The Pennsylvania Center for Environmental Education announced this week Melissa Reynolds has been hired as the new Education Programs Coordinator.

Along with a strong background in environmental education and training in a variety of non-formal and professional settings, she brings experience and expertise in the arenas of for-profit business and sustainable agriculture.

Melissa will be responsible for the educational components of upcoming and current initiatives, including the development of outreach materials, the virtual EE resource library and the educational portions of PCEE’s new website.

Melissa’s educational credentials include a bachelor’s in Environmental Forest Biology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York, and a master’s degree in Environmental Education from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania.

Her past positions include teaching outdoor education at YMCA Camp Kern near Cincinnati, Ohio, conservation education at the Oglebay Good Zoo in Wheeling, West Virginia and environmental education with Lutherlyn’s EE Program in Prospect, Pa.

Melissa has worked with at-risk high school students in the environmental science portion of the R. Benjamin Wiley Partnership Program at Slippery Rock University, and Special Olympics athletes at Lutherlyn. Melissa has also received training in numerous educational materials, including a variety of Pennsylvania-specific curricula.

A member of the Pennsylvania Alliance for Environmental Education and the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Melissa is personally invested in living as sustainably and lightly as possible on the earth. She is realizing her dream of homesteading while still living in town, including raising heritage-breed chickens, expanding the organic vegetable garden, and adding two sheep over the next few years.

9/8/2006