Educator Spotlight: Laura Mallard

Laura Mallard, a senior lecturer in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Appalachian State University recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification. Laura has been teaching undergraduate geology classes for 25 years. In her personal time, she enjoys beekeeping, sugaring her maple trees, biking, kayaking and making pottery. 

Laura says her favorite part of earning her certification was the networking. “I enjoyed meeting so many enthusiastic and knowledgeable facilitators. I loved learning about nature, critters and environmental issues alongside so many wonderful people. My favorite programs were about salamanders!”

When asked about an experience that stood out for her, Laura says it was learning at Grandfather Mountain. “I thoroughly enjoyed my experiences at Grandfather Mountain -- learning about bears, elk, and salamanders and the BEETLES program. It is such a special place to learn and share the love and wonder of nature.”

For her community partnership project, Laura inventoried plants, animals, fungi and other natural elements of an area used by the High Country Forest Wild School. The school is on land protected from development by the Carolina Climbing Coalition as a wilderness climbing area. In addition to documenting the plants and animals, Laura created identification cards and age appropriate activities that also included the wide variety of habitats and the local forest food web. She packaged the activity cards in lunch box style containers as "nature snacks.

 “The students are excited to learn about their forest in creative and engaging ways throughout the changing seasons. The coalition will benefit from my project because they actively seek more support for their projects to protect wild lands and preserve climbing access. By showing the diversity of the Buckeye Knob Mountain they preserved, it helps them to continue their preservation mission by encouraging more support for future projects.”

Laura says the certification program changed her approach to teaching. “I have changed the way I begin and lead learning opportunities with children. Learning to follow the steps and stages of teaching a group really helped me to better organize activities. I am also learning more and more about the importance of teaching through telling stories. I also feel better prepared to branch out from geology.”

Laura says the program also changed the way she views environmental issues. “Before participating in the environmental educator certification program, I primarily viewed environmental issues from a scientific or factual standpoint — focusing on data about pollution, climate change, and conservation. I tended to think of environmental problems as large-scale, global challenges that required technological or policy-based solutions. This is most likely due to my 20+ years in academia. After completing the program, my perspective has broadened and deepened. I’ve come to understand that environmental issues are not just scientific—they are social, cultural, and ethical as well. The program helped me see the importance of education in fostering environmental stewardship and empowering communities to learn about the science in their local parks, schools, etc. I now recognize that change begins with awareness, engagement, and local action, not just global initiatives.”

Melissa Dowland – Facilitator of Wonder: Celebrating a North Carolina Educator as She Begins a New Chapter

Melissa Dowland recently left her position as the Manager of Teacher Education for the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. Over her 20+ year career at the museum, Melissa has shepherded hundreds of educators to some of the most incredible natural areas in North Carolina, the United States, and beyond. She is an institution.

Whether it’s watching a geyser erupt in Yellowstone National Park or examining the rich biodiversity in their own backyards, Melissa has created professional development experiences for educators that have enhanced and reshaped their teaching and, in many cases, their careers, and their lives.

Educator Ginny Mason reflected on Melissa’s impact on her professionally as an educator and personally: How do I count the ways? What words do I pick to describe the impact you’ve had on my classroom, my teaching, my life? Thank you. What an inadequate phrase but it will suffice. Thank you for moments of awe. Thank you for moments of quiet, moments of laughter, moments of listening, moments of inspiration, moments of reflection. Thank you for reminding me that it's okay to be silly, to ask questions, to be well and truly overwhelmed by nature. Thank you for investing so much of yourself into me and other teachers. Thank you for being a facilitator of wonder. Thank you for showing me rocks and butterflies and wolves and mountains and swamps and snakes and bison and wildflowers.

Melissa has also had a profound impact on the landscape of school grounds across North Carolina by helping educators transform their campuses into habitat for wildlife and into outdoor classrooms for students to learn through hands-on experiences with nature.

There are few places in North Carolina that Melissa hasn’t interpreted for students or teachers, from taking the museum’s Junior Curators to the cypress swamps of the Roanoke River to leading educators through the wilds of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Melissa has written that her greatest privilege has been to immerse teachers in nature and to create the sense of wonder that comes from those authentic experiences.

Educator Cheryl Michalec captured what it was like to experience nature with Melissa. Everything with Melissa was a shared experience. She would delight in the adventure just as much as everyone else, listening for owls to respond, hammering leaves, or dashing from the van to capture a view of an elk with a bush stuck on his antlers.

Melissa is also well-known for leading the Educators of Excellence Institutes to Yellowstone National Park. Through these trips Melissa developed a deep love for the park that led her to leave her beloved North Carolina to fulfill a long-time dream of moving to a home on the doorstep of Yellowstone.

Although the environmental education community in North Carolina will miss her, it's a bit comforting to know that she is maintaining her connections to the state by working for the museum part-time as a co-leader for future Yellowstone Institutes, allowing her to continue inspiring educators through the wonders of the natural world.

 

 

 

Educator Spotlight: Julia Showalter

Julia Showalter, an instructor who teaches dendrology and environmental studies at Appalachian State University, recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification. 

