Teaching Our Cities: The People

Teaching Our Cities was initiated and led by staff Common Ground -- the nation's older urban environmental charter school, housed within a community environmental education organization. Since 2016, Teaching Our Cities has brought together teams of teachers, school leaders, students, other staff, and community partners from urban public high schools in the Northeast United States -- including Common Ground High School, Boston Green Academy, New Roots Charter School, The Greene School, Two Rivers Magnet High School (since closed), and CT River Academy, Waterbury Career Academy. More recently, Teaching Our Cities has collaborated with Common Ground's Schoolyards Program to engage K-8 urban public schools, as well.  Teaching Our Cities has mobilized the expertise and capacity of a set of project advisors and partners from across the country, and seeks opportunities to collaborate and learn from urban enivronmental and social justice-themed high schools across the country.

Project Staff

Robyn Stewart

Common Ground Schoolyards Program Manager
        robyn.stewart@commongroundct.org

Robyn is a certified teacher with experience in outdoor and environmental education, as well as classroom teaching. After a few years of leading field trips at Common Ground, she moved into managing the Schoolyards Program. Robyn loves digging in the dirt and helping children discover new things. She is excited to engage teachers and students in exploring and learning outdoors, in school gardens, habitats, and makerspaces.

Joel Tolman

Project Director, Teaching Our Cities
  Common Ground High School       jtolman@commongroundct.org

Joel Tolman is Project Director for Teaching Our Cities. He is also Director of Impact & Engagement at Common Ground -- a high school, urban farm, and environmental education center in New Haven, CT.  In this capacity, Joel Tolman leads work to make Common Ground a more effective and inclusive organization – with a focus on strategic planning, growth strategies, evaluation, and community engagement.

Joel came to Common Ground as a classroom teacher in 2003. Through classes including Architecture, Documenting New Haven, El Caribe, and Power, Joel’s students explored and documented New Haven’s neighborhoods, monitored urban air quality, created bilingual oral histories of community elders, secured start-up funding for small social ventures, and presented policy proposals to state legislators.

In 2008, Joel become Common Ground’s Director of Development and Community Engagement. In this capacity, he more than doubled grant revenue and individual giving, helped to launch a major capital campaign, and secured the resources necessary to grow organizational reach significantly.

Before joining the Common Ground faculty, Joel worked for 5 years on high school reform and youth policy issues in Washington, DC – providing technical assistance to school districts and municipalities, writing a number of publications on youth leadership and development, and managing multi-site initiatives related to school reform and out-of-school time. He has a degree in environmental studies from Williams College, and a M.Ed. in social studies education from George Washington University.

Team Members

Barnard Environmental Science and Technology School

Bishop Woods Architecture & Design Magnet School

Boston Green Academy

Broadview Middle School

Common Ground High School

Connecticut River Academy

Edgewood Creative Thinking Through STEAM Magnet School

Elm City Montessori School

New Roots School

The Greene School

Two Rivers High School

Waterbury Career Academy

Project Advisors

Adrian Ayson

Project Advisor
        adrian@neeea.org

Adrian Ayson has over 30 years in environmental education, Adrian is accomplished in developing, leading, and contributing to large, complex projects with multiple teams and workgroups. These have included initiatives such as multi-year, multi-partner grant projects, strategic planning, community-based interpretive planning, and multi-media communications and training projects. Adrian has held senior leadership positions such as Director of Education at the Massachusetts Audubon Society, Director of Operations at the Center for Whole Communities, and Senior Program Manager with the North American Association for Environmental Education. As a consultant, Adrian has worked throughout New England and New York City with conservation organizations, museums, urban parks, and nature centers to develop strategic plans, master interpretive plans, educational resources, exhibits, and evaluation tools. Currently Adrian serve as NEEEA’s Special Projects Manager, leading the development and implementation of NEEEA’s major projects such as the 2012-2013 EPA EE Sub-Grants program, the EECapacity New England Regional Consortium, and the 2014 Better Together Summit. http://neeea.org/

 

Angela Brisson

Project Advisor
        abrisson@tnc.org

Angela Brisson is the Program Manager for Nature Works Everywhere, The Nature Conservancy’s initiative to bring nature into the classroom with digital lessons, videos, and interactive tools. Angela has a BS in Environmental Management from the University of North Carolina – Asheville, and has worked in the field of environmental education for over 7 years. She brings her expertise in nature and classroom education to the Conservancy’s education initiatives. https://www.natureworkseverywhere.org

Brigitte Griswold

Project Advisor
        bgriswold@tnc.org

Since 2003, Brigitte Griswold has worked to create The Nature Conservancy’s first national urban youth initiative, The Leaders in Environmental Action for the Future (LEAF) Program. During her over ten-year tenure at The Nature Conservancy, she has impacted the lives of thousands of young people, raised over $10 million in support of youth programming, and launched promotional efforts which reach over 200 million viewers, readers and listeners annually.As Director of Youth Programs for the Nature Conservancy, Brigitte leads the overall strategy for Youth Engagement, which includes increasing opportunities for young people to work, learn, and serve in the conservation field as well as developing strategic partnerships with youth-serving organizations to empower the next generation of conservationists. She oversees the Conservancy’s Nature Works Everywhere Program managed by Angela Brisson, in addition to providing ongoing leadership to the LEAF Program, managed by Rachel Vasquez. Brigitte graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in Communications and English literature, and lives in New York City with her Chihuahua Sunday and her cat Herschel Junior Walker. http://www.nature.org/

Rupu Gupta (Past)

Conservation Psychologist and Project Evaluator at NewKnowledge
        rgupta@newknowledge.org

