Kathe Crowley Conn
President and
Executive Director
Aldo Leopold Nature Center
Kathe Crowley Conn (A.M. University of Chicago, B.A.
University of Illinois) has been involved in educating and
promoting environmental and science education since the
1980s. She has over 20 years experience in nature and
science education programming and administration, and has
held positions at the Chicago
Academy of Sciences, Lake Forest Openlands Association, The
Center for the Great Lakes, University of Chicago and
Northwestern University. She is currently the
President and Executive Director of the
Aldo Leopold Nature
Center and founder of
Nature Net:
The Environmental Learning
Network, a regional consortium of not-for-profit nature
education organizations.
A believer that individuals should come to know, understand
and love the ecology of their own backyards before they
tackle ecosystems afar, Kathe is an advocate for
place-based education and efforts to preserve the remaining
open and natural spaces in the Midwest.
She has created an online directory of
resources in the State to make information about
environmental education and nature center programs more
accessible to teachers and the general public. The
Wisconsin-based Nature Net program which she continues to
direct assists thousands of teachers and parents each year
and is looked to as a model for application in other states
and regions throughout the country. With its
combination of collaborative programs, innovative outreach
(seminars, workshops, and public service announcements on
TV, etc.) and commitment to environmental education for all,
Nature Net has, in the words of national EE consultant Jack
Chin, effectively “enhanced environmental education by
becoming much larger than the sum of its parts!”
Kathe Crowley Conn was awarded the
2003 “Educator of the Year” Award from the Wisconsin
Association for Environmental Education for her work in
promoting environmental education throughout the State.
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