2024 Youth Outdoor Policy Trends & 2025 Advocacy Strategies

Learn about legislative strategies to advance public policies that increase access to nature-connected learning and youth engagement.
About this Event

The Youth Outdoor Policy Partnership is a collaboration of leading national organizations working across sectors to ensure that all children have access to high-quality outdoor experiences and environmental education. Every year, we publish an Annual Trend Report that shares innovative policies to encourage legislators, advocates, communities and youth to replicate, rethink and collaborate to build equitable youth outdoor opportunities. Together, we'll explore the latest state-level policy updates from 2024, winning coalition-building strategies, and exciting advocacy strategies for 2025 with a panel of youth outdoor policy leaders.

You’ll hear from:

David Beard, Director of Policy & Government Affairs, Children & Nature Network. David was previously the Policy & Advocacy Director at School’s Out Washington where he facilitated SOWA’s advocacy efforts, including educating policymakers and working with providers and stakeholders to secure more funding and better policies for the expanded learning field. Throughout his career, David has been an advocate for children and families. After working as the Policy Director at the Washington State Council for Children and Families, he spent five years at the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Maryland Advocates for Children and Youth, both dedicated to education policy issues ranging from pre-k access to student discipline reform. In his free time, David loves exploring one of the world’s most beautiful urban areas and hiking in the Cascades.

Megan Fink, the Partnerships & Policy Manager, North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). Megan began working in the field of environmental education over a decade ago. Megan brings a robust, place-based, outdoor education background to the NAAEE team. She has built enduring working relationships across the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the Mid-Atlantic region. As a graduate of Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Science and Biology, Megan began her career as an Environmental Educator at the North Carolina Aquariums before joining the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) in 2011. Through several program management positions with CBF, she led students, teachers, school administrators and environmental professionals in ecological, cultural and historical investigations of the Bay. She also managed a statewide leadership program for high school students, teaching them how to become environmental advocates at the local, regional and national levels.

Grant Gliniecki, Outdoor Policy Coordinator, National Caucus of Environmental Legislators. Grant is passionate about outdoor education, recreation, and public land access. Their approach celebrates how outdoor policy can help us find shared values on complicated environmental issues while promoting equity, opportunity, and health for all. He is especially interested in identifying our opportunities and responsibilities to support environmentally committed tribal government legislators, reaffirm tribal sovereignty, and promote awareness of treaty obligations at local, state, and federal levels. Grant holds a Community Sustainability M.S. and is currently completing a Ph.D. in Community Sustainability, both at Michigan State University. He lives in Nkwejong // Where the rivers meet (Lansing, MI), where he founded and serves as President of Giitigan, an Anishinaabe Community Garden nonprofit sharing Anishinaabe food, language, and science through urban gardening. They love hiking, canoeing, porcupine quillwork, sugarbushing, and especially gardening.

Kendal Scott, Outdoor Education Lead, Nevada Department of Outdoor Recreation. Kendal Scott (she/her) is the Outdoor Education Lead for the Nevada Division of Outdoor Recreation, where she manages the Nevada Outdoor Education & Recreation grant program and works to uplift outdoor education opportunities across the state. She has over a decade of experience developing outdoor environmental education programs and facilitating experiential learning for youth in California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Washington, and Alaska. She received her MS in Parks, Recreation & Tourism from the University of Utah and also holds a BS in Recreation Management. Kendal enjoys backpacking trips in search of wildflowers, playing dress up in thrift stores, snowboarding, and paddling Western waters.

If you can’t join us live, go ahead and register for the event, and a recording will be sent to your inbox approximately 2 weeks after the event.