Hull Award Winners

Charles “CJ” Reilly

2023

CJ serves as the educational director, horticulturalist and project manager for the O’Hara Nature Center and Irvington Woods Park. In these roles he designs curricula supporting camp and school visits, Eagle Scout and Girl Scout projects and the Irvington Vocational Independence Program that offers middle and upper school vocational students hands-on, independent learning in landscape management and horticulture. CJ also created Xeriscape, Rain, Bog and Meadow Demonstration Gardens to encourage the use of native plants.

Debra Davis-Galliard

2023

Debra Davis-Galliard had a successful career in the I/T industry. After thirty years, she returned to school for a higher-education degree to teach chemistry, earth, and general science to fifth through twelfth graders. She supported her middle-school students’ effort to test re-populating oysters in Rye Harbor. When a storm destroyed their research station, Debra led her students in starting over from scratch. Debra instills in her students a responsibility to be gatekeepers for their environment.

Sarah Breznen

2023

For over 14 years, Sarah Breznen, Director of Education at Woodcock Nature Center, has combined science and visual arts to develop and teach innovative nature-based programs, including courses that meet rigorous state standards and are integral to science curricula, that impact over 1500 students annually across four Connecticut school districts. Her passion for nature and love of teaching imbues her students with deep appreciation for the environment and foster a lasting connection with the natural world.

Chris Wyman

2022

Through teaching children from Gibbs Elementary and Dunbar Middle school at the Dunbar Community Garden that is situated next to both schools. Children learn about vegetables, fruit, honeybees and chickens by engaging in a hands on learning in the garden. The garden is located in what would be defined as fresh food desert. Children learn about healthy food options in a downtown neighborhood where learning about this is void.

Susie Spikol

2022

Susie Spikol, who has been a professional naturalist and environmental educator for over thirty years, has made an incalculable impact on the children of the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire. She continues to inspire young people every day with her passion, broad knowledge, and deep experience of the New England environment. Starting with her internship in Central Park as a Columbia University student, Susie, a Brooklyn native, has dedicated herself to teaching children to connect, understand and embrace nature. There are few children or teens in the Monadnock region who have never canoed, hiked, explored wetlands, spotted birds, uncovered amphibians, or been snow-tracking with Susie. Most recently, Susie founded the Lab Girls after-school program, which "Connects Girls to STEAM Through Nature.” Each week, the “Lab Girls” meet a different female role model who works in STEAM and then have a chance to experiment with the tools of her...

Kaki Scheer

2022

At the Cincinnati Nature Center (CNC), beginning in 2011, Kaki volunteered to teach children about the outdoors, connecting youth and their families to nature through multiple avenues. She encouraged families to bring children to explore the Nature PlayScape, a space at the center with native deciduous plants of different textures and colors, fostering children’s curiosity and discovery. By leading walks for families and children, Kaki facilitated youth education in the outdoors by aiding in the creation of the curriculums for different programs for families and children. In 2013, upon joining the faculty at Cincinnati Country Day School, Kaki maintained her relationship with the CNC, bridging her efforts in childhood education between the two institutions. Conservation being the hallmark of her education of children, Kaki took a leading role in the initiative to create a student conservation summit, organized and hosted at Cincinnati Country Day...

Michele Sacerdote

2022

While the Montessori Children's School, Hanover NH had once a week outdoor program prior to the pandemic, new COVID-19 protocols inspired us to expand our outdoor education to four days a week. With small rotating cohorts spending one morning a week outside, we needed a teacher who would spearhead the program. Michele took on this role and created a year-long program, with weekly lessons both educational and engaging. Every day, she teaches the lesson at circle, oftentimes including songs, books, and movement. The children then go on nature walks on our 8+ acres of land, with trails connecting to the Appalachian trails. Oftentimes the children conduct science experiments or nature activities, or simply observe nature, using their senses.

Kaity Ryan

2022

Kaity's work with NBS is a core opportunity for local and state youth to gain exposure to nature and wildlife both in and out of school. As an example of NBS' community ties to the fostering of a love and care of the environment, the NGC has been a longstanding provider of grant money to NBS to fund summer camp positions for Star Kids. The mission of the Star Kids Scholarship Program is to provide educational opportunities in the form of tuition aid to effective non-public schools, after-school and summer programs, tutoring and mentoring for those high risk, low-income children who have a parent with a history of incarceration and/or substance abuse. Children are typically enrolled in the program between kindergarten and grade 4. In addition, Kaity's work at NBS also involves a community partnership with the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, which seeks to provide a safe and nurturing environment for the changing needs of Newport County...

Chris Rowlands

2022

Chris Rowlands has worked passionately to connect children and youth to nature and the environment through a creative variety of mediums. He has taught in Ohio for over 20 years in public and private schools. His curricula have included outdoor education, hands-on artistic residencies for art murals, one-on- one guided art and original books, music residencies creating original songs, and other activities promoting environmental awareness, with a focus on birds, wildlife, history and biodiversity. Chris reaches over 30,000 students each year as an Environmental Outreach Naturalist at Aullwood Audubon. He presents programs entitled, “It’s Wild Out there” and “Farmin’ Fever” assemblies in dozens of schools in the Greater Dayton Region each year. He combines humor, fun, music with environmental education imparting to the students unique features of the natural world and animals in a way they will remember.

Jennifer Papa

2022

Jennifer Papa is the Executive Director and Founder of City Green. Jennifer’s vision when founding City Green was to support livable, green urban communities that are socially, economically, and environmentally rejuvenated. City Green’s mission since 2004 has been to work to create increased access to healthy, local food while cultivating education in food systems, nutrition, and the environment. City Green works to ensure that everyone has access to bountiful fresh produce; that youth have opportunities for volunteering, leadership, and employment in the community; and that those neighborhoods have welcoming, safe, natural respites. From preschoolers to high school students, Jennifer works to establish a breadth of educational farm and garden programming to forge a connection between students, food, and nature. Indeed, Jennifer Papa exemplifies the expressed intent of the Elizabeth Abernathy Hull Award as “an individual who, through...