The PEI Executive Committee is responsible for guiding the organisation and helping to set priorities while working closely with partners to help our members. The Executive Committee under advisement of a Council, manages the affairs of PEI. The role of the Executive Committee is to ensure that the mission and goals of PEI are pursued in a responsible, accountable, and transparent manner.
You can contact the executive committee at [email protected]
Sophie’s passion for the polar regions, environmental sustainability and working with researchers stems from her time as Education and Outreach at The Polar Museum and IPY2007-08, in particular IPY2012-Montreal ‘From Knowledge to Action’, when she co-founded Polar Educators International.
She is an experienced museum and gallery learning programmes developer and project manager, Read More creative director of collaborative art and science projects (for example, the Existential Risk bus ride and Neural Knitworks) and an enthusiastic science communicator. She is currently Institute Associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute, researching the impact of Polar Education, Outreach and online Communication since IPY and conducting action research to evidence the impact of involving polar educators in Arctic environmental research. Sophie managed the PEI2019-UK conference in Cambridge, with David Martinez, Pia Casarini, Prof Gareth Rees (SPRI) and Jose Xavier (BAS). She was elected to ExCom in 2019, helping to secure partnerships with SCAR, IASC and APECS for the ‘updating the Polar Resource Book’ project, supporting educators in the 3rd Arctic Science Ministerial Meeting process and achieving funding for IASC Cross Cutting projects to foster partnership between polar educators and ECRs and engage IASC working groups in co-developing polar education and outreach resources. She is thrilled to become PEI President 2023-2024 and will focus on building partnerships and evidencing the value and importance of connecting education, polar research and communities with a view to achieving stability and sustainability for a growing PEI network.
She is currently Institute Associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute, researching the impact of Polar Education, Outreach and online Communication since IPY and conducting action research to evidence the impact of involving polar educators in Arctic environmental research.
Sophie managed the PEI2019-UK conference in Cambridge, with David Martinez, Pia Casarini, Prof Gareth Rees (SPRI) and Jose Xavier (BAS). She was elected to ExCom in 2019, helping to secure partnerships with SCAR, IASC and APECS for the ‘updating the Polar Resource Book’ project, supporting educators in the 3rd Arctic Science Ministerial Meeting process and achieving funding for IASC Cross Cutting projects to foster partnership between polar educators and ECRs and engage IASC working groups in co-developing polar education and outreach resources.
She is thrilled to become PEI President 2023-2024 and will focus on building partnerships and evidencing the value and importance of connecting education, polar research and communities with a view to achieving stability and sustainability for a growing PEI network.
Maria Pia Casarini, PEI Past President 2022-2023, Coordinator of the Polar Resource Book project, has two degrees from Milan Cattolica University (Modern Languages and Italian Letters); M.Phil. in Polar Studies, Cambridge University, UK. Carried on research in Polar History at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge and has done 10 polar field trips Read More
She participated in the Winter Weddell Sea Project 1986, the first wintering scientific programme of a ship in the Antarctic, to write a commissioned book for the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Bremerhaven (Unternehmen Polarstern, 1987, Econ Verlag). Pia lectured on ships (Northwest Passage and North Pole). 2011-2016 Director of the Zavatti Polar Institute, Fermo, Italy, in charge of the quarterly journal IL POLO. She is a former participant at the Arctic Table of the Italian Foreign Ministry. Her memberships include the Society of Woman Geographers, USA; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London; James Caird Society and the Hakluyt Society. Many publications on polar history. Interviews given to radio and TV programmes. She frequently lectures on polar subjects, including polar education.
Inga studied physical Geography at the University of Munich and did her PhD about permafrost in Northern Quebec, Canada. 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. Read More For seven years she worked at the environmental research station Schneefernerhaus – Germany’s highest research station at 2650 m. Now she is involved in many knowledge transfer and educational projects related to climate change with a special focus on alpine and polar regions. Besides her studies Inga got a certificate in environmental education. Since her PhD (starting in 2008) she was an active APECS member and from 2010 – 2012 member of the APECS Council. She was involved in PEI activities since the IPY Oslo conference in 2010 and initiated the first PEI workshop together with Jose Xavier in Portugal in 2013.
Besides her studies Inga got a certificate in environmental education. Since her PhD (starting in 2008) she was an active APECS member and from 2010 – 2012 member of the APECS Council. She was involved in PEI activities since the IPY Oslo conference in 2010 and initiated the first PEI workshop together with Jose Xavier in Portugal in 2013.
Susy has been teaching about our planet, in one form or another, for over 30 years as both a classroom teacher and environmental educator. Her teaching career has focused on infusing environmental literacy throughout her curriculum to create students of all ages who understand and take responsibility for their impacts on the planet and feel empowered to become agents of positive environmental change. Read More
