The Adirondack Council will present its Conservationist of the Year Award to climate change educator and activist Jen Kretser and The Wild Center’s Youth Climate Program during the Council’s Forever Wild Day celebration on July 9th at Paul Smith’s College, near Saranac Lake.
At The Wild Center, Kretser has provided interpretive programs for visitors to the Center, as well as green building education and design. As a senior staff member at The Wild Center, Kretser also works on diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion initiatives including a long-standing partnership with members of the Haudenosaunee community at Akwesasne.
Kretser is a member of the coordinating team of the U.S. Action for Climate Empowerment – working to build a network of climate change education, public engagement and training across the country. In addition, she is a founding member of the NY Climate Resilience and Education Task Force which elevates climate change education and action in NY Public Schools and the national Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network Board. She also serves on the Adirondack Diversity Initiative core team and the Adirondack Mountain Club board of directors.
Prior to her work with The Wild Center, Kretser served as Director of Education for the Adirondack Mountain Club for 7 years. She focused on educating for responsible recreation, stewardship, and interpretive planning.
In prior positions, she was a teacher and program developer for the Cincinnati Zoo, the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, the Jane Goodall Institute, the Adirondack Park Visitor’s Interpretive Center, and Zoo New England in Boston.
Originally from Saranac Lake, Kretser is active in the regional arts community – having served on the founding board of BluSeed Studios; coordinated community artists events and showing her own work (printmaking and mixed media) both regionally and in Mexico.
Through her interest in international work, Kretser has participated in multiple professional exchanges to Finland to help create the first Finland Youth Climate Summit, the first Youth Climate Summit in Sri Lanka in January 2017, and the first Youth Climate Summit in Germany in November 2018. She has also worked in the Altai Region of Siberia to work with park officials on creating education programs for their National Park system and on an artist exchange to Mazatlan, Mexico.
For her work in the Adirondacks, Kretser was the 2006 recipient of the ADK Education Award, 2007 EPA Region 2 Environmental Educator Award, APA Appreciation Award, 2015 U.S. EPA Environmental Champion Award, 2018 Spirit of John Brown Freedom Award, and the 2019 Antioch Alumni Award.
Kretser is a member of numerous professional organizations including: Association of Science Technology Centers, American Association of Museums, National Association of Interpretation, North American Association of Environmental Education, and is a Climate Reality Leader. She has traveled extensively in Central America, Sri Lanka, Australia, Siberia, Finland, New Zealand, Nepal and India – exploring parks and meeting people. Jen is a graduate from Cornell University in Wildlife Ecology & Antioch University in M.S. Environmental Science & Education.
When not working, Jen can be found outside hiking, paddling, Nordic skiing and picking blueberries with her family and friends.
Jen Kretser is also carrying on a tradition of environmental service in her own family. Her father Walter served for many years as director of the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corp., which conducts research on the impacts of acid rain and air pollution.
Other Conservationist of the Year Award winners include: NY Governors Mario M. Cuomo and George E. Pataki; NYS Attorney General Dennis Vacco; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson; NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioners John P. Cahill, Erin Crotty and Joseph Martens; Senator Carl Marcellino; Assemblymen Richard Brodsky and Maurice Hinchey; Adirondack Park Agency Executive Director Robert Glennon; New York Times editor John Oakes; Adirondack environmental activists Timothy Barnett, Frances Beinecke, Peter Borrelli, Michael Carr, George Davis, Christopher “Kim” Elliman, John and Margot Ernst, Barbara L. Glaser, Harold Jerry, Bill McKibben, Chris Navitsky, David L. Newhouse, Peter Paine, Clarence Petty and Paul Schaefer.
For more information visit the Adirondack Council’s website.
Photo provided.
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