The Council represents PEI members who step forward to volunteer their time and talents in a leadership role for a limited period of time. Council members are active leaders representing PEI in many ways, such as at international conferences and meetings, and are recognized as experts by senior leaders in many fields. Read More Members can be individuals or representatives of organizations who volunteer to contribute to advancing the polar education network at an international level. Elections are held annually, in the Spring. As a Council member you commit to help run PEI and set priorities, attending on-line meetings, making the decisions about how PEI works, encouraging membership to grow. You share our mission of Connecting polar education, research, and the global community, helping shape and deliver the goals and objectives in the PEI Strategic Plan. Along with Ex Comm and our Secretariat (host), you help organize activities for polar educators locally and internationally alongside your colleagues around the world, shaping the future of polar education and PEI as we work together to grow and build our international presence. You keep our members updated on new happenings in the polar research and/or education field, sharing tools and skills to develop the profession. Together we serve as representatives of an international polar education community, maintaining our connections with partner organizations, and seeking out new relationships to strengthen our network.
Together we serve as representatives of an international polar education community, maintaining our connections with partner organizations, and seeking out new relationships to strengthen our network.
Anubha earned a PhD in glacier science from TERI, New Delhi. She is presently doing her own project funded Read More
Gisele M. Arruda is a professor in Circumpolar Studies (Energy, Arctic, Climate Change, Environment and Society). Read More
She is a member of the University of the Arctic (Energy), the US Arctic Committee, University of Aberdeen, country director of International Higher Education Teaching and Learning Association, NY, U.S. and a Council member of Polar Educators International. She belongs to multidisciplinary research groups in Canada, U.S, Iceland, Norway, Greenland, researching on Arctic governance, Sea-ice retreat, Sustainable Energy Systems, Smart specialization, Climate Change, Societal Studies, Corporate Social Responsibility, and multicultural aspects of Higher Education. Latest publication is ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in the Arctic’, in co-authorship with Lara Johannsdottir by Routledge.
Inga studied physical Geography at the University of Munich and did her PhD about permafrost in Northern Quebec, Canada. Read More Afterwards she was employed by the Alfred-Wegener Institute for polar and marine research as executive director for the international permafrost association. In the following she was involved in different Post-Doc projects with studies in the Arctic regions. She now works at the environmental research station Schneefernerhaus – Germany’s highest research station at 2650 m. At the station Inga is also running a laboratory for children with different experiments related to snow, ice and climate change. Besides her studies Inga got a certificate in environmental education and she is frequently performing events for classes or teachers about climate change and environment. Since her PhD (starting in 2008) she was an active APECS member and from 2010 – 2012 member of the APECS Council. Later she was also involved in PEI activities.
Regina believes that climate change is the most important issue facing societies today. Read More
Her interest in polar science began with training in Alaska for the (GLOBE) program and subsequent participation in the 2010 IPY meeting. Regina participated in the PolarTREC project Arctic Sunlight and Microbial Interactions in 2014. Regina participated in the Fulbright-Japan Teacher Exchange for Education for Sustainable Development and the TOMODACHI STEM Teacher Academy. Regina has presented at AGU, Polar2018, and the National Science Teachers Association. She wrote and narrated the TED-Ed talk Phenology and Nature’s Shifting Rhythms, and participated in a Science Friday panel discussion Bringing Climate Science into the Classroom.Regina is now retired and lives with her husband in northern California.
