Programs are the core of the ANCA Summit. In the variety of Summit programs, you will connect with peers and experts in a supportive learning environment, while also building a professional network that will strengthen your work well beyond the Summit.
The Summit was an exciting whirlwind packed with fascinating topics. The real challenge was simply that there were too many compelling sessions!
— Summit Participant
Sessions
Sessions are your opportunity to connect with peers and experts in the nature center profession. Each session explores a specific aspect of leadership and administration relevant to our field.
Facilitated Discussions
Facilitated Discussions are collaborative sessions where all participants contribute to the discussion; the result is a shared dialogue that brings out an abundance of perspectives, possibilities, and renewed energy. Facilitators guide the dialogue but do not give a formal presentation. These discussions are an excellent opportunity to share with your peers, learn new ideas, discuss trends in the profession, and work together to find solutions.
Examples of Facilitated Discussions
We're currently planning Summit Facilitated Discussions and will post full descriptions in May. In the meantime, here are examples of Facilitated Discussion topics from last year's Summit:
- Embracing Change: Resilient and Adaptive Design for an Uncertain Future
- Volunteers: Recruiting, Training, Rewarding, and Keeping Your Most Valuable Asset
- Rewrite the Narrative: A Storytelling Practicum for Nature Center Leaders
- From Curiosity to Commitment: Engaging Visitors in Conservation
- Inclusive by Nature: Evolving Outdoor Learning for All
- Tech with Intention: Reclaiming the Big Picture
- Nature's Human Power
- Championing Our Wild Places & Wildlife: Building Community Advocates to Protect Nature During a Shifting Federal Landscape
Workshops
Workshops are presentation-based sessions where you can learn in-depth on a single topic, expand your skill set, and engage directly with experts.
Examples of Workshops
We're currently planning Summit Workshops and will post full descriptions in May. In the meantime, here are examples of Workshop topics from last year's Summit:
- Building a Powerhouse Board: Strategies for Success
- Principles for Better Environmental Education
- Why Do We Need a Site Vision Plan? 10 Direct Impacts
- From Vision to Celebration: A Campaign Blueprint for Nature Leaders
- Lessons Learned from Allied Institutions: Botanical Gardens, State Parks, and Camps
- Guardians of the Green: Managing Safe Spaces for Community Connections
- Assessment and Design for Supportive Professional Learning Systems
- Bridging Tech and Nature: Enhancing Visitor Engagement with Mobile Augmented Reality
- The Other AI: Program Evaluation using Appreciative Inquiry
- Circle of Joy: Where Nature, Play Therapy, and Community Meet
- Every Problem Has a Solution
- Join the Water Movement with a Solar-Powered Water Pump
Open Space
Open Space sessions provide an opportunity for you to create your own meeting, continue a session that needs more time, or find a group to address an issue that was not presented elsewhere during the Summit. To develop these sessions, participants will gather during the Summit to collectively design the session topics.
Field Workshops
Field Workshops are your opportunity to visit nature education sites and learn firsthand from their operations. Representatives from the organization will host each workshop and demonstrate how they put their missions into action. Here's where you can engage in-depth on the workshop topic while going beyond the theory, and into practice.
Field Workshops take place on Tuesday (Aug 25) and Wednesday (Aug 26); Summit participants may choose one Field Workshop for each day. Unless otherwise noted, each Field Workshop is 9am-12pm. Transportation is provided.
You will need to select your Field Workshop choices when you register. Please note that space in Field Workshops is limited — we encourage you to register today so that you have your first pick of programs.
Tuesday, August 25
Restoring Landscapes: 30 Years of Land Stewardship at Chippewa Nature Center
Join Chippewa Nature Center's Tom Lenon, Director of Land and Facilities, and Isaac Wolfgang, Operations Manager, for a field tour that showcases more than three decades of land restoration.
On-site stops will highlight wildlife management, invasive species control, native vegetation plantings, and monitoring protocols used to evaluate restoration success. The tour will also feature a recently restored former industrial site where CNC serves as a contractor for invasive species control and native plantings, and Tom and Isaac will discuss how CNC has become a sought-after contractor for regional partners.
Learning Objectives
- See land restoration projects in varying stages of maturity, highlighting the long-term commitment restoration requires and the success that is possible with sustained effort.
- Examine how CNC transitioned from performing on-site land stewardship to developing a growing role as consultants and contractors for regional partners wishing to manage their natural spaces.
