Arlene Marturano

Arlene Marturano is an educator, consultant, master gardener, and freelance writer. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Illinois and bachelor and master degrees in elementary education from Northern Illinois University.

An advocate of using the natural environment as a catalyst, context, and resource for learning, she has created an environmental reading program, children's gardening curricula, and helped forge the Carolina Children's Garden , a two-acre public garden for familes in Columbia, South Carolina. She has been recognized for her work in education through numerous awards including the SC State Elementary Conservation Teacher of the Year and the SC Christa McAuliffe Fellow. In 2007 she became a RIF Fellow for Reading is Fundamental.

She serves as a consultant on projects related to outdoor and environmental education, language and reading development, and children's gardening. Her writing has appeared in Science and Children, Science Scope, Tomorrow's Child, The Reading Teacher, the California Kindergarten Association Journal, Journal of Outdoor Education, Soil Conservation, SC Middle School Journal among others. She writes a children's gardening column in The State newspaper and a home gardening column for The Columbia Star.