Viviane is a Biologist from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and a Science teacher Read More
Maria has two degrees from Milan Cattolica University (Modern Languages and Italian Letters); M.Phil. in Polar Studies, Cambridge University, UK. Read More
Matteo started to work in the polar education field in 2005. After that he made and followed several projects and activities in polar EPO (Education and Public Outreach) Read More
Julia’s polar experience began as an ARISE Educator with ANDRILL in 2007 on the Southern McMurdo Sound project and on the Mackay Sea Valley Seismic Survey Team. Read More
Susy Ellison has been teaching about our planet, in one form or another, for over 30 years as both classroom teacher and environmental educator. Read More
Shelly Elverum (she/her) is engaging Inuit youth to reclaim their roles as the Arctic’s first scientists, capable of managing resources, determining their cultural and economic futures, and adapting to rapid climate and cultural change in the North. Read More
Dr. Anne Farley Schoeffler teaches sixth, seventh, and eighth grade science near Cleveland, Ohio, USA and has been doing so for 18 years. Read More
Dr Agata Goździk is the coordinator of EDU-ARCTIC, ERIS, ODYSSEY and BRITEC educational projects. She works in the Science Communication and Education Unit in the Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy of Sciences. Read More
Hugo is an early career marine biologist based at the Marine and Environmental Science Centre (MARE) of the University of Coimbra (Portugal). Read More
Kolbrún Svala Hjaltadóttir is a teacher with a master's degree in open education with an emphasis on computer and information technology. Read More She has been teaching in primary- and secondary schools for decades, now mainly working as an ambassador for eTwinning, a community for schools in Europe that offers a platform to communicate, collaborate and develop projects. She has initiated many projects with eTwinning, with emphasis on polar science. She has travelled around the world and hiked on glaciers. She attended the PEI-workshop in Coimbra, Portugal in 2013 and has attended all PEI-workshops since then. Her husband, Oddur Sigurðsson, is a glaciologist and they have collaborated in educating school classes in Iceland about the Arctic/Antarctic and maintain an Icelandic website with information related to polar science.
Christian is a Professor in Biological Sciences and haa a degree in Biology with a thesis about ecotoxicology and oxidative stress. Read More
Joanna Hubbard is a middle school science teacher in Anchorage, Alaska, USA; she has taught both 7th and 8th grades at three different middle schools Read More
Louise is currently Director of Education and Outreach for the US Ice Drilling Program at Dartmouth College, but works remotely much of the time from home in Florida. Read More
In the 2002-03 Antarctic research season, Louise was a TEA (Teacher Experiencing Antarctica) on the “Stream Team” in the Dry Valleys. She also spent the 2007 research season at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, coordinating the ANDRILL/ARISE educator program. She served as the Chair of the Formal Education Subcommittee of the International Polar Year EO Committee, and the Chair of Theme 6 of the IPY Oslo Science Conference. She was a founding member of PEI, served as president, Executive Committee member, and is currently a member of the Council again. She was one of the original creators of the Master Class series of professional development for the dual audience of polar educators and researchers and hopes to continue helping PEI grow as an international leader of polar education.
During his studies at the Universities of Heidelberg (Germany) and Basel (Switzerland) Rainer investigated glacial and periglacial geomorphology Read More
Katie has been a classroom high school science teacher for over 30 years. Currently, she teaches at St. Joseph’s Academy: an all-girls, Catholic high school in the midwestern US. (St. Louis, Missouri) Read More
Osmarina is a teacher working with classes of the 5th Year of Elementary School I in São Bernardo do Campo.Read More
She finds at PEI an opportunity to learn much more about Polar Sciences, to contribute to the local community, perhaps reflecting on the world community, on issues related to care and preservation of the environment. Osmarina represents the many teachers and educators in Brazil, engaged and concerned about this very important theme. She also sees an opportunity to collaborate with PEI presenting and disseminating our actions so that they can serve as inspirations and engagement for many others who do not yet feel encouraged to participate in this fight and cause that is to speak, move – in actions on the Polar Sciences and on the care and positive actions with the environment. Besides being passionate about education, training people, she became passionate about Polar Sciences and began to study more on the subject, with the aim of bringing this knowledge to the classroom, and the classroom the little ones take to their homes, their families the knowledge about Polar Sciences, and maybe one day, at least one of these small ones become Scientists or Researchers of Polar Sciences, or become people more aware of their actions and the impacts they can cause to life on the planet, in the sense of care and preservation of the environment.
