other outdoor learning contexts.

Presenter:

• Amanda McMickle, Ph.D., Vice President of Education, San Antonio Zoo

Dr. Amanda McMickle is the Vice President of Education at San Antonio Zoo. She has been a leader of nature schools ranging from public to private, early childhood to 6th grade for over a decade. Amanda is the founder of ⁠Southwest Early Childhood Outdoors (SECO) which is a regional group that meets monthly to discuss nature-based philosophy, best practices, and advocacy. Amanda currently sits on the leadership board of ⁠Natural Start Alliance⁠ and the governing boards of ⁠Families in Nature⁠ and ⁠International Play Association-USA Chapter⁠.

There are so many different models out there for starting and operating a nature-based preschool. It seems rare for programs to operate without any sort of partnership with local, state, and/or federal organizations. This will be a space to hear what has worked, not worked, and potential opportunities for partnerships that might not have been thought of before.

Facilitator:

• Rachel Larimore, Ph.D., Chief Visionary, Samara Early Learning

Dr. Rachel A. Larimore is a researcher, educator, consultant, and former nature-based preschool director. For nearly 30 years her work has focused on the intentional integration of nature to support young children’s holistic development by learning with nature to expand their worlds and live rich, full lives. She has written multiple books including Preschool Beyond Walls: Blending Early Childhood Education and Nature-Based Learning, Evaluating Natureness: Measuring the Quality of Nature-based Classrooms in Pre-k Through 3rd Grade, and her newest book Reimagining the Role of Teachers in Nature-based Learning: Helping Children be Curious, Confident, and Caring. Rachel is the founder and Chief Visionary of Samara Early Learning, an organization focused on helping early childhood educators start nature-based schools or add nature-based approaches into their existing program. Prior to founding Samara, she spent more than a decade starting and directing one of the first nature-based preschools in the United States.