Educator Spotlight: Michelle Beasley

Michelle Beasley, an Environmental Specialist with the Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources in the NC Department of Environmental Quality recently completed her Environmental Education Certification. 

Michelle works in the post construction stormwater program in the department’s Wilmington Regional Office, but she began pursuing her certification before starting her current position. “I was very involved with a local nonprofit that supports two state parks and became interested in pursuing additional education at NC State University and certifications to assist with my nonprofit work.” 

Michelle has two undergraduate degrees from NC State, a Bachelor of Arts in Leadership in the Public Sector (with minors in Agribusiness Management, Biological Science and Science, Technology and Society) and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences (with minors in Science Communication and Environmental Education). “I love to learn and would love to advance my education even further in the near future.”

Although Michelle currently reviews stormwater applications and permits, she hopes the environmental education certification will benefit her in the future. “I can see the certification being of great benefit in the future, if I to decide to change my career path and move into a more public facing, educational role. In my free time, I love to spend time with my daughter and my dog! I also greatly enjoy exploring local city, county and state parks as well as spending as much time as possible enjoying the coast!”

Michelle says her favorite part of earning her certification was taking in-person workshops. “Not only did I enjoy the content of these workshops, but it also provided the opportunity to meet training staff as well as other participants from a diverse professional background. I was pursuing certification as a personal goal, but it was fantastic to meet formal educators who were pursuing certification to assist with STEM/STEAM education within the classroom. It was also my first introduction to state mandated curriculum guidelines that needed to be met. I also had the opportunity to meet other public sector professionals from city, county and state government agencies. The NC-EE certification process played a huge factor in my decision to return to NC State to pursue a degree in Environmental Sciences.”

When asked about her favorite experience, Michelle says there were so many. “I really love entomology and herpetology, so these types of workshops always made a very big impact on me. However, workshops like the birding ID workshop, a skill I had never practiced or appreciated prior to the workshop, provided exposure to new and exciting facets of the nature that surrounds me. If I had to pick one, single experience though, I guess it would have to be the Sea Turtle Exploration Workshop at NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher. Meeting Shelldon, the green sea turtle, made quite an impression!”

For her community partnership project, Michelle created a walking tour of downtown Wilmington for the National Association for Interpretation’s Certified Interpretive Guiding course. On the third day of the training, Michelle led participants through 14 stops of historical, natural and cultural relevance throughout downtown Wilmington. “The training course provided instruction on the history, definition and principles of interpretation as well as how to use tangible objects to connect participants to intangible and/or universal concepts. The walking tour was tasked with providing both a literal demonstration of the training material as well as a natural, historical and cultural references to the location of the walking tour.”

When asked if the program changed her approach to teaching, Michelle says she took for granted the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes of educational programming. “The amount of planning, research and education that goes into an event plus the amount of work in tracking feedback and suggestions from participants after the event, is now so much more obvious to me. This is just one example of how the certification program helped me to understand the literal, more tangible “bigger picture” of environmental education regarding time, effort and resources. The certification program also allowed me to see intangibles, exposing the principles below the surface level of the topic/activity that planted seeds of knowledge and advocacy that will continue to grow and evolve much more into the future.”