LINDA FROSCHAUER, National Science Teacher Association-President
Froschauer began her teaching career as an elementary school teacher in Matteson, Illinois; moved on to middle level teaching at the Greenwich Public Schools, in Greenwich, Connecticut; and has been with the Weston Public Schools since 1985. She also serves as a K–8-science department chair/mentor teacher. Outside the classroom she has worked as an instructor for Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry; as a writer/consultant for many publications; and as a field editor, reviewer, and consultant for numerous organizations.
For more than 30 years, Froschauer has been a leader and active member of NSTA. In 1976, she was named the first Preschool/Elementary Division Director to serve on the NSTA Board of Directors. She later worked on many NSTA committees, including the International Convention Planning Committee, the Preschool/Elementary Committee, and the Informal Education Committee, and she has chaired both the Awards and Recognition Committee and the Committee on Nominations. She also has served as Middle Level Division Director, worked on the Committee and Board Operations Task Force, and led the development of NSTA’s first Family Science Day.
Froschauer has been involved in numerous other professional organizations. She has served as president of the Connecticut Science Supervisors Association (CSSA), the National Middle Level Science Teachers Association (NMLSTA), and the Council for Elementary Science International (CESI). She is also a member of the Connecticut Academy for Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology; the Association of Presidential Awardees in Science Teaching; and the Society of Elementary Presidential Awardees. She has been actively involved in Project 2061, a national effort to improve science education sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Froschauer was chosen as a Connecticut Science Educators Fellow and named Weston Teacher of the Year in 1999. Her other awards and accomplishments include receiving the NSTA Distinguished Teaching Award, Middle Level, in 2001; National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification, also in 2001; the CSSA Charles Simone Award for Outstanding Leadership in Science Education in 1998; a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching in 1993; and the Educational Press Association of America’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 1991.
Froschauer earned a BS degree in education from Northern Illinois University, an MA in science teaching from Governors State University, and a sixth-year degree in curriculum and supervision from Southern Connecticut State University.
The Arlington, VA–based National Science Teachers Association is the largest professional organization in the world promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all. NSTA's current membership includes more than 55,000 science teachers, science supervisors, administrators, scientists, business and industry representatives, and others involved in science education.
DR. LEIGH FREDRICKSON, Professor Emeritus, The University of Missouri
Fredrickson retired after serving for more than 36 years as Director of the University of Missouri’s Gaylord Memorial Laboratory. America’s National Wildlife Refuge System honored him for a lifetime of achievement in support of the National Wildlife Refuge System. According to the NWRS Web site, “More than any other single individual, Dr. Frederickson has influenced the management of wetlands on wildlife refuges.”
CONGRESSMAN RICK BOUCHER , U.S. House of Representatives, Ninth District
Boucher is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, serving on two subcommittees - Telecommunications and the Internet; and Energy and Air Quality, of which he is the ranking member. He also sits on the House Judiciary Committee, serving on the Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee.
He originated the House Internet Caucus in 1996 and currently serves as one of two House co-chairman of the more than 180 member group. In that position he is a leading architect of federal policy for Information Technology and the Internet.
Boucher's first Internet-related legislation, which became law in 1993, authorized electronic commerce by permitting for the first time messages with commercial content to traverse the Internet backbone.
His proposals to promote competition in the cable and local telephone industries are at the core of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Boucher's Showcasing Southwest Virginia program has brought more than 4,000 technology related jobs to his Congressional district in recent years.
Congressman Boucher earned his bachelor's degree from Roanoke College and his law degree from the University of Virginia Law School. He has practiced law on Wall Street in New York and in Virginia. Prior to his election to Congress, he served for seven years as a member of the Virginia State Senate. Rick is a native of Abingdon, Virginia, where he currently resides with his wife Amy.
T. ALLAN COMP, Ph.D. Office of Surface Mining- Program Analyst
Jo Hanson, the pioneering public artist in San Francisco, once described Allan as "a relaxed blend of John Muir, John Dewey and John the Baptist." He holds a Ph.D in history, worked for several years in cultural resources with the National Park Service, left that to work as a developer of historic properties and consultant to historic preservation projects, and then to work for a regional Heritage Area in western Pennsylvania where he invented AMD&ART. Always a volunteer for AMD&ART, his work attracted the attention of other watershed and community improvement projects in the Appalachian coal country and in the Western hard rock mining country as well. Winner of multiple awards in partnerships and planning, Allan now leads the OSM/VISTA Team and Brownfields Initiatives at the Office of Surface Mining in the U.S. Department of the Interior.
SUNY MONK, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts- Executive Director
Suny Monk is the Executive Director of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, an international working retreat for professional artists, writers and composers, located in Amherst County, Virginia. She assumed this position in September 1997. Prior to this she served from 1982-1997 as Headmistress of Aylett Country Day School in Millers Tavern, Virginia. She has taught at Aylett Country Day School, for Richmond Public Schools and at St. Catherine’s School in Richmond. She also was a partner in a fine jewelry and crafts gallery in South Carolina. Trained as a ceramist, she has produced one-of-a-kind wearable art for the past 20 years.
