Laura Alexander
Laura Alexander was nominated by a former student who
studied under her guidance at Colby Sawyer College. He credits her for
having inspired a curiosity about the natural world in all of her students,
including his own appreciation for nature and sense of place. Another
former student explains that the courses he took with this professor, as
well as her “contagious dedication and enthusiasm for environmental
education […], continue to influence [him] in [his] professional career.”
At Colby Sawyer College, she has worked to expand the field
study opportunities of her students, and has recently worked with her
department to generate a proposal for a distance learning degree in
Environmental Science. As evidenced through the Community-Based Research
Projects she has led, as well as her participation in conservation groups
such as the Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust, she engages both
personally and professionally to advance environmental science in the
community. Her specific focus is often on the flora of an area, and their
use as ecological indicators. She recommends that her students use a field
guide along with a map when trying to orient themselves in a new place.
Where we to try and orient ourselves at Colby Sawyer College today, we might
want to access the ‘virtual herbarium’ first—an online guide to local flora
that she designed herself—before touring a locally harvested post and beam
structure that students are building, the sustainability garden, and the
maple sugaring house. Her students see a direct correlation between these
new initiatives on campus and her involvement with the College.
We are very proud to award the NHEE Non-Formal/Higher Learning Educator of the Year to
Laura Alexander, who in the words of one student, “inspires students as
well as colleagues, advances environmental education, teaches with
enthusiasm and innovation, and is personally committed to environmental
issues and causes.”