Welcome Dr. Katherine Glover, new Associate Director for Environmental Education
We are excited to welcome Dr. Katherine C. Glover to our Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve team as the new Associate Director for Environmental Education. With more than 15 years of experience, Katie will continue leading the education and outreach pillar of Jasper Ridge that has been growing since its inception in 1975 and also build innovative and exciting opportunities for our Stanford students and our broader community.
Katie earned a Bachelor of Science in Geology with honors from DePauw University, a Master of Science in Geology from the University of Cincinnati and a PhD at the University of California-Los Angeles in Geography. Katie wrote and published numerous manuscripts from her research dissertation titled “Southern California Climate and Vegetation Over the Past 125,000 Years from Lake Sequences in the San Bernardino Mountains” and ever since continues to be interested in the past, present and future of Earth’s climate and terrestrial ecosystems in North America.
Figure 1. Katie with sediment cores from Baldwin Lake. Credit: Marcus Thomson
Katie also discovered her passion for teaching and has been involved in designing and teaching natural science courses to K-12 students, national park visitors, life-long learners, and university students, both undergraduate and graduate. In addition to being an avid interdisciplinary field scientist Katie also brings with her extensive experience using botanical material from museum collections to help her understand past changes and develop long-term histories and scenarios of our Earth’s ecosystems.
Katie comes to us from her most recent position at the University of Maine where she was a Research Associate in the Climate Change Institute. Katie led the implementation of a new professional training in climate change in partnership with UMaineOnline and the Division of Lifelong Learning. Her hard work resulted in the new Graduate Certificate Program in Climate Change Science and Adaptation launched this summer. She also received a National Geographic Society Early Career Grant, and as a NatGeo Explorer, developed materials that will educate students and teachers about the past and present of an area once referred to as the Everglades of the North. Katie was also an instructor in the University of Maine’s Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies department where she was able to center the intersection of gender, climate and nature in her college-level courses. She received a naturalist certification from Sequoia Parks Conservancy and focused on building inclusive spaces in outdoor learning environments. She worked at Henry W. Coe State Park where she contributed to a grant proposal to build the longest ADA-accessible backcountry trail in California.
Figure 2. Katie and field team working in Kingsbury site. Credit: Jenny Phillippe
As the new Associate Director for Environmental Education, Katie mentioned that she sees Jasper Ridge “as an ideal setting to deepen our understanding of how to best manage landscapes today so that they are resilient to future change”. Her extensive experience with field research, outdoor experiences, natural collections, multi-level education and outreach programs around many topics, including paleoecology and fire, will allow her to not only lead our education pillar, but she will fit in perfectly to build and contribute to our other two pillars, research and stewardship. For example, she is very interested in bringing fire into the education pillar, “Fire is such a dynamic phenomenon, and our evolving knowledge about it is much stronger when we can engage students and the community in the process.", Katie said. Among other things that excite Katie is joining Professor Rodolfo Dirzos’ BIO/ESYS 105 course. Once she learned more about the course, Katie shared that she is “thrilled to be involved in the 'Ecology and Natural History of Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve' course, which centers community learning and integrating several disciplines.” Katie also looks forward to empowering students to apply knowledge of the physical world around them to their work and lived experiences. She is very excited that there are numerous and incredible opportunities at Jasper Ridge, and she looks forward to bringing her experience to build multidisciplinary curricula with faculty, advising student research projects, and work with docents who will go on to have long relationships with the preserve.
Figure 3. Katie working with students in the field and in the laboratory. Credits: Holley Savanna and Britten Leigh
Katie’s experience and future contributions align to our Jasper Ridge mission, “To contribute to the understanding of the Earth’s natural systems through research, education, and protection (now stewardship!) of the preserve’s resources.” We are confident that Katie's enthusiasm and dedication will enhance our educational initiatives and foster a greater sense of environmental stewardship among our community. Together as a Jasper Ridge community, we can continue to make a difference in preserving and understanding our natural world.
Katie will join our team on Tuesday June 20th and her office will be located in the Education office next to our classroom. Please stop and say hi and join us in welcoming Katie to the Jasper Ridge community!