Since coming to the VCCA, she has served as a panelist for the Virginia Commission for the Arts and for the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and as a consultant for the Appomattox Governors School for Arts and Sciences. She is a board member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Lynchburg, Virginia, Virginians for the Arts, and the Alliance of Artists Communities.
She holds a bachelor’s degree from Marietta College and a master’s degree from Ohio University.
KATHY POOLE , Poole Design, Landscape Architect
Kathy Poole is a registered landscape architect in numerous states and is also CLARB certified. She is a Principal of Biohabitats, Inc., a unique landscape architectural firm devoted to restoring the earth and inspiring ecological stewardship (www.biohabitats.com). Staffed by environmental scientists, civil engineers, and design professionals, the Baltimore-based firm works with clients to knit together the elements of environments to create respectful, healthy, and thriving environments for all of its inhabitants. To address the ecology and markets specific to physiographic regions, Biohabitats also maintains bioregional offices in North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, and Colorado.
Kathy Poole’s and Biohabitats’ range of projects includes master planning, new towns, urban and suburban parks, farms, large residential gardens, brownfield sites, urban redevelopment, health care complexes, transportation routes, water utilities, stream restoration, environmental assessments, environmental monitoring, and community outreach. She applies that experience to a particular definition of “ecological design,” a concept whose core is integration—first and foremost committed to applying the most up to date science and engineering while creating stunning landscapes that engage people’s hearts and minds.
Ms. Poole developed her joy for making at Clemson University while fulfilling an architecture degree. She completed her Master of Landscape Architecture degree at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, garnering the department’s top honor, the Charles Eliot Award, along with one of the University’s top fellowships, the Sinclair Kennedy Traveling Fellowship. Her experience in the academy includes eight and a half years teaching, mostly at the graduate level. She was the recipient of two teaching fellowships and numerous grants, most notably from the Graham Foundation and the Landscape Architecture Foundation.
KEVIN P. JANSEN, Natural Science Department Chair, The University of Virginia's College at Wise
Kevin Jansen teaches several courses in Biology, Zoology and Ecology. His research interests include the life history, ecology and evolution of vertebrates; population genetics and phylogeography of animals; and the biogeography of southeastern vertebrates. Jansen's recent studies have focused on the effects of surface mine reclamation practices on native frog populations.
LINDA B. HARRIS, Tennessee Valley Authority-Senior Water Resource Representative
Ms. Harris has been involved in natural resource protection for the past 25 years, working in both the public and private sector. In her current position at TVA, Linda networks with area community leaders, agencies, and citizens to share science-based land and water resource information, identify opportunities for water quality improvement and protection, and develop the public/private partnerships which can plan, fund, and implement improvement efforts. Her responsibilities also include special event coordination, development of public outreach materials and facilitation of outdoor classroom and curriculum development.
FRANK KILGORE, Founder, University of Appalachia
From 1972 to 1977, Frank Kilgore worked with the U.S. Forestry Service and graduated with honors from what was then Clinch Valley College in 1977. In 1976, Kilgore founded the Virginia Citizens for Better Reclamation and served as the organization’s director for four years. In 1978, he was named the Virginia Conservationist of the Year.
Kilgore earned his Virginia State Bar license in 1982 and has since worked as an attorney. In 1990, he served as the president of the Wise County Bar Association. In 1998, he served as the chair of the Virginia Coalfield Tourism Authority and was presented an award for Most Outstanding Citizen Effort by the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable. In 2001, the Bristol Herald Courier recognized Kilgore as one of the region’s 100 most influential people in the 20th century.
Kilgore served as the chair of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation from 2001 to 2005 and has served as a trustee of the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy since 1998. Kilgore is a founding board member of New Peoples Bank, where he has served as a chair. He has been a member of the Virginia Remining Committee since 1995. Kilgore founded the University of Appalachia in 2003, where he has served as a chair.
VALERIE TAYLOR, OSM/VISTA, Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team
Valerie Taylor advocates mine drainage awareness and organizes community initiatives while serving as an OSM/VISTA for the Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team. Working specifically with the non-profit Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, she is their Watershed Development Coordinator. Here she applies her science and educating experience.
Prior to this year’s assignment, she monitored streams and assisted with the All Taxa Biodiversity Index as a summer Student Conservation Association Intern for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The following year she taught environmental and adventure education in a camp setting within the same region.
At Emory & Henry College, Taylor studied Public Policy, Community Service and Environmental Studies. During this time, she volunteered with a local organization to provide team-building and adventure opportunities to youths of all abilities. She is a native of Virginia and looks forward to returning.
Landscape as Our Legacy