{"id":2176,"date":"2026-10-05T18:24:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T18:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/cosee\/?p=2176"},"modified":"2026-10-05T22:13:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T22:13:43","slug":"letter-from-the-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/cosee\/2026\/10\/05\/letter-from-the-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from the Director"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome back to the 2026\u201327 academic year! As we begin a new academic year, I’m excited to share CoSEE’s new Impact Report, which captures a remarkable period of growth across our undergraduate research, experiential learning, community partnerships, restoration, and environmental education programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past 18 months, CoSEE has engaged more than 80 undergraduate students across five experiential learning pathways, served more than 70 high school students, supported professional learning for more than 200 educators, hosted 46 community programs, and secured more than $1 million in external funding to expand this work. More importantly, these numbers represent students, educators, partners, and communities learning and working together to address real socio-ecological issues across our region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At CoSEE, we believe this work is especially consequential in what E. O. Wilson called the Eremocene, or “Age of Loneliness,” a time marked not only by ecological loss but by the unraveling of relationships among species, places, communities, and ways of knowing. Our work is grounded in the possibility of ecological, social, and relational repair: helping people understand themselves not as observers of the living world, but as participants within it, with responsibilities to one another and to the places we share. Whether through wildlife monitoring, habitat restoration, GIS mapping, accessible environmental learning, teacher education, or community-engaged internships, we see these efforts as connected forms of repair, creating opportunities to notice, learn, care, and participate differently within our shared socio-ecological worlds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this work would be possible without our incredible CoSEE team and community partners. Maddie Iem, our Program Manager, has led the design and sustained support of our growing undergraduate internship pathways, helping create the structures that allow students to move into meaningful, community-engaged work, and is the vision behind CoSEE’s Adaptive Library Initiative. Kaylin Datwyler, our first full-time AmeriCorps intern, has helped expand the Adaptive Library Initiative, supported clock-hour professional learning for educators across Washington, and strengthened CoSEE’s public programming. We are thrilled that she will be moving into a full-time role with CoSEE and providing even more support for our undergraduate internship program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are also deeply grateful to the community members and partners who lead and sustain this work \u2014 including Washington State Parks, Yard by Yard, the Finn Hill Neighborhood Alliance, the City of Kenmore, the Alyssa Burnett Adult Life Center, King County Library System, and many more \u2014 and especially to our remarkable interns, whose passion, innovation, and commitment are creating real and lasting change with and within our human and more-than-human communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
read the 2025-26 CoSEE impact report<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to the 2026\u201327 academic year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":602,"featured_media":2184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_is_archived":false,"_archived_contact_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"school":[],"class_list":["post-2176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcements"],"acf":{"related_links":{"toggle_visibility":false,"link_1":"","link_2":"","link_3":"","link_4":"","link_5":""},"highlight_box":{"toggle_visibility":false,"title":"","content":"","button":"","button_style":"angled-purple-button","button_screen_reader_text":""},"contact_type_1":{"toggle_visibility":false,"contact_title":"","email":"","phone":"","box":"","address_line_1":"","address_line_2":"","location":""},"contact_type_2":{"toggle_visibility":false,"contact_title":"","email":"","phone":"","box":"","address_line_1":"","address_line_2":"","location":""},"social_media":{"toggle_visibility":false,"facebook_url":"","instagram_url":"","linkedin_url":"","twitter_url":"","youtube_url":""},"blog_archive_sidebar_visibility":false},"yoast_head":"\nLetter from the Director - 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