Educator Spotlight: Kathryn Reis

Kathryn Reis, an educator with Randolph County Soil and Water Conservation District, recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification.

Kathryn develops and leads environmental education programs for students in Asheboro City and Randolph County schools. “I pursue partnerships with libraries, YMCAs, afterschool clubs, homeschool groups, etc. to lead environmental education activities. I also develop outreach efforts for Randolph County citizens.”  In her personal time, Kathryn enjoys hiking, reading, nature journaling and pollinator gardening and this summer she is attempting to grow a vegetable gardening!

Kathryn says participating in the certification program helped advance her career. “I have engaged in environmental education off and on, mostly as a volunteer, since 1994. Participation in this certification program equipped me with more knowledge about environmental education’s history, reputable techniques and available curriculum. The program introduced me to leaders in environmental action civics, which has been a long time passion of mine. It also helped me grow my peer network and assess my strengths and weaknesses as an environmental educator. Most importantly, the program reaffirmed why I have transitioned my career away from policy advocacy and governmental relations to environmental education.

For her community partnership project, Kathryn developed a three-day session with Teachey Elementary School in Asheboro. “ I had a blast educating the 2nd and 3rd graders about the natural history of monarch butterflies, how to design a garden and helping them create a pollinator garden outside their classroom. A quarter of the class said my lesson set was their favorite part of the school year. All of the students were extremely proud of the plant they placed in the garden. I hope to replicate this three-day learning session with other elementary schools!”

Kathryn says the program changed her approach to teaching. “I learned that I gravitate towards being “a sage on stage” which is typical of many trained scientist. Thus, the Methods of Teaching Environmental Education workshop guided me on a self-assessment of my teaching style and spurred lasting changes in my approach. For instance, I now incorporate an observation component into the start of my lessons, even for career fairs. I use this exercise to encourage the participants to act and think like a scientist. I remind them that there are no wrong answers because they are in discovery mode. I also learned how to tailor lessons to different age groups. Prior to my current job, most of my environmental education work was as a nature trail interpreter. Thus, this certification program equipped me with more teaching techniques for my toolbox.”

She says the program also changed the way she views environmental issues. “Prior to this certification program, my career was devoted to the resolution of environmental issues via policy analysis and partnership building. This certification program allowed me to learn how to teach environmental issues to youth across all grades by using existing environmental action civics models. I received training through Earth Force and now have resources and peers that can help me facilitate the entire student led process of problem identification, contextual research, problem solving and partnership building to put their resolution idea into action for an environmental issue they care about.”

Educator Spotlight: Desirae Balsamo

Desirae Balsamo, an Earth and Environmental Science teacher at Hanes Middle School in Winston-Salem, recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification.

Desirae advises the garden club and collaborates with community gardens through Cooperative Extension to find resources for her school, and she is very active in her school and community. “I spearhead sustainability initiatives at my school, document progress and submit work through the "Clean and Green" Schools contest with the City of Winston Salem. We have an award winning, highly engaging curricular approach where students are active participants in regenerative agriculture and environmental conservation. Beyond that, I am an assistant Scout Master for Scouting America, a co-facilitator for 4-H and volunteer with cooperative extension as a master gardener and master naturalist. Outside of work, I live on a small permaculture based microfarm with my husband, my 14-year-old and an eclectic blend of bees and goats.”

Desirae says her favorite part of the program was the opportunity to travel and network. “I most enjoyed traveling around the state and working with environmental educators in a variety of contexts. I have a network of connections that will improve my teaching approaches for years to come.”

Desirae notes that her experiences at Grandfather Mountain had a profound effect on her teaching. “I have particularly enjoyed every professional development experience at Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation. I always came away with new and exciting things to use in my curriculum and have met and made lifelong friendships and connections I cherish.”

For her project, Desirae applied for funding to take her students on a  “Mountains to Sea” adventure to learn about marine and freshwater conservation. “I teach at a Title I school and many of our students have minimal exposure to the natural world and limited opportunities for field trips. To remedy this, I applied for and received four grants to take our students on a freshwater conservation trip to Stone Mountain State Park in the fall and a marine conservation trip to the Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores and Fort Macon State Park in the spring.

Desirae’s students were able to apply what they learned on the field trips at their school by cleaning the campus creek, completing a bioindicator study and learning about the immediate point source and nonpoint source pollution and how it affects cranefly, crayfish and caddisfly larva on the school’s campus.

“We worked in the creek that runs through our property to use water quality indicators to assess and plan how to improve it. We did clean up in the fall and completed indicator studies in the months of March and April 2026 that included pH, Nitrates/Nitrites, phosphates, ammonia, turbidity and a macroinvertebrate study. We also removed as much point source pollution and litter as possible and planted pawpaw trees along the bank of the creek to reduce the stormwater runoff.”

