With decades of accumulated experience, including designing programs from the ground up, the Urban Ecology Center Institute team will help you envision and realize the transformation your community needs. We start with a clear mission to connect people in cities to nature and each other, and extend the mission to your city and nature in your neighborhood.
Ken Leinbach
Executive Director
Ken has led the Urban Ecology Center since 1998, when it occupied a double-wide trailer in Riverside Park. He is an inspirational speaker and consultant, and a nationally recognized science educator and leader. He is the author of Urban Ecology.
Reach out to connect with Ken: institute@urbanecologycenter.org
Matt Flower
Environmental Educator and Early Childhood Specialist
Matt has over 15 years of experience as an environmental educator. On behalf of the Urban Ecology Center, he developed the Preschool Environmental Education Program (PEEP) for childcare centers, learning centers, preschools, special needs classrooms, and inter-generational facilities.
Reach out to connect with Matt: institute@urbanecologycenter.org
Meghan Forseth
Project Manager of the Urban Ecology Center Chrysalis
Meghan is super-awesome at keeping things on track, getting things done, and making it all fun. She has served in numerous roles at the Urban Ecology Center, going back to her time as a summer intern during college and working her way up to Riverside Park’s Branch Manager until 2021. Along the way, she worked as Director of Education at Discovery World in Milwaukee and as the Chicago Region Partnership Coordinator at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Meghan lives in the suburbs of Milwaukee in the beautiful kettle moraine area in a house her husband, Josh, designed. During her free time you can find her outside with her adorable two kids, Joy and Jude, and enjoying an old-fashioned with Josh.
Reach out to connect with Meghan: institute@urbanecologycenter.org
Chris Young, Ph.D.
Project Manager of the Urban Ecology Center Institute
Professor Emeritus of Biology at Alverno College
Affiliated Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Chris has been teaching biology, natural history, evolution, climate change, and science education at Alverno College since 2000, partnering with UEC staff on numerous projects. He joined the UEC Institute team in 2017. Chris has written two books on the history of ecology and environmental science, and is co-editor of two volumes in the history of biology. He has an affiliated faculty appointment in the Department of History at the Univesity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He earned a doctorate in the history of science and technology from the University of Minnesota.
Reach out to connect with Chris: institute@urbanecologycenter.org
Come join us as we co-create a better world!
The Urban Ecology Center™ Institute is an effort to share the model developed in Milwaukee. With three distinct branches in Milwaukee, the UEC connects people in cities to nature and each other.
Sharing the Urban Ecology Center model 