Keynote Spotlight: Jordan Lubetkin to Speak at 2025 KAEE Conference

We are excited to announce that Jordan Lubetkin will be the keynote speaker for the 2025 Kentucky Association for Environmental Education (KAEE) Conference this fall in Owensboro, Kentucky. This year's conference will include environmental educators from around the state and beyond, for an incredible few days of learning, connecting with others, and finding inspiration. 

Jordan Lubetkin serves as the Ohio River Basin Director for the National Wildlife Federation, and brings perspective, experience, and passion to this year's keynote. In this position, he leads the work to restore and protect the interrelated waters of the Ohio River Basin.

This is a critical and impactful area that covers parts of 14 states and two federally recognized Tribal Nations. The Basin is home to more than 30 million people, whose drinking water, jobs, and overall quality of life depend on the waters of this Basin.

Over the past few years, Jordan has helped lead a planning process to develop a plan for a regional restoration plan that addresses the environmental challenges and threats facing the Basin. He organized and facilitated 31 community listening sessions across the Basin in 2022 and 2023 with the Ohio River Basin Alliance. These sessions shaped a 2024 report titled Community Priorities for Ohio River Basin Restoration and Protection. This work will help make sure future investments in the Ohio River Basin are supported and guided by community knowledge and the lived experience of people most affected by these issues. 

Jordan was involved with not only the regional planning work but he has also spent time developing relationships with Tribal Nations that reside in or historically have a connection to the Basin, with an emphasis on making sure the restoration process will both protect natural resources and guide programs that will improve economic opportunities that better sustains and honors tribal nations' historical and ancestral ties to the land and water.

Before his current role, Jordan worked as the communications director for the Healing Our Waters - Great Lakes Coalition. Jordan's professional history includes being a journalist and editor for community newspapers, a marketing and development leader for the Toledo Jazz Society, and overseeing media relations for a nonpartisan public engagement effort based in Washington, D.C. Jordan obtained a degree in English from Case Western Reserve University and engages in the craft of storytelling and community-engagement through everything he does.

Join us in Owensboro for the 2025 KAEE Conference and be part of a growing movement to advance environmental education across Kentucky and beyond. Registration opens soon!

Learn more at kaee.org/conference.

Preparing Leaders in Environmental Education: KAEE’s Professional Learning Leader Credential

The KAEE Professional Learning Leader eeCredential serves as a program to train leaders in environmental education.

The Kentucky Association for Environmental Education (KAEE) will offer the Professional Learning Leader (PLL) eeCredential this fall as part of its eeCredentials program. The structured professional development experience will run from August 4 to December 1, 2025, to develop educators' abilities for leading high-quality environmental education (EE) programs in their communities and beyond.

The PLL eeCredential provides participants with online coursework and in-person training to enhance their knowledge of environmental education and their skills in adult learning strategies and facilitation techniques. The program targets educators who want to lead professional learning experiences for their peers and colleagues and local network members.

What is the PLL eeCREDENTIAL?

The PLL eeCREDENTIAL enables educators to join the KAEE eeFacilitator Network which is a developing network of leaders who promote environmental literacy throughout Kentucky. The eeFacilitators receive training to teach KAEE's curriculum and resources while serving as essential figures for expanding environmental education professional learning opportunities.

The credential provides participants with hands-on facilitation skills while they learn effective instructional methods that follow the Professional Development of Environmental Educators Guidelines for Excellence from the North American Association for Environmental Education.

Course Components and Schedule

The Fall 2025 cohort participants will finish their four-course sequence between August and December. These include:

1. EE101: Core Curriculum Program Training | August 6

2. EE310: KAEE Facilitator Training | August 7 

3. EE210: Foundations in Teaching Environmental Education | August 18 – September 29 

4. Elective eeCourse (choose one) |  October 13 – December 1 

   1. ENV210: Appalachian Mountain Ecology

   2. ENV220: Water Quality in Kentucky

The program allows participants with existing experience or training to request exemptions from certain courses. The program team evaluates each request individually to create a customized learning experience that meets student requirements.

Registration Details

The registration system uses a sliding scale to accommodate different training requirements and experience levels. The registration fees depend on the number of courses participants need to complete:

KAEE Members:                                         

• $349 (4 requirements)

• $299 (3 requirements)

• $199 (2 requirements)

Non-Members:

• $399 (4 requirements)

• $349 (3 requirements)

• $249 (2 requirements)

All registration levels include access to course materials, instruction, and facilitation resources.

Why This Credential Matters

The Professional Learning Leader eeCREDENTIAL enables educators to advance their careers through formal K-12 classrooms and nonprofit settings and higher education, and environmental organizations. The program provides participants with enhanced abilities to lead workshops while teaching others and supporting Kentucky's environmental education initiatives.

Through their efforts, Professional Learning Leaders, in turn, support KAEE in achieving its goal of environmental literacy and sustainability throughout Kentucky.

For more details about the PLL eeCREDENTIAL and to learn how to register, visit kaee.org/eecredentials. For questions about the course schedule, registration, or exemptions, contact Brittany Wray at brittany@kaee.org.