Above image: Dr. Stephen Grace holding his award for the Robert McAfee Environmental Education Lifetime Service Award.
Each year AEEA recognizes individuals who have made an impact in environmental and outdoor education. These individuals facilitate participant leadership and involvement, support hands-on learning, promote critical and creative thinking in students, partner with other organizations and individuals, address problems of local environmental importance, and develop and implement innovative programs or projects. Below is the story of one of 2026’s Outstanding Environmental Educators.
Dr. Stephen Grace,
Associate Professor of Biology, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Founding Director of the UA Little Rock Campus Garden
2026 Robert McAfee Environmental Education Lifetime Service Award Recipient
Roots and Shoots: The Life’s Work of Dr. Stephen Grace
Dr. Stephen Grace grew up in the suburbs, but he was fortunate to live in a neighborhood with green space that allowed him to explore the creeks and the wooded parks nearby. Early on he developed a fascination with plants that helped forge a connection to nature and encouraged his developing curiosity. As a Boy Scout, one of his favorite activities was the monthly camping trips where he learned basic outdoor skills. He also kept a small garden in the backyard, beginning a lifelong passion for gardening.
For more than 25 years, Dr. Grace has been a biology professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, teaching courses in Botany, Plant Physiology, Soil Biology, and Sustainable Agriculture. Most of his students have been Biology majors who are interested in pursuing a biomedical career. They sign up for his classes because they have to, and that has led to some very rewarding moments as an educator.
“One of the most satisfying comments I have received from students over the years,” Dr. Grace says, “is how much they enjoyed learning botany even though it was a subject they did not think they would be interested in.”
Dr. Grace, second from right, with UA at Little Rock Campus Garden workers.
Connection in the Garden
As the founding Director of the UA Little Rock Campus Garden, Dr. Grace finds satisfying challenges and community connections through gardening. One of his favorite outdoor activities is preparing the soil and planting seedlings, sometimes hundreds at a time. This is a new learning experience for many of his students, and when the job is done, there is a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment knowing that they’ve done something meaningful for themselves and their community.
Dr. Grace, from left to right: showing off dirty hands during garden work, explaining an irrigation tool, and demonstrating a garden tool.
Through the garden Dr. Grace connects across the UA Little Rock campus and with the broader community. He teaches workshops and leads tours for community stakeholders and supports students’ activities such as internships, research, and service-learning projects. In 2017 he helped form the Campus Garden Alliance, a student-led organization focused on implementing sustainable practices in urban agriculture. He has also established both formal and informal partnerships with several organizations and community groups in central Arkansas and is an active member of the Little Rock Grower’s Group which promotes urban agriculture projects to maximize opportunities for greatest impact in the community.
His current research is designing a low-cost wireless environmental monitoring system for sustainable water and soil management. The goal is to develop a system that will demonstrate how low cost, eco-friendly technologies can advance climate-smart agriculture and become a teaching tool in college courses as well as community workshops.
“Since agriculture is a human necessity, we need to find ways to make it more sustainable, which will require the use of modern technology to lessen its impact on the environment,” he says. “But we should not forget that agriculture, which is fundamentally about growing plants to meet basic human needs, can profoundly connect people to their environment. We should be careful not to automate things too much.”
A Love of Learning
Dr. Grace’s parents saw education as both a privilege and a responsibility. Their belief in the power of learning, along with many great teachers, shaped the way he sees the world and taught him to embrace the pursuit of knowledge and a love of learning. His advice to educators just starting out is simple, “Love what you do and getting paid will be a bonus.”
Dr. Grace continues to explore new areas, recently becoming fascinated with fungi, organisms that keep revealing new depths the longer you study them. In a broader sense, he believes that a key part of learning is recognizing patterns.
Above images: Dr. Grace holding a log with mushrooms growing on it and a mushroom in the forest.
“Since nature provides an infinite variety of patterns, you can always learn something new and unexpected when you take the time to immerse yourself in it.”
Above images: Dr. Grace holding a large purple cauliflower plant.
He carries an optimism about the future and the growing awareness, especially among young people, of the importance of protecting our environment. Climate change, habitat loss, and a variety of other environmental problems, are all reasons to feel anxious about the future, but he notices a shifting attitude and awareness that he believes will result in a better alternative for our common future.
“Ultimately, I became a teacher because my fascination with the natural world has always pushed me to look closer, ask questions, and share that sense of wonder with others.”
The Robert McAfee Environmental Education Lifetime Service Award is granted to an individual who has exhibited personal and professional commitment to environmental education, service, awareness, knowledge, and action throughout their career and life. Dr. Stephen Grace exemplifies these qualities.