In addition to teaching, Julia also leads outreach for the university’s biology department at community and school events. She says her favorite part of earning her certification was the workshops. “I loved doing the workshops! I really gained a lot by meeting other teachers, learning more about pedagogy related to outdoor education, and I had some wonderful experiences that taught me a lot about different parts of North Carolina.”

When asked about an experience that stood out to her, Julia says it was the Sea Turtle Ecological Adventure for teachers at Fort Fisher Recreation Area led by Gail Lemiec, the Unique Experiences Coordinator at the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher. “The workshop was an incredible experience that I will never forget. I feel so fortunate that I got to participate and learn so much about sea turtles -- shout out to Gail Lemiec! She was amazing!” 

For her community partnership project, Julia partnered with High Country Forest Wild, a forest school on 35 acres of forest near Jefferson NC, to create tree identification and programming for their students. “More kids from Forest Wild are now getting excited about tree ID.  There are several that have become very interested and are sharing their knowledge with their families and friends. They are now more confident with their trees and are sharing their knowledge as well.”

Julia says the program changed her approach to teaching others. “I am now much better at outreach. I do more hands-on activities, and I let the kids explore and come up with their own answers. I have also started nature journaling with our Costa Rica Tropical Forest Ecology course. This is a great way for students to have more time and a different and more meaningful interaction with different organisms and ecosystems that we see. For my dendrology class, I spend more time with them in groups and discussion and observation rather than lecturing to them. I really feel that it helped me grow in my outdoor teaching!”

She also says the program changed the way she thinks about environmental issues. “I learned a ton about forestry in the state. It was awesome to go to a plywood factory and to see various forest management practices, and I have directly incorporated some of the information into my course. I also learned more about sea turtles than I ever thought I could. The experiential learning really made the information stick too! The BEETLES course also really made an impression, and I have really tried to build that positive relationship between kids and the environment both with my own kids and with my students to improve connection to and stewardship of the environment.”

Melanie Buckingham Recognized for her Contribution to Environmental Education

Melanie Buckingham, Environmental Resources Librarian for the Kathleen Clay Edwards Family Branch Library in Greensboro, was recently recognized by the Environmental Educators of North Carolina (EENC) for her contributions to the field of environmental education. Melanie received the 2025 Outstanding Practitioner award which recognizes a member of EENC who works regularly as an environmental educator, lending their skills to the growing body of environmental education as a profession. It recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to EENC through statewide participation, leadership in their region, and being an advocate for high quality education through how they teach, live, and do.

Melanie is widely known in the environmental education community for transforming the Kathleen Clay Edwards Family Branch Library into a hub for regional and statewide environmental education programming. Melanie offers programs for both the public and for educators who are seeking professional development opportunities. She is one of the top providers of credit experiences for the NC Environmental Education Certification program in the state and is one of just a few facilitators for the program's required--and rigorous--Methods of Teaching Environmental Education workshop. "Our program has more than 800 people actively seeking certification and rarely does a week go by that we don't receive several credit forms with Melanie's signature," notes Marty Wiggins, Program Consultant for the NC Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs. "Without her efforts, our program participants in the greater Triad area and beyond would have to travel much father and would have a difficult time finding quality experiences."

The environmental education programming is a natural fit for the library given its unique location on a 98-acre tract in Price Park. The site includes walking trails, a bird and butterfly meadow, a reading garden, ponds, and wetlands. The library collection has a wonderful selection of nature, gardening and environmental resources for children and adults.

A Certified NC Environmental Educator herself since 2000, Melanie is also a strong supporter of many of the state and national professional development workshops that provide training to teachers, nonformal educators and conservation outreach professionals, facilitating or coordinating many herself or in partnership with other local environmental educators. These workshops have included the Leopold Education Project, Wonders of Wetlands, Project WET, and various Air Quality workshops.

Project Learning Tree's state coordinator Renee Strnad says Melanie has facilitated more than 20 workshops, training over 250 educators across the state. "Melanie has always worked to provide PLT workshops that are tailored to her community and very few of her workshops are the same! She has led PLT workshops that are tied to children's literature books, worked with city planners to bring an urban spin to PLT workshop, and is currently engaged with Greensboro's Office of Sustainability and Resilience to lead a workshop based on the benefits of trees and the ecosystem services they provide. It is always fun when Melanie reaches out and says she has an idea for a workshop, and we work together to figure out what PLT materials will best suit her needs," says Strnad. 

Lisa Tolley, program manager for the NC Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs, has seen an increase in the interest in outdoor and nature programming from libraries. "At a time when libraries are finding new ways to be relevant for the audiences they serve, Melanie was one of the first leaders in this movement and continues to show how a library can serve an essential local and regional conservation and environmental education role, while still enhancing the experiences of its community patrons."

The Kathleen Clay Edwards Family Branch is a branch of the Greensboro Public Library, City of Greensboro, NC. 

The Environmental Educators of North Carolina is a nonprofit professional development organization that supports environmental education and educators across the state. They serve as the state affiliate of the North American Association for Environmental Education.

The North Carolina Environmental Education Certification program is administered by the North Carolina Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs, a state agency within the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. The Office encourages, supports and promotes environmental education programs, facilities and resources and equips educators with the skills and knowledge to improve environmental literacy, stewardship of natural resources in North Carolina.