Meet Katie Isaak Ginsberg (WCAS '89)
Educating an engaged, sustainability minded generation
It’s no secret that in order to create lasting change, it’s important to pass messages and values along to the next generation. This is especially true for climate change action: we must instill in our young people a sense of duty and stewardship when it comes to looking after the planet, and that is exactly Katie Isaak Ginsberg’s mission.
As the founder and executive director of the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation (CELF), Ginsberg works directly with K-12 educators to incorporate sustainability into core curriculum classes. “We use 'big ideas' and instructional practices from the field of ‘education for sustainability’ as a teaching methodology that readily develops critical thinking skills that are necessary to understand and interpret complex and interconnected economic, social, and environmental issues,” explains Ginsberg, who launched CELF as a not-for-profit education organization in 2003. She credits her Northwestern education, past work experiences, and her children as her sources of inspiration and preparation.
Part of a long line of Wildcats with her husband, both parents, and two of her children attending Northwestern, Ginsberg graduated with a psychology degree from the Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. She went on to obtain professional experience in a broad range of fields. Her work in advertising and marketing account management was especially impactful. There, she gained insight into the consumer world and a developed a better understanding of supply chain and product life cycle: where products come from, how they’re produced, their purpose, and how they are disposed. “I’ve always felt that, in addition to the varied education I received in a liberal arts school, this position developed new insight on the complex and interconnected world that we are living in today,” says Ginsberg, who adds that this role was the beginning of her exploration of how life might be different in a more sustainably designed, growing world.
During her three children’s early education in public schools, Ginsberg realized the majority of their exposure to environmental education and concepts was in isolation from standard subjects and most often limited to special events or after school activities.
“Those were the beginning ‘ah ha’ moments that inspired me to think about forming a 501(c)(3) non-profit education organization,” she says. “I wanted to work at the most direct level with classroom teachers and school principals shifting some of these sustainability concepts into the core curriculum to make sustainability the lens of every student’s experience growing up in elementary, middle, and high school.”
"I wanted to work at the most direct level with classroom teachers and school principals shifting some of these sustainability concepts into the core curriculum..." — Katie Isaak Ginsberg (WCAS ’89), Founder and Executive Director at Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation
Through CELF, she and her professional learning team work with teachers to use techniques for place-based education to connect what is taught in the classroom with community and place-based opportunities for civic engagement. Special projects have included developing STEAM and citizen science programs for New York City public schools. “Working with teachers is really encouraging because they’re some of the most committed people to this mission,” says Ginsberg. “They’re with the next generation every day, so they see the opportunity but also the responsibility to bring sustainable thinking to the minds and hearts of their students.”
CELF has earned many awards and opportunities, including recognition by the Clinton Climate Initiative and an EPA Environmental Champion Award. However, she feels that the moments of individual connection and student transformation are the most motivating and rewarding.
“I am hoping that we are raising a generation of students that are more civically engaged,” says Ginsberg. “[Through this program] they have been exposed to some of these issues and opportunities at a younger age while also being encouraged to develop and use their voice.”
* Editor's Note, November 2022: Katie Isaak Ginsberg is now Founder and Advisor at the Children's Environmental Literacy Foundation.