Dr. Kathryn Everett Receives 2022 Helen Cleaver Distinguished Teaching Award
We Are So Proud of Dr. Kathryn Everett
EUREKA, Ill. — Dr. Kathryn Everett is Eureka College’s 2022 Helen Cleaver Distinguished Teaching Award winner.
Everett, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Director of Sustainability at Eureka College, received the award at EC’s 161st commencement ceremony last month.
The award recognizes excellence, creativity and innovation in teaching. It includes a financial stipend, and the award-winner is the speaker at the college’s fall opening convocation. The award is named for a 1928 Eureka College alumna who had a long, successful teaching career and supported the college throughout her life. Faculty, staff and students make nominations, and a selection committee chooses the winner.
“It was an absolute honor to be awarded the Helen Cleaver Distinguished Teacher Award this year at commencement,” Everett said. "It was particularly special to have not only my fellow colleagues and administration present, but also so many students and my family (whom I had no idea were in the auditorium the entire time).
“My time at Eureka so far has been filled with amazing opportunities to be innovative, including the freedom and support to create experiential courses and design internships for my students and advisees. I especially appreciate the ability to create community partnerships and see our institution transitioning into one that will be best able to serve today's and tomorrow's students well into the future. I look forward to improving more each year and seeing where the future leads our campus and our graduates.”
Everett has been teaching at Eureka College for six years and has been full-time for five. She has been the Director of Sustainability for three years. Originally from central Illinois, Everett spent her college career and over 10 post-graduate years living and working in the southeast coast of the US and the Caribbean. She is on the ParkLands Foundation Board of Trustees, where she serves as the Secretary and Stewardship Chair.
After receiving her bachelor’s (B.S.) degree in biology at Marquette University in 2001, Everett received her M.A. in Leadership with a Sustainability focus in 2006. She completed her Ph.D. in wildlife ecology and conservation (with a focus on human dimensions of conservation and environmental sustainability) at the University of Florida in 2011. Through her work and studies, Everett was able to frequently travel internationally and spent close to a year living in Caribbean Nicaragua for her doctoral research on sea turtle conservation.
At Eureka, Everett has helped the College receive multiple grants from Trees Forever for on-campus natural areas. With work and support from her students, a community member with geographic information system mapping and Trees Forever, she helped the campus earn Arbor Day Foundation designation of Tree Campus Higher Education.
Everett has had student advisees intern at USDA Ag Lab in Peoria, ParkLands Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, local organic farms, including Henry Brockman, Down River Farms and Sunny Lane Farm, Effingham Trust, and many other local, national and international locations.
Her doctoral work was published in Conservation and Society, and she has presented at conferences and workshops for multiple disciplines over the past decade. Everett has co-developed national curriculum tools including an online educational module, Nonpoint Source Pollution: An Education Module (2002), and an interactive DVD on loggerhead sea turtle biology and conservation (Journey of the Loggerhead, 2004).
Everett lives in Washington with her partner, Bryan, and two children, Ryburn (9) and Lucy (6). She enjoys gardening, local food and farms, reading novels, travel, and being active outdoors with her family.
Located in Eureka, Illinois, and chartered in 1855, Eureka College cultivates excellence in learning, service and leadership while providing students uniquely personalized and custom educational opportunities.
Originally founded by abolitionist members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Eureka College holds the unique distinction of being the first college in Illinois and only the third in the nation to admit men and women on an equal basis. The College, which is located on nearly 70 wooded acres in central Illinois, is the smallest of only 24 colleges and universities to ever award a bachelor’s degree to a future President of the United States.