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.
Gisele M. Arruda is a professor in Circumpolar Studies (Energy, Arctic, Climate Change, Environment and Society).
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.
Karen Barton is a Professor of Geography, GIS, and Sustainability at the University of Northern Colorado. Her work focuses on community resilience and adaptation
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.
Luiza is an early-career Arctic researcher and currently is carrying out her doctoral research focusing on Arctic petroleum resources and energy security issues.
She is an alumna of Arctic Frontiers Emerging Leaders-2017 (Norway); and the British Petroleum scholarship holder in 2017-2018. Luiza was a visiting researcher at Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS) and the Arctic Research Centre at Umeå University (ARCUM), Sweden. She has participated in various international projects, including Stanford US-Russia Forum, Calotte Academy in Finland, “ARCTIS2019” UK-Russia field course run by UK Polar Network and APECS Russia.
Luiza has 6 years of experience as a university lecturer giving classes in Environmental Economics, as a High School teacher in Economics, and as a mentor engaging talented schoolchildren in Arctic science to the Sirius Education Center.
Ebru has a diverse academic background which nourishes her during her interdisciplinary studies.
Maria has two degrees from Milan Cattolica University (Modern Languages and Italian Letters); M.Phil. in Polar Studies, Cambridge University, UK.
Shraddha believes in the power of the individual, that each of us can do incredible things once we start recognizing the potential within us.
She studied Electrical Engineering/Machine Intelligence, and was an engineer in Silicon Valley for 11 years, then switched over to education in April 2019. As much as she love(d) tech and innovation, she wanted teenagers to be aware of what was out there, provide them with the tools and skills they needed, and show them the power of being a good human being. We have so many challenges in our society, and we need every single person to play a part in improving it. Everyone can! Shraddha created Playful Ponderies to be an extension of all that she wanted to do - whether it was creating technology or creating exciting ways to learn about anything. She teaches and creates engaging activities about things she is personally passionate and curious about (which is practically everything), and ensures that no student ever feels that they cannot learn or be a part of anything they want to be.
Jill studied anthropology at the universities of Frankfurt (Germany) and Uppsala (Arkhangelsk).
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.
Susy Ellison has been teaching about our planet, in one form or another, for over 30 years as both classroom teacher and environmental educator.
Dr. Anne Farley Schoeffler teaches sixth, seventh, and eighth grade science near Cleveland, Ohio, USA and has been doing so for 19 years.
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
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.
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.
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)
Participation in the PEI Iceland workshop in April 2022 reinvigorated her goal to aid students of any age in understanding the importance of forging cross curricular and cross-cultural connections in order to be good stewards of our earth. It is time to recognize (or elevate) the role that indigenous science plays in building an awareness of climate change, and in creating community action plans to combat climate change.
Katherine is a recently retired (2020) US Navy physician now doing focused volunteer work around climate change in the Arctic. She has been assembling a portfolio of activities,
Katya has been a Geographer specialising in the environmental assessment of northern ecosystems for 23 years. She completed her undergrad and MSc, 1999-2005, at the Faculty of Geography of the Moscow State University.
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
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
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.
Ram has been in the field of education for the last 16 years leading content development, teaching and training as well as
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.
Deniz has been fascinated by frozen and pristine environments and has wanted to play an active part in those studies. During her Bachelor's degree in Marine Engineering at Istanbul Technical University (ITU),
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.
Betsy retired in 2021 as an educator coordinator for Arizona Project WET at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She worked with teachers to build community resilience
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.
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.
