Rose Brusaferro, PhD

Rose Brusaferro, PhD, is an environmental educator and research scientist in the Baltimore-DC metro, specifically the ancestral lands of the Piscataway-Conoy Tribe. She is currently the Director of Nature Preschool at Woodend Nature Sanctuary in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Dr. Brusaferro’s Doctorate in Sustainability Education and Master of Science in Environmental Science have prepared her for leadership, including as an Environmental Manager in the Shenandoah National Park and Sustainability Coordinator in the University System of Maryland. Rose is a member of the North American Association for Environmental Education, the Eastern Region Association for Forest and Nature Schools, and the Maryland Association for Outdoor and Environmental Education. She currently serves on an advisory task force that is assisting the Maryland Department of Education in designing and implementing a pilot program for licensing all-outdoor nature-based early childhood programs in the state.

Dr. Brusaferro’s doctoral research, entitled “Shaping ‘Little’ Ecological Worldviews: A Case Study of Ecological Identity Indicators at Forest Preschool.” utilized narrative inquiry to triangulate data from children, their teachers, and their mothers to explore how nature-play influences the way young children view themselves in relation to their local ecology. She has shared her 2019 findings through college lectures, conference workshops, virtual classes, electronic articles, research symposiums, and keynote presentations. Dr. Brusaferro has keynoted and presented more than twenty times in regional and national contexts, including on ecological identity development in forest preschools, ecological worldviews of young children, urban farming, women in sustainability, urban land reclamation, and biophilia.  She has presented at In Bloom, for the Sierra Club, the UC Schools, both the Maryland and North American Association of Environmental Education, Nature Connection Leadership Conference, University of Delaware Lab School, Natural Start, Natural Wonders Summit Blue Sky Forum, Clean Water Coalition Conference, First Steps South Carolina, and for the Eastern Region Association of Forest and Nature Schools Nature-based Teacher Certification Course.

After earning her doctorate from Prescott College in 2020, Dr. Brusaferro joined a startup project in Baltimore City that revitalized a seven-acre abandoned forest patch and three-acre residential lot with a trail system, nature play space, outdoor classroom, and urban farm for public use by the neighborhood’s predominantly African American residents. As the environmental education specialist on the BLISS Meadows project, she partnered with federal entities such as the National Park Service and governmental departments including the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to start programs for forest stewardship, public school outreach, early childhood outdoor education, teacher training, farm and garden education, and “green” workforce development.

Dr. Brusaferro has served as a Mentor for the Young Professionals of Color Program, as a reviewer for the Journal of Sustainability Education, and as a Master Naturalist for University of Maryland Extension. She has a special interest in grant-writing and currently serves on the Institutional Review Board for Southwestern College.