At the time of her involvement in Teaching Our Cities, Dr. Rupu Gupta was a conservation psychologist at NewKnowledge (Knology) with her recent research focusing on capacity building in urban conservation education contexts. She led the evaluation efforts of the EPA-funded EECapacity project that is building capacity in environmental education by promoting environmental literacy and expanding civic engagement. She also led the evaluation of The Nature Conservancy’s initiative to foster urban conservation towards building resilient urban communities, and Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo’s Interpretation Planning to advance their organizational capacity around conservation. Dr. Gupta has also led evaluation capacity building efforts for Friends of the High Line (FHL), the non-profit that oversees the maintenance, operations, and public programming for the High Line Park in New York City, and led staff training workshops and worked alongside FHL to implement a staff and volunteer managed public programs evaluation strategy. She also led the evaluation of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s (BBG) exhibits to support their transition to a newly designed Discovery Garden and also learn how the Visitor Center augments the BBG experience. http://www.newknowledge.org/

Marianne Krasny

Project Advisor
        mek2@cornell.edu

Marianne Krasny is Professor and Chair in the Department of Natural Resources, and Director of the Civic Ecology Lab, at Cornell University. Her work focuses on environmental education and social-ecological systems theory in urban and other settings in the US and internationally. She is also the Project Lead for EPA’s EECapacity Team, directing EPA’s national environmental education training program.  Marianne holds bachelors degrees in Human Development and Botany, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Forest Ecology. She has taught courses in environmental and civic ecology education. Her responsibilities at the Cornell Civic Ecology Lab include educational outreach, applied research, and administration. http://dnr.cals.cornell.edu/

 

Kerry Lord

Project Advisor
        klord@ctschoolchange.org

Over the last 20 years, Kerry Lord has enjoyed an exciting career as a public educator.  As an elementary teacher in San Francisco, Kerry worked with the Exploratorium Science Museum and the San Francisco Modern Art Museum to incorporate art and science inquiry into the school curriculum. During her 10 years in the Bay Area, Kerry taught middle school and began her Administrative career as an Assistant Principal at the Middle level. As a school leader in Denver, Kerry served as a principal at the elementary level for 10 years, and then became the Executive Director at a K-12 Expeditionary Learning public school of choice.  As a school leader she has had the opportunity to enhance her professional learning through the Public Education and Business Coalition and the National Institute of School Leaders to name a few.  She has been a presenter at the Expeditionary Learning National Conference, was appointed to the Governor’s Council recommending Graduation Guidelines, held a contract with the Colorado Department of Education to review School Improvement Plans for Alternative High Schools. She currently resides in New Haven Connecticut where, in addition to her work as an independent educational consultant, she works with DYS programs in Massachusetts on developing Restorative Practices as a Program Consultant for Engaging Schools, a national non-profit dedicated to equity and rigor in urban education; The CT Center for School Change as a Program Coordinator, another non-profit dedicated to creating system success for schools across Connecticut; and as a leadership coach for the Residency Program for School Leadership.    

 

Sammy Lyon

Project Advisor
  Camino Nuevo Charter Academy       sammy_lyon@ecsonline.org

Sammy Lyon is Director of Innovation at Camino Nuevo Charter Academy in Los Angeles. Before that, Sammy led a program called Green Ambassadors at Environmental Charter High School, creating service learning opportunities with high school students, taking on environmental challenges in LA and leading workshops for teachers. They* first became passionate about environmental education and service learning when teaching an after-school garden program and working on organic farms. Sammy first became passionate about environmental education and service learning when they taught their first after school garden program in Springfield, MA, after completing their B.A. in Government and Urban Politics at Smith College. They went on to earn their M.A. in Education, Leadership & Change from Antioch University, focusing their research on developing critical thinking and community engagement through service learning. To Sammy, being back in their beloved hometown of Los Angeles doing the daily work of social change through meaningful education at Environmental Charter Schools is both an honor and a privilege.Sammy is a collective co-author of Changemakers: Educating with Purpose, rides a bike around the city, and believes young people are not the leaders of tomorrow -- but of today. *gender neutral pronouns they/them. 

 

Jennifer Seydel

Project Advisor
        jseydel@greenschoolsnationalnetwork.org

Jennifer Seydel is Executive Director The Green Schools National Network, which Jenny leads, is increasingly focused on building regional “catalyst schools” and other deep connections among green schools nationally. Beyond her work as leader of the Green Schools National Network, Jenny has facilitated school change and green school efforts at dozens of schools around the world. https://greenschoolsnationalnetwork.org/

 

Alison Suffet Diaz

Project Advisor
        alison@ecsonline.org

Alison Suffet Diaz is the Founder and Executive Director of Environmental Charter Schools (ECS), a growing network of schools that has provided meaningful education to youth in underserved communities of South Los Angeles for more than twelve years. With the goal of creating real and meaningful life learning experiences with the help of a strong and dynamic team, Alison created a successful, rigorous curriculum and environmental approach that lead to a 93% college-acceptance rate for graduates and earned the school a ranking in the top 10% of California Schools. One of three nation-wide finalists in Obama’s Race to the Top Challenge, Environmental Charter HIgh school was in the first round of schools to be given Green Ribbon recognition and has been recently nominated as a Blue Ribbon School based upon academic achievement and improvement. Since then, the network has grown to include two middle schools. Alison holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from State University of New York, Albany, and Juris Doctorate from Temple University Law School, where she participated in a program called LEAP, teaching inner city youth about their constitutional rights. She earned her teaching credential from Cal State Dominguez Hills and after eight years of teaching. http://ecsonline.org/