Today my guest is fundraiser and impact growth leader, Alexandra Dumitrescu. In this episode, we discuss nonprofit funding. Alexandra highlights the potential of technology to enhance fundraising efforts and presents ways nonprofits can diversify income streams. We discuss e-commerce models, leveraging SaaS platforms, improving donor relations, and lost funding opportunities. We also discuss initiatives Alexandra founded to help nonprofits create sustainable income and integrate social impact features in business products. How might Alexandra's ideas (or some version of them) be applied to your project, organization, or partnerships? How does this conversation reframe what you see as being possible in environmental education?

Rob Law is a musician and composer with decades of experience in the music industry. He has composed music for films and advertising campaigns. Rob is also a podcaster, a storyteller, and an advocate for outdoor learning. In this episode, Rob and I talk about The Creek Kids, his podcast for children inspired by the radio plays from the Golden Age of Radio.

You may have heard about the value of collaborating with others. I suspect you and I can probably point to several examples of collaborative projects within the world of environmental education. Today we’ll see an example of what cross-sector collaborations can look like as we learn about partnerships from guest Dinah Awino Kawino.

Christina Carter is the author, illustrator, and founder of Gumnut Trails—a collection of hand-illustrated, story-led Outdoor Adventure Guides based in Melbourne. Inspired by her own nature-filled childhood, Christina set out to create the “Lonely Planet of childhood adventures.” Each guide transforms local walks into immersive experiences with creative missions, storytelling, and joyful artwork. In this episode, we explore how Gumnut Trails began, why it's resonating with families, and what’s next for this growing movement.  

Our guest today has a special fondness for environmental educators because she was a former Outward Bound Instructor. Louise Karch (pronounced carsh) went on to become career management professional serving sectors from banking to health care to sports professionals. She studied and worked with Richard Bolles, the author of the bestselling career/life planning in history, "What Color Is Your Parachute?".

Episode description: Join us as we dive into the world of innovation with Vanessa Thompson, Managing Director of The Sustainability Experts. Vanessa shares bold strategies for sparking disruptive ideas, seizing new opportunities, and leveraging cutting-edge technologies to transform businesses and careers.

Project announcement and an introduction to the newsletter "Transferable Solutions." The theme of the newsletter is "Environmental Skills, Reimagined."

Today we get to learn from Kalliopi Monoyios, visual science communicator and lead author of "Visuals as a Catalyst for Climate Science Communication," a chapter in the book "Storytelling to Accelerate Climate Solutions" (Springer Nature, 2024). In this episode, Kalliopi and I discuss the value of visuals in climate change communication. We discuss what effective visuals look like and also talk about creating culturally relevant and sensitive information. Kalliopi shares how someone can become a visual science communicator and what a collaborative project between a visual science communicator and a client might look like.

A conversation with Emily Coren and Hua (Helen) Wang, editors of "Storytelling to Accelerate Climate Solutions" (Springer Nature, 2024). They collaborated with 44 authors to create a resource addressing many forms of climate communication. Each of the book chapters addresses a specific type of storytelling. You’ll find chapters about entertainment education, locally-driven narratives, youth engagement, Hollywood, climate fiction, music, news reporting, geospatial tools, interactive storytelling, mental health, and telling stories through food. There is also a chapter about using visuals as a catalyst for climate science communication.  “Storytelling to Accelerate Climate Solutions” is an open-access title. You can download the entire book or individual chapters for free. 

Introducing a new feature to the podcast. This new feature is called INSIGHT. With each episode we’ll explore some aspect of freelancing and how it intersects with the environmental awareness work being done by independent professionals worldwide. In this first episode, we consider seven types of freelancing as described by Nikita Tambe, a contributor to “Forbes" magazine. Which type of freelancing best describes you?

Maria Coryell-Martin is an expeditionary artist. That’s right. Expeditionary, as in expeditions. What type of imagery does this bring up? If you imagine an artist traveling with a scientist or an explorer, you are imagining things correctly. This episode originally aired in 2019. Back then, Maria took a few moments to speak with me while she was packing for her trip to meet a scientist in Alaska. In this episode, we discuss Maria’s journey from student to artist, how she has sustained herself as a working artist, and the three questions she answers before taking on new projects. Plus, I have exciting updates to share. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Maria.

