STEPHEN TAGLIERI
Faculty Advisor, WYSE Alum 2017
Stephen is the Marketing Director at the National Indian Carbon Coalition (NICC). Working in the carbon and climate space for more than half a decade, Stephen focusses on telling stories of conservation success and creating impact through the empowerment of underrepresented voices. Outside of NICC, Stephen is the CEO and Creative Director of Kingdom Multimedia, a creative marketing agency that specializes in the development of communications strategy. Through end-to-end content development, collaborating from design to marketing implementation, Stephen has crafted unique climate messaging for a variety of clients. He has produced documentaries, written articles, and photographed projects for organizations such as the Smithsonian Institute, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the American Forest Foundation.
STEPHEN TAGLIERI
Faculty Advisor, WYSE Alum 2017
Stephen is the Marketing Director at the National Indian Carbon Coalition (NICC). Working in the carbon and climate space for more than half a decade, Stephen focusses on telling stories of conservation success and creating impact through the empowerment of underrepresented voices. Outside of NICC, Stephen is the CEO and Creative Director of Kingdom Multimedia, a creative marketing agency that specializes in the development of communications strategy. Through end-to-end content development, collaborating from design to marketing implementation, Stephen has crafted unique climate messaging for a variety of clients. He has produced documentaries, written articles, and photographed projects for organizations such as the Smithsonian Institute, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the American Forest Foundation.
Laura attended MIT where she earned a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering. She worked for 7 years at Lockheed Martin as a Mechanical Test Engineer, building, testing and launching commercial satellites. During that time, she earned an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology. In 1999, Laura started a Lean Sigma consulting business with clients in the appliances, automotive, advertising and healthcare industries. During that time, Laura also started teaching Physics at the local Purdue University campus. She found a love teaching high school and obtained her teaching license. She loves teaching Aviation, Engineering, Physics and Environmental Science and will be at Sacred Heart Academy in Louisville, KY this fall.
Lillian (she/her) works as a Wildlife Field Technician gathering research data for conservation management projects. She is currently working on a grassland in Illinois tracking Bobwhites and Black Racer snakes as well as conducting vegetation surveys and bird counts. Her past projects include trapping and tagging Bobwhites to study habitat use also located in Southern Illinois, and a small mammal mark and recapture project to study population distribution on GrandFather Mountain in North Carolina. Lillian graduated from Appalachian State University with a B.S. in Ecology, Evolution, & Environmental Biology. She is a 2016 WYSE alumna and a former JFA. When not working Lillian enjoys cooking, hiking with her dog and cat, and hanging out at the rock climbing gym.
Donna is the Senior Legal Policy Advisor at the National Association of Wetland Managers (NAWM) which include states and tribes implementing the Clean Water Act as co-regulators with the federal government. She served as Jurisdiction Team Leader in the U.S. EPA’s Office of Water from 1998 to 2020 working on a variety of issues, with a recent focus on the Clean Water Act. Prior to EPA, Donna worked for the U.S. Congress of Technology Assessment and in private law practice. She has a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard, a MPP from the UC Berkeley a JD cum laude from Georgetown Law School, and an L.L.M in Environmental Law summa cum laude from GW Law School. She has been an adjunct professor of environmental law at GW Law School since 1996. In her free time, she is a professional potter and an unprofessional horse trainer.
Serena is a recent graduate of Western Kentucky University, where she earned her M.S. in Biology. Serena holds a B.S. in Environmental and Sustainability Studies from George Mason University where she worked in Admissions as a Telecounseling Supervisor and Mason Ambassador, and completed a semester at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. After graduation, she spent time on a farm in upstate New York, studied elephant behavior in Florida, and even worked in a bakery before joining Lincoln Park Zoo for a reptile behavior study. Her master’s thesis focused on human-wildlife co-occurrence in Homer, Alaska. Serena is passionate about wildlife behavior, conservation, and helping others explore career paths in the environmental sciences. She’s so excited for WYSE 2025 and can’t wait to meet this year’s amazing Delegates!
Gary Swick used his BS in Natural Resource Mgt. from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point and a MSEd in Outdoor Teacher Education as the foundation for developing a field-based High School Environmental Science suite of eight courses. The related projects have earned numerous state & national acclaim for their innovative approaches and impressive results. Individually, Gary has received several recognitions on the national level as an outstanding Environmental Educator. With the motto, “Environmental Action through Education”, his students have been active agents of change in their communities. His primary focus has been getting students into their local streams as “Watershed Watchdogs”, collecting data and becoming stewards. He previously taught at Northern Illinois University and is now retired. In addition to teaching, Gary spent 18 summers as a whitewater raft guide in Wyoming. Gary serves as the President of the Friends of the Fox River, the Board President of the Elgin Math & Science Academy, and is a board member on several other non-profit conservation groups. He is an avid outdoor recreationist.
Corey earned his Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Florida studying issues of representation in STEM. He is currently an Evaluation Specialist at Oak Ridge Associated Universities conducting program evaluations for the Department of Energy’s Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW) portfolio which funds education initiatives at National Labs and Universities. During graduate school, he worked on an NSF-funded project to redesign chemistry laboratory curriculum for engineers to increase the retention and performance of underrepresented students. He has also worked with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in the forest ecology lab studying canopy structures in relation to global climate change. In his free time, he restores vintage mountain bikes, tubes in the Florida springs, and swims in the ocean with his dog.