Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators (PIAEE) Winners

2024 Winners

Read the press release about this year's PIAEE winners.

EPA Region 1 

Tara Happy
Hollis Primary School
Hollis, New Hampshire

Mrs. Happy is an environmental science teacher at the Hollis Primary School in New Hampshire. Her teaching style relies on her student’s natural curiosity, and she utilizes the outdoors to make each lesson memorable and exciting. Spontaneity is important to Mrs. Happy, who carries around a salamander identification key and a magnifying glass while leading her students in outdoor exploration just in case they come in handy. She also tailors each lesson based on the interests of her students, which fosters curiosity and promotes active engagement. After her students expressed an interest in slugs, for example, Mrs. Happy organized a “Slug Week” that highlighted slug art, slug stories, and slug-finding contests. During the week, not only were her students enjoying their learning experience, but they were also developing a deep respect for the species and their surrounding ecosystem. Additionally, because Mrs. Happy’s school is in a rural community—where many students have a connection to farming—she teaches students about the plant life cycle with gardening activities. At her school, Mrs. Happy also utilizes the outdoors for students with intensive needs—such as nonverbal communication, mobility challenges, and medical needs—and her activities are inclusive and engaging for everyone.

In 2018, Mrs. Happy started a classroom composting program which has composted more than 4,600 pounds of food scraps. A food waste diversion plan, also organized by Mrs. Happy, allowed the school to divert over 10,600 pounds of food waste from the cafeteria. Mrs. Happy’s leadership extends beyond the classroom through her collaboration with other teachers to integrate environmental education into the curriculum. She has established herself as a respected leader in her school and the broader community.

EPA Region 2

Rachel Arbor
Garrison Union Free School District
Garrison, New York

Ms. Arbor, a Director of Environmental Education and Science Teacher in the Garrison Union Free School District in New York, has demonstrated her dedication to inspiring students and fostering a deep sense of environmental stewardship. She possesses a unique ability to create interdisciplinary projects that challenge students to understand practical environmental concepts, and she effectively tailors the classroom curriculum to cater to diverse age groups, spanning from pre-K to eighth-grade students. Ms. Arbor has a unique and innovative approach to teaching, and she incorporates different lesson types that allow her students to spend time in nature. Supporting the social-emotional needs and environmental connection of each student is important to Ms. Arbor. To assess these factors, Ms. Arbor had her students complete a survey before and after one of her classroom activities, and the results indicated strong improvements in mood while decreasing stress levels.

Recently, Ms. Arbor coordinated a Youth Climate Summit for students across New York and Connecticut. This event featured nationally recognized speakers and experts in the field, and students had the opportunity to conduct long-term research projects centered on sustainability, which they presented to their peers and the public. Ms. Arbor's impact on her students and the community is also demonstrated through her work on the school's nutrition program and food waste, her leadership role in interdisciplinary environmental science and professional development work, and her submission of two papers for publication on the impact of environmental education on students. Her students are actively involved in creative environmental projects; for example, they organized a clothing swap as an opportunity to share with the public the negative impact of fast fashion and provide solutions through sustainable fashion, and they started a pollinator garden at the district campus to educate the public on monarch migration and the importance of pollinators. Ms. Arbor makes a significant effort to incorporate environmental science into the broader school curriculum at her school and makes learning about these topics fun and engaging for students of all ages.

EPA Region 2

John Herrington
East Syracuse Minoa Central High School
East Syracuse, New York

Mr. Herrington is an environmental science teacher at East Syracuse Minoa Central High School. He works diligently to make learning about the environment fun and engaging so that students of all learning abilities can participate. With 26 years of teaching experience, Mr. Herrington is keenly aware of student needs. He tailors his classroom activities based on student-specific information that allows him to facilitate place-based learning activities in a safe and engaging way. The five intentional learning phases— engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate—are the foundation of his approach to teaching and lesson planning. His classroom activities are often outside of the box, and a typical day in Mr. Herrington’s science class could include experiments in raising trout or catfish, tests for aquaponic systems and crop selection, or an exploration of hydroponics.

Mr. Herrington spearheaded an effort to transform the school’s central courtyard into an outdoor classroom, a shared instructional space for all disciplines to experience hands-on environmental education. The space includes a community garden where students cultivate plants and learn about gardening. Mr. Herrington also engages with the nearby Onondaga Nation indigenous reservation to study land use through the lens of environmental justice. Indigenous experts visit his class to teach about species restoration using Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and the correlation between land use patterns and socioeconomic status. Additionally, through a collaboration with the Onondaga Environmental Institute, Mr. Herrington worked on a community-based watershed restoration project, which included tree planting to mitigate future flow and improve water quality. Overall, Mr. Herrington is an exemplary environmental educator whose career demonstrates dedication to his students, innovative approaches to place-based learning, and enthusiastic leadership.

