Monona nonprofit the Aldo Leopold Nature Center has announced the promotion of Betsy Parker as the organization’s new executive director.
In 2000, Parker began her career at the Nature Center as an environmental educator and over time grew within the organization. She was promoted to strategic development manager, where she assisted with board and donor engagement, and most recently she served as director of nature net, overseeing southern Wisconsin’s environmental learning network. Parker’s background includes work with the UW–Madison’s School of Human Ecology as an outreach specialist at the Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies; the North American Association for Environmental Education as a Wisconsin team leader; and the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education as board chair.
Parker brings a wealth of experience across various programs and functions, both locally and state-wide. She organized the Nature Center’s Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiatives with Milwaukee’s Cream City Conservation in 2022 and has training through the UW–Extension for addressing systemic racism in environmental education. Her state-wide efforts in the field include working with Legislators to pass the “Children’s Outdoor Heritage Resolution” and coordinating the publication of “Wisconsin’s Plan for Environmentally Literate and Sustainable Communities.”
