Education and Outreach Colloquium, Janet Carrier Ady

Affiliation: National Conservation Training Center, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Event Date: Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Location: Bldg 33, Room H114
Time: 12:00 PM

Files: Click here for files associated with this entry

Connecting People with Nature: A National Grassroots Movement in the U.S.
The Children & Nature Network (C&NN) was created in response to concerns raised by Richard Louv in his 2005 book: Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. The Network encourages and supports the people and organizations working to reconnect children with nature, and provides a critical link between researchers and individuals, educators and organizations dedicated to children's health and well-being. The C&NN also promotes fundamental institutional change and provides resources for sharing information, strategic initiatives and success stories.

The American public’s declining interaction with nature is a potential threat to the conservation mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service). In response to this challenge, the Service has adopted, “Connecting People with Nature: Ensuring the Future of Conservation” as one of its six national priorities. Examples of Service strategies will be shared, as well as those of a national non-government conservation organization, the National Audubon Society.

About Our Speaker
Janet Ady is with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and serves as the Chief of the Division of Education Outreach at the National Conservation Training Center, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The Division designs, develops and presents training in the areas of visitor services, outreach, media relations and partnerships. The Division also works with other FWS programs and other conservation professionals to reach out and work with our audiences and partners. In addition, the Division of Education Outreach coordinates all of the distance learning functions for NCTC, and leads the Service’s new “Let’s Go Outside!” initiative to connect people with nature.

Ms. Ady began her Fish and Wildlife Service career in at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge as an Environmental Education Specialist. She served on the Refuges Comprehensive Conservation Planning teams in Alaska and as the Alaska Regional Environmental Education Specialist. She began working for the National Conservation Training Center in its planning stages, on national policy and education programming. Ms. Ady led the Education and Outreach training team during the initial curriculum development and opening of the National Conservation Training Center in 1997, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

Janet received a Bachelors degree in Natural Resource Planning and Interpretation, with an emphasis in Environmental Education, and a high school biology teaching credential from Humboldt State University and a Masters degree in Natural Science and Environmental Education from San Jose State University, in California.

Currently, Janet is serving on the Conservation Education Committee for the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the Leadership Committee for the North American Association of Environmental Education, the Education Committee for the Wildlife Habitat Council, and the LEAD Green Advisory Team for the National Audubon Society.

Janet has two college age children. She lives in Myersville, Maryland, a rural area adjacent to the Appalachian Trail. She enjoys hiking, biking on the C and O Canal, kayaking and fishing with her husband whenever she has the opportunity.

In 2005, Ms. Ady invited Richard Louv to the National Conservation Training Center to speak about his new book, Last Child in the Woods, Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. Discussions with Louv then led to the hosting of the National Dialogue on Children and Nature, held at NCTC in September of 2006, and the development of a national priority for the Fish and Wildlife Service to connect people with nature.

File(s) associated with this entry:

Biography
(txt file, 2.74 KB)

Janet Carrier Ady's Biography

PowerPoint Presentation
(ppt file, 11.9 MB)

Posted or updated: Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Editor: Paul Przyborski

Back to the Calendar

Print-friendly page (new window)