GLIN==> Former Ohio Sea Grant Education Director Receives Top Award for Work in Environmental Education

Former Ohio Sea Grant Education Director Receives Top Award for Work in
Environmental Education

 

October 27, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

RALEIGH, NC-Dr. Rosanne Fortner, former Ohio Sea Grant Education Director
and current COSEE Great Lakes Director, received the highest honor from the
North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) at its annual
conference on October 15 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Fortner was presented
the 2011 Walter E. Jeske Award, which recognizes individual's outstanding
service to NAAEE and leadership within the environment education profession.

 

"I am so humbled by this award," Fortner says. "We all reach the heights by
standing on the shoulders of giants, but in environment education, I've also
been buoyed up by the professional accomplishments of my students. This is a
giving profession, always paying forward."

 

Fortner has spent her career helping science educators find new, engaging
ways to bring the Great Lakes into their classrooms. As part of the first
project Ohio Sea Grant funded more than 30 years ago, Fortner introduced
science teachers to new methods of presenting ecology topics to help
students connect oceanic issues to a region they knew better-the Great
Lakes. By encouraging input from science teachers, she led the development
of class materials to teach about several environmental issues, including
climate change science in 1993, propelling Ohio Sea Grant to the forefront
of teaching the subject. Other curriculum material Fortner created helped
teachers show students the connections between environmental issues and the
affected stakeholders.

 

Even after her retirement from Ohio Sea Grant in 2005, she mentored 10
teacher fellows toward Master's degrees for three summers at Stone
Laboratory, Ohio State University's island campus on Lake Erie, where
Fortner has taught courses for 27 summers.

 

In his nomination letter, Tom Marcinkowski, the 2010 winner, praised Fortner
as someone who has "stood for and pushed for excellence in our field, and
has been a bridge builder to sister fields such as marine education and
earth systems science education. She is highly deserving of this award, and
this recognition for her lengthy and numerous contributions to the wider
environmental education profession."

 

As the Director of COSEE Great Lakes, she has fostered connections between
educators and scientists and she spearheaded the development of the Great
Lakes Literacy Principles which provide a framework for teaching about the
lakes. Fortner's impact has been felt both within and far beyond Lake Erie
and the Great Lakes region. She has given presentations in nine countries
and served in Cyprus as a 1999 Fulbright Scholar.

 

###

 

Contact:

 

Rosanne Fortner, COSEE Great Lakes, Director, 910.278.6754,
<mailto:fortner.2 at osu.edu> fortner.2 at osu.edu.

 

Jeffrey Reutter, Ohio Sea Grant, Director, 614.292.4364, reutter.1 at osu.edu.

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