Cheryl Charles is an innovator, author, organizational executive and educator. Cheryl serves as adjunct faculty, research scholar and founding executive director of the Nature Based Leadership Institute at Antioch University New England (AUNE). The vision of the Institute is a world in which all humans live, learn, lead and serve in healthy balance with the natural world. AUNE's Nature Based Leadership Institute applies nature's lessons to achieve economic, environmental and social justice. She currently serves as a member of the Steering Committee for the IUCN's Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) and is international co-chair of IUCN's #NatureForAll. A student of natural systems, Cheryl has applied nature-based leadership principles to her work to facilitate social change for the past four decades. Cheryl is author, editor and designer of a wide variety of publications including books, articles, and educational materials. Cheryl has given hundreds of public presentations including scores of keynote addresses; and has facilitated a wide variety of civic, business and educational meetings on a range of topics from developing community leadership to leading the worldwide effort to reconnect children with nature. Cheryl is the co-founder, president and CEO Emerita of the Children & Nature Network and serves as a member of the Network's Founders' Council. Recipient of numerous awards for her leadership, she served as founding national director of the pioneering K-12, interdisciplinary environment education programs, Project Learning Tree and Project WILD. She co-founded and served as the chief executive for the Center for the Study of Community and Windstar Land Conservancy and also served as CEO of John Denver's Windstar Foundation and the Sol y Sombra Foundation. Cheryl is co-founder and principal of Hawksong Associates, a consulting practice focused on innovation, community building, leadership and educational program development. She holds a PhD in curriculum and instruction from the University of Washington. She lives in Vermont, USA, a short walk through the woods from her two nature-loving grandchildren, son and daughter-in-law.