A three-day professional development opportunity for New York teachers.
The New York Environmental Justice and Decarbonization Summer Institute, run by Educator Collective for Environmental Justice (ECEJ) and World Resources Institute’s Electric School Bus Initiative, will welcome a cohort of educators from across New York for a three-day program hosted at the Mid-Hudson Teacher Center at SUNY New Paltz. The program will provide environmental justice and decarbonization intensive summer professional development to help teachers bring lessons on electrification into their classrooms.
These educators will receive a modest stipend and support during the 2024-2025 school year to implement their environmental justice and decarbonization curriculum. The experience and curriculum will leverage the topic of electric school buses as a focal point, giving teachers and students a timely, real-world case study through which to explore broader themes.
The Cohort:
- William Gunther, Valley Central Middle School | Regents Living Environment and 8th Grade General Science
- Deanna Rizzo, Kingston High School | ENL Living Environment, ENL General Chemistry, Regents LE and Chemistry
- Kristian De Luccia, Clarkstown High School North | Earth & Space Science, Environmental Systems and Society
- Wendy Chaves, Woodlands Middle High School | Biology
- Karen Hadley, Onteora Middle School | Reading / Social Studies
- Dr. Alecia Redway, PEARLS Hawthorne | Middle School Earth Science
- Krista Sheehan, Rondout Valley High School | Regents Living Environment, AP Biology, Science Research, Forensics
- Isabella Kosmacher, High Meadow School | 1st Grade
- Kristy Zukswert, Arlington High School | Regents Chemistry, Natural Disasters
- Shaniece Mosley, Briarcliff High School | AP Chemistry, AP Research, Science Research
- Sophia Sagan, Kingston High School | Earth Science, Ecology, Meteorology
The Trainers:
Samrat Pathania is a former software engineer who currently teaches mathematics, physics and computer science at Wallkill High School in Wallkill, New York. He is a New York State Master Teacher Emeritus and co-founder of the Educator Collective for Environmental Justice. Samrat is a passionate advocate for inquiry-based and climate solutions-centered STEM education, inside and outside the classroom. He is the Program Manager for Science and Sustainability at the Mid-Hudson Teacher Center at SUNY New Paltz. Samrat is a Climate Reality Leader and has served as co-chair of the Hudson Valley/Catskills chapter of The Climate Reality Project. He is also a clean energy coach with New Yorkers for Clean Power and has assisted dozens of families with their transition to fossil-fuel-free households.
Laura Diaz is a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Health Sciences at UC Berkeley where she studies how biomarkers of mitochondrial dysfunction can shed light on the underpinnings between exposure to social and environmental stressors on atopic disease among children in frontline environmental justice communities. Having grown up in a frontline environmental justice community in the San Francisco Bay Area, her work is centered on combating environmental injustice in partnership with members of her and other frontline communities. She co-founded Partners for Equity and Research at Sonoma State University, where she trains and supports undergraduate researchers engaging in youth participatory action environmental justice research. She is the Executive Director of the Educator Collective for Environmental Justice where she leads educator professional development in environmental justice curriculum development and partners with youth and community to drive environmental and climate justice action.