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.

Gillian Bowser

Dr. Gillian Bowser is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability (ESS) at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA. She has worked on international environmental assessments as a high-level stakeholder representative on the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO6) produced by the UN Environment. Dr. Bowser incorporated her international negotiation experiences as an AAAS Diplomacy fellow at the U.S. Department of State to train students in science diplomacy. 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. Dr. Bowser is the Chair of the YEAH Network’s Steering Committee.

Sarah Green

Dr. Sarah Green is a Professor of Chemistry at Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA. Her research is in the dynamics of organic carbon in the environment. Dr. Green teaches atmospheric chemistry, general chemistry, and an interdisciplinary course in Climate Science and Policy offered annually since 2015 at MTU. She also contributed modules to the highly successful MOOC on climate communication, Denial101. She served as a Jefferson Science Fellow in the State Department (2013-14) focusing on environmental issues in the Asia Pacific region. Dr. Green co-chaired the Scientific Advisory Panel for the international GEO6 assessment, where she worked with Dr. Bowser. Dr. Green collaborated in the pilot effort to bring students to the UNFCCC as teams and jointly taught a virtual class with Dr. Bowser to prepare students to travel to COP25. Dr. Green contributes modules on physical science and Earth system science to the YEAH Network’s classrooms. She introduces students to real-world aspects of the negotiation process and how scientists can effectively engage with policy-makers.

Diane Husic

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, Bethlehem, PA. Her research focuses on the ecological restoration of contaminated sites, ecological monitoring along mountain landscapes to understand the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and habitat. She has attended the UNFCCC COPs since 2009 and serves as a member of the Steering Committee for the Research and Independent NGO (RINGO) constituency group and on the Innovation Taskforce of the UNFCCC Technology Executive Committee. She is also on the International Advisory Group and Leaders Alliance for the National Council for Science and the Environment and is working with the U.S. Department of State for UNEA5. Dr. Husic has served as an external evaluator for other RCN networks (Ecological Research as Education Network-EREN-RCN), as well as several undergraduate research and learning programs (Earlham College and Willamette College Foundation grants). Dr. Husic chairs a subgroup of the Steering Committee that leads the YEAH self-assessments.

Julia Klein

Dr. Julia Klein is a Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science & Sustainability at Colorado State University, USA, traditional homelands of the Ute, Arapahoe and Cheyenne nations. The broad goals of her research are to understand how interacting global changes affect pastoral and mountain ecosystems and livelihoods; to detect the patterns and underlying mechanisms driving these responses and feedbacks; and to identify actions and pathways towards sustainable futures. Her projects typically combine diverse methods, including experimental manipulations, landscape analysis, local ecological knowledge and modeling. The geographic focus of her work has been the Tibetan Plateau, Western US, and montane regions of Africa. She also leads and participates in global syntheses of grassland, arctic/alpine and mountain systems worldwide. Dr. Klein leads the Mountain Sentinels Collaborative Network, an international network which seeks to catalyze innovative solutions and actions towards global mountain sustainability through equitable collaboration, Western science, indigenous ways of knowing, and actions with diverse mountain stakeholders. She is also working on a documentary film focused on a small and dedicated group of people in the Peruvian Andes grappling with the severe and imminent effects of climate change.

Javier Naupari

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. Dr. Naupari, a Fulbright alumnus, received his PhD degree in Natural Resources at the University of Idaho and MS degree in Range Animal Production at La Molina University. In 2012, he received a Fulbright NEXUS award for collaborative research by mid-career professionals that opened new avenues of collaboration with Colorado State University, Texas A&M, and other American Higher Education institutes. His research area is remote sensing and geographic information systems applied to ecological processes in mountain rangeland ecosystems, such as the ecological status and productivity of rangeland ecosystems and the impacts of climate change on livestock production. He is currently the Director of the International Office at La Molina University. Dr. Naupari serves on the Steering Committee and participates in the module design.

Mark Urban

Dr. Mark Urban is the Director of the Center of Biological Risk and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA, with research focus on how climate change affects extinction risk and ecosystems. Dr. Urban is also the Co-Director of the UConn@COP leadership program, through which he has brought more than 75 students to the UNFCCC COP meetings over the last 5 years. Dr. Urban leads the development of class modules on climate change and ecosystems.

