Our highly qualified course instructors, each of them a Master Environmental Educator, are an asset to the agency and to the state.
Ashley Hoffman serves as the Executive Director of the Kentucky Association for Environmental Education, one of the country's oldest associations supporting environmental education, and the first affiliate of the North American Association for Environmental Education. She holds a B.S. degree in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation from the University of Florida and a Masters in Nonprofit Administration from North Park University School of Business and Nonprofit Administration and currently serves as a member of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) Affiliate Network Working Group, a member of the NAAEE Advisory Council, and as the Executive Director of the Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance (SEEA), and a certified member of the NAAEE Guidelines Trainers Bureau. In her free time, she enjoys traveling to new places and enjoying time in the outdoors with her family.
Dr. Melinda Wilder worked in a variety of positions as an environmental educator including interpretive naturalist on the Blue Ridge Parkway, resource management ranger on Lake Cumberland and Lake Barkley and middle school science and math teacher. After earning her Ph.D., Melinda began teaching in the College of Education at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) and became the Director of the Division of Natural Areas. Melinda led the development of an environmental education endorsement program at EKU that was accredited by NAAEE and later by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. Dr. Wilder was recognized by NAAEE as the Higher Education Educator of the Year for her lifelong service to the field. One of the longest-standing members of the Kentucky Association for Environmental Education, she was awarded the KAEE Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding commitment and service to EE. She now operates a small-scale, certified organic Madison County farm with her daughter, Maggie.
As a Madison County Elementary School Science teacher, Vivian Bowles worked with the Kentucky Education Association (KEA) developing trainings for teachers on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) architecture and traveling the state to demonstrate how science can be infused into other subject areas. For KEEC, she developed NGSS-style units of study as an integral part of the Kentucky Environmental Literacy Plan (KELP). Vivian was named the Elementary Science Teacher of the Year by the Kentucky Science Teachers Association and received the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching awarded by the National Science Foundation and President Barack Obama. She was named Teacher of the Year for KEEC's Kentucky Green & Healthy Schools program for her work with Kit Carson Elementary students, and received KAEE's M.K. Dickerson Outstanding Educator Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in EE. Even in retirement, she's passionate about equipping teachers to connect their students to the natural world, working as an independent education consultant and management professional.
Dr. Joseph Baust has worked in the field of environmental education for more than 40 years. In that capacity he has been a member of the Pre-service Environmental Education Task Force, chairperson of the Higher Education Commission, Co-Leader of Arts Commission, and president of NAAEE. He has also served as president of the Friends of Land Between the Lakes, chairperson of Kentucky University's Partnership for Environmental Education (consortium of eight public universities for environmental education), and president of KAEE. He has been feted with the Kentucky Earth Day Award and the Walter E. Jeske Award, the highest award in the field. He has raised more than 4.8 million dollars in grants and contracts since 1993 and created a sustainability program housed in Bregenz Austria. His work with Bregenz Austria and a panoply of persons expanded his understanding of sustainability and the importance of international experience. Emeritus Professor at Murray State University and Director of the Center for Environmental Education, Joe received his B.S.E. and M.Ed from Memphis State University, now University of Memphis , and his Ed.D. from the University of Tennessee.
Born and raised in Ohio, Dr. Terry Wilson became a teacher and director of the Outdoor Education Program for the Madison Local Schools, beginning a career developing and implementing environmental education programs now spanning over 40 years. While in graduate school at The Ohio State University, he served as a research associate for the ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education. After moving to Kentucky in 1974, Dr. Wilson served as the Environmental Education Coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Education and directed the Center for Environmental Education at Murray State University for ten years. He was one of the co-founders of KAEE and the first recipient of the association's Environmental Education College Teacher of the Year. He has served on the board of directors for numerous state, national, and international organizations involved in promoting science and environmental education, including NAAEE, for which he also served as President. He was recognized for his achievements with the Walter Jeske Award, the field of environmental education's highest honor, given each year by NAAEE. He has spent most of his career specializing in teacher and leadership training in environmental education. Besides working with thousands of teachers in Kentucky and much of the U.S., he has also conducted extensive international training in environmental education for educators and natural resource managers throughout North America, Asia, and Russia, and testified before a Congressional subcommittee related to the National Environmental Education Act of 1990, along with the late singer John Denver. Dr. Wilson is retired as Director of the Center for Environmental Education and Sustainability and professor emeritus in environmental education at Western Kentucky University. He stays engaged in EE through consulting, writing, and providing training for a variety of organizations and agencies.