Presenters
- Tom Lenon, Director of Land & Facilities, Chippewa Nature Center
- Isaac Wolfgang, Operations Manager, Chippewa Nature Center
Exploring and Expanding Nature Preschool: A Look at the Spaces and Funding of Early Childhood Learning
This workshop begins with a behind-the-scenes tour of Chippewa Nature Center’s LEED Gold Certified Nature Preschool Building and the new Nature Education Center early childhood classrooms. Participants will see how the design of these spaces reflects the center’s approach to nature-based learning and supports day-to-day teaching.
Following the tour, a panel of nature-based preschool experts from across Michigan will share how their programs are structured. The conversation will cover the variety of early childhood education models including infrastructure and funding sources.
If you’re thinking about starting a nature-based preschool or are considering changes to your current model, this workshop is designed to share a variety of perspectives and dig into the details of the spaces and finances of running a quality program.
Learning Objectives
- Explore how philosophy and pedagogy shape the design and use of nature preschool spaces.
- Learn how different preschools utilize a variety of funding structures based on the needs and interests of their community.
Presenter
- Madison Powell, Nature Preschool Director, Chippewa Nature Center
Program Facilities: Creating Spaces Where All People Are Welcome
Join Chippewa Nature Center’s Program Team for an in-depth tour of the indoor and outdoor spaces that support their work. Stops include the newly built Nature Educator Center, Visitor Center, Nature Play Area, and more. Along the way, team members will share insight about what they love about each space, how they have solved challenges over the years, and where they still hope to grow.
From storage to public spaces, school programs, public programs and camp, you’ll dig into how CNC’s staff strives to create spaces where all people feel welcome. Participants will leave with ideas for making the most of their own facilities.
Learning Objectives
- Explore how to manage storage, work space, and programming space while meeting the needs of a variety of visitors.
- Identify how to encourage longer visits in public spaces.Identify how to develop multi-use spaces and support the logistics behind them.
Presenters
- Jenn Kirts, Director of Program, Chippewa Nature Center
- Michelle Fournier, School and Public Program Director, Chippewa Nature Center
- Steve Frisbee, Nature Day Camp Director, Chippewa Nature Center
Confluence in Action: The Executive Solutions Lab
At a confluence, currents meet, and something stronger emerges.
This executive-level working session brings top leaders together to combine insight, experience, and perspective to move big challenges forward. Bring a complex issue, a stalled initiative, or a strategic priority that needs focused attention. In a confidential, peer-driven space, you’ll engage in structured problem-solving designed to move you from uncertainty to clarity.
This is not a discussion session; it’s a working session. You will leave with a defined solution, a clear action plan, or a realistic timeline for completion.
Who should attend?
This session is for top-level leaders only: the BOSS. Executive Directors, CEOs, and the highest-ranking manager at your organization are invited to participate.
This session is ideal for leaders who:
- Need focused time to move a major project forward
- Are navigating a complex personnel or governance issue
- Are planning a capital expansion or major fundraising initiative
- Are restructuring staff or board or clarifying organizational roles
- Are developing a strategic pivot or long-term sustainability plan
- Have an initiative that has stalled and needs momentum
- Are struggling with prioritizing their time and resources
If you are carrying responsibility for final decisions, this space is for you.
Experienced Executive Directors and CEOs who may not have a pressing project are also strongly encouraged to attend to offer peer support, perspective, and hard-earned wisdom. Your experience is invaluable at this confluence.
Come ready to work and contribute, and leave with clarity.
Learning Objective
The goal of this workshop is for participants to walk away with a defined solution, a clear action plan, or a realistic timeline for completion.
Presenters
- Jen Levy, ANCA Executive Director
- Kay Carlson, Nonprofit Executive Coach & Consultant, Kay Carlson Consulting LLC & Kessel Strategies
Cultivating Knowledge: Agriculture Education in a Public Garden
At Dow Gardens, agriculture isn’t just something we grow, it’s something we share.
In this session and tour, discover how we bring agricultural education to visitors of all ages and abilities. From our littlest learners in the Growin’ Gardeners program to hands-on experiences in the Herb Garden, guests engage through smell, taste, and exploration. Our one-of-a-kind orchard tells the story of apples, from the earliest varieties grown in Khastistan, to those cultivated by Herbert H. Dow, to the fruits found on grocery store shelves today.
Join us to see how public gardens can serve as living classrooms, connecting communities to the story, science, and joy of growing food.
Learning Objectives
- Engage All Ages and Abilities: Demonstrate strategies for designing educational programs that are inclusive, hands-on, and accessible to visitors ranging from young children to adults.
- Multi-Sensory Learning: Show how incorporating smell, taste, touch, and visual exploration can deepen understanding and enjoyment of plants, herbs, and agricultural systems.
