Meet Susy Ellison, Bartlett Award Winner, 2010

Installing solar panels on the school roof, prepping students to present a climate change project to scientists, designing a straw bale classroom and involving colleagues and numerous subject areas in environmental lessons – those are just a few of the reasons Susy Ellison has been recognized for her outstanding contributions to environmental education.

Ellison received the Richard C. Bartlett Environmental Education Award, given annually by the National Environmental Education Foundation, during National Teacher Appreciation Week, held the first week of May.

A teacher at Yampah Mountain High School in Glenwood Springs, Colo., Ellison has a background in wildlife biology and 23 years of teaching experience. She is the science teacher for both the alternative high school and the school's teen parent program.

Ellison always seems to find new ways to engage her students and colleagues while improving the environment at her school and in her community. She led energy audits of her high school, installed a weather station and geodesic dome greenhouse and took students to Washington, D.C. for the Solar Decathlon. When she taught classes on alternative fuels, her students not only met with producers and users of biodiesel, they made their own.

She reaches out to the entire school community, making environmental education a cross-curricular endeavor. Her projects involve other teachers and subjects, proving that environmental education can be integrated across a broad array of subject areas.

“Every year, the Bartlett Award recognizes the teachers who inspire everyone around them with their passion and energy,” said Diane Wood, president of the National Environmental Education Foundation. “Susy exemplifies the spirit of the award with her ingenuity. She’s a catalyst at her school, driven by her own curiosity and commitment to her students, her school and to the environment.”

Ellison said the Bartlett prize reflected as much about her students and colleagues as her.

“I am honored to have been selected as the 2010 recipient of the Richard C. Bartlett Environmental Education Award.  When I review the path that has brought me to this point I see a long and winding route of meandering trails and diverse branches leading to that magical, elusive, and sometimes mysterious place known as ‘environmental literacy,’” she said. “I am proud that I have been able to be a guide for both colleagues and students by providing them with the knowledge and tools required to travel a similar path.  This award is as much about them as it is about me.  It is a celebration of the creation of citizens who understand and take responsibility for their impacts on the planet and feel empowered to become agents of positive environmental change.”

Richard Bartlett, for whom the award is named, has been active in conservation for more than 40 years. He has co-authored several textbooks and three books and has received numerous awards for his work in conservation, marketing and as an executive.

Bartlett and his wife, Joanne, are founders of the Thinking Like a Mountain Foundation, a writer-in-residence program with a mission to foster a conservation ethic.

Bartlett became a trustee of The Nature Conservancy of Texas in 1989 and was appointed chairman in 1994. He currently serves as an advisor on numerous other boards, including NatureServe, the National Council for Science and the Environment, the Aldo Leopold Foundation and the Center for Big Bend Studies. He is the former chairman of the National Environmental Education Foundation, where he continues to serve as an honorary board member.

Bartlett said Ellison sets an example for environmental education around the country.

"With her hands-on style and her knack for involving students and the rest of the campus in environmental lessons, Susy Ellison encapsulates what's best about environmental education – its ability to connect the lesson to the larger world and the student to the issues that matter in their lives and their communities,” Bartlett said. “I commend Ms. Ellison for her dedication, her ingenuity and her inspirational example."

Ellison will travel to Washington, D.C. this summer to meet with environmental leaders and the staff of the National Environmental Education Foundation.