Cheryl Charles, Ph.D., is President, CEO, and co-founder of C&NN. Cheryl is an innovator, entrepreneur, author, and educator who is among those instrumental in developing the worldwide movement to reconnect children and nature. She is the former founding national director of Project Learning Tree and Project WILD, the two most widely used environment education programs for K-12 educators in North America. She is Assistant Deputy Chairman for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s www.iucn.org Commission on Education and Communication.  Cheryl is also Managing Partner of Hawksong Associates www.hawksongassociates.com, a consulting firm specializing in organizational development and diffusion of innovation. Cheryl’s most recent book, with her husband, Bob Samples, is Coming Home:  Community, Creativity and Consciousness (2004). Cheryl has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Washington with a specialty in factors affecting the achievement of minority youth. She speaks internationally about the benefits of nature to children.

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Amy Pertschuk is an award winning designer and internet entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in information design and technology. In 1991 she co-founded Communication Wave (C-Wave) a multi-media design studio with a focus on natural history museums and aquariums. C-Wave’s client list includes the American Museum of Natural History, the California Academy of Sciences, SFMOMA, Scholastic, Apple, Adobe, and Hasboro. In 1998, she co-founded eNature.com , the Web’s premier online nature-discovery resource. Pertschuk designed and developed C&NN’s online strategy and continues to manage the ever-expanding Web site and social media resources to serve the needs of the growing children and nature movement. She is currently serving as C&NN’s managing director and is part of the strategic planning and implementation team. She also serves as a member of the board of directors for Hooked on Nature and is chair of the garden committee at Willow Creek Academy, the local public charter school.

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Avery is the founder and Executive Director of Hooked On Nature. She is a member of the C&NN Grassroots Leadership Team and co-founder of the San Francisco Bay Area Children in Nature Collaborative.  Over the past two decades Avery has been a spokesperson and advocate for reuniting people and nature.  Avery has a background in early childhood education and community organizing. Her work has taken her into boardrooms, city council and law enforcement offices, juvenile justice programs, neighborhood meetings, classrooms, and living rooms where she has witnessed time and again the power people have to inspire each other when they feel hope, focus on solutions, and explore ways to integrate nature into their lives.

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A proud product of south central Los Angeles, Juan D. Martinez is C&NN’s Director of Leadership Development and the Natural Leaders Network. His passion to empower individuals and youth led him to direct Sierra Club’s first environmental justice youth leadership academy in Los Angeles. In 2009, Juan introduced Department of Interior’s Ken Salazar at Powershift in Washington, DC, and he was invited by the White House to attend the National Forum on Clean Energy Economy. In 2006, Juan was a delegate to the Latino Congreso, and he is included in “Hispanics Living Green.”  A recent graduate of the California State University Los Angeles, he is a recipient of Congresswoman Hilda Solis’ Environmental Youth Leadership Award and “Looking to the Future” award from the Breaking the Color Barriers conference.  Juan received a “Green for All” 2009 fellowship and is on the national executive committee for the Sierra Student Coalition. Juan is a spokesperson for the Sierra Club’s Building Bridges to the Outdoors initiative. He dedicates his energy and free time on grassroots campaigns that vary from health care and housing discrimination to creating garden space in the city of L.A.

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Susan Sachs Lipman is the social media director for C&NN. She has more than 25 years of experience as a writer, editor, social media manager, community builder, and advocate for getting children into nature. Suz is the author of Fed Up With Frenzy: Slow Parenting in a Fast-Moving World (Sourcebooks, Aug., 2012), several magazine and web articles, and a blog, Slow Family Online. Suz consulted on the Nature Rocks web site, is an advisor to C&NN’s Natural Families Network, and is a longtime host on the pioneering online community, The Well. Suz served for many years as a Girl Scout leader (earning local “Leader of the Year”), on her local Safe Routes to Schools Task Force, and on many other boards and commissions. She and her family enjoy hiking, gardening, reading, crafting, and food canning.

