Dr. Katie Villano Spellman was born and raised in ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥. She has dedicated her career
to the interface of social justice and science and has found the overlap for her passion
in both areas through climate change education and research. Katie received her bachelor's
in Biology from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA. She worked in homeless services
and co-founded a street newspaper with members of the homeless community in Tacoma,
Washington before returning home to Fairbanks to pursue a Masters and Ph.D. in Biological
Sciences at UAF. In between the two graduate degrees, she worked as the ecological
education program director at the Center for ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥n Coastal Studies, in Homer, ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥.
Her research is split evenly between plant ecology and education research, with public
engagement in and access to the scientific process as a unifying theme in both areas.
Her ecological research focuses on how a warming climate influences boreal and tundra
plant communities through non-native species introductions, changes in phenology,
and wildfire. Her education research investigates the effectiveness of different climate
change learning strategies and science engagement models.
She collaborates regularly with students, teachers, and community members across ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥
(currently in more than 35 communities) and in 122 countries around the globe to address
climate change issues and increase access to science at local and global scales.