Wendy Nadherny Fachon is an author, journalist, podcast host and environmental educator. Her work is published by Natural Awakenings Magazine, Sustainable Living News, and Dreamvisions 7 Radio. After working many years in the healthcare industry, Wendy left her position to focus on children's health and wellness issues. She developed an afterschool walking program, which gave rise to her radio show, the Story Walking Radio Hour. How did Wendy develop her afterschool program? What is her radio show about? How does she approach partnership building, which has been critical to her success? Let's find out.

Today, we get to learn from Gloria Desanker, geospatial storyteller, founder, and Principal Consultant at Map Nerd Consulting. Gloria is also a Civics and Environmental Education - Change Fellow. She is a member of the 2023 cohort of educators and community leaders participating in a fellowship program hosted by the North American Association for Environmental Education. In this program, she is developing a GIS curriculum specifically for and by Black people and the Black African diaspora. Her objective is to provide the training that will lead to a more accurate representation of Black people in communities and more informed conversations about the impact of climate change.

In this episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Tom Rhoads, an economist and professor at Towson University. Dr. Rhoads shares his transition from sports economics to environmental economics and his research integrating economics into environmental education. Dr. Rhoads explains that his interest in environmental education began about five years ago when he noticed a shift in the demographics of his class, with more environmental science and studies majors than economics majors. This led him to change his approach to teaching environmental economics, focusing more on the environment and finding the economics within it.

Today is part 2 of this conversation. In this episode, I sit down with Mike Mayer to discuss his specialty (environmental education) and to learn more about the environmental program that inspires what he, Bill, and Lars do at EID. We begin this episode by learning more about the Institute for Earth Education. Some of this may sound familiar because I included a short segment in Part 1. Don’t let this distract you because you’ll hear something a bit different before Mike walks us through an example of the type of programming offered by the Institute. In this conversation, Mike and I also discuss creating holistic experiences in free-choice settings, the AMORE framework developed by Steve Van Mater, interpreting global topics across cultures, and what might change the status quo in environmental education.

In this episode, we meet the co-founders of Experiential Interpretive Design (EID) -- Bill Reynolds, Lars Wohlers, and Mike Mayer. Collectively, they have many years of experience in interpretation and experience design and bring to EID the experience they gained from various roles in tourism, planning, heritage interpretation, environmental education, and coaching. We learn about the founders, why they started EID Coaching, and discuss what is working in the field of interpretation and what is not working. This is the first installment of a two-part episode. In Part 2 of this episode, I sit down with Mike Mayer to learn more about the environmental education program that inspires the work he, Bill, and Lars do at EID.

Janice Kelley is the founder and program director for Nature Detectives, where children in kindergarten through third grade discover the mysteries of the outdoor world on their school campus, at home, at a park, and in their neighborhood. She is the author of several publications, and when she was here before, we spoke about her book "Mornings on Fair Oaks Bridge: Watching Wildlife at the Lower American River." Today, we’re talking about a book she wrote for parents, grandparents, and family friends called "Nature Detectives at Home."

Roots of Success (RoS) is an empowering environmental literacy and job training program that prepares youth and adults with significant barriers to employment to access jobs and career pathways in environmental fields and to improve environmental and social conditions in their communities. The program is centered around a federally registered Department of Labor Apprenticeship and Pre-Apprenticeship program and 10-module course. We prepare individuals for 70 jobs and 111 career pathways  in environmental and STEM fields.

Jerry Willenbring is a community organizer, teacher, and guide. He is also a physicist and an electrical engineer who has taken on electrifying California. Literally.

Erin Majeske is a mother, wife, dreamer, kitchen experimenter, wannabe gardener, nature explorer, and founder of Barefeet Farm School. When she's not in the outdoor classroom with preschoolers, she loves to enjoy the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her family and make as much music as possible. In this episode, Erin shares how the need for a summer job led to her opening Barefeet Farm School. She shares her successes, challenges, and what she has learned to improve. Topics discussed include licensing, consulting, working with parents, and building community partnerships.