EPA Region 4

Krista Fleming
Gulf Shores High School
Gulf Shores, Alabama

Mrs. Fleming, a teacher at Gulf Shores High School in Alabama, strives to redefine traditional classroom boundaries by immersing students in their unique coastal environment. She prioritizes experiential learning and research, exemplified by the various fieldwork and outdoor activities she conducts for her students to facilitate learning beyond the four walls of her classroom. Mrs. Fleming has spearheaded and designed multiple projects to engage and inspire students and the community. Among these, the Oyster Gardening Unit is particularly successful, with students paying weekly visits to a lagoon for research and restoration efforts. Mrs. Fleming partners with the local environmental group, Little Lagoon Preservation Society, and oyster experts from Auburn University to teach students about oyster restoration. Through various research endeavors—including statistical population estimates and measurements of oyster dimension, graphs of growth rates, calculations of water filtration capacities, and ecosystem services provided—students gain practical experience and an understanding of ecological concepts by employing modern tools and methodologies to draw insightful conclusions from data.  

 Because of the surrounding coastal community, Mrs. Fleming often educates her students about their unique environment and the associated challenges of coastal living. By engaging them in conservation projects, such as dune restoration in collaboration with Gulf State Park and Dune Doctors, she instills a profound sense of environmental stewardship among her students. Additionally, Mrs. Fleming has mentored teachers in her school system, state, and nation through informative webinars, where others can learn from her established lesson plans, lessons learned, and guest speakers. Her influence has doubled enrollment in the Advanced Placement Environmental Science course, improved test scores, decreased chronic absenteeism, and increased the number of student awards in state competitions. Because of her mentorship, many students have chosen post-secondary studies in marine biology, sustainability, and graphic design, all of which were introduced through her curriculum.  

EPA Region 5

Shari Insley
Pine Intermediate School
North Olmsted, Ohio

With over 18 years of teaching experience, Ms. Insley, a fifth-grade environmental science teacher at Pine Intermediate School in Ohio, prioritizes dynamic and engaging learning environments for her students. Her work as an educator extends beyond the classroom, as she integrates service-learning experiences into her curriculum to inspire curiosity and insightfulness from her students. She possesses a keen awareness of her students' needs, ensuring that she meets them at their individual levels and tailors her curriculum accordingly. Through a blend of outdoor activities, research endeavors, and collaborations with local experts, Ms. Insley's students actively participate in hands-on learning experiences.

In collaboration with her fellow educators, Ms. Insley created the North Olmsted Middle School Water Guardians Project. Under this project, students use scientific equipment for research and water sample testing to gain practical insights into environmental science and conservation. Ms. Insley's students exhibit confidence, enthusiasm, and eagerness as they leave the confines of the classroom to test the campus creek. During these outdoor studies, students collaborate with field experts, professionals, and educators who encourage them to ask questions and nurture their innate curiosity. In addition to this project, Ms. Insley also hosts a field trip to the Ohio State University’s (OSU) Stone Laboratory. The laboratory, in the western basin of Lake Erie, is where Stone Lab scientists share their expertise with students and discuss topics relevant to the Lake Erie ecosystem. Through these activities, students gain tangible experience and knowledge about the importance of preventing and reducing water pollution. Ultimately, Ms. Insley is dedicated to serving as a model for students and fellow educators, sharing her knowledge and best practices to promote excellence in teaching.

EPA Region 6

Shannon Chatwin
Owasso High School
Owasso, Oklahoma

Mrs. Chatwin is a high school environmental science teacher in Oklahoma with 18 years of experience in the classroom. Place-based learning is a core principle of her teaching philosophy, and she integrates hands-on experiences whenever possible. For example, each year her students visit Picher, Oklahoma—the largest Superfund site in the United States—where they learn about mining history and remediation efforts at the site. Other field trips, like a visit to a tallgrass prairie, alabaster caverns and a wind farm, deepen student understanding of geology and ecology. Beyond Oklahoma, Mrs. Chatwin has even led trips to Costa Rica and China, where students studied different biomes and explored the culture and natural ecosystems.

Mrs. Chatwin adjusts her teaching based on the needs of her students, and she involves student voices in her curriculum by giving them a choice on the topics covered in class. Outside the classroom, Mrs. Chatwin also sponsors several clubs, including STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the STEM Walk-About Club, STEM Technology, the Science Club, and the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). She also maintains her school’s outdoor classroom, an interactive educational space for all disciplines. In the outdoor classroom, students go on nature hikes, plant native species, manage prairies and ponds, monitor biodiversity, and even tend to goats. Additionally, for the past decade, she has worked with the organization Local Environmental Action Demanded that teaches classes to Indigenous and low-income students about water quality and biodiversity at a summer camp. Mrs. Chatwin also serves as an instructor at a summer camp to provide scientific exploration in a natural environment and place-based learning for inner-city youth. She goes above and beyond as an educator and environmental leader, both within her classroom and in her broader community. 

