Principal Investigators

The YEAH Network has a Steering Committee comprising 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. 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. 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. Pamela Templer is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Boston University. Her research focuses on how climate and air quality impact the forest ecosystems. She is also Vice President for Education at the Ecological Society of America (ESA). She leads the coordination of student participation with ESA and YEAH Network and also serves as the Associate Chair on the Steering Committee.

Dr. Corey Gabriel has been the Executive Director of the Climate Science and Policy program and a Lecturer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. His teaching includes serving as lead instructor during the science portion of the intensive CSP summer course in environmental law and policy. He serves on the Steering Committee and participates in curriculum design and teaching in coordination with PIs.

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.

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.

Dr. Sarah Green is a Professor of Chemistry at Michigan Technological University. Her research is in the dynamics of organic carbon in the environment and she teaches an interdisciplinary course in Climate Science and Policy. She has brought students to the UNFCCC as teams and jointly taught a virtual class with Dr. Bowser to prepare students for COP25.

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. 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. 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. 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.

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.