Currently Tim lives in central North Carolina USA, regardless of where I've lived, he’s always felt most at home out in the natural world. Read More
David recently completed his Masters in Biodiversity, Evolution, & Conservation and previously worked as the Community Outreach Supervisor Read More
Surdu Mihai is a graduate of the SNSPA Faculty of Political Science, sociology department, and currently is a master student at Security and Diplomacy. He is living now in Bucharest, but is from from Sibiu. Read More
Ms. Neelu Singh has more than 7 years of working experience in the field of environmental chemistry. Read More
Valeria comes from Italy and is a math-science teacher in a Middle school. She loves polar regions and is interested in Climate Change. She likes traveling and taking photographs and learning about our wonderful planet.
Erin Towns is a 22 year veteran social studies teacher at Edward Little High School in Maine, USA. She is a 2020 PolarTREC Educator, National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow Read More
Kyle Tredinnick is an adjunct instructor for the University of Nebraska at Omaha in the Department of Geography and Geology and a high school social studies teacher for Omaha Public Schools. Read More
Betty spent 35 years teaching elementary school, with her last 27 years teaching fourth grade in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Betty earned her M.S. in science/outdoor education Read More
For 20 years Betty has had a teacher exchange program with educators in Lulea, Sweden. Exchanges have focused on environmental education and building cooperation between cultures. She joined ANDRILL colleague Matteo Cattadori and high school students from Italy, on a science and educational expedition to Arctic Svalbard in 2016.Betty has been awarded the Presidential Award for Elementary Science Teaching, named a Distinguished Alumni of the University of Illinois, and Outstanding Young Alumni of Northern Illinois University. In her "retirement" she remains active as a world-wide educator and guest speaker.
Ekaterina Uryupova is a Visiting Fellow at the Arctic Institute. Ekaterina has received her PhD in Environmental Sciences from Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia. Read More
Ram has been in the field of education for the last 16 years leading content development, teaching and training as well as Read More
Over the last ten years his focus has been towards the environment, climate change and the polar regions. His passion for nature and wildlife and the need to observe/document them has taken him to the Arctic (Greenland, Svalbard, the North Pole, Arctic Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands) and the Antarctic (the peninsula and the Ross Sea region).
He has an Engineering degree in Computer Science and a Masters’ in Business, though he feels that there is a lot to be learnt whether through volunteering, courses or conferences. Some of his recent learning experiences have been a Post Graduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies (New Zealand), The Changing Arctic (online) by Dr. Terry Callaghan, Ecology of the Polar Bears (Churchill Northern Studies Centre, Canada), Endangered Species Recovery (Durrell Conservation Academy, Jersey, UK), the COP23 (in Bonn) and the PEI Conference (Cambridge, UK).
Having traveled to over 90 countries, and observed pedagogy across regions and cultures, his focus has been on contextual learning (outside) and effective use of innovation and technology (inside the classroom) and he hopes to continue to do so.
Sophie Weeks is a science communicator based in Cambridge, UK. Having originally trained in both science and art she enjoyed a 20-year career in Museum and Gallery Education working for the British Library. Read More
Betsy is an education coordinator for Arizona Project WET at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She works with teachers to build community resilience Read More
Coming from the Even/Chukchi reindeer herding family in Ayanka, Kamchatka, Russia, Alona received her Master's Degree in Philology from the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia and the Far Eastern State University. Read More
From 2011-2021 Ms. Yefimenko served as a Council member of International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA). In a decade on the Council, Alona worked tirelessly to elevate the voices of the Indigenous Peoples in IASSA. In recognition of outstanding contribution and service to IASSA as an organization, in June 2021 she received the inaugural Dr. Gabriela Nordin-Sköld Award.
Having worked for 25 years in the Arctic Council Alona will be leaving the Arctic Council Secretariat to pursue her research in Arctic related issues.