EPA Region 7

Lee Stover
Westview High School
Bennington, Nebraska

Ms. Stover has always had a love for the outdoors and a curiosity for learning about the natural environment. She draws upon this interest in her role as a science teacher at Westview High School, where she strives to create a safe and positive outdoor learning experience for all her students. As an example, Ms. Stover leads her school’s efforts to implement various school gardens, where students learn about urban farming, climate and growing seasons, soil health, and agricultural practices. The garden is the launching point for other environmental topics like urban heat islands, food deserts, and environmental justice. Her work expands beyond school borders, as her students, for example, conduct water quality monitoring at a local wetland and investigate invasive species and land management practices at a local restored prairie. She adopts this approach because experiential learning is a pillar of her teaching approach.

Ms. Stover is also committed to accommodating and encouraging her students, especially those who are unfamiliar with outdoor learning, and she differentiates her teaching based on student interests. As an example of this flexibility, she created the Green Team, an environmental club that promotes learning through recycling habits across the school, the coordination of trash pickups, and water and energy audits of the school building. She also participates in the Nebraska Game and Parks Department’s Trout in the Classroom program, which allows her students to learn about Nebraska’s aquatic wildlife and ecosystems through water chemistry monitoring and fish feeding. Ms. Stover also works with several additional local agencies—including the Papio-Missouri Natural Resources District, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Omaha Public Power District, and the University of Nebraska—to expose her students to speakers, field trips, project-based learning experiences, and even potential shadow and internship opportunities. These community partnerships create unique and engaging learning experiences and demonstrate how Ms. Stover goes above and beyond to immerse her students in the environmental sustainability field.

EPA Region 8

Kate Belinda
Red Lodge High School
Red Lodge, Montana

Mrs. Belinda, a teacher at Red Lodge High School in Montana, creates a classroom environment with inquiry-based and hands-on projects to provide experiential learning. With more than a decade of experience, she has a strong intuition for student needs and is dedicated to creating a generation of life-long learners. Notably, Mrs. Belinda strives to take students into the field at least twice a week in her environmental science course, cultivating an exciting and engaging curriculum. One of these field experiences includes a multiday field trip exploring the Beartooth Mountains. During this trip, students can review geology and a variety of ecosystems. She also takes them to Rock Creek to perform vegetation research and water quality monitoring.

Mrs. Belinda is also the advisor for the Green Team, an exceptional youth-led organization that supports multiple conservation initiatives. These endeavors include activities such as implementing reusable cups at concessions, sorting recyclables from waste, and writing grants to support the school’s conservation efforts. In recent years, a student Green Team member even submitted a grant application to Northwest Energy for solar panels—the grant was awarded in 2017, and 60 solar panels were installed. Impressively, the solar panels, as of January 2024, have saved the district more than $8,000 and prevented 74 tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. Additionally, since 2014, Red Lodge High School has participated in the SMART (Saving Money and Resources Today) School Challenge, which is a friendly competition to encourage Montana’s schools to integrate lessons and projects related to environmental sustainability. The competition also highlights schools that exemplify outstanding conservation efforts, recognizing those that have saved energy, recycled waste, and incorporated green practices into their operations. Impressively, with the support of her dedication to environmental education, her school has won every year since 2014. Mrs. Belinda's unwavering dedication to environmental education not only enriches the learning experience of her students but also positively impacts the broader community, fostering a culture of sustainability and stewardship for future generations.

EPA Region 8

Krystal Brown
Gunnison High School
Gunnison, Colorado

Ms. Brown, a fifth-year teacher at Gunnison High School, has pioneered innovative, inclusive environmental education. She has empowered students to engage in international sustainability conversations and become leaders within their community. In Gunnison, a rural mountain town, she has championed place-based headwater education with Telluride Institute’s Sustainable Communities and Place-based Education (SCAPE) program and wildfire resilience education with Colorado University Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) Hazard Education Awareness and Resilience Task (HEART) Force program, particularly within the Latinx community. Her classroom environment cultivates students’ interest in environmental careers and foments engaged citizens who will have a lifelong interest in sustainability.

Students are connected to their environment and community using place-based curricula centered on student interest and community. They organize and collect river data using SCAPE curriculum to understand the health of their local watershed and evaluate the health of the greater Colorado watershed by comparing their results with that of students across the mountain west. Students are empowered to share this information globally through United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s Zero Water Day Partnership.

 Community experts, families, and residents are invited to participate in her classroom through field data collection days, expert panels, role play games, and community projects and expos. Ms. Brown facilitates students in leading community outreaches. In her HEART Force wildfire resilience unit, students pick a subtopic of interest, design projects, apply for funding, and collaborate with professionals to create final projects that are meaningfully delivered to their community

Ms. Brown is a leader whose commitment to students is evident. She extends her sincere gratitude to supporting colleagues, Gunnison Watershed School District, collaborating organizations including Western Colorado University, Gunnison Volunteer Fire Department, Gunnison County Emergency Management and Cultural Services, and the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District, and over 20 community professionals that go above and beyond for students. She encourages everyone to support their local volunteer fire department, water board, and cultural outreach services.