A director of the National Environmental Education Advancement Project (NEEAP) at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point has been named president-elect of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE).

Abigail Ruskey, co-director with Rick Wilke of NEEAP, will serve as president-elect of the 2,500-member organization this year, then become president in 2004. NAAEE, which also has more than 70 institutional members, is a professional association established to promote environmental education and support the work of individuals and groups engaged in environmental education through teaching, research and service. The organization provides a common ground for the exchange of information and ideas among professionals at all levels of education.

Prior to being named co-director of NEEAP, Ruskey was a NEEAP coordinator and graduate assistant. She holds a bachelor�s degree from University of California-Berkeley and a master�s degree from UWSP. Ruskey�s career also has included working as a biological technician at Inyo National Forest in California and as an administrative aid to a Berkeley, Calif., city council member.

As co-director of NEEAP, which she helped establish, Ruskey has raised grant funding, developed partnerships and national strategies, created training and consulting programs and conducted more than 100 workshops throughout the country. The success of NEEAP helped to leverage a $6 million national grant to UWSP from the Environmental Protection Agency in 2000.

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