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Jane Goodall Center for Excellence
in Environmental Education

In Memoriam: Dr. Jane Goodall (1934-2025)

Where Education Meets Conservation

A Partnership for Environmental Excellence

The Jane Goodall Center for Excellence in Environmental Education brings together ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ and the Jane Goodall Institute—a global nonprofit devoted to wildlife research, education, and conservation. This partnership inspires learning, stewardship, and action toward a more sustainable future.

Connecting Knowledge, Compassion & Action

Fostering education and research that reflect the Jane Goodall Institute’s enduring values.

Building on this collaboration, the Center advances environmental understanding through programs rooted in respect, curiosity, and integrity. By combining the global leadership of the Jane Goodall Institute with ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ’s strengths in the arts, sciences, and research, the Center creates meaningful opportunities for learning, discovery, and real-world impact.

The Center also offers interdisciplinary events, classes, and workshops that embody the Jane Goodall Institute’s core values:

  • Respect and protect all living things — recognizing the deep connection between people, animals, and the environment.

  • Knowledge inspires action — understanding leads us to make a difference.

  • Every individual matters — each of us has the power to create positive change.

  • Stay open and adaptable — flexibility and open-mindedness help us respond to a changing world.

  • Act with integrity and compassion — in all that we do and say.

“I am honored that WestConn has been long associated with Jane Goodall, and that the university benefited from so many of her visits. I understand that as well as being brilliant, she was generous and humble, and loved talking with students about how they could follow in her footsteps in large and small ways to preserve nature. As sad as we are to learn of her passing, WestConn will remain a place that honors and celebrates her incredible legacy to all of us.”

Jesse M. Bernal, Ph.D.

President
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“Dr. Jane Goodall, researcher, activist, and humanitarian, taught us that humans are dependent on and responsible for our natural world and and each other. Inspired by her life and work, we encourage everyone to strive to improve our environment and take positive action in the service of others.”

Dr. Hannah Reynolds

Associate Professor - Biology
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“Dr. Jane Goodall was an inspiration to me in so many ways, but what has stuck with me the most is her philosophy of community-centered conservation. The idea that when you put local communities and local knowledge at the forefront, you create innovative, sustainable, and transformative solutions that actually endure is something I have taken into all the community work I do. “

Alexa Hinds

Class of 2016

“If my experience sheds any light on how Dr. Jane impacted your life, I imagine that we all, especially those of us connected through our Center of Excellence in Environmental Studies, have oriented our lives to her profound ethical center of gravity. She didn’t just give us ideas; she gave us a new way to see. She gave us the courage to voyage beyond the safe harbors of our known lives, to trust in the intrinsic good of humanity, and to truly believe in our power to make a difference. She embodied the principle to “Think Globally and Act Locally,” a mission that beats at the very heart of our work here at the Center.”

Christopher Tait

³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ Alumni

“My time with the Roots & Shoots program at ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ was more than just a college experience—it was the beginning of a lifelong awakening. Under Dr. Goodall’s inspiring vision, I learned that real change begins in the smallest acts of compassion: planting seeds, protecting wildlife, and simply choosing kindness toward people, animals, and the planet.”

— In loving memory of Dr. Jane Goodall, whose spirit continues to guide us toward a kinder world.

Danielle Toussaint

³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ Alumni

“Jane Goodall and her mission through Roots & Shoots were a huge part of my college years and early adulthood. Whenever I feel anger at how people treat our world, I return to her message of compassion and education—it’s stayed with me all my life.

I had the chance to meet Dr. Jane when she spoke at ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ in 2011. By the time I, a bright-eyed 21-year-old, reached her, it was past 10pm. She had been sitting for hours, meeting people and shaking hands, yet she was still kind enough to greet me and take a photo. I never forgot that moment of generosity.”

Christopher Dwan, Ph.D.

“At ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ, for nearly thirty years, Dr. Jane Goodall’s annual 320 days of global travels from Tanzania to Southeast Asia to New England included joining us on our campus. Meeting with Danbury area Roots & Shoots clubs, filling Ives Concert Hall for eager parents and their children to hear the latest on her Gombe Reserve family of chimpanzees, or sitting down with us as a participant in our decade of annual Jane Goodall Symposia, she was resolute that each of us, each one of us, could make a difference. Reflecting on the facts of lost species diversity, indigenous American peoples’ advocacy as environmental stewards, or the prospects for humans learning their proportional responsibility for the ecologies within which we were but a small, but essential part, her voice was as compassionate as it was resolved.”

Rob Whittemore

Professor of Anthropology
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Please visit theÌýJane Goodall InstituteÌýto learn more about Dr. Goodall.