The Youth Outdoor Policy Playbook is a joint effort of the Children and Nature Network, the Meridian Institute, National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, Outdoor Alliance for Kids and North American Association of Environmental Education.
Join us Friday, April 24, 10:30am EDT/7:30am PDT for “Engaging State Policymakers with Outdoor Play: Youth Outdoor Policy Playbook.”
(Registered 2020 Online Play Conference attendees will receive Zoom details by email.)
With representatives of each organization (detailed below), this session will highlight the Youth Outdoor Policy 
Playbook, a tool to empower grassroots and grasstops leaders and educate state legislators on the value of outdoor engagement and play – with an aim to work together to pass legislation to give more youth and families more outdoor opportunities.
Panelists include:
Martin LeBlanc (moderator)
Martin LeBlanc is a strategic planning, public policy, and fundraising specialist with two decades of experience helping organizations expand their impact and Principal at LBC Action a Strategic Advisory Firm. He is co-founder and vice-president emeritus for the board of the Children & Nature Network. Martin is also a member of the US Play Coalition’s steering committee.
Robyn Paulekas, Meridian Institute
Robyn Paulekas is a Senior Mediator and Program Manager in Meridian’s Dillon, CO office. She has led and supported both domestic and international projects on water, conservation, outdoor recreation, agriculture, and climate change—often working at the nexus of more than one of these issues. Robyn has extensive experience finding and catalyzing collaborative solutions.
Sarah Bodor, North American Association of Environmental Education
NAAEE’s Director of Policy & Affiliate Relations, Sarah Bodor comes from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, where she worked closely with state education agencies in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to develop and pilot standards-based curricula and provide teacher professional development. From 2008-2012, Sarah coordinated the national No Child Left Inside grassroots coalition and in 2008, she served as the writer of Maryland’s Children in Nature Plan, which resulted in passage of Maryland’s environmental high school graduation requirement.
Dylan McDowell, National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (NCEL)
Dylan McDowell serves as the Deputy Director for NCEL. Dylan is a science communicator with a passion for environmental issues. He specializes in making complex science accessible for a general audience, and his background includes developing education and outreach programs for the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and the Hatfield Marine Science Center. He is an active science writer and regularly contributes to Oregon Sea Grant publications.
Jayni Rasmussen, Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK)
Jayni is a Senior Campaign Manager for the Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK) & Youth for the Sierra Club. Previously, she served as NRPA’s Advocacy and Outreach Manager, where she designed, implemented and managed the Park Champion initiative, a national grassroots advocacy program training park and recreation professionals and park advocates to invite their members of Congress to see their parks and programs first-hand at site visits and events.
James E. King Jr.
James E. King Jr., MAED is an African American researcher, environmental activist, and cultural responsiveness facilitator based in Seattle, Washington originally from Atlanta, Georgia. He currently works on multiple projects, facilitating the growth of awareness within multicultural environmental education alongside conferences, industries, communities, schools and now the filming industry. He calls it J.E.D.I. Training. Outside of his work you can find James outdoors connecting to nature with family and friends.
“Play Hour” is a series of LIVE Zoom sessions every Monday and Friday in April at 10:30am EDT/7:30am PDT as part of the 2020 ONLINE Conference on the Value of Play. All “Play Hour” LIVE Zoom presentations will be recorded and included in our online conference launch on May 1, so don’t fret if you miss any!
The Conference on the VALUE of Play
The Play Conference, as it is commonly known, is an annual educational conference presented by the US Play Coalition. The latest research and practices in the field of play are presented at the conference, which brings together play researchers, park and recreation professionals, educators, health scientists, architects, landscape architects, designers, planners, business and community leaders, psychologists, physicians and parents from across the U.S. and beyond. The three day event has been moved ONLINE for 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is our first-ever online Play Conference!
organization that uses circus arts to motivate social change. It is both an arts education and a youth development organization. They believe that circus teaches the art of life- while children are learning circus arts, they are also learning life skills like focus, persistence, teamwork.
Jed Dearybury began his education career in 2001. During his 13-year early childhood classroom tenure, Jed received numerous awards. He was featured in GQ Magazine as Male Leader of the Year, met President Obama as the SC winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching, and was named as a top 5 finalist for South Carolina Teacher of the Year because of his passion, love, and success in education. Since 2015, he has become an educational leader by providing quality, hands-on, engaging learning experiences for students and teachers across the country. Jed is also a Play Ambassador for the US Play Coalition.
School of Education and Graduate Studies. She maintains an active research agenda with interests including instructional technology and pedagogy, always with a mix of creativity and play. She is a Google Certified Educator, providing regular training for K12 educators on technology integration, and she serves as the Executive Editor for the Teacher Education Journal of South Carolina, a South Carolina Association of Teacher Educators (SCATE) publication. Julie is also a Play Ambassador for the US Play Coalition.
Scott Bedley is a 5th Grade teacher from Orange County, CA. He is an Orange County Teacher of the Year (TOY) and California TOY Finalist.
for playful learning, she believes people learn best through play and when they are in a state of flow and optimally challenged in meaningful and purposeful work. She is passionate about education and stays astride of the shifting paradigms of what makes children, teens and adults engaged learners. She believes this can be accomplished through Best Practices teaching and learning methods founded on research-based and brain-based educational theory, including Constructionism educational theory. Oteri is a certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshop facilitator and works with businesses, schools, and organizations nationally and internationally.
Heather Von Bank, PhD (panel moderator) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Consumer Science in the area of Child Development Family Studies at Minnesota State University Mankato. For the past 11 years, she has taught a class to undergraduate students about the importance of play in the lives and development of children. The students create a play day for the community and in turn learn a lot about themselves and their own play histories.
several indoor/outdoor venues on campus and coordinate events. Prior to her current position, she worked with the City of Greenville (SC) Parks and Recreation to implement youth and adult fitness, athletic and community programs and events, as well as coordinate the Mobi-Rec vehicle, which takes “play” all over the city, especially to lower-income areas.
Erica Walker, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Graphic Communications at Clemson. Her recent research focuses on working with adjunct professors, in highly specified areas of visual and graphic communications, to translate their work experiences into fast-paced, game-based activities. Prior to that, her dissertation focused on the impact on that a senior design project had on students and instructors as they transitioned from a from lecture-based course to physical, interactive games.
incorporated a playful mindset into his courses, including Pavement Design and Construction where he challenges students to address real problems that engineers face using “loose parts” to create a prototype of their solution.
The US Play Coalition is proud to announce Lise Aangeenbrug, Executive Director of the 
Island, New York, Hynes has also published numerous articles and featured in numerous podcasts on school leadership. His article on “Play, Recess and Mental Health” was #1 for 2018 in EDUCATION WEEK.