Louisiana Sea Grant Showcases Education & Engagement Achievements at NMEA 2025
Louisiana Sea Grant Showcases Education & Engagement Achievements at NMEA 2025
Louisiana Sea Grant’s Education and Engagement team made a big splash at the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) Annual Conference, held June 29–July 3, 2025, in Lafayette. Dani DiIullo, Education and Engagement director, represented Louisiana Sea Grant on the “Current Articles Authors Panel”, co-authoring the Gulf Coast place-based education article “Localized Strategies, Shared Success: How Gulf Sea Grant Programs Meet Educational Needs” in Current: The Journal of Marine Education. Alongside leading marine educators from across the Gulf, DiIullo shared insights on strengthening ocean literacy through K–12 resources and professional development.
DiIullo speaking on the panel.
The conference highlighted several additional presentations by the Education and Engagement team:
- LSU Coastal Roots Program: Place‑based Environmental Stewardship on the Gulf Coastal Plain – Led by Pam Blanchard, with DiIullo, and Ali McMillan. This session featured the LSU Coastal Roots Program, a long-standing partnership between the LSU School of Education, Louisiana Sea Grant and the LSU College of Agriculture, engaging students and teachers across coastal Louisiana parishes in coastal restoration.
- Mapping Nature: GIS, Reflection, and Hands‑On Learning for Future Environmental Stewards – Led by Vanessa van Heerden, along with Naya Black, McMillan, DiIullo and Cheyenne Autin. The workshop demonstrated how GIS tools, guided reflections and experiential activities foster students’ environmental identity and stewardship.
Group photo of all the authors in the current edition of Current.
- LSU EnvironMentors: Inspiring the Next Generation of Environmental Stewards – Black led a discussion of the award-winning LSU EnvironMentors program, a partnership between Louisiana Sea Grant and the LSU College of the Coast and Environment, highlighting its use of place-based research, public speaking and networking to connect youth with STEM opportunities in Louisiana.
- Layers of Louisiana Natural History: Teacher Professional Development for Environmental Collections – Led by DiIullo, along with McMillan, Robin Cobb, Chantal Correll, Kara Erickson, Kellie Green and Nikita LaCour-Dukes, shared findings from a NOAA B-WET sponsored initiative, focusing on how place-based environmental indicators informed innovative K–12 lessons and stewardship projects.
McMillan (left), Blanchard (center) and DiIullo (right) after the presentation
- What do People Need to Know about the Gulf Beyond our Southern Shores? – DiIullo co-presented a poster session with Tina Miller-Way from Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant on emerging Gulf Literacy Principles, inviting conference-goers to help shape regional ocean literacy standards.
- Native Fish in the Classroom: Building Fisheries Stewardship in Louisiana Schools – Led by Lindsay Seely, with DiIullo, outlined best practices from the long-running Native Fish in the Classroom aquaculture partnership between LDWF and Sea Grant, including conservation gains and lessons learned.
van Heerden modeling how maps can be used to enhance student learning about sediment grain size analysis.
About the Department of Education and Engagement at Louisiana Sea GrantLouisiana Sea Grant’s mission is to generate and provide science-based information and tools supporting thriving coastal communities and ecosystems and increasing coastal resilience and economic opportunities. It conducts this work through a network of communications, education, extension, law and policy and research professionals across the state’s coastal zone. In 2024-2025, the Education and Engagement department engaged with more than 5,000 K-12 students and 1,000 adults through its environmental education programs and partnerships. The mission of the department is to provide place-based and project-based investigations and activities, increase or enhance participants’ connection to nature and build environmental literacy of coastal Louisiana.
Black presenting about the EnvironMentors program.
Group photo of the presenters after the presentation.