Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators (PIAEE) Winners
Each year, EPA recognizes national winners of the Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators (PIAEE).
2026 Winners
Anthony Schaff
Gulf Shores Middle School
Gulf Shores, Alabama
Anthony Schaff is a coastal Alabama teacher, surrounded by wetlands, forests, marshes, aquatic ecosystems, and marine life. Mr. Schaff invites students to think critically about agricultural practices in their area. His class analyzes local watershed maps and discusses the impact development, and farming practices have on the local environment. He hosts guest speakers who discuss watersheds using models, followed by students going into the field to examine the direction of runoff. They also observe the living shorelines that help protect the water basins from excess nutrients and litter pollution.
Mr. Schaff’s background as a former math teacher and math instructional coach enables him to seamlessly merge mathematical concepts of graphing, modeling, and data collection throughout hands-on environmental investigations. This integration of mathematical thinking and environmental systems is central to the work that environmental professionals do and prepares students for real-world environmental problem-solving. Mr. Schaff is also the sponsor for “Girls Engaged in Math and Science” (GEMs), which offers engagement opportunities outside the classroom. The team has conducted impressive research about shoreline biodiversity, water turbidity, and the impact of oysters on water quality.
Ryan Johnson
Jovita Idảr Elementary School
Chicago, Illinois
Ryan Johnson is a Chicago teacher who utilizes place-based learning throughout several outdoor study sites, including a school garden, food forest, prairie, and hydroponics lab. Family and community engagement is at the heart of Mr. Johnson’s work. He hosts school garden workdays where his students can share their knowledge. These events extend environmental literacy outside the classroom and create shared responsibility over environmental issues impacting the community. Students learn that environmental challenges are solvable through collaboration, evidence-based decision making, and sustained effort. This allows his lessons to extend beyond the classroom and position students as contributors to their community’s well-being.
Mr. Johnson engages student curiosity about the local Lake Michigan watershed by having them observe litter, storm drains, vegetation buffers, and water movement patterns in their community. Students collect and quantify evidence, make annotated sketches, and generate initial claims about how local systems connect to regional waterways. Students then conduct water quality testing using accessible indicators such as temperature, pH, and turbidity. They collect data, analyze trends, create explanations, and communicate findings and connect their local evidence to recommendations for improving water quality in ways that mirror authentic environmental science practice.
Stephanie Goebel
Posen Consolidated High School
Posen, Michigan
Stephanie Goebel is a Michigan teacher who is deeply passionate about educating her students through environmental place-based learning. Ms. Goebel starts her lessons in the classroom, educating students about a variety of environmental issues, and then encourages students to work together to identify local and/or regional environmental issues where they can take action and create a positive change. Ms. Goebel leverages the network of environmental organizations in her area, varying from non-profit organizations to state/federal government agencies. Her students work to launch local projects with the support of these organizations. Students take ownership over the long-term sustainability and outcomes of the project and work together to solve challenges.
Currently, Ms. Goebel and her students are in year 3 of a Great Lakes Marine Debris project, which examines Great Lakes pollution. Students are researching how humans contribute to marine debris, identifying pathways of litter throughout the Great Lakes watersheds, understanding the process of microplastic production, and researching the effect of microplastics in the environment. In addition, they are conducting shoreline cleanups and educating the community about these topics.
Dede Henderson
South Hamilton Community Schools
Jewell, Iowa
Dede Henderson is a Jewell, Iowa TK-8 STEAM specialist. Ms. Henderson utilizes flexible, project-based learning to ensure every student—from TK to 8th grade—can contribute. She keeps projects open-ended to scale in complexity based on individual needs, including a project that transformed her school’s library into a “Discovery Hub”. This hub merges environmental literacy with hands-on career exploration, allowing TK–6 students to rotate through stations, such as renewable energy and robotics, that integrate STEM stories with hands-on activities.
