ECCLPS Subcommittees
The pre-service, in-service, and curriculum subcommittees were convened by the ECCLPS Steering Committee Co-chairs to include and be led by key stakeholders. These stakeholders did the deep thinking required to address urgent environmental and climate change issues. The identified best practices and next steps to scale up environmental literacy, made meaningful recommendations, and suggested commitments that can be made by the UC and CSU systems as outlined in the ECCLPS Report.
Subcommittee Co-chairs
Richard Arum
Dean and Professor, School of Education, UCI
Richard Arum is Dean of the School of Education at the UCI. He has served as senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and as director of the Education Research Program at the Social Science Research Council. He has a MEd from Harvard University, and a PhD in Sociology from UC Berkeley.
Karen Cowe
Chief Executive Officer, Ten Strands
Karen Cowe is the CEO of Ten Strands, a California-based nonprofit whose mission is to build and strengthen the partnerships and strategies that will bring environmental literacy to all of California’s 6.2 million K–12 students. She is the project director of the California Environmental Literacy Initiative, a statewide public-private partnership focused on implementing California’s Blueprint for Environmental Literacy.
Jill Grace
Regional Director for K–12 Alliance, WestEd
Jill Grace is a Regional Director for WestEd's K–12 Alliance and past president of the California Science Teachers Association. Her work includes the California NGSS K–8 Early Implementation Initiative, CANGSS Collaborative leadership committee, California Environmental Literacy Initiative, and In-Service Subcommittee of the Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Project and Summit.
Barbara Murchison
Director of the Educator Excellence and Equity Division, California Department of Education
Barbara Murchison is the Director of the Educator Excellence and Equity Division at the California Department of Education. In this role, she leads a team that supports high quality professional learning for educators to ensure that every student has every opportunity to be successful in school and in life.
Cheryl L. Ney
Dean, Charter College of Education, Cal State LA
Cheryl L. Ney is the Dean of the Charter College of Education at the California State University, Los Angeles. Trained as a DNA biochemist, she taught undergraduates for twenty years preparing them as STEM professionals. She is active statewide and on the Governance Committee for the LA Regional Consortium for Linked Learning. She promotes youth tours of campus Hydrogen Research and Refueling facility for them to learn about FCEV automobiles.
Emily M. Schell
Executive Director, California Global Education Project
Emily M. Schell, Ed.D., is Executive Director of the California Global Education Project. She is a former teacher, principal, and district Social Studies Resource teacher for San Diego Unified, K–12 History–Social Science Coordinator for San Diego County Office of Education, preservice instructor for San Diego State University Teacher Education, and liaison for National Geographic Education Foundation.
Subcommittee Members
Pre-Service
Mara Brady, Associate Professor, College of Science and Mathematics, CSU Fresno
Katie Burns, Grant Project Coordinator, Teachers College of San Joaquin
Agustine Cervantes, Director, Office for Student Services, Charter College of Education, Cal State Los Angeles
Marc Epstein, Director, California Environmental Technology Education Network
Jose Flores, Civic and Environmental Advisor, Comite Civico Del Valle
Manisha Javeri, Professor, Applied and Advanced Studies in Education, CSU Los Angeles
Virginia Oberholzer Vandergon, Professor, Biology, College of Science and Math, CSU Northridge
Leslie Ponciano, Director, Research Opportunities, CSU Chancellor’s Office
Jessica Pratt, Associate Professor, Teaching and Faculty Co-Director, CalTeach, University of California, Irvine
Leslie Tamminen, Director, Ocean Program, 7th Generation Advisors
Jeff Share, Faculty Advisory, Teacher Education Program, UC Los Angeles
Audra Whaley Ruben, Community Representative, Carthay School of Environmental Studies Magnet, Los Angeles Unified School District
Jeffrey White, Professor, Biological Sciences, Humboldt State University
In-Service
Deedee Chao, Master of Science Student, Community Development, UC Davis
Annamarie Francois, Executive Director, Center X, UC Los Angeles
Susan Gomez Zwiep, Professor, Science Education, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, CSU Long Beach
Mary Anne Pella-Donnelly, Teacher, Science, Chico Junior High School, Chico Unified School District
Maria Simani, Executive Director, California Science Project, UC Riverside
Anne Stephens, Assistant Professor, Department of Science Education and Director, Inland Northern California Science Project, CSU Chico
Kimberly Waite, Teacher Leader, California Global Education Project
Fred Uy, Director of Educator Preparation and Public School Programs and Co-Director of Center for the Advancement of Instruction in Quantitative Reasoning, CSU Chancellor’s Office
Curriculum
Shelley Brooks, Program Coordinator, California History-Social Science Project, UC Davis
Cyane Dandridge, Executive Director, Strategic Energy Innovations
Amy Frame, K–12 Regional Program Manager, Ten Strands
Rebecca Heneise, Outreach Specialist and Demonstration Teacher, Dual Language Immersion, Lab School, UC Los Angeles
Frank Niepold, Senior Climate Education Program Manager, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Christy Porter, Senior Environmental Scientist, Office of Education and the Environment, CalRecycle