Meet the AAEE Board
2012 Board Members
Nadine Johnson, President
Estrella Mountain Community College
Nadine Johnson serves as the Sustainability Co-Chair and Curriculum Technician for Estrella Mountain Community College. She is involved in coordinating sustainability activities and making recommendations to promote a greener campus. She is also involved in the Maricopa Community College Sustainability Council which is a policy making council for establishing sustainability policies for all ten Maricopa Community Colleges. She is currently studying Environmental Studies and Environmental Policy and Management. She is the founder of the Environmental Community Outreach Association, and is currently coordinating community outreach activities with the Environmental Protection Agency on a National Priorities Listed Superfund Site in Goodyear, AZ.
In her spare time, Nadine loves to travel, scuba dive, and spend time with her two pooches; Cooper & Malibu.
Contact: nadinejohnson44@cox.net
Gabby Hebert, President-Elect
The Phoenix Zoo
Gabby currently serves as the Director of Visitor Experiences for the Phoenix Zoo, overseeing all educational and interpretive programs. During her ten-year tenure at the Zoo, she has led Night Camps, managed signage content, organized and facilitated interpretive trail talks, and trained staff to do these things and more. In addition, she has held a leadership role in several projects to advance the capacity of informal education including a national project called Math in Zoos and Aquariums; a professional development program for informal educators to learn how to develop enriched math-based activities within zoo and nature settings. Gabby has a degree in Conservation Biology from Arizona State University, a certificate in Positive Youth Development from the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension and is a member of “Be Outdoors Arizona.” Through BOAz and other efforts, she is actively looking for ways to build stronger connections between families and nature.
Contact: ghebert@thephxzoo.com
Sapna Sopori, Past-President
Willow Bend Environmental Education Center
For the past 10 years Sapna has taught environmental education across the country, from residential education in Ohio, to outdoor education in Colorado, to classroom programming in Arizona. Within Arizona she taught as an undergraduate at University of Arizona with various student-run non-profits, as well as at the Desert Botanical Gardens assisting with the management of the pre-school and summer camp programs. She is the Director at the Willow Bend Environmental Education Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, a non-profit that specializes in K-12 environmental science classroom programs for 4 northern Arizona school districts. She is an active member of the FUSD Science Alliance, a group of local teachers dedicated to increasing the quality of science education in Flagstaff, and often works with the City, County, and NAU officials on cooperative events.
Contact: sapna@willowbendcenter.org
Meghan Dorsett, Treasurer
Canyon Day Junior High School
Meghan L. Dorsett is a Flagstaff native who has been a K-12 teacher for 10 years in environmental education, science, math, and English for New Canaan Nature Center, Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary, Skyline Education, Inc. She received her B.S. in Sociology, M.Ed. in Leadership, and is currently a pursuing an Ed.D. in Leadership at Northern Arizona University; also, she received her Post-Bacc. at Rio Salado Community College in Secondary Education. She is currently the Instructional Coach at Canyon Day Junior High in Whiteriver, AZ. With AAEE, Meghan is working with the professional development committee, the environmental education certification program, and research linking environment education to environmental literacy and student achievement. Every chance Meghan has, she integrates Environmental Education into learning opportunities for her students and teachers. Also, she revels in spending quality time with her family in a variety of outdoor activities.
Contact: msdorsett@gmail.com
Maria Yannessa, Secretary
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Maria Yannessa is a passionate environmental educator with professional experience in zoo keeping as well as classroom and informal teaching. Maria earned a B.S. in Biology and M.Ed. in Teaching and Teacher Education at the University of Arizona. Maria began her zoo keeping career in 1998 at Reid Park Zoo, and her experience includes working with elephants. Her classroom teaching experience includes teaching high school Biology in Tucson area schools. Currently, Maria is an Education Specialist for the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona, and is certified in secondary science education in Arizona. Maria believes in the empowering nature of education and its ability to inspire people to improve the world. She is excited to promote good stewardship of the Earth through environmental education.
Contact: MYannessa@desertmuseum.org
Jennifer Johnston
Usery Mountain Regional Park
Jennifer Johnston, Park Supervisor, Usery Mountain Regional Park, Maricopa County Parks, holds two B.S. degrees, Geography and Photography. She has twenty-five years experience working in the natural world for non-profit and government organizations, tourism/travel corporations and private wilderness outfitters. Jennifer says of her work:
“My life and daily work all drives around a heart-felt gut passion for the "planet community" (all ages of listeners and observers) to experience the natural world and be a responsible caretaker of the natural world. Utilizing environmental education has been a wonderful tool in my mission because it can effectively create awareness, respect, hands-on fun, childhood ed, senior cognitive skills, informal learning, interpretation, conservation, preservation, sustainability, fitness, really the list is endless. The most important for me is the "creating respect for the natural world" concept; if that concept can be realized and seen in a listener's or observer's eyes then the rest generally follows.
Contact: jenniferjohnston@mail.maricopa.gov
Lisa Herrmann
The Riparian Institute
Lisa Hermann is the Education Coordinator at the Riparian Institute in Gilbert, Arizona. She came to this position through years of work as a science educator and in the environmental arena in both Texas and Connecticut. She completed her Master in Science Education at the University of Houston under the guidance of Dr. John Ramsey, noted environmental education author and researcher. Her current interests in the field of environmental education are in furthering the recognition of the professional status of our state's fine educators through programs offered by NAAEE and EETAP.
Contact: lherrmann@cox.net
John Jung
Mesa High School
John joined AALE (the original AAEE) in 1984 and has been a member ever since. He was so inspired by the people and lessons from conferences and weekend workshops, that he created Mesa High School's Environmental Science course in the early 90's and has continued teaching the course ever since. John started Mesa Public School District's only Advanced Placement Environmental Science classes four years ago; enrollment has skyrocketed 700%. John has presented at AAEE conferences on the topics of "Outcome Based Environmental Education" and "Concept Mapping Environmental Science." He's been married to Wendy Pike Jung for 27 years and has two sons, Kendon, 20, and Collin, 17. He loves birding, sports, and recumbent bicycle commuting.
Contact: jcjung@mpsaz.org