Education Director of the Mangrove Action Project Martin Keeley has been selected to receive the National Marine Educators Association's Outstanding Teacher Award for 2008. 

Mr. Keeley was recognized for his history of outstanding performance as a marine science educator in the Pacific Northwest and the Cayman Islands. 
This award honours effective and innovative marine science education in the classroom. 

Mr. Keeley will be honoured on July 23, 2008 at a ceremony during the National Marine Educators Association's annual conference in Savannah, Georgia, hosted by the Georgia Association of Marine Education. 

Mr. Keeley, who is Brac campus director for the University College of the Cayman Islands, has been teaching in Cayman since 1998. He researched, developed and produced the Marvellous Mangroves in the Cayman Islands teachers' guide in conjunction with the National Trust, the Department of Educational Services and MAP, and has been responsible for its implementation in schools throughout Cayman. 

He has also supervised the adaptation, translation and implementation of Marvellous Mangroves for the education systems in several other countries including Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and, most recently, Brazil. 

"I am honoured to have been given this prestigious award," he says. "It recognises there is a continual need for students to learn, through hands-on exploration, the true importance of the natural world around them," said Mr. Keeley. 

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