Tony Passantino, our Education Program Manager.
Tony Passantino, SEC’s Education Program Manager will be the Chair of Sonoma Environmental Education Collaborative’s (SEEC) steering committee starting in January 2024. This position is a 2-year, rotating position.
SEC’s involvement in SEEC allows us to ensure as much equity as possible in providing environmental education in the county through collaboration. Made up of 19 member-organizations, the Sonoma Environmental Education Collaborative’s (SEEC) is a regional consortium of environmental education professionals from organizations, agencies, networks, and school districts in the region that come together to amplify impacts in environmental literacy. For years, environmental educators from SEEC have collaborated with teachers to ensure that every child K-6 receives some form of environmental education from one of SEEC’s member organizations. Richard Dale, SEC’s Executive Director, was one of the founding members of SEEC.
A 5th grade field trip to Nathanson Creek by SEC’s Education with Prestwood Elementary School students.
Over the years, the SEEC has expanded their reach beyond Sonoma Valley, to schools on the backside of our watershed such as Meadow Elementary School and McDowell Elementary School in Petaluma.
Within SEEC, Tony is on the steering committee of the Pathways Project and have worked collaboratively in working groups to develop this program. A more recent project of SEEC, the Pathways program aims to significantly elevate the impact of outdoor environmental education across Sonoma County, particularly in underserved communities. This program provides Title I schools in the county, ensuring that every student in these schools have at least 4 touchpoints of environmental education from Transitional Kindergarten (TK)/Kindergarten to 6th grade.
Students participating in our Watershed Education program field trip to Sugarloaf Ridge State Park.
Richard Dale, speaks on how SEEC started and evolved: “I was one of the Executive Directors that founded SEEC. The goal was to provide a multi-organization coalition around environmental education to elevate environmental education as a priority for Sonoma Valley. Since then, we’ve expanded beyond conversations between Executive Directors and invited in program managers of education programs and funding partners. That’s when SEEC really took off. Tony has been doing a lot of work throughout the county and the Bay Area, networking, connecting people to resources. He has a nice multi-faceted approach to problem solving. He is really a respected leader in many ways in the environmental education world. We’ve very supportive of his role as incoming chair.”
As the incoming chair of SEEC, Tony says he is excited for the opportunity to continue developing on SEEC’s new Pathways Project to promote access to the outdoors, particularly underserved parts of our county.