UEPP - Key Persons


Alia Khan

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Curriculum Committee
  • Member of the Diversity & Community Affairs Committee

Alyssa Starmer

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Academic Technology Committee
  • Student

Amara Simons

Job Titles:
  • Administrative Assistant
  • Member of the Curriculum Committee
  • Member of the Policy Committee
  • Recording Secretary
  • Recording Secretary ( Non - Voting )
Education Support College of the Environment Support the College of the Environment Resources for Faculty and College of the Environment Gear

Anne Shaffer

Job Titles:
  • Adjunct Professor She / Her

Ansu John

Job Titles:
  • Program Manager
  • Program Manager / College of the Environment
Education Support College of the Environment Support the College of the Environment Resources for Faculty and College of the Environment Gear

Ariel Shiley

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity & Community Affairs Committee
  • Graduate Student

Arntzen Hall

Job Titles:
  • Department of Environmental Studies ( ENVS )

Barbara Blackie

Job Titles:
  • Education

Brian Hauge

Job Titles:
  • Instructor

Caitlyn Wilson

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity & Community Affairs Committee
  • ENVS Student

Cathy Reidy Liermann

Job Titles:
  • Senior Instructor Internship Coordinator for CENV Everett & Peninsulas

David Shull

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Curriculum Committee

David Wallin

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Curriculum Committee

Ed Weber

Job Titles:
  • Graduate Program & Internship Coordinator
  • Graduate Program Coordinator, Staff

Emma Fredlund

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Policy Committee
  • ESCI Student

F. Scott Wilkinson


Fran Solomon

Job Titles:
  • Instructor

Gabrielle Lund

Job Titles:
  • ENVS Graduate Student

Gigi Berardi

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity & Community Affairs Committee

Harry Grantz

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Curriculum Committee
  • ENVS Student

James Miller

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Curriculum Committee

Jenise M. Bauman

Job Titles:
  • Instructor
Dr. Jenise Bauman is a forest and restoration ecologist at Western Washington University in the College of the Environment . She earned her Ph.D. from Miami University, M.S. from West Virginia University, and B.S. at Eastern Kentucky University. Dr. Bauman is initiating projects that are focused on the restoration of coal mine landscapes in the Appalachian forests, the recovery of forests in the Pacific Northwest, and the reconstruction of estuaries and riparian forests in urban areas of the Western Washington peninsulas. Her research couples field methods with molecular techniques to better understand vegetation establishment, plant interactions, and system recovery in disturbed soils. Research foci include belowground interactions of beneficial fungi during restoration, impact of invasive species on plant-fungal mutualisms, and plant pathology within forest restoration. Education Ph.D. in Botany, Miami University (Ohio), M.S. in Forest Pathology, West Virginia University, B.S. in Horticulture, Eastern Kentucky University

Jennifer Nerad

Job Titles:
  • Communications Consultant, WWU Communications
  • Communications Consultant, WWU Communications She / Her / Hers

Jessica Scotten

Job Titles:
  • ESCI Graduate Student

Joan Pickens


Jonah White

Job Titles:
  • Instructor

Joseph Gish

Job Titles:
  • Education

Karen Rushton

Job Titles:
  • Education

Karla Boughton

Job Titles:
  • Education

Kate Maxwell

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Policy Committee
  • ENVS Student

Kathryn Patrick

Job Titles:
  • Advisor
  • Member of the Curriculum Committee
  • Undergraduate Advisor

Mary Moores

Job Titles:
  • Advisor
  • Member of the Curriculum Committee
  • Student Support
  • Undergraduate Advisor
  • Undergraduate Advisor ( Non - Voting )

Mary Tully

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Policy Committee
  • Operations Manager
  • Operations Manager ( Ex Officio )

Melissa Bernal

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity & Community Affairs Committee

Natalie Furness

Job Titles:
  • GIS Specialist

Nic Covell

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity & Community Affairs Committee

