Dear APHE Members,
I could not be more excited to begin my term as APHE’s new president! This organization means so much to me both personally and professionally, and I look forward to being a small piece in its growth and development over the next two years.
As many of you know, APHE recognizes its calendar year from one annual conference to another, and this past year (May 2024- May 2025) was a very big one for us! I’d love to highlight some of our accomplishments over the past 12 months, and also share some exciting news, ideas, and projects for the coming year.
In May 2024, we officially launched our new EmpowerED blog, and have had the privilege of publishing 17 blog posts since then; sharing a diverse array of topics and perspectives from professionals in humane education, animal welfare, volunteer management, wildlife preservation, publishing, and more! If you have a topic you’d like to see in our blog or would like to write an article for us, please let us know!
Throughout the summer of 2024, we shared our amazing 2023 Educator’s Choice winners (this makes great social media content for when a lot of our membership is busy with summer camps), and have just started sharing 2024’s winners. There are some incredibly inspirational folks working in humane education, and we are so happy to be able to provide them with some well-deserved recognition! Each year, the participation in this competition has grown significantly, and because of that, we are excited to plan a more elaborate celebration for our winners next year. Stay tuned for more details!
Our Board of Directors wrapped up 2024 with a visit to Albuquerque, New Mexico for our mid-year full board meeting. On top of the basic tasks like reviewing committee reports and planning for the upcoming conference, highlights of the trip included visiting Sandia Peak Mountain at 10,378 ft. and helping find a home for a friendly outdoor kitty (who we all fell in love with and named Alan)!
Recently, many of you joined us at our annual conference in Kansas City at the end of April. As has been my experience with every APHE conference I’ve attended, I left feeling so full of amazement, appreciation, and inspiration thanks to the brilliant presentations and the conversations I had through all of the networking opportunities. APHE conferences always help to remind me of the goodness that exists in this world, which is truly something we need more of now more than ever.
This year’s conference theme was “Kindness & Community in Kansas City,” and our attendees and speakers showed out in full force - completely embodying what it means to build community and to show kindness to one another. While we haven’t officially finalized a theme (or dates) for 2026’s conference yet, we have a location picked and are excited to expand upon the momentum that was built in Kansas City. We hope many of you will have the opportunity to visit us in Oakland, California for 2026’s annual conference! More details will be coming very soon!
At the conference, we said farewell to three amazing board members who contributed so much during their tenure on the board, including past APHE president Inge Koopman-Leyva, previous Membership Secretary Emily Strongin, and 2024 conference chair Christine Davis.
While goodbyes are always hard, it does mean that we got the opportunity to welcome some new individuals to our team! We are so excited to have Ashley Holm, Caroline Kelley, Jesika Keener, and Karen Verderame all join us as new board members!
Finally, we ended the annual conference with two big announcements. First- APHE has a new merchandise store on Bonfire! Our Marketing & Communications committee put so much work into this project, and I personally could not be more excited to have more APHE swag in my wardrobe! There are so many fun designs, and we plan to update with new designs at least once or twice a year, so keep an eye on the shop! If you have any genius design ideas- let us know!
Secondly, we announced our initiative to provide support for regional workshops throughout the next year; encouraging our members to create more networking opportunities so that we can all continue to build and grow our programs and ideas together! One is already in the works for the Southeast area in September, and there are rumors of a California regional workshop in October. The website and our social media channels will be updated once we have more details!
As you can see, it was quite a busy year, and we have a lot we are looking forward to accomplishing over the next year too! We could not accomplish so much without the dedicated work of our board of directors, as well as the support of our advisors, donors, sponsors, and members. Want to join in on the fun and get more involved with all the fun things we’re doing? Visit our website for information on joining the board of directors or our advisory council!
Wishing you a wonderful summer season — whether it includes summer camps/summer programming or fun vacations — and hoping to connect with some of you soon through social media, Groupsite, Coffee & Connect, or at the Southeast Regional workshop!
All the best,
Kylie Wiest
