Elleen Hutcheson, Children's Book Author

 Elizabeth Elleen Hutcheson was a Biology and Anatomy/Physiology instructor for 30 years. She has also taught numerous other science classes including a General Biology class at a local community college.  She has her National Board Certification in Science.   She was a teaching Assistant at the University of Arkansas as she worked on her MS and during this time also was a Summer natural history teacher for U of A museum, teaching Discovery classes/camp. She taught summer natural history camps for Audubon. She participated in numerous programs to increase her knowledge and expertise and has received numerous grants; BCAP, Bring China to Arkansas APS Research fellowship, Weyerhauser mini-grant,  Frank Tillery Grant,  Partners in Education grant, RET particpant, Research Experiences for Teachers, - Strive –partcipant, worked in Plant Pathology at U or A,  1999- Awarded the Christa McAuliffe Fellowship for Arkansas,  Awarded a Fulbright Memorial Fund Fellowship – and spent three weeks in Japan studying schools and culture.  Received Lincoln High School Teacher of the Year. She attended Tropical Rainforest Workshop in Costa Rica, spent time in the Amazon, and Galapagos and participated in Audubon camps in Maine.  She wrote her MS Thesis on ,  Camellia japonica L. Callus: Effects of Growth Regulators on  Cellular Differentiation.  She has also worked in a hospital as a histotechnician.

            In her private life she loves nature, reading, writing and spending time with her grandchildren. She loves to travel both overseas and in the great country of the United States. The inspiration for A Little Bit of Dinosaur, co-authored with her sister Darcy Pattison, comes from a presentation at the Maine Audubon camp where they told Aldo Leopold’s story of how all the natural world  is connected to our present, our past and our future.