Kathe Crowley Conn has worked in education, public programming, institutional management, and philanthropy for thirty years. Her interest in the history and ecology of the Midwest began during a childhood spent roaming the lakeshore and open fields near Chicago and became a hallmark of her term as president and executive director of the Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Madison. She founded Nature Net: the environmental learning network to foster a love of the land and the thrill of discovery in children throughout the state.