Heidi Ballard
Founder, Faculty Director
Heidi’s research and practice have formed the foundation for the Center. She is leading the development of its overarching vision and mission, and building partnerships and collaborations across the University and beyond. She is Associate Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow at the UC Davis School of Education. Read more
Ryan Meyer
Executive Director
Ryan leads strategic, financial, and operational development of the Center, and collaborates on many of its research initiatives. He has has studied science and society, and worked with governments and scientists to improve the links between science and decision making. Read more
Déana Scipio
Senior Researcher
Dé manages the Center’s science learning research, with a particular focus on our work with museums and youth. She received her PhD at the University of Washington, and recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at TERC, a nonprofit education research and development organization based in Massachusetts.
Student Researchers
Amanda Lindel
Amanda is a former high school science teacher and informal science educator in New York City. She most recently oversaw teacher professional development, youth programming, and in-park interpretation at the Wildlife Conservation Society. Her research interests focus on the interplay of formal science education and environmental education in increasing scientific literacy.
Colin Dixon
As an educator and researcher, Colin comes to the CCS project looking at youth development and science learning as a tool for young people to use in their lives and communities.
Cristian Galindo
Cristian is a 4th year sociology student here at Davis with a passion for the outdoors. His first exposure to CCS was through Dr. Ballard’s environmental education class where the students were involved in downloading the iNaturlist app and taking pictures of creatures seen on a daily basis. This experience sparked his interest to become more involved in learning how CCS benefits science today.
Erin Bird
Erin is a former high school science teacher and has founded and directed environmental education and farm-based education programs throughout the Bay Area. Her research interests focus on social and environmental justice through and within science education. Read more
Karen Bush
Karen has been a science educator for almost 20 years, primarily as a middle school science teacher. She is currently working toward her PhD in science education with a focus on 1) designing instructional methods and environments to support student learning of challenging scientific concepts and the nature of scientific thinking and 2) supporting students who have traditionally been underrepresented in science pathways as they pursue science related degrees, careers and interests.
Meg Pannkuk
Meg is pursuing her Masters’ in Community Development at UC Davis, studying policy implications of shelter practices for the unhoused. At the Center, she is coordinating research on citizen science and civic participation with Public Lab. Her former lives as baker, rafter, farmer, and carpenter help inform her current life as grad student who is curious about how knowledge is expressed and used for action.
Sara Ludwick
Sara is an undergraduate Environmental Science and Management major studying Climate Change and Air Quality. She is curious about the factors that contribute to people’s attitudes toward the environment and the ways people can be motivated to act as environmental stewards. As a student intern with CCS, she is researching climate-related community and citizen science projects with Ryan Meyer.
UC Davis Affiliates
If you are interested in becoming an affiliate of the Center, and becoming an active member of our campus community, let us know about it here.
Alfonso Aranda
PhD Student, Geography Graduate Group
Alsfonso is working on a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project focused on environmental health in farmworker communities.
Carmia Feldman
Assistant Director, UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden
The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden (APG) is interested in collaborating on citizen science projects. The Arboretum and Public Garden has incredible resources for projects related to plants, biodiversity, horticulture, conservation, restoration and more. We are interested in working with faculty, staff and students to develop appropriate projects. Read More
Colin Milburn
Gary Snyder Chair in Science and the Humanities; Director, Science and Technology Studies Program; Professor of English, Science and Technology Studies, and Cinema and Digital Media
From an STS perspective, I have studied citizen science projects in nanotechnology, focusing on the role of narrative frames for engagement. I also work on video games for citizen science. I am currently involved in a re-design of Foldit. Read More
Eric Post
Professor
Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology
Post studies climate change, wildlife conservation, Arctic ecosystems, phenology, and species interactions. He is also involved in running the program APPLES, which is preparing middle school, high school, and undergraduate educators in polar research to engage their students in similar studies in the classroom. Read More
Erin Satterthwaite
PhD Candidate, Bodega Marine Laboratory & Environmental Science and Policy
Erin works on the California Collaborative fisheries research project at Bodega Marin Laboratory, UC Davis. She has an interest in connecting graduate students with people in agencies who need monitoring and are thinking about community/citizen science efforts; understanding ways its been done and resources (ie: intro to comm/citizen science workshop/short course); and in marine and watershed programs. Read More
Gail Patricelli
Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow, Department of Evolution and Ecology.
Professor Patricelli is collaborating with the Center to involve youth in research on sage grouse mating behavior. Read more
Heather Seagale
Education and Outreach Director, Tahoe Environmental Research Center
Heather and colleagues have developed the Citizen Science Tahoe app to collect data on nearshore of Lake Tahoe (water quality/color/clarity, algae, litter, various species, aquatic invasive species). Read More
Jay Stachowicz
Professor, Department of Evolution and Ecology
I am a field ecologist and help run a distributed ecological network of seagrass communities throughout the northern hemisphere: zenscience.org Read More
Jeffery Clary
Associate Director UC Davis Natural Reserves Read More
Jonathan Eisen
Professor
UC Davis Genome Center
Medical Microbiology and Immunology Population Biology
Eisen’s research focuses on the ecology, evolution and function of communities of microbes (aka microbiomes). Dr. Eisen has run or been involved in a diversity of participatory/citizen microbiology projects including ones involving microbes that live in and on cats (aka Kittybiome), the Space Station (Project MERCCURI), and humans. Read More
Jonathan London
Associate Professor
Community and regional development
Director of Center for Regional Change
Jonathan London is an educator, researcher, and community-builder with experience in participatory research, rural community development, and community engaged planning. Read More
Kate Scow
Professor, Land and Water Resources
I direct the Russell Ranch Sustainable Agriculture Facility (http://asi.ucdavis.edu/programs/rr), a long term research experiment on agricultural sustainability and resilience. We host many workshops and field days, and connect to broad network of farmers, public and private sector actors, researcher and students. We are interested in doing much more in the area of citizen science particularly around the areas of regenerative agriculture, agroecology and climate change. We are a hub that is in the position to do a lot more. Read More
Laci Gerhart-Barley
Lecturer PSOE, Department of Evolution and Ecology
I’m interested in using participation in citizen and community science as a component of a new course I’m developing on the natural history of the Davis campus (titled Wild Davis) and potentially as part of a research program on assessing impacts of exposure to and participation in original research on students’ scientific literacy, interest in scientific degrees/careers, and perceptions of scientists and scientific inquiry. Read more
Lee Martin
Associate Professor
School of Education
Lee Martin studies participation in making and the maker movement as activities that may help youth become more flexible and adaptive in their thinking and problem solving. In addition, he examines processes of identity development and sense of connection to STEM fields. Read More
Louie Yang
Associate Professor, Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Professor Yang’s work on Monarch butterflies has engaged youth in monitoring activities as part of an after school program. Read more
Mark Schwartz
Professor of Environmental Science and Policy
Professