EDMONDS — Thomas Murphy, chairman of the anthropology department at Edmonds Community College, was selected for the Washington Association of Conservation Districts’ Conservation Teacher of the Year Award.
He will now be considered for the National Association of Conservation Districts award.
Murphy founded the Learn and Serve Environmental Anthropology Field School in 2006 and the Center for Service-Learning in 2007 and has helped produce an annual powwow at EdCC for the past 12 years.
In 2008, he received the Excellence in Education award from the college’s trustees.
The LEAF School partners with tribes, governments, nonprofits, businesses and educational institutions to get students involved hands-on in service-learning projects that help to make communities more sustainable.
Murphy’s students have played key roles in a variety of service-learning projects, including the design and installation of an ethnobotanical garden, based on traditional Coast Salish knowledge, at the city of Lynnwood’s Gold Park and an assessment of possible sources of flame retardant contamination at Brackett’s Landing in Edmonds.
“Students need an opportunity for high-quality, meaningful hands-on educational experiences in the outdoors,” Murphy said in a college press release.
Murphy has a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Washington.
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