Ashlyn Kite-Hartwich Honored as 2020 Outstanding Project WILD Coordinator

Washington D.C. (July 16, 2020)- The Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies proudly shares the news that Kansas Project WILD Co-Coordinator, Ashlyn Kite-Hartwich, will receive the 2020 Outstanding Coordinator Award. Each year the Association honors one Project WILD coordinator with this award at the annual Project WILD Coordinators’ Conference.

“We are so honored to be able to give Ashlyn this well-deserved award,” said Elena Takaki, Director of Project WILD with the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. “Her wor and leadership within Kansas and at the national level has moved conservation education forward and positively impacted the lives of adults and children alike.”

Kite-Hartwich has been a Project WILD Co-Coordinator in Kansas for thirteen years through her work at the Kansas Association for Conservation and Environmental Education (KACEE). She has substantively transformed the way that Project WILD has been implemented in Kansas through her responsiveness to the needs of educators. She is also involved in the Kansas Green Schools program, where she facilitates the integration of Project WILD curricula into outdoor learning environments, including school gardens and wildlife habitats.

The enthusiasm and quality that Kite-Hartwich brings to her work cause both educators and facilitators to seek out her expertise and collaboration time and time again.

“Ashlyn exemplifies the best of what Project WILD is and what environmental education is about,” said Laura Downey, Executive Director at KACEE. “It’s not just our staff who feel this way about Ashlyn—the teachers in her workshops always sing her praises.”

The award will be presented to Kite-Hartwich on Tuesday, July 28, as part of the 38th annual meeting of Project WILD coordinators, taking place virtually this year.

Project WILD joined the Association in 2017. Project WILD is an interdisciplinary conservation and environmental education program that focuses on wildlife and habitat. The goal of Project WILD is to develop awareness, knowledge, skills, and commitment resulting in informed decisions, responsible behavior, and constructive actions concerning wildlife and the environment. To learn more about Project WILD, go to www.projectwild.org.

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The Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies represents North America’s fish and wildlife agencies to advance sound, science-based management and conservation of fish and wildlife and their habitats in the public interest. The Association represents its state agency members on Capitol Hill and before the Administration to advance favorable fish and wildlife conservation policy and funding and works to ensure that all entities work collaboratively on the most important issues. The Association also provides member agencies with coordination services on cross-cutting as well as species-based programs that range from birds, fish habitat and energy development to climate change, wildlife action plans, conservation education, leadership training and international relations. Working together, the Association’s member agencies are ensuring that North American fish and wildlife management has a clear and collective voice.