Desirae worked with numerous organizations to provide this unique experience for her students, many of whom had never been to an estuary or even knew there was a creek on their campus. Among those organizations Desirae worked with were the NC Association for the Gifted and Talented, the NC Aquarium Scholars, the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ Learning Happens Here program, Friends of NC State Parks, Forsyth County Cooperative Extension, Hanes Middle School Garden Club and EcoWarriors, Fort Macon State Park, the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores and Stone Mountain State Park.

Desirae says the certification program changed her approach to teaching. “Participating in this program has tremendously added to my ‘teacher toolbox’ of resources to add real life examples and hands on experiences for students and fellow staff. I recommend this to anyone interested in environmental education or teaching future changemakers the importance of conservation and service learning.” 

Educator Spotlight: Cas Wyatt

Cas Wyatt, an environmental educator with the Gaston County Natural Resources Department, recently completed the NC Environmental Education Certification. 

Cas has a bachelor's degree in animal health and behavior and a background as a zookeeper. Cas enjoys teaching about wildlife and when not teaching, enjoys reading, creating art and exploring nature. 

Cas says their favorite part of the program was traveling to different sites. “I was able to explore North Carolina from the mountains to the ocean in order to receive credits. There were so many cool training opportunities that took place all across the state.”

When asked about an experience that stood out, Cas says it was the Hood Huggers tour in Asheville. “I learned about the history of African Americans in the area and how they have continued to strengthen their community despite challenging hardships. The tour guide showed us a neighborhood that had their own community vegetable garden and peace garden which included a lot of art and history of the neighborhood. The overall tour was extremely eye-opening and inspiring.”

For the community project, Cas created a wildlife scat identification program for the Stanley Middle School Envirothon Teams. The NC Envirothon is a fun, hands-on, natural science academic competition for teams of middle and high school students and is sponsored by the N.C. Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts and local districts. The subjects for the Envirothon competition include Aquatic Ecology, Forestry, Soils and Land Use, Wildlife and Current Environmental Issues. Cas noticed that the students were struggling with scat identification which is part of the competition. “Since they were studying for the Envirothon competition, I knew I had to strengthen their scat knowledge! I designed a program that included squishy replicas of wildlife scat that they could see and touch and before I knew it, they successfully placed in the Area Envirothon competition and are heading to the State Envirothon Competition. 

Cas says the program changed their approach to teaching. “I take different types of people into consideration. Beforehand, I would create lesson plans that were not designed for everyone. Now, I make sure to make my educational programs accessible to everyone.”

Cas also says the program changed the way they view environmental issues. “I have always cared about environmental issues but sometimes it gets to a point where you feel burnt out and helpless. The trainings I took and the people I met through this certification helped me feel less helpless and numb to the issues around me. I was taught that teaching and helping our community rather than trying to save the world makes a huge difference when it comes to environmental issues. 

Educator Spotlight: Tammy Weller

Tammy Weller, a high school media coordinator at Green Level High School in Wake County, recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification.

As a media coordinator, Tammy coordinates with teachers at the school to provide hands-on real-world learning experiences for students. She says her love of the outdoors inspired her to pursue the certification. Tammy says the networking was one of the parts of the program she appreciated the most, especially meeting other educators who share the same passion for the outdoors.

When asked about a certification experience that stands out to her, Tammy says it was the Swamp Treehouse Adventure Educator Trek offered by the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and the Flying Wild Workshop offered by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission.

For her community partnership project Tammy collaborated with the Advanced Placement  (AP) Environmental Science, AP Macroeconomics and AP Microeconomics team to facilitate a three-day student workshop using the En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator.

“At Green Level, we have developed intense partnerships/collaborations with 52 teachers and instruct about 400 lessons a year. When I began my certification journey, I wanted to expand our collaborations with the Advanced Placement Environmental Science  (APES) team. Once I completed the En-ROADS training, I realized this was perfect and could reach more than 300 students–not just passively, but through ACTIVE involvement. In addition, based on the training, I realized it’s a great opportunity to bring in the economic side of the climate issue with the AP Microeconomics and Macroeconomics teams.”

Tammy says the students were able to actively participate and discuss a climate goal using the simulator. “Discussions were valuable and impactful as they tried to develop a strategy based on the results of the simulator. It provided students with the opportunity to evaluate any preconceived ideas or thoughts which in turn allowed them to assess what was different. We insist students back up any statements or claims with relevant, accurate sources so they had to justify their findings as well. By reaching 300 students who will potentially go out to 100 different communities, this workshop helped them realize real-world implications so they can impact and make a change in those communities as well.”

Tammy says the certification changed her approach to teaching because of the focus on hands-on lessons and activities. “When I started in this field back in the 1990’s, it was just gaining public momentum. It’s great to see it continue to evolve and develop.”