Ken Leinbach

As the Executive Director of the Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee, Ken Leinbach is a leader in promoting community-based environmental education. In ten years Ken led the community effort to build the Urban Ecology Center from an old trailer in a crime-ridden city park, into a state-of-the-art five million dollar “green” community center that this past year served over 70,000 visitors.  The Eastside Center, known for its innovation and creative approach to environmental education, provides consistent contact to natural land for many thousands of central city students.  The school program, combined with the wide array of adult and community programs, have changed this once urban blight into a college level field research station and grade school outdoor classroom.  In this formula environmental education becomes the tool for urban revitalization.  The successful program has spawned a second branch on the West side of town and a third is on its way for Milwaukee’s South side in the Menomonee Valley.   Already the Urban Ecology Center is being modeled in Racine Wisconsin, Columbus Ohio, Syracuse New York and Baltimore Maryland, with interest developing in cities from across the globe.    

Ken has over 25 years experience directing, teaching and developing science and environmental programs in Wisconsin, Michigan, Virginia and Kentucky.  In 1995 Ken was awarded the National Nature Educator of the Year Award from the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in New York.  This followed his receipt of the Thomas Jefferson Medal for outstanding contributions to natural science education for an innovative Outdoor Laboratory he set up for schools in Virginia.  Many more awards have followed with his work at the Urban Ecology Center.  Ken, a certified high school science teacher, received a Masters degree in Environmental Education from Prescott College in Arizona and holds a Bachelor of Science from Antioch College in Ohio.

Ken is pleased to be connected to as a MRCSE Wise Elder lite and sees much value in our collaborative...

Our world is way too interconnected to "go it alone".  We need to exchange ideas. The questions need to be asked and wrestled with.  It is clear that change is needed, but to successfully change requires role modeling, spiritual support and behavioral support.  This value of taking time out with other people who are as smart or smarter that I am to work these questions out, philosophically, academically and practically is such a no brainer that the question itself seems kind of silly.  This kind of collaborative discussion is critical and if done right can lead to impactful action.

I am definitely interested and able (flattered in fact) to be the MRCSE "wise elder" lite. 

Ken shares three very concrete questions that he is exploring in his own work and life that he also feels would be worthwhile for MRCSE members to consider.

1)  Is the work that I am doing in the world all I can do?  Or is there a way to leverage either the success of the Urban Ecology Center or my own personal gifts and experiences to impact/educate/inspire a larger sphere? 

or stated another way

What is the best strategy to communicate effectively what I believe to be the urgent need for rapid behavior change in our society at both the individual and collective level?  I believe that my chosen method of role modeling and education through the organizational tool of the Urban Ecology Center is effective but its impact, while impressive by some measures, is still statistically insignificant to the global crisis that confronts us.  So, with perhaps 20 more years of productive service left in my life (if I am fortunate), is my time best spent taking the Urban Ecology Center model to scale (proactively replicating in other cities across the nation/globe ... think habitat for humanity as an example)?  Or is there something else in addition that I can do to hasten the change that needs to happen?    

2)  I do not feel that I can tell others to change if I cannot change myself.  Thus, I continue to advance my own behavior as best I can from the knowledge I gain.  For this reason, for example, I do not own a car, have reduced my family's garbage to less than a grocery bag on average a week, eat to the best of my ability local organic food, etc.  That said, I still live largely behind a computer screen, travel in airplanes, enjoy the benefits of energy from cheap fossil fuels (movies, refrigeration, lighting, etc.).  How do I continue to advance my work, while going to the next level of personal change? What would this mean? No travel? No conferences to exchange ideas? No consulting others in successful change strategies face to face? No vacations as my family has defined them allowing my kids to experience new places, cultures far from home?  Prepare all my own food that I grow?  Cut my own fire wood without the aid of petroleum based equipment?  Walk or ride everywhere I need to go?  Wow, now there is no time left to do anything but satisfy my own survival needs.  So much for having a bigger impact.  I struggle with this conundrum.  

3)  In many ways I feel that the number one problem facing our world has to do with a particular invasive species that has found amazing ways to adapt to extreme environments while eliminating many other species along the way.  This species is way overpopulated and needs a method of significant reduction.  Should we use chemical poison like we do for reed canary grass or garlic mustard?  Electric shocking like we do for the Asian Carp?  Managed hunting as we do for game?  Sterilization as we do with some mammals in areas of overpopulation?  I am talking about homo sapiens and of course and use the aforementioned examples facetiously, but only in part.  Human population control flies in the face of basic human rights, many deep seated religious beliefs, and generally accepted ethical standards.  If you bring this up seriously it is considered crazy talk by most  ... yet by my way of thinking it seems equally crazy to believe that species survival is possible without some kind of population limits.  How does this very serious conversation get broached on a local and global level.

In preparation for the 2010 Summer Conference Wise Elders and Story Tellers are sharing their sources of inspiration in what often seems like troubled times and their gifts they share freely to others in the pursuit of a sustainable future. Ken shared the following...

I find inspiration from working with kids, spending time in nature, and working and playing along side others that I respect.  I also find inspiration from others who dedicate and commit significant amounts of time to a particular gift they possess.  It seems not to matter tremendously what this gift is as long as it is not destructive to the world.  I'm inspired by great chef's, artists, jugglers, drummers, musicians, orators, poets, and those who have mastered the basic art of living. 

I am willing to help in any way I can.  Anyone is free to connect by saying they are friends of Christine Kelly and they are "in" in my book.

Ken shared the following two article "It's Kind of Fun to Do the Impossible" chronically the story of the Urban Ecology Center and "Playful Prose Positing Purposely Profound Pedagogy: The Meaning of Life Based Upon the Letter "P"" to stimulat our thinking.