Nini Hayes

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Curriculum Committee

Oliver Simic

Job Titles:
  • ENVS Graduate Student

Rebekah Paci-Green

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Curriculum Committee
  • Department Chair and Associate Professor She / Her / Hers
  • ENVS Department Chair
Dr. Paci-Green (pronounced "Paw-Chee-Green") is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Director of the Resilience Institute at Western Washington University. In July 2021, she became Chair of the Environmental Studies Department. Dr. Paci-Green received her PhD from Cornell University where she combined structural engineering and culture anthropology to study disaster risk. She carried out her research in Istanbul Turkey, where she lived for two years. She studies the physical and social vulnerability and risk perceptions in informally built districts. She used qualitative and quantitative research methods in these settlements to recommended innovative, culturally-attuned methods for decreasing population vulnerability. Dr. Paci-Green completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at Columbia University's Earth Institute where she studied hurricane recovery in moderate and low-income neighborhoods of New Orleans. Working with residents, local NGOs and university partners, she has established reliable information on housing damage and reparability in some of the most heavily damaged low-income neighborhoods of the city. This work formed the basis of a community recovery plan for the Ninth Ward, which Dr. Green and others presented to the New Orleans City Council. This and other advocacy has led to the mayor's choice to move segments of the low-income, African American neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward off of the "depopulation" list and onto the high-priority redevelopment list. Since coming to Western, Dr. Paci-Green research has focused on working with community-based organizations to develop and implement disaster risk reduction strategies. This work includes developing phone apps in Fiji for family disaster preparedness, collaborating with Save the Children Australia to analyze a global survey of comprehensive school safety policy and practices, and coordinating the development of community-based safer school construction in low and moderate income nations with high hazard exposure. More recently, she spent a year in Nepal volunteering with the National Society for Earthquake Technology, supporting their staff in reflecting on and writing about their community-based, disaster risk reduction work. She is initiating two new research projects in 2024. The first will be a second global survey of Comprehensive School Safety Policy, conducted with the United Nation's Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Education Sector. The second will be an interdisciplinary research project, funded by the National Science Foundation, and led by the University of Buffalo. The interdisciplinary teams will investigate the combined risk of sea-level rise and earthquake risk on concrete buildings. Dr. Paci-Green will investigate the social acceptance of potential mitigation options that can lower this combined risk. Locally, Dr. Paci-Green directs the Resilience Institute to support communities in natural hazards planning. Most recently this work has included developing the Cascadia Subduction Zone scenario for a full-scale multi-jurisdictional (local, state, and federal and British Columbia) response exercise, supporting the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in climate change adaptation planning, and coordinating the 5-year update of the Whatcom County Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan.

Ruth Sofield

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Curriculum Committee
  • ESCI Department Chair

Scott Gallagher

Job Titles:
  • IT Manager
  • Spatial Analysis Lab Manager / IT Support

Shalini Singh

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity & Community Affairs Committee
  • Diversity Recruiter & Retention Specialist
  • Diversity Recruiter & Retention Specialist She / Her / Hers
Shalini is a support and advocate for our students of color, first-generation and underrepresented students in the College of the Environment. She provides academic, social and emotional support to help students reach their greatest potential. If you are a student with intersectional identities and are interested in studying in the College of the Environment or looking for ways to get involved, feel free to reach out and say hello!

Steve Hollenhorst

Job Titles:
  • Chief Strategy Officer for the WWU Peninsulas Campus
  • Professor and Chief Strategy Officer, Western on the Peninsulas
Steve is WWU's Chief Strategy Officer for the WWU Peninsulas Campus. He was the dean at Huxley College of the Environment from 2012 to 2021, and Associate Vice President for Facilities from 2023-2024. Prior to that, he was a faculty member at the University of Idaho, where he served as associate dean of the College of Natural Resources, Chair of the Department of Natural Resources and Society, founding director of the university's award-winning Building Sustainable Communities Initiative, and founding director of the McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS). He was also director of the U of I's Park Studies Unit, a branch of the National Park Service Social Science Program. Formerly he was co-editor of the international academic journal Society and Natural Resources. Prior to the University of Idaho, he was a professor and program coordinator in the Division of Forestry at Western Virginia University. He is the founder and first executive director of the West Virginia Land Trust. Education PhD, The Ohio State University; MS, University of Oregon; BS, University of Oregon Research Interests His scholarship and outreach work is in the areas of land use policy and management; land trusts and conservation easements; climate action; natural climate solutions; and environmental leadership.

Talulla Amsbry

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity & Community Affairs Committee
  • ESCI Student

Teena Gabrielson

Job Titles:
  • Dean
  • Member of the Policy Committee
  • Dean ( Ex Officio )

Tom Butler

Job Titles:
  • Education

Tyson Waldo

Job Titles:
  • Instructor
Education Support College of the Environment Support the College of the Environment Resources for Faculty and College of the Environment Gear

Zander Albertson

Job Titles:
  • Senior Instructor