Hull Award Winners

Julia Hobart

2023

In 1960, Julia DeCamp Hobart, a member of The Garden Club of Dayton, Zone X, conceived of and founded the Overfield Nursery School in Troy, Ohio, with 12 young children. Today, there are just over 100 children from 18 months to third grade enrolled in The Overfield School, which places environmental education and a nature-based curriculum at the center of its approach to educating young children. Convinced of the value of experiential education, she is a powerful advocate for children experiencing nature every day. In her 90s, Julia is still actively involved on almost a daily basis.

Richard Buster Banish

2023

Richard (Buster) Banish inspires appreciation of beauty and fragility of our planet through introducing his students to birding. Buster has taught for nearly 40-years in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and most of his students endure socio-economic hardship. His ongoing efforts engaging children outdoors supports a critical part of their development. He created and secured funding for "The Bird Nerds" after-school club that studies birds in the classroom then identifies birds in the field.

Karen Lanford

2023

As a celebrated, experienced life science teacher at All Saints Episcopal School in Tyler, TX, Karen Lanford created the Outdoor Learning Center to teach while immersed in nature. Her students learn from hands on experiences with animals and insects and understand forest and wetland ecosystems from close perspective. Undaunted after superstorm Uri devastated the OLC in 2021, Lanford led rebuilding efforts so that students could continue to appreciate the opportunity to learn in a natural environment.

Mary Virginia Harris

2023

Longtime Education Director for Memphis Botanic Garden, Gina Harris has continuously grown the scope and impact of their environmental outreach programs, now impacting near 40,000 students per year. The children’s garden, ‘My Big Backyard’ connects children to nature; ‘Caterpillar Club’ engages the youngest visitors in the garden; ‘Ready Set Grow’ reaches underserved schools; and ‘Environmental Playhouse’ uses theater to tell important stories. Harris does important work connecting children to the environment in Memphis and beyond.

Kristen Taylor

2023

Thanks to Kristen Taylor, every class in Little Rock’s Forest Park Elementary has a regular experience in the school’s ROOT garden, planned to complement classroom curriculum. Taylor began as a volunteer and ended up creating a rich environment where students grow vegetables, pick fruit from the orchard, and care for chickens. Through outreach with MonarchWatch.org, the Audubon Society and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, her students are broadly exposed to butterflies and birds as well!

Erin Mitchell

2023

Dr. Mitchell is committed to protecting our waterways and environment for today’s students and future generations. As Science Chair, she works with Pre-K through 9th graders on programs including Lagoon Restorations, Native Orchid plantings, Shark Education, and Teaching Empathy through Nature to help children reconnect with the outdoors. Erin works every day to ensure that her students are growing up to be responsible environmental citizens, and her work serves to inspires other educators to do the same.

David Wicks

2023

The environmental stewardship of David Wicks has impacted countless students. He served as Director and Founder of the JCPS (Jefferson County Public Schools) Environmental Education Program for 29 years. Wicks developed many programs that made investigating nature accessible to thousands of children, including school gardens and camping adventure trips on land and water.

Charles Filer

2023

Charlie is raising a generation of environmental stewards in Southwest Virginia, where he teaches Ecology and Earth Science at Glenvar High School. His "G-Bee" Program has created an environment where faculty and students work together to fabricate, install and maintain hives on campus. They also plant and maintain fruit trees, flowers, and vegetables in support of the pollinators. The honey and related products are sold locally with the proceeds used to fund college scholarships.

David Kasievich

2023

As the head of St. James School, David engages his fourth through eighth grade students in hands-on environmental education. From starting pollinator and vegetable gardens to keeping bees and raising chickens, David maintains two composting sites. In creating the St. James Garden Club, his young gardeners assist in sowing seeds, planting and harvesting food and providing a seasonal welcome table for school families and their neighborhood. This transformational program teaches his students to value themselves and the natural world.

Melissa Logan

2023

Melissa Logan teaches environmental science to mainly Latino and African American students in an elementary school located in the lowest income area of Plainfield, New Jersey. Ms. Logan, a bi-lingual teacher for two decades, introduces students to nature through both classroom curriculum and field trips to Plainfield’s Olmsted-planned Shakespeare Garden. Ms. Logan secured funding from Plainfield Garden Club for her students to attend Reeves-Reed Arboretum’s Hands-to-Nature program which teaches about our ecosystem and the crucial importance of nature.