Environmental education has always about envisioning a better world—and that\\s true now more than ever. NAAEE\\s 50th-Anniversary Annual Conference and Research Symposium will focus on the power of connection: with our colleagues, our friends and families, and our communities, as well as our ties to the natural world. For five decades, NAAEE has convened one of the leading annual conferences for environmental education professionals. And the annual research symposium attracts new and established researchers to examine in-progress EE research and promote dialogue between researchers and practitioners. In 2021, as we look back at the past fifty years and think ahead to the next fifty, we\\ll again be meeting online. During this unprecedented time, our Annual Conference and Research Symposium will bring together educators, students, researchers, global leaders, and rising stars to leverage the power of connection to advance environmental literacy. A key focus of this year’s gathering is examining how to strengthen our efforts to dismantle systemic racism in our field and in our society—from how we conduct our research, run our organizations, hire our teams, communicate with others, and so much more.