Keynote Speakers
We had two amazing keynote speakers for the conference, Dr. Elena Sparrow, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Dr. Donna Hauser, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Recordings of their presentations are available on YouTube
Dr. Elena Sparrow is the Education Outreach Director and a Research Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She is an expert in teaching and learning, pedagogy and education, professional development, and soil microbiology. She is also the founder and director of GLOBE Alaska. Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment is an international science and education program that provides students and the public worldwide with the opportunity to participate in data collection and the scientific process, and contribute meaningfully to our understanding of the Earth system and global environment. As well, she leads a NASA Science activation project that weaves multiple knowledge systems in STEM and climate change learning and action.
Dr. Donna Hauser, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor at the International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks where she pursues interdisciplinary and collaborative research in marine ecology. Her diverse research portfolio is centered on the roles and responses of marine wildlife, but also the people who rely on them, in rapidly changing Arctic marine ecosystems. Dr. Hauser increasingly works at the social-ecological interface through partnerships with tribal organizations and Indigenous coastal communities across northern Alaska to examine intersecting issues of recent sea ice loss affecting marine mammal habitat, changing access and availability of traditional marine resources for Indigenous hunters, and opportunities to elevate community-driven research partnerships to track and respond to Arctic environmental change. She leads the long-term and community-based Alaska Arctic Observatory & Knowledge Hub (AAOKH) and is part of the Ikaaġvik Sikukun team bridging Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge to understand the causes and consequences of sea ice loss in Northwest Alaska.