Yue Li recently finished her PhD in the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell University. She holds a bachelor’s degree in soil and water conservation from Beijing Forestry University and a master’s degree in natural resources from Beijing Normal University. Through her research and outreach, Yue seeks to understand how networking among diverse environmental educators fosters innovation in their environmental education practice.

Environmental education has fascinated Yue since she started doing volunteer work at Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in Beijing. In summer 2009, she helped two American students teach a weekly interactive course in English for high school students in Beijing addressing a range of topics including endangered species, moon bear farming, and energy consumption to global warming. In summer 2010, she worked as an intern at JGI helping the Green Life Action program promote low carbon life styles. She designed the toolkits for communities and companies focusing on a range of topics from energy and water saving, to green shopping to recycling. These experiences inspired Yue to learn more about environmental education and continue participating in environmental education programs.

Since 2011, Yue has been working for EECapacity, a national environmental education training program. She helped teach several online courses and organize workshops for environmental educators. She also conducted research to better understand how environmental educators develop innovative ideas for their practice through networking with others in online learning communities and other platforms. In summer 2014, she did an internship with NAAEE in Washington D.C. during which she helped organize professional development workshops and co-authored State Environmental Literacy Plans, 2014 Status Report with Judy Braus and others. These experiences theoretically and practically prepared Yue to be a future leader in environmental education. This November, Yue is leading a sub-forum at the 3rd China National Nature Education in Shenzhen, China. She is planning to conduct international programs and research to continue bridging environmental education communities in China and the US.