November Conference Mo. Environmental Educators To Convene In Springfield

Jamin Bray, co-director of the Missouri Environmental Education Association (MEEA), enjoys strumming in the Ozarks. Photo courtesy of MEEA

by Don Corrigan

Missouri Environmental Education Association (MEEA) will hold its annual educators conference in Springfield, Mo., on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1-2. Registration for the event is now underway.

Friday will consist of pre-conference field trips in the Missouri Ozarks, The evening will include a get-together and social at the Wonders of Life. All-day Saturday will consist of sessions at the Darr Agricultural Center.

MEEA Director Lesli Moylan told attendees at the Sept. 7-8 Conservation Expo at Cooper’s Landing on the Missouri River that educators are fired up about conservation and environmental protection. There will be plenty of energy at the November event.

Jamin Bray, co-director of MEEA, told Environmental Echo in March that she has always been fired up as an educator, first as a member of MEEA, then as assistant director in 2021, and now in an executive position.

“When Jamin came on board, it just seemed silly not to kind of split up some of the tasks among ourselves and then give each other lanes that are our purview,” Moylan said.

Among several other resources for environmental educators, MEEA offers online courses through its website that are designed to equip educators to teach environmental topics consciously and creatively.

In the next year, MEEA will offer a new online course covering climate justice, a term used to describe the disproportionate impacts of climate change on marginalized communities.

“Climate change is not the same for everybody. But it’s everyone’s responsibility to try to figure out how to safeguard everyone that’s in our community. In my mind, climate justice relates to where people live and what they do for a living. That’s global, but climate justice is more human being focused,” Bray said.

“We as a global community, and those of us who are scientists and educators, have a responsibility to push out this information about climate justice. This is not just us saying ‘the world’s on fire’,” Bray stressed.

The upcoming online course and education on climate justice perfectly exemplifies MEEA’s values: environmental education, and working to support marginalized and historically underserved communities that are taking the brunt of climate change’s impacts.

“Being an Ozarkian — growin’ up pretty poor, actually — I feel like the rural parts of our state are underserved. That’s probably why I got hired honestly, because we’re wanting to expand out to rural areas that get forgotten. They really do,” Bray said.

Bray now resides in Salem, Missouri with her husband. Moylan agrees that Bray’s strong bond to rural Missouri is extremely valuable to her work.

“Having Jamin on board as somebody who lives and breathes rural life has been a boost in terms of us being able to authentically connect with all state residents,” Moylan said. “She’s definitely helping me learn a lot about current issues in rural areas of our state.”

Moylan said the heart of MEEA’s mission is empathy, an attribute she said Bray is steeped in.

“It’s my superpower, Bray said. “I feel like I used to freak out about that. And now I like to celebrate it, because I think this empathy helps. I

“I know it helps me as a teacher and as an educator,” Bray added.