Center for Climate Literacy

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Who We Are

At the Center for Climate Literacy, we strive to be inclusive, cooperative, and collaborative in our work. Achieving a sustainable, ecological, just Earth will require all of our talents. We welcome and invite many ways of contributing.

Membership is free and open to anyone who believes in our mission.

Since its opening in 2022, the mission of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Climate Literacy has been to accelerate a transition to an ecological civilization by transforming education from within. We train and support classroom teachers to incorporate climate literacy in their everyday teaching across all subject areas. We design resources, workshops, and professional development that builds educator networks and empowers grassroots transformation.

Everyone can play a part in spreading climate literacy. Our members, called Fellows, are recognized for the work they do—whether it is teaching workshops or researching grants or spreading the word. To learn more about becoming a Fellow, visit our Fellows page.

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Leadership

Core operational members who guide and direct the Center's projects.

David Blockstein

Liaison to Worldwide Teach-in on Climate and Justice

Tanja Nathanael

Editor - Climate Literacy in Education

Stephanie Rollag Yoon

Editor - Climate Literacy in Education

Catherine Cavanaugh

Editor - Climate Literacy in Education

Jana Lo Bello Miller

Editor - Climate Literacy in Education

Climate and Sustainability Literacy Liaison, Türkiye

Editor - Climate Literacy in Education

Director

Jeff Henning-Smith

Editor - Climate Literacy in Education

Betsy Maloney Leaf

Associate Director of Arts Education

Associate Director of Research

Lorraine Kerslake

Editor - Climate Literacy in Education

Lead Editor, Climate Lit

Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak

Editor - Climate Literacy in Education

Associate Director of Development

Creative Lead

Associate Director of Community Engagement

Ambassadors

Artists, illustrators, and creatives who endorse the Center and whose work promotes climate literacy

Three time Caldecott Medal-winning author-illustrator

Founder of Captain Polo Academy; Author and illustrator

Award-winning author and Order of Canada inductee

Stonewall and Printz Awards Honor winning author

Steven Weinberg

YALSA Reader’s Choice Award Winner, Parents Magazine Best Children’s Book Award Winner

Green Earth Book and E.B. White Read Aloud Award-winning author

Carole Lindstrom

Caldecott Award winning and NYTimes bestselling author

Pura Belpré and Walter Dean Myers Honors winning author

Katherine Applegate

Newbery Medal winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author

Juana Martinez-Neal

Caldecott and Pura Belpré-winning illustrator

American Indian Youth Literature Award Winning Author-Illustrator

American Fiction Award winning author

Caldecott Medal and Orbis Pictus Award winning author-illustrator

Margarita Engle

Newbery Honor winner, multiple Pura Belpré Medalist, and Poetry Foundation's 6th Young People's Poet Laureate

Founder of #KidLit4Climate, author-illustrator

Academy Award, Hugo Award, and Kate Greenaway Award-winning author-illustrator

First U.S. Library of Congress-nominated National Ambassador for Young People's Literature

Climate Imagination Fellow, PhD in particle physics, author of Ambiguity Machines

Newbery Medal award winning author

Barbara Henderson

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Crystal Kite shortlisted author

Karina González

Pura Belpré Honor winning author and speech pathologist

Author of Setsuko and the Song of the Sea

Judy Blume Award-winning author

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Advisors

Policy makers, activists, and community leaders who endorse the work of the Center

fairy tale, folklore & myth expert, professor emeritus at University of Minnesota

eco-fiction expert, founder of Dragonfly.eco

Kimberley Reynolds

children's literature scholar, OBE, professor emerita of Newcastle University

Founder, Permaculture Education Institute

Award-winning environmentalist, author, and climate activist leader; co-founder of 350.org, and founder of Third Act

Climate activism leader, professor at the University of East Anglia, Co-Director of the Climate Majority Project

integrator philosopher, author; founder of the Deep Transformation Network

Environmentalist leader, entrepreneur, author; founder of Project Drawdown

Editor-in-Chief of The Ecological Citizen, expert in ecological ethics

Dipesh Chakrabarty

Award-winning historian, Anthropocene expert, founding editor of Subaltern Studies, the Lawrence A. Kimpton Professor at the University of Chicago

Founder of EvolvedNest.org, president of KindredMedia.org, professor emerita at Notre Dame

climate literacy & pedagogy expert, professor emeritus at University of Minnesota