Principal Investigators

The YEAH Network Steering Committee is made up of research scientists and professors from 11 institutions and one professional society. The Steering Committee oversees YEAH resources and conducts annual self-assessments of the Network. This Committee is dynamic and grows with the network to maintain a balanced membership of different institutional types.

Dr. Gillian Bowser is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability (ESS) at Colorado State University. She has led student delegations to international negotiations, such as UNFCCC, Commission on the Status of Women, and International Union for the Conservation of Nature. She is the Chair of the YEAH Network’s Steering Committee.

Dr. Diane Husic is the Dean of the School of Natural and Health Sciences, Director of the Environmental Programs, and Professor of Biology at Moravian College. Her research focuses on the ecological restoration along mountains to understand the impacts of climate change. She has attended the UNFCCC COPs since 2009. She chairs a subgroup leading the YEAH self assessments.

Dr. Hautzinger is an anthropologist at Colorado College, focusing on the intersections of culture and climate. She functions as an advisor on the Steering Committee and helps the network incorporate sociocultural issues, such as vulnerability, societal control and collapse; climate events as social crucibles; trauma-informed understanding of community responses; and climate turmoil and social marginalization.

Dr. Sarah Green is Professor Emerita and Research Professor of Chemistry at Michigan Technological University. Her research is in the dynamics of organic carbon in the environment She initiated an interdisciplinary course in Climate Science and Policy in 2015 and has accompanied students to COPs since 2019.

Dr. Susie Ho is the Associate Dean (International Education) in the Faculty of Science at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, and the Director of the Master of Environment and Sustainability (MES). She has led three student delegations to international negotiations, including the UNFCCC. She will contribute to the logistical aspects of implementation at the international conferences.

Dr. Leah A. Dundon is a Research Scientist in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University. She is an active environmental lawyer, who developed an interdisciplinary Honors Seminar on climate change, culminating in taking all 14 students and two graduate students to COP25. She leads YEAH modules on law as an approach to addressing environmental problems.

Dr. Pamela Templer is a College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at Boston University. She is also Director of the Boston University URBAN Graduate Program, Co-Director of the Boston University Stable Isotope Laboratory, and a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America (ESA). She is particularly interested in the feedbacks between climate change, air pollution, and urbanization on the functioning and health of New England forest ecosystems and how these in turn affect human health. She also pursues projects that integrate across environmental science and policy through a collaborative approach with governments, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.

Dr. Julia Klein is a Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science & Sustainability at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on understanding how global changes affect pastoral and mountain ecosystems. She leads the Mountain Sentinels Collaborative Network, which seeks to catalyze innovative solutions towards global mountain sustainability.

Dr. Mark Urban is the Director of the Center of Biological Risk and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of Connecticut, with research focus on how climate change affects extinction risk and ecosystems. He has brought more than 75 students to the UNFCCC COP meetings over the last 5 years. He leads the development of class modules on climate change and ecosystems.

Dr. Charlie Chester teaches global environmental politics at Brandeis University and is a co-Principal Investigator of EMIGRA, an NSF-funded research group examining the role of migratory species in providing ecosystem services and equitable outcomes for people. He is currently building the website, EarthWeb.info and currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Bat Conservation International and as Chair of the Yellowstone to Yukon Council.

Dr. Colleen Hitchcock is faculty in the Biology Department at Brandeis University and a member of the Environmental Studies Program. Her academic interests are focused on the role of participatory science in ecological inquiry and conservation biology, specifically relating to studies of biodiversity, conservation, phenology and climate change. She is a lead organizer for the City Nature Challenge in eastern Massachusetts and is also interested in both the application of participatory science research as a model for learning by students.

Dr. Javier Naupari is a Professor in Rangeland Ecology and Management and researcher of the Rangeland Ecology Laboratory at Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Peru. His research area is remote sensing and geographic information systems applied to ecological processes in mountain rangeland ecosystems. He serves on the Steering Committee and participates in the module design.

Dr. Andrew Ramsey is Head of Environmental Sciences at the University of Derby, UK, and has taught and researched aspects of conservation biology for over 25 years. He has been a long-serving member of the Society for Conservation Biology, European and global education committees, and is a member of the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication.

Dr. Mark Smith is an environmental economist at Colorado College,  who has led student teams to COPs with a focus on sustainability and student action. He is providing modules on: (1) the fundamentals of climate economics, (2) Article 6 and market mechanisms, e.g. how carbon taxes and carbon trading work; (3) basics of climate finance for participants in the natural sciences and others not familiar with financial markets and analysis.

Dr. Jessica O’Reilly is an environmental anthropologist at Indiana University, who studies how scientists and policymakers participate in environmental management in regard to the Antarctic environment and global climate change. She serves as an advisor to YEAH network’s progress bringing an ethnographic lens into the development of modules and products of YEAH.

Samantha Murray is the Executive Director of the Master of Advanced Studies Program in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, where she also teaches graduate classes in Ocean Law and Policy and Marine Biodiversity, Conservation, and Global Change. She is a lawyer who played a key role in the design and implementation of California’s network of marine protected areas. She is committed to diversity, inclusion, and equitable impacts of public policy and serves on the Steering Committee and participates in the module design.