Credits

Parks and Offsite Learning Spaces Working Group Participants

The dedicated volunteers from around the country, listed alphabetically below, participated in the National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative’s Working Group on Parks and Offsite Learning Spaces (WG#3) between July and December 2020. The National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all of the organizations and individuals who are collaborating to make this Initiative possible.

Working Group Leaders

  • Trudy Garber, MLA-MCP, The Trust for Public Land

  • Jenny Mulholland-Beahrs, Inclusion Outdoors

Subgroup Leaders

  • The names of our subgroup leaders, who led the discussion for specific content areas within this working group, are denoted in these lists in bold text.

Working Group Participants

  • Biret Adden, MA, Point Reyes National Seashore Association

  • Melody Alcazar, MS, City of Austin, Parks and Recreation

  • Liz Badley, Red Cross LGI and Common Ground Child Care Center

  • Tamar Barlev, MLA-MCP, San Francisco Unified School District

  • Xiomara Batin, MA, Inclusion Outdoors

  • Anne Bremer, The Watershed Project

  • Darien Clary, MPH, Austin Independent School District

  • Liza Dadiomov, M.Ed., Bay Area Wilderness Training

  • Sharon Danks, MLA-MCP, Green Schoolyards America

  • Maria Durana, M.Arch, San Francisco Recreation and Park Department

  • Liz Guthrie, MLA, ASLA, LEED, National League of Cities

  • Cindi Hron, MFA, MLA, Susquehanna Greenway Partnership

  • Erin Kelly, MS, Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center

  • Spencer Klinefelter, Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History

  • Katherine Litzky, MPPA, California State Parks Foundation

  • Briget McArdle, Fairfax County Park Authority

  • Haley McClanahan, MA, Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy

  • Lisa McPherson, California Parks and Recreation Society and LisaMACSolutions

  • Anne Muller, M.Ed., Austin Independent School District

  • Maureen Neumann, National Recreation and Park Association

  • Sandi Olek, Maryland Department of Natural Resources

  • Richard Parker, AIA, LEED AP, 450 Architects

  • Mikaela Randolph, MPP, Randolph Consulting Group

  • Brittany Sabol, Environmental Volunteers

  • Tammy Schwab, MS, Fairfax County Park Authority

  • Michael Seaman, MLA-MUP, Fulton-El Camino Recreation & Park District and California Association of Recreation and Park Departments

  • Anh-Thy Tobin, LPA Inc.

  • Betsy Ukeritis, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

  • Rachael Van Schoik, MS, California Academy of Sciences

  • Felicia Van Stolk, Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History

  • Jaime Zaplatosch, M.Ed., Children & Nature Network

Reviewers from the Equity Working Group

  • Xiomara Batin, Inclusion Outdoors

  • Jenny Mulholland-Beahrs, Inclusion Outdoors

  • Betsy Ukeritis, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

Reviewers from the Health Working Group

  • Sarah Gill, MPP

National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative

The National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative supports schools and districts around the country in their efforts to reopen safely and equitably using outdoor spaces as strategic, cost-effective solutions to increase physical distancing capacity onsite and provide access to abundant fresh air. The Initiative seeks to equitably improve learning, mental and physical health, and happiness for children and adults using an affordable, time-tested outdoor approach to keeping schools open during a pandemic.

The National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative was co-founded in May 2020 by Green Schoolyards America, The Lawrence Hall of Science, San Mateo County Office of Education, and Ten Strands. It has now grown to include more than 20 other partner organizations that are collaborating to build a national movement, hundreds of participating volunteers, and foundation partners.