Hoover teacher wins national award for environmental education

Traci Ingleright, an enrichment specialist for Hoover City Schools, this summer received a national Leadership in Education Award for her work in environmental education.

The award was given out in Wisconsin in June by Project Learning Tree, which is part of the Sustainable Forest Initiative, a nonprofit international environmental education program that advances environmental literacy, stewardship and career pathways using trees and forests as windows on the world.

The award that Ingleright received recognizes teachers and education professionals who make significant contributions in their state to Project Learning Tree and youth environmental education.

Ingleright, who has been an educator for 27 years, in 2020 was Alabama’s Outstanding Project Learning Tree Educator of the Year. But this year, she was the sole winner of the national Leadership in Education Award.

Project Learning Tree covers every state in the nation, plus several other countries, including Mexico, Japan and South American countries, said Ashley Smith, the education program director for the Alabama Forestry Association and Project Learning Tree coordinator for Alabama.

Ingleright’s mother was a teacher and her father was a forester, so she has been able to combine the passions of her parents, Smith said.

“She has consistently shown dedication to Project Learning Tree’s efforts to teach people to appreciate the outdoors and understand the importance of sustainability of our natural resources in Alabama,” Smith said.

Ingleright has served on Hoover’s Arbor Day planning committee and celebrated Arbor Day with students at Gwin Elementary, where she worked for many years, and the Hoover school district as a whole with tree plantings, essay contests and more.

In 1994, she created Kids, Camps and Critters, a school event that uses activities to engage students and teachers in learning about the world around them. Ingleright also has facilitated a Project Learning Tree workshop for pre-service educators from the University of Alabama College of Education Multiple Abilities program since 1994.

She has served on the Alabama Environmental Literacy Plan Task Force, as a board member of the Environmental Education Association of Alabama and on the Governor’s Task Force for Environmental Literacy in Alabama.

“Traci demonstrates in so many ways how the outdoors can be used to engage students, teachers and communities,” said Jess Kaknevicius, vice president for education at the Sustainable Forest Initiative.