We are delighted to welcome four new board members to the RIEEA team this year! Please join us in congratulating Beth Alaimo, Katie Cardamone, Amanda Peavey, and Sara Sweetman, each of whom brings a unique and valued set of experiences to the table. Read on to learn more about the work of these four incredible educators!
Beth Alaimo (she/her)
Education Program Manager, Ocean Hour Farm
Beth Alaimo is part of the team at Ocean Hour Farm, a center for education, research and regenerative agriculture that highlights the critical connection between land management and ocean health. The role combines many of her passions and career experiences including environmental education, farming, community engagement and systems thinking. When she is not working, Beth enjoys going on outdoor adventures with friends and learning new things that build on her own ecoliteracy!
Katie Cardamone (she/her)
Founder and Director, Nuestro Mundo Public Charter School
Katie Cardamone is an experienced elementary educator, working 15 years as an elementary Spanish immersion teacher. After graduating with her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Clark University, she lived and worked in Guatemala. She served as the Program Coordinator for the Multistate Association of Bilingual Education, Northeast (MABE). Currently, she is the Co-Founder and Program Director at Nuestro Mundo Public Charter School. Katie is passionate about the key outcome of a strong, innovative dual language program: empowering multilingual and multicultural learners to understand their importance as global citizens.
Amanda Peavey (she/her)
Education Director, Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council
Amanda Peavey is the Education Director for the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council (WRWC). WRWC is a non-profit organization based in Providence that creates positive environmental, social and economic change by revitalizing the Woonasquatucket River, its Greenway and its communities. Graduating in 2017 from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Amanda has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Education. She has worked with multiple non-profit organizations throughout her career, including the Massachusetts Audubon Society and Buttonwood Park Zoo, in their conservation and education departments.
In her work, Amanda focuses on environmental education through positive connections to nature and spreading awareness of the crucial importance of our local, natural resources. This work has always been Amanda’s passion and she is very excited to be a part of developing the next generations of environmental stewards. Amanda bridges this passion with her passion for crochet by creating plushies of wildlife.
Sara Sweetman (she/her)
Associate Professor, URI Feinstein College of Education
Sara B Sweetman, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Education in the College of Education and Professional Studies at the University of Rhode Island (URI) and directs the Guiding Education in Math and Science Network (GEMS-Net), a school-university partnership focused continual improvement in STEM teaching and learning. As director of GEMS-Net, Sara conducts rapid cycle mixed-methodology research to inform the project’s continuous improvement cycle and to work in partnership with 13 public school districts to provide professional learning opportunities for over 15,000 Pre-K through grade 8 teachers and administrators each year.
Additionally, Sara is an advisor for a variety of children’s media development and productions, including the CBP-PBS Ready to Learn Initiative, Sesame Street, Molly of Denali and the Too Small to Fail Campaign. She works collaboratively with producers, writers, station educators, and researchers to ensure that content being delivered through television shows, digital games, and other media sources are designed to provide impactful and meaningful learning opportunities for children and their families. Beginning in the Fall of 2024, Sara will lead the new Environmental Education degree program at URI. She enjoys sharing her passion for learning about human-made and natural environments and empowering people to embrace science for the betterment of their lives. Sara’s research interests focus on mixed-gender collaboration in STEM, children’s understanding of climate change, and multimodal engagement for learning.