Lifelong Learning and Artistry with Anna Switzer, PhD
Unleash Your Creative and Intellectual Potential
Organizations Anna has worked with...
Experiential Education
Discomfort through the lens of curiosity brings learning. Discover how to expand your life experiences...
Achieve Personal Growth
Explore all of Anna's online development courses specifically designed for professional educators.
Expand Your Knowledge
Discover Anna's thoughtfully created selection of books and learning kits to aid in your learning and growth.
Inspire Your Creativity
Immerse yourself in the serene and captivating watercolor and mixed media world of Anna's art.
Anna Switzer, PhD: Educator, Scientist, Adventurer and Artist
Anna Switzer, PhD is an outdoor educator, science educator, and educator of educators. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics, a masters in Oceanography, and a PhD in Education. Alongside teaching, the outdoors is where Anna derives her most consistent inspiration. She has spent thousands of hours exploring diverse landscapes and waterways; including incalculable time with students of all ages.
Anna has worked for several prominent organizations including National Geographic Society, Outward Bound, and EL Education. At National Geographic, she was the Program Manager for Outdoor and Experiential Education. She is also certified as a Nature-Connected Life Coach.
Anna loves sharing life-enhancing ideas, tools, and practices with others. License to Learn: Elevating Discomfort in Service of Lifelong Learning (Atmosphere Press, 2021) is her first book. She is writing a second book that includes a big portion on the processes of nature connection and making decisions with empathy and the environment in mind. Anna is also an artist; watercolor and mixed media are her favorites, especially as whimsical expressions of her love of the outdoors.
-
Leaders, lifelong learners, environmentalists and educators come to Anna to learn accessible practices that build their empathy and efficacy.
-
Using an experiential approach to connect them to the natural world, their deeper selves, and new ways to solve problems, Anna assists them in personal and professional development; sometimes both simultaneously!
-
As a result they make decisions that more reliably benefit self, others, the environment, and the world-at-large.
At root, Anna’s mission relates to helping heal the human spirit and the natural world through facilitation of mutually positive experiences between the two, in addition to the creation and utilization of tools for reflection which invite new behavior. She does this through books, courses, toolkits, and in-person offerings.
Inspired by this quote, Anna maintains an attitude of lifelong learning:
“There is more to us than we know. If we can be made to see it, perhaps for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less.”
- Kurt Hahn,
the Founder of Outward Bound
Anna's Inspiring Book!
License to Learn aims to improve your ability to learn from your own life experience...
...the genre-breaking format will lure you in with true tales of all kinds to use as examples. With this map as your guide, you can change your relationship to discomfort. And you can become your own best teacher.
Also available on Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Nobles and Audiobook.
Testimonials
Here what others have to say about Anna...
“Anna has done a significant amount of resource development for us to support our community building and educator training work. She's leveraged her educator experience and various other areas of expertise to contribute great ideas and craft thoughtful, well-executed deliverables for us. We've also appreciated how incredibly reliable, independent, and collaborative she's been in the process. She's always open to feedback and interested in lifting up additional voices, particularly those closest to end users. I would enthusiastically recommend working with her to any of my colleagues or peers.”
Jessica Bardy
Director of Strategic Partnerships,
NYC Outward Bound Schools
“Anna is one of those Rare humans - she is one of the Wise Ones. Her Connecting with Nature course was crafted in such a way that I was able to choose my own “track”, after some initial coursework. In this way, my experience was both deeply personal and highly beneficial in illuminating my path as an educator. Her guidance along this journey was thoughtful and she gracefully encouraged me to think both big picture And focus on the moment! ”
Kathryn O.
Graduate of the Teachers and Students Connecting with Nature course