Hull Award Recipients
Lisa Blakely
2024
Lisa Blakley (Knoxville GC, Zone IX) is the founder of the Knoxville GC’s Plant Blindness/Plant Vision Program, an initiative formed to counteract the world’s inability to differentiate and name plants. This plant-based learning curriculum developed by Lisa Blakley, a former teacher, is hosted at Knoxville’s Blount Mansion, home of William Blount, a signer of the US Constitution. To date, this effective program administered by the Knoxville GC has empowered more than 4,000 community children to not just see “green” but look, listen, taste, smell and hear the world around them a bit differently.
Robert Carroll
2024
Robert Carroll (Virginia Beach GC, Zone VII) During the school year this devoted Norfolk Academy teacher makes use of readily available resources to teach his students about composting, renewable energy and growing plants. In the summertime his Sea Camp immerses his students in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem using the Tidewater region as an extended classroom filled with hands-on experiences. Through both endeavors this exceptional science teacher constantly seeks innovative ways to incorporate field science, ecosystem restoration, service learning and environmental stewardship into his teaching.
Chloe Dente
2024
Chloe Dente (GC of Lookout Mountain, Zone IX) serves as the Education and Volunteer Coordinator at Crabtree Farms where she welcomes over 2,000+ school aged youth annually to participate in urban farm-based education. She promotes and facilitates collaboration between Chattanooga area schools and Crabtree farms to design educational opportunities, develop internships, and train youth volunteers. Her dynamic teaching style and unwavering commitment to environmental stewardship have surely left an indelible mark on the young minds of her community.
Patricia Galbreath
2024
Patricia Galbreath, (GC of Halifax Country, Zone VIII), is a dedicated and accomplished 25+ year educator at the Holly Hill School. Through her training as a STEM teacher, she has mentored and inspired students and cultivated leaders in science and math by incorporating the lessons of gardening into her curriculum, with an emphasis on trees. Her classroom is a unique haven for blooming gardeners, scientists, and inquisitive scholars. Her work extends beyond the classroom and includes a music ministry at her church and involvement with the Florida Educators Technology Conference.
Blake Goll
2024
Blake Goll (The GC of Philadelphia, Zone V) is the Education Programs Manager for Willistown Conservation Trust. She developed the Trust’s Rushton Nature Keepers, a remarkable full-year curriculum designed to instruct children ages 8-11 about the many floras and fauna that make up a healthy habitat. Her primary goal for the program is to inspire children to develop a lifetime of caring about and protecting nature. Her holistic approach explores the connections among land, birds, habitat, farming and water into a program that makes a big impression on children, many of whom are hearing about these connections for the first time.
Tim Kalan
2024
Tim Kalan (Shaker Lakes GC, Zone X) is an art teacher at the Onaway Elementary School and director of the Garden Clubs at both Onaway and Lomond Elementary Schools in Shaker Heights, Ohio. He is also the director of the Native Plant Sale at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes where his Club members, current and past, help him grow native plants to donate to the community at their Homegrowns Sale. Tim melds the science of ecological relationships together with the joy of hands-on experience. His work has had a lasting impact on creating the next generation of environmentally responsible gardeners.
Sheila Williams Ridge
2024
Sheila Williams Ridge (St. Paul GC, Zone XI) Dr. Williams Ridge directs the Child Development Laboratory Preschool at the University of Minnesota and is Co-Founder of the Minneapolis Nature Preschool, which primarily serves a racially, culturally and economically diverse population of local families and commits to year-round outdoor education for preschoolers. Sheila is a modest but passionate and impressive changemaker in nature-based education. She exhibits a rare talent of being able to teach at the grass roots level as well as develop programs that can be implemented by others.
Abraham Saldana
2024
Abraham Saldana (Founders GC of Dallas Zone IX) is the head of the Jubilee Park & Community Center's Community Garden where he engages youth in the lessons of growing food - from planting seed to harvesting to giving back to an underserved community. Under Abraham’s leadership, the garden has grown to include more than 20 beds, fruit trees and a propagation tower where he propagates plants for children to take home to their families. Abraham is a prime example of an individual with a servant’s heart. He is passionate about gardening and nature and an inspiration to the families of the Jubilee Park community.
Terry Smith
2024
Terry Smith (Piedmont GC Zone XII) is a born educator and advocate for the natural environment. Her entire life has been dedicated to teaching and helping others to understand the importance of the health of the environment, sustainability, maintenance and expansion of habitat, and the importance of individual contributions to these efforts. She is co-founder of Piedmont Connect and the Pollinator Posse, a nonprofit organization that, through outreach, focuses on pollinator-friendly landscaping. She is also a retired teacher whose first-grade garden became part of Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard Project.
Lauren Theis
2024
Lauren Theis (GC of Somerset Hills Zone IV) is the Director of Education at Raritan Headwaters where she instructs environmental educators and engages thousands of children and their families annually in outdoor learning experiences. She has established innovative programs ranging from the creation of Fairy Woods to Bugs and Blooms to a sensory garden to inspire students with a sense of place and a deep connection with nature. Lauren is also an artist, avid birder, and photographer – all talents that inspire and energize the children with whom she works and motivates them to return to the program year after year.