Mary Leou

The NYU Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education, established in 2000 at New York University, focuses its efforts on environmental literacy through courses, workshops, trainings, and field experiences. Recently, the Collaborative has developed service-learning programs for K-12 students and professional development opportunities for teachers. The online course developed through T3 will focus on K-12 teachers and non-formal educators who want to create and engage in service-learning projects. The course will introduce them to the concepts of service-learning and will expose them to examples and lessons learned from other teachers who have successfully pursued these types of projects. The online platform will serve as a support system and hopefully as an inspiration as everyone shares their projects. This program will help to promote environmental literacy and engage teachers and their students in meaningful learning while also providing a service to their communities.

Mary Leou is Clinical Professor of Teaching and Learning at the Steinhardt School of Culture Education and Human Development at New York University and directs the graduate program in Environmental Conservation Education. She is also director of the Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education, which serves New York City teachers with environmental education opportunities and resources. Mary has over 25 years of experience as an urban environmental educator in New York City, developing numerous outdoor education programs for NYC schoolchildren and classroom teachers. Prior to joining NYU, Mary was Director of Education of City Parks Foundation, where she developed programming, nature centers, and worked on one of NYC’s largest urban forest restoration projects funded by the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund. She received her undergraduate degree from Columbia University, and her master’s and doctoral degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University. She also served as chair and vice chair of the Environmental Education Advisory Council and is the recipient of numerous awards for her work in environmental education. Mary’s area of interest and scholarship has focused on experiential education and place-based learning.