- Storytelling Through Plant Collections: Illustrate how gardens and orchards can convey historical, scientific, and cultural narratives, linking plant varieties to broader agricultural and food system knowledge.
- Living Classroom Design: Provide methods for integrating edible landscapes, demonstration gardens, and orchards as interactive learning spaces that connect visitors directly to agriculture and sustainability concepts.
Presenters
- Elizabeth Beans, Dow Gardens Director of Grounds
- Debbie Anderson, Education and Volunteer Manager
- Jessie Brown, Horticulturist
- Chad Gluch, Orchard Specialist
Wednesday, August 26
Program Facilities: Creating Spaces Where All People Are Welcome
Join Chippewa Nature Center's Program Team for an in-depth tour of the indoor and outdoor spaces that support their work. Stops include the newly built Nature Educator Center, Visitor Center, Nature Play Area, and more. Along the way, team members will share insight about what they love about each space, how they have solved challenges over the years, and where they still hope to grow.
From storage to public spaces, school programs, public programs and camp, you’ll dig into how CNC’s staff strives to create spaces where all people feel welcome. Participants will leave with ideas for making the most of their own facilities.
Learning Objectives
- Explore how to manage storage, work space, and programming space while meeting the needs of a variety of visitors.
- Identify how to encourage longer visits in public spaces.
- Identify how to develop multi-use spaces and support the logistics behind them.
Presenters
- Jenn Kirts, Director of Program, Chippewa Nature Center
- Michelle Fournier, School and Public Program Director, Chippewa Nature Center
- Steve Frisbee, Nature Day Camp Director, Chippewa Nature Center
Exploring and Expanding Nature Preschool: A Look at Pedagogy and Staffing
This workshop will focus on the pedagogy and staffing structures employed by a variety of nature-based early childhood programs. Hear how philosophies have evolved over time and how nature-based programs are shaping and being shaped by their communities. The pros and cons of staffing structures will be discussed with a focus on delivering a high-quality program through skilled team members.
Learning Objectives
- Explore the advantages and disadvantages of different staffing structures.
- Examine how a variety of preschools engage with their community through funding, coalitions, licensing, and more.
- Identify different pedagogy and teaching philosophies that support high quality early childhood education.
Presenter
- Madison Powell, Nature Preschool Director, Chippewa Nature Center
Insights into Infrastructure: Maintaining Facilities and Infrastructure that Serve the Mission
Join the Facilities Team for an in-depth tour of Chippewa Nature Center’s buildings from an operations and facility maintenance perspective. We will spend time in the Visitor Center, Resource Building, and new Nature Education Center as well as CNC’s wood shop, vehicle maintenance area, welding shop, and other maintenance areas. Learn how CNC performs most maintenance in-house, including hazard tree management, and organizes efforts to ensure we are good stewards of our facilities, while serving the mission of the organization.
Learning Objectives
- Examine various aspects of facility maintenance, highlighting how to do most maintenance in-house.
- Learn how building maintenance can inform new facility construction.
Presenters
- Isaac Wolfgang, Operations Manager, Chippewa Nature Center
- Tom Lenon, Director of Land and Facilities, Chippewa Nature Center
Accessible by Design: Exploring Dow Gardens Without Limits
Discover how Dow Gardens is intentionally designing to welcome guests of all abilities. In this presentation and tour, we’ll highlight the thoughtful choices that make accessibility a priority—from our ADA-accessible Canopy Walk, the longest in the nation, to smooth, navigable path surfaces, a Changing Space Restroom with a hoist, and more. Learn how our gardens are crafted to ensure everyone can experience the beauty, wonder, and adventure Dow Gardens has to offer.
Learning Objectives
- Identify effective accessibility features in gardens, such as ADA-compliant pathways, ramps, and restrooms.
- Understand design strategies that balance aesthetics, safety, and accessibility in outdoor spaces.
- Evaluate how accessible elements enhance visitor experience for guests of all abilities.
- Recognize best practices in inclusive garden planning that can be adapted to different landscapes.
- Apply principles of accessibility to assess or improve other public gardens, parks, or nature spaces.
Presenters
- Elizabeth Lumbert, Dow Gardens Executive Director
- Elizabeth Beans, Dow Gardens Director of Grounds
- Carolynn Paten, Dow Gardens Director of Programming & Guest Services
Alden B. Dow Home & Studio: Architecture, Education, and Mission in Practice
This field workshop offers a guided experience at the Alden B. Dow Home & Studio in Midland. Participants will tour the home and grounds in small groups, with time for close observation and conversation. The tour introduces Dow’s approach to organic architecture and how his philosophy shapes the space.
