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In celebration of PEI's 20th anniversary last year, our 2023 annual report includes sections on our history, current work and future. The following is an excerpt from the history section of that report.
From the beginning, PEI has been rooted in collaboration. Its board of directors in its early years as a nonprofit connected directors of the leading education associations and multiple state agencies with leaders in the natural resource management industries, an unusual and compelling combination.
“Our first few board meetings were extremely popular because these people had never met each other,” recalls Ferguson. “We had the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the director of the Department of Fish & Wildlife, the Washington State Principals Association, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, and representatives from the several timber companies.” Ferguson also said of the early meetings, “One of our strategies was to never have a board meeting without an educator present. Our board would then hear directly from educators about what they were doing in their classrooms. That really energized everybody.”
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