Registration for the NC Outdoor
Classroom Symposium is now full.
Morning Plenary
 Peter White
Director, NC Botanical Garden
Professor, UNC-CH Department of Biology and Ecology Curriculum
Peter White is a plant ecologist with interests in communities, floristics, biogeography, species richness, conservation biology and disturbance and patch dynamics. In vegetation science he is interested in the composition and dynamics of plant communities, the relationship between vegetation and landscape, and role of disturbance, and the ecology of individual species in a dynamic setting. In conservation biology he is interested in the distribution and biology of rare species, the design and management of nature reserves and alien species invasions.
Peter White is an Editor of the Journal of Vegetation Science and Applied Vegetation Science and serves on the North Carolina Plant Conservation Board and the Boards of the Center for Plant Conservation and the Highlands Biological Station. He is Chair of Discover Life in America and co-chair of the Science Committee for the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Peter White directs the University's North Carolina Botanical Garden, a garden which is helping to define the Conservation Garden. The Garden became one of the first gardens to enact policies aimed at diminishing the risk of release of exotic pest organisms in 1998 and was presented with a Program Excellence Award in 2004 by the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta
 Cam Collyer
Director of Learning Grounds, Evergreen, Canada
Cam Collyer has been the Director of Evergreen’s award-winning Toyota Evergreen Learning Grounds Program since 1997. He has overseen the establishment of a national network of school ground design professionals, the creation of a large suite of print and web-based publications, the establishment of pioneering partnerships with schools boards across Canada and the distribution of over $1 million in grants to schools. Cam has also acted as a consultant to the development of a program supporting the redevelopment of school grounds in Havana, Cuba.
A qualified teacher, Cam graduated in Environmental Studies from Trent University and in Outdoor and Experiential Education from Queen’s University. He has worked in a variety of public and private educational settings including the North York Board of Education, the Canadian Outward Bound Wilderness School, and Peterborough’s Kawartha World Issues Centre. Cam is a regular presenter at conferences, universities and in the media on topics of school ground greening, environmental education, and the connection between children and nature. Cam is currently coordinating the design of the children’s play and learning areas for Evergreen Brick Works.
Based in Canada, Evergreen is a not-for-profit organization that makes cities more livable. By deepening the connection between people and nature, and empowering Canadians to take a hands-on approach to their urban environments, Evergreen is improving the health of our cities - now and for the future.
Panel Discussion:
 Robin Moore
North Carolina State University
Professor of Landscape Architecture, College of Design
Robin Moore is professor of Landscape Architecture, College of Design, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA, and an expert in the design of play, learning, and educational environments. He holds degrees in architecture from London University and in city and regional planning from MIT- where he first became interested in integrating environmental design and child development. Pursuing this interest for 30 years, he has conducted a series of action-research projects in both North and South America, and England.
Robin is former chair of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) and has held faculty appointments at UC Berkeley and Stanford University. Robin’s most recent publications include Natural Learning (1997), co-authored with educator Dr. Herb Wong, and “Healing Gardens for Children,” in Healing Gardens (edited by Cooper Marcus & Barnes, 1999). Other books include Plants for Play (1993), Childhood’s Domain: Play and Place in Child Development (1986, 1992); and the co-authored Complete Playground Book (1993), the Play For All Guidelines (1987, 1992), and the Play For All CD (1995). Robin Moore is past president of the International Association for the Child’s Right to Play (IPA) and a principal in the design and planning firm of Moore Iacofano Goltsman.
 Dave DeWitt
North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC
Dave DeWitt came to WUNC in 2003 and spent four years on the staff of The State of Things before joining the News team. In 2008 he was selected to head WUNC's Raleigh bureau. He has filed features for most of NPR’s news magazines as well as Marketplace and Only A Game. He is a graduate of Denison University and formerly worked in college athletics, college admissions, and with the Tar Heel Sports Network. In 2001, he wrote the non-fiction book True Blue. He has won numerous awards for reporting, most recently from the Radio/Television News Directors and the National Association of Black Journalists. He was also a part of the WUNC team that won a 2006 duPont-Columbia Award.
 Brian Day
Executive Director
North American Association for Environmental Education
Brian Day is the Executive Director of the North American Association for Environmental Education. His mission is to improve the skills and capacity of the environmental educators to bring about an environmentally literate citizenry. He is founder and Editor-in-Chief of a quarterly international peer-reviewed journal, Applied Environmental Education and Communication, published by Taylor and Francis, and teaches a graduate course each year in environmental communication for Duke University. Brian has worked at the local, state, national and international levels, including working in over 30 countries. He is a frequent contributor to books, periodicals and is co-editor of Environmental Education and Communication for a Sustainable World published in both English and Spanish. Brian has a master’s in environmental education and communication for the University of Michigan.
Afternoon Plenary
 Dilafruz Williams, Ph.D.
Portland State University
Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy in the Graduate School of Education
Professor of Public Administration in the Mark O’ Hatfield School of Government
Portland Public School Board
Dr. Williams is founding director of the Leadership in Ecology, Culture, and Learning program and of the Learning Gardens Laboratory (http://www.pdx.edu/elp/learning-gardens-laboratory) at Portland State University. In 1995, she co-founded the Environmental Middle School (6-8), which has been expanded to the K-8 Sunnyside Environmental School (http://www.sesptsa.com/index.php). in Portland Public School District. These successful initiatives have been designed with the goal of addressing the ecological and cultural underpinnings of education in K-12 schools and in higher education and to build strong community-school-university partnerships.
Dr. Williams was elected city-wide to the Portland School Board in 2003 and 2007 (www.board.pps.k12.or.us/.docs/pg/10497). She is recipient of the prestigious Ehrlich Award for Faculty Service-Learning in 2001 and has been selected to the Fulbright Senior Scholar Roster, 2007-2012. She is also selected to the “100 District Leaders for Civic Engagement and Service-Learning Network,” by the Education Commission of the States National Center for Learning and Citizenship.
Dr. Williams is the co-editor of Ecological Education in Action: On Weaving Education, Culture, and the Environment. She has authored over 50 chapters, journal articles, and curriculum resource guides and has given over 100 invited lectures, symposia, and/or conference papers. With graduate degrees from Bombay, Syracuse, and Harvard Universities in the Sciences, Public Administration, and Philosophy of Education, Dr. Williams’ areas of expertise are: Community-Higher Education-Schools Strategic Partnerships; Professional Development in Civic Engagement/Service-Learning; Sustainability Education; Learning Gardens-Based Education; and K-12 Public Policy.
Reception
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