Following the tour, participants will take part in a facilitated exercise using written exchanges between Alden B. Dow and Frank Lloyd Wright. This activity invites reflection on how ideas about design and ethics carry forward into present-day work.
The group will then gather for a discussion on how the organization stays grounded in its mission. Staff will share how they use Dow’s “A Way of Life Cycle” and archival materials to connect past and present, along with how education guides their programming. The conversation will also touch on funding and their unique approach to interpretation.
Participants will leave with insight into how Dow’s ideas about design and environment can inform their own work, and how spaces can shape the way people think and learn.
Learning Objectives
- Explore how design philosophy can be expressed through the built environment and visitor experience.
- Reflect on how historical materials can inform present-day practice and decision-making.
- Gain insight into how interpretation, funding, and operations align to support long-term sustainability.
Field Trips
Field Trips add to your professional development experience while taking advantage of unique opportunities to visit additional sites, spend time with local experts, and interact with peers. Field Trips take place on Friday, August 28.
You will need to select your choice of Field Trips when you register. Attending a Field Trip is not required.
Kayak the Chippewa River
9am-12pm | $25/person
Join Chippewa Nature Center naturalists for a 6-mile kayak trip down the Chippewa River. Along the way, we will check out CNC’s properties from the river's perspective while keeping our eyes out for green and great blue herons, bald eagles, swallows, and kingfishers. Map turtles and a variety of fish may also be spotted during this trip. We will start the trip at CNC’s Universal Kayak Launch and end at CNC’s Canoe Landing.
Space is limited to 10 participants.
Depart from the CNC Visitor Center at 9am. Participants will return to the Visitor Center at 12pm. We will offer a shuttle from Summit hotels to CNC.
Paddling the River in a Voyageur Canoe
10-11:30am | $25/person
Spend the morning paddling Chippewa Nature Center’s 29-foot fiberglass reproduction of a birch bark canoe. These canoes were used by voyageurs to haul loads of trade goods and animal pelts on these rivers in the 18th and 19th centuries. Paddle past the location of an American Fur Trade Post and under downtown Midland’s five modern bridges.
Space is limited to 10 participants.
Depart the dock by Midland’s Tridge at 10am. Transportation to/from the dock is not provided, but is walkable from downtown Midland — it’s a tenth-mile from The H Hotel, and a half-mile from the Fairfield Inn.
Exploring Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge
8am-1:30pm | $25/person
Hit the trails by exploring Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge! This ranger-led guided hike will meander through restored wetlands and bottomland hardwood forests that provide critical habitat for migratory waterfowl and a myriad of other wildlife species.
The hike is 4 miles round-trip, with periodic stops along the way to learn about the restoration work occurring in the refuge. Close-toed shoes are recommended.
Space is limited to 20 participants.
Transportation is not provided — participants may carpool to the refuge. CNC will drive one minivan with five seats. Depart the Fairfield Inn at 8am, and return at 1:30pm. Driving time to the refuge is approximately an hour and ten minutes.
Authentically Urban: Belle Isle Nature Center and the Outdoor Adventure Center in Downtown Detroit
10am-2pm | $35/person
Expand your Summit experience by touring two unique ANCA member organizations in the metro Detroit area.
We’ll start at Belle Isle Nature Center, a renowned attraction that invites the community to explore and celebrate the nature we can find right in our own backyards. Managed by the Detroit Zoological Society, the nature center is situated on Belle Isle Park, a 982-acre island on the Detroit River just by downtown Detroit.
Having recently undergone a $2.5-million renovation, the nature center features interactive exhibits designed to highlight the way that humans and nature intersect in urban spaces. See Detroit-native reptiles and amphibians up close, explore interactive and perspective-enhancing features that showcase often overlooked city/nature spaces, and check out the trails rich with natural beauty under the Detroit city skyline.
We’ll then visit the Outdoor Adventure Center (OAC), an expansive center that gives you a taste of Michigan’s great outdoors in the heart of the city. Managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the OAC allows you to experience exciting outdoor adventures with hands-on activities, exhibits, and simulators. Within the center you’ll walk behind and touch a waterfall, step into a fishing boat and reel in a big fish, hit the trail on a mountain bike or snowmobile, and much more.
At both centers you’ll engage with staff, see behind the scenes, and gain a firsthand understanding of the operations that make these organizations acclaimed regional attractions.
Transportation is not provided to Detroit or between Belle Isle Nature Center and the Outdoor Adventure Center — participants will need their own transportation. Driving time from Chippewa Nature Center to Detroit is approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes. Driving time between Belle Isle Nature Center and the Outdoor Adventure Center is approximately 15 minutes. Lunch will be provided.