Ms. Henderson also launched South Hamilton’s first school-wide recycling program and continues to manage its operations by coordinating student-led collection teams. Ms. Henderson models reuse efforts by constantly sourcing reclaimed materials for the school’s makerspace, transforming "waste" into valuable engineering resources, as well as showing students how to weave plastic bags into mats for charity and how to turn other small pieces of refuse into Eco bricks to build furniture. Since introducing these reuse projects, Ms. Henderson’s students are more mindful of packaging and waste. It is common for students to visit her classroom during their free time to work on a recycling project or present her with materials salvaged from home. Through Ms. Hendersons work, the students are starting to see themselves as young engineers and environmental stewards who have the power to change their community’s habits.
Spencer Cody
Edmunds Central Schools
Roscoe, South Dakota
Spencer Cody is a South Dakota environmental educator who demonstrates a high degree of innovation by highlighting hands-on, real-world research and place-based education.
Mr. Cody has made it possible for his students to have access to exciting place-based learning opportunities by taking advantage of environmental grant programs. In 2021, he secured funds for building a greenhouse outfitted with an aquaponics lab and growing space. He uses the lab to teach about nutrient recycling and water pollution issues and utilizes the growing space for vegetable and fruit production to supply the school salad bar. Students were involved in every step of planting, growing, and harvesting the produce they would consume during their school lunches. In 2022, his classroom started a bee management program. This allowed students to work directly with bees, honey, and wax production to learn about agricultural practices and management specifically within the realms of pesticide usage and pollinator forage. Students learn hands-on with hive management and even harvest the raw honey that is served on the lunch line. This is a particularly meaningful program for students, as Mr. Cody’s school district has the highest rates of beekeeper parents in the United States.
In addition to the place-based learning spaces created on school grounds, students have visited numerous national parks and participate in monitoring more than two dozen lakes in Northeastern South Dakota for the spread of aquatic invasive species such as zebra mussels. Experiences like these create life-long memories that motivate young people to stay involved in stewardship. Already, Mr. Cody has noted increases in STEM knowledge and career interest among his students.
Stacy Wolff
Flagstaff Academy
Longmont, Colorado
Stacy Wolff is a Colorado K-5 science lab teacher who prioritizes experiential, creative, and place-based labs for her students. One of the greatest influences Ms. Wolff has had on her school community is through the creation of a multi-use outdoor classroom. Ms. Wolff helped students create this space by designing a scale model and choosing plants based on research they conducted. The plants were chosen to provide pollen and other food for wildlife throughout all seasons. To engage parents and kids of all ages in the stewardship of this natural area, Ms. Wolff organized a school-wide service project for families to help add plants to the outdoor classroom, followed by service projects throughout the year to maintain the space. Since the inception of the outdoor classroom, it has become a habitat for a multitude of native wildlife.
One of Ms. Wolff’s lessons includes mapping the migration of monarch butterflies and sharing letters with students in Mexico observing the same migration from a different point of view, showing students that kids from all around the world care for the natural environment.
Kim Alvin De Lara
Hartford Sylvia Encinas Elementary
Chandler, Arizona
Kim Alvin De Lara is an Arizona second-grade teacher and “Eco-Club” leader who strives to make environmental learning unique, fun, and exciting. He uses nature and project-based learning to teach about local environmental issues in the classroom and in his after-school program. Mr. De Lara creates engineering projects and designs challenges that address environmental issues relevant to Arizona such as water conservation, sustainable food systems, and green infrastructure. Some of these projects have included solar-powered irrigation systems, water infrastructure, and water quality monitoring. In one of his inquiry-based lessons, Mr. De Lara engages students in exploring water contamination. Students construct filters, test water samples for lead, analyze data, and present solutions. They demonstrate curiosity and excitement, deepening their understanding of environmental issues and engineering practices.
In another of Mr. De Lara’s lessons, 2nd graders are introduced to data analysis through a systematic waste audit. Students practice foundational math skills by sorting environmental finds into categories, using real-time data collection, and building their first bar graphs. By focusing on the waste audit, students move beyond "picking up litter" to analyzing what kind of waste exists in their world, allowing them to use actual numbers to suggest ways to keep their local habitats healthy.