Steering a Course to a New Generation of Education Standards

Overview
Speaker(s)

Standards play a vital role in education of every description. Boating educators rely on standards published by various agencies and other authorities. NASBLA has published standards since the 1980s and those standards have influenced the development and delivery of boating safety courses that have touched millions of lives.

Though much of the fundamental boating safety messages remain intact, boating educators use tools today that were barely concepts one or two decades ago. While delivery methods have experienced an age of enlightenment, the standards have been slower to evolve. That’s about to change.

Questioning, challenging and improving boating education standards is the purpose behind the National Education Standards Panel (ESP). Evolution and growth of standards have been at the forefront of ESP’s work for years. This session will focus on the panel’s ongoing efforts to propel boating education into the future. Current members of ESP will lead an engaging discussion of where the standards development process started, where it is now and where it’s going in the next few years.

Dr. Hugh Gibson

Associate Professor • Missouri State University

Dr. Hugh Gibson is an associate professor from Missouri State University and has been in higher education for nearly 20 years. He has been an outdoor educator and paddlesport enthusiast for his entire career. He is an ACA instructor and been on the National Education Standards Panel (ESP) for two years.

Ed Huntsman

8th CG District Recreational Boating Safety Program • USCG

Retired from the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Education Branch as the conservation education program manager and later, off highway vehicle and boating safety education program administrator, Ed accepted an appointment to the Eighth Coast Guard District's prevention staff in February 2012. Current responsibilities include planning and outreach related to education, training and enforcement of Federal boating laws and best water safety practices. Ed is also responsible for coordinating District Eight's recreational boating and water safety program in the 26 states that make up America’s Heartland. Ed also serves as a District liaison to local, state, tribal, regional, national, Canadian and Mexican recreational boating safety and enforcement officials, public boating safety related organizations, stakeholders and media.

Ed holds a MBA degree, is a graduate of Arizona State University’s (ASU) Bob Ramsey Executive Education Certified Public Manager Program and holds a Certificate from the ASU Management and Leadership Institute. Ed currently serves on NASBLA’s Enforcement & Training Committee, NASBLA’s Education & Outreach Committee, the National Boating Education Standards Panel (a founding member) and participated on U.S. Sailing’s on-water education standards development in all three domains of power, human-power, and sail.

Joe McCullough

Boating Law Administrator • Alaska Office of Boating Safety

Joe moved to Alaska in 1992 after visiting for the summer and falling in love with the ocean and the mountains. He has worked for the Alaska Department of Natural Resources for 26 years, starting out as a volunteer in Kachemak Bay State Park.Joe also worked as a park ranger in Anchor Point and on the Kenai River. He was hired as the Education Coordinator for the Alaska Boating Safety Program in 2002. In June he was promoted to Boating Law Administrator.

Joe loves teaching and is a nationally certified boating safety instructor, NSBC boat control instructor trainer, Alaska Police Standards Council instructor and an American Canoe Association instructor.

Joe was the recipient of the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators’ (NASBLA) Boating Safety Award in 2006 and NASBLA’s Educator of the Year Award in 2012. He graduated with a B.A. Degree from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. Joe lives in Anchorage with his wife and daughter.