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January 2025 Newsletter
The Monthly Review:
Bittersweet Goodbyes & Exciting Hellos to Board of Directors Members
Now Recruiting! Facilitators for Spring 2025 Canadian Crash Courses!
Resources to Support and Aid Southern California
Members Present Climate Talk at NAI Conference
Check Out the Latest Climate Literacy Framework
Executive
Happy 2025 to Our Incredible Network of Climate Communicators!
As we embark on this new year together, we want to take a moment to thank this growing network for the incredible work that went into 2024. More than 1,500 volunteer hours went into everything from leading trainings to updating and creating new training materials, supporting members, communicating about and evaluating our work, and countless other tasks toward sustaining, deepening, and expanding our community.
We want to specifically note our immense gratitude for our Governing Council, many of whom are continuing with us in 2025. To the members of the Governing Council who rolled off this year, we are forever grateful for your contributions, and hope you know the NNOCCI "doors" are always open to welcome you back!
We also want to heartily acknowledge the contributions of two Board of Directors members as they roll off to new adventures. Under the leadership of these impassioned individuals, we have been able to blaze new trails that will forever help shape our work:
Thank you, Kayla McCurry, for leading the Training Committee into a
new era! Not only did Kayla oversee curriculum development on both our NOAA Environmental Literacy Program grant, as well as our U.S. Embassy of Canada grant, but she literally did the work of two people for a while until we made a second Training Committee Director position: Curriculum Director. Kayla rises to every occasion and exceeds expectations at every turn. While we’ll miss having her on the Board, we are ecstatic to still have her as part of our Training Committee.
Thank you, Cassie Klein, for being the glue to our Membership Engagement Committee, spearheading not only the reintroduction of Regional Leaders, but also the overhaul to a new CRM, and fostering the growth of numerous Membership opportunities. Under Cassie’s leadership over the last three years, we have gained more than a fourth of our current Network members—what’s more is that Cassie has been a trainer for many of these new members! We are thrilled to have Cassie continuing on as part of our Membership Committee as she is the first to tell anyone that you don’t really "leave" NNOCCI.
Photo: Board of Directors members Kayla (left) and Cassie (right).
With departures come three new arrivals! We would like to welcome our new (and continuing) Directors as they embark on the next two years with us! Please join us in welcoming:
Curriculum Director – Amanda Berlinski (she/her)
Amanda is an interpretive trainer, planner, and manager with nearly 20 years of experience. She took her first training with NNOCCI in 2015, later becoming a Crash Course TA and Co-facilitator, and member of the Governing Council’s Training Committee. Amanda is currently an education consultant with Passport Interpretive Planning, and just became a doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri—Saint Louis, where she is studying climate change communication in National Parks. Amanda keeps her National Parks Passport in a fire and waterproof safe and is only 10 stamps away from visiting every National Park in the continental United States.
Membership Engagement Director – Lisa Yeager (she/they)
Lisa has over 20 years of leading transformational change initiatives in the public sector and higher education. She received a Cee-Change fellowship and grant funding from the North American Association of Environmental Education for her innovative work bringing together climate and conservation science, communication theory, and improvisational theater. She took the NNOCCI Crash Course in 2021 and began serving on the Governing Council shortly thereafter, first on the organizational design committee, and most recently as a member of the membership committee. You can usually find her in a theater, online , or in an informal learning environment near you experimenting with storytelling, stand up comedy, improvisation or clowning to make climate change accessible and talking about it enjoyable.
JEDI Network and Outreach Director – Sarah Navarro (she/her)
Sarah Navarro joined the NNOCCI network in 2015 as part of the fall study circle and has stayed engaged at her institution and as a member of NNOCCI's Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) committee. She began her career at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden in 2001 where she currently works as the Senior Manager of Group Programs. She is also an adjunct instructor with Miami University's Project Dragonfly and teaches a field course in Namibia each summer. In addition to being a member of NNOCCI, she is a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow and Certified Educator with National Geographic, and Certified Interpretive Guide through the National Association for Interpretation. When not teaching or training human and non-human animals, she can be found raising foster kittens, exploring nature with her family, or "nap-trapped" under her cat Jack.
Photo: Some great photos of Amanda (left), Lisa (middle), and Sarah (right).
Our Hearts are with Los Angeles
The NNOCCI community is devastated to hear about and witness the massive destruction of the wildfires burning in Southern California. Our hearts go out to everyone in the affected area including 50 of our Members and the communities that they serve. Please stay vigilant, stay safe, and follow evacuation protocols. We care about protecting people and places from harm, and want to thank the heroic firefighters and first responders that are doing all they can to protect our communities as they battle through unbelievable conditions.
We are a network of people who care about each other, and as such we encourage the sharing of resources and hope. If you or someone you know is in need of assistance that you think our community may be of assistance with, please consider reaching out to your NNOCCI friends and colleagues. We also would like to direct you to the following resources for help:
Disaster Distress Helpline: Call or text 1-800-985-5990
If you are in a financial position in which you’d like to donate to reputable organizations doing important on-the-ground work, we recommend all of the above organizations as well as those listed below:
California Community Foundation: Their Wildfire Recovery Fund supports both intermediate and long-term relief in underserved areas.
California Fire Foundation: Supports families of firefighters and those affected by fire, as well as provide fire safety resources to underserved areas.
LA Fire Department Foundation: Provides critical equipment to CA firefighters including items like emergency fire shelters and hydration backpacks.
Membership Engagement
NNOCCI at National Association for Interpretation (NAI) Conference!
We love the opportunity to celebrate great work being done across our Network. We’d like to kick off 2025 by sending a big THANK YOU to Elizabeth Villano and Gabriela Eseverri! In early December 2024, during the annual NAI Conference in St. Augustine, Florida, Elizabeth and Gaby presented on climate emotions and storytelling. In their own words:
"Let'sTalk Climate Emotions! explored how facts do not tell complete stories nor stories that change minds (ehm, looking at you "scientists say" on the cultural mindset map.) We of course had to practice what we were preaching so we pretty quickly ditched facts and instead showed a variety of successful examples of emotional storytelling. Our theme was to empower our audience to be genuine in their storytelling, and not focus on feeling like they must be the expert on climate change and science. Start with the emotion that you want to explore, then find your story.”
Kudos, Elizabeth and Gaby!
Want to share your work with the greater NNOCCI community? Email us at ContactNNOCCI@gmail.com to let us know!
Training
NOW RECRUITING – Facilitation Teams for Spring 2025 Crash Course for People Living in Canada!
NNOCCI is excited to announce its second training tailored specifically for climate communicators living in Canada: The NNOCCI Crash Course! This is a 7-week, 25-hour, online course for Canadians interested in gaining strategic framing skills, funded by the U.S. Embassy in Canada. This year we will offer two cohorts, from the weeks of March 31 through May 12.
Please note: while it is not a requisite, we especially encourage Canadians to apply!
More Crash Course information and additional NNOCCI training offerings can be found at nnocci.org/training.
Other Resources
New Climate Literacy Framework Published
In late 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Climate.gov put out their newest Federal Climate Literacy Framework! We believe this is a great FREE resource that we’d like to share with our members, even if it’s not entirely in line with NNOCCI framing practices. We encourage you to utilize your NNOCCI strategic framing skills while using this resource to further strengthen your climate communications; download a copy now!
NNOCCI Making National Waves
The NNOCCI Network has been swinging for the fences these past few months as we both plan for the future growth of the Network and celebrate its 15–year history.
As you may have read in previous newsletters, we now have two major grants under consideration: 1) a two-year, $240,000 grant proposal with the Institute of Museum of Library Services that would enable NNOCCI and The Marine Mammal Center to host a series of climate change communication trainings across the country, including specific offerings for organizations that have marine mammals in their care (zoos, aquariums, stranding centers), and 2) a five-year, $3.3 million grant proposal with the National Science Foundation that would fund new strategic framing research and trainings in collaboration with Frameworks Institute, Impact by Design, The Marine Mammal Center and University of Florida Thompson Earth Systems Institute focused on impactful climate conversations with youth audiences (ages 11–25) around adaptation, mitigation and resilience. We should expect to hear back on if we get either of these grants by August 2025.
In addition, we did submit an application on behalf of the larger NNOCCI network to be considered for the American Climate Leadership Awards. We used this opportunity to highlight how NNOCCI’s community has grown to over 800 trained members (across more than 360 institutions and 46 states). Studies have shown that people who visited a NNOCCI–trained institution were more knowledgeable about climate change and more energized to engage in civic action. NNOCCI’s work has added dozens of scientific publications to the field, supporting the field to expand our impact on network building and science communication. Since 2019, the American Climate Leadership Awards have celebrated over 150 local and national leaders, granting over one million dollars to individuals and organizations propelling climate solutions. Keep your fingers crossed for good news at the end of January!
You are receiving this email because you are an integral part of our NNOCCI network. Thank you for framing your climate communications as hopeful and solutions-oriented!
Our mailing address is: National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation 2000 Bunker Road The Marine Mammal Center Sausalito, CA 94965-2619