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Janice Swaisgood, C&NN’s National Coordinator, Nature Clubs for Families, brings passion and experience to the position. Prior to joining the C&NN team, she was a bilingual teacher for nearly 15 years, the majority of which she served underprivileged youth and families in the barrios of San Diego. Determined to build connections between youth, families, and schools, she built a Family Resource Center at her school, which led to increased parent and teacher involvement. After deciding to stay home to raise her two young sons, Janice and her husband Ron founded “Family Adventures in Nature”, a family nature club serving the County of San Diego, including many Nearby Nature Clubs serving neighborhoods within the city and suburbs. Prior involvement with C&NN includes serving the the Natural Family Network Advisory Committee, the Let’s G.O.! Oversight Committee, and the Grassroots Gathering Planning Team for 2012. Janice is also quite active in her local regional movement, the San Diego Children and Nature Collaborative, serving as the coordinator of Family Programs.

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Robyn Bjornsson is the executive assistant for C&NN.  She provides support and administrative services for the network and responds to information requests.  Prior to joining C&NN, Robyn worked with low income families in various non-profit organizations, primarily as a program director of a childcare subsidy program. Robyn received her bachelor’s degree from UC Davis and master’s degree in East-West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.  She spends her free time enjoying the outdoors with her husband and two daughters and in San Diego.

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John Thielbahr is the retired Director of Professional Education at Washington State University’s Center for Distance and Professional Education in Pullman, Washington. Previously, John spent 25 years in a private sector career that included corporate finance for major U.S. financial institutions, international consulting, and business ownership.  John has also managed a business incubator for economic development in North Idaho and was a Regional Director for the Idaho Small Business Development Center. John holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Relations from Stanford University.  As a volunteer, John was President of the Board of Directors of the Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute of Moscow, Idaho (a “More-Kids-In-The-Woods” grant recipient) and is on the Board of the Washington Child Care Resource & Referral Network.  John Thielbahr serves as a member of the Children and Nature Network Grassroots Leadership Team. John is married and the father of four.

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Sara St. Antoine is a writer and editor with more than 20 years’ experience developing education and outreach materials for such organizations as the National Wildlife Federation, World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and National Audubon Society. In addition, she has published several middle reader novels on nature-related themes, and her short stories have appeared in Cricket and Ranger Rick magazines. Sara is the series editor of Stories from Where We Live, anthologies of fiction, poetry, and memoir about people and nature in different ecoregions of North America. She currently serves as senior writer to the Children & Nature Network, supported in part by a leadership grant from the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation. A graduate of Williams College, Sara holds a master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and two young daughters.

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Mary Vidas is an executive with over 20 years of experience in fund development, public policy, strategic planning and public/nonprofit management. As co-founder of the MN Children and Nature Connection, former Public Policy Program Director at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and Director, Tamarack Nature Center (Ramsey County, MN), Mary has worked diligently in creating new pathways for children, families and communities to connect with nature. In addition to her background as a professional fund development director (AFP-American Fund Raising Professionals), Mary is also a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and National Association of Interpretation (NAI) where she is known for her design, planning and management of award winning outdoor nature play areas and community green space. Vidas holds a masters degree in policy and nonprofit management from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs (U of MN), and is currently pursuing a PhD. As Consultant and CEO of M.C. Vidas & Associates, Mary is working with the Children and Nature Network in the area of fund development and donor relations.

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Marya works in the fields of Communication, Art, and Environmental Education.  She has worked with people of all ages and backgrounds in  Northern New Mexico, California, Nevada, and Interior Alaska.  Since 1979, she has served with a wide variety of non-profit and for-profit organizations providing administrative services, including editing, finance, and grant management.   She has also served as an Artist-in-Residence for museums and school districts where she provides art and development workshops introducing and developing cognitive and life skills through nature study to help individuals meet both personal and professional challenges.  Marya holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a minor in Business Administration from Georgetown University. 

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