Pamela Templer

Dr. Pamela Templer is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Her research focuses on how climate and air quality impact biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen, carbon, and water in forest ecosystems. She has a successful track record in leadership and education through her roles as Associate Chair, Director of the Ph.D. Program in Biogeoscience, Director of the BU URBAN Graduate Program (NSF Research Training (NRT) Program), and Co-Director of the Boston University Stable Isotope Laboratory. 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.

Jessica O'Reilly

Dr. Jessica O’Reilly is an environmental anthropologist at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA, who studies how scientists and policymakers participate in environmental management in regard to the Antarctic environment and global climate change. Through participant observation and ethnographic interviews, she examines how people and ideas in science and policy interact, how experts make decisions, and how relationships with the environment inform knowledge production. Dr. O’Reilly serves as an advisor to YEAH network’s progress bringing an ethnographic lens into the development of modules and products of YEAH.

Susie Ho

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). MES is an interdisciplinary, international and industry-linked program spanning Science, Business, Law, Arts and the Monash Sustainable Development Institute. With a background in freshwater ecology, and over 12 years of experience in curriculum design and scholarly research in ecology and sustainability education, as well as multiple top education awards, Dr Ho contributes a broad relevant expertise, as well as educational excellence as an advisor to the project. She has designed educational programs to cohesively cover all 17 SDGs. She works on enhancing sustainability curriculum by integrating disciplines and teaching in areas, such as scientific literacy, environmental security, leadership, governance, and international development. Dr Ho has led three student delegations to international negotiations, including the UNFCCC as Monash University’s Head of Delegation. Dr Ho will contribute to curriculum design and teaching, as well as the logistical aspects of implementation at the international conferences.

Leah Dundon

Dr. Leah A. Dundon is a Research Scientist in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA. She is also an active environmental lawyer. As a Lecturer in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, she conceived, developed, and taught an interdisciplinary Honors Seminar on climate change, culminating in taking all 14 students and two graduate students to the UNFCCC COP25. Her academic research focuses on risk and resilience, including extreme weather impacts to infrastructure systems. Dr. Dundon leads YEAH modules on law as an approach to addressing environmental problems, the legal status of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, as well as modules on geoengineering (including geo-engineering law and policy).

Andrew Ramsey

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, publishing on species as diverse as brown bears, butterflies, and freshwater mussels. 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. Andrew developed the UK’s first undergraduate program in Conservation Biology in 2000 and has taught curriculum design for Conservation Biology at Society for Conservation Biology conferences in Europe and North America.

Sarah Hautzinger

Dr. Hautzinger is an anthropologist at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO, USA, focusing on the intersections of culture and climate, including community, relational, and emotional responses. 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. Additionally, she provides advice on how ethnographic methods and reflection can inform student research experiences.

Corey Gabriel

Dr. Corey Gabriel has been the Executive Director of the Climate Science and Policy program and a Lecturer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, CA, USA, since August 2017. His teaching focuses on both physical science and climate policy. His teaching includes serving as lead instructor during the science portion of the intensive CSP summer course in environmental law and policy. Additionally, he participates in many of the CSP Capstone projects, oversees the operation, development and strategy of the CSP program, helps facilitate partnerships between students and the business, government, and academic community and advises students on academic matters. He serves on the Steering Committee and participates in curriculum design and teaching in coordination with PIs.

Samantha Murray

Samantha Murray is the Executive Director of the Master of Advanced Studies Program in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, CA, USA, where she also teaches graduate classes in Ocean Law and Policy and Marine Biodiversity, Conservation, and Global Change. In 2019, she was appointed by Governor Newsom to the California Fish and Game Commission, where she now serves as Vice President. Ms. Murray is a lawyer with two decades of professional experience directing ocean and water programs at Ocean Conservancy, the Audubon Society, and Oregon Environmental Council. Samantha played a key role in the design and implementation of California’s network of marine protected areas, which now cover 16 percent of state waters. She has also served on the Marine Protected Area Federal Advisory Committee. Samantha is committed to diversity, inclusion, and equitable impacts of public policy. Ms. Murray serves on the Steering Committee and participates in the module design

Mark Smith

Dr. Mark Smith is an environmental economist at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO, USA, 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, i.e., why climate change is the ‘perfect storm” of market failure; (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. Within these YEAH modules, he discusses the need for transforming existing global economic institutions, e.g. the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, to effectively address climate change.