Education Specialist
Pat Dorraj grew up among wildflowers, pecans and live oaks on the gently rolling hills of the Colorado River valley near Fayetteville, Texas. She and cousin Billy combed the woods and fields for spear points and dreamed of becoming geologists with their office in a treehouse. Working at BRIT proves to be even better than a 5-year-old girl’s dream.
Pat has a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas A&M University with specializations in Language and Earth Science. She taught 14 years in Fort Worth ISD. The experiences that brought Pat the greatest satisfaction in her years of classroom teaching were her students’ transformative moments brought about by contact with nature. Pat considers an education in nature to be every child’s right, no matter the child’s age, and delights in getting teachers outdoors and reawakening their child-like wonder, while shifting perceptions of the usefulness of any outdoor space as a context for interdisciplinary learning that meets national standards.
As Education Specialist for BRIT’s Education Program, Pat works with a dynamic team to provide professional development for teachers based on best teaching practices and focused on outdoor inquiry learning. In coordinating the Botany 101 continuing education program, Pat is privileged to work with BRIT scientists to offer excellent hands-on learning opportunities for the community. It is Pat’s joy that through her work at BRIT, she pursues and brings together her interests in science, conservation, outdoor learning and the naturalist intelligence, children’s literature, community-building, and the process of natural leadership. Getting to develop her own naturalist knowledge and skills and appreciation for North Texas ecosystems while on the job is one blessing among many that have come into her life because of BRIT.
Phone: 817.332.4441, ext. 36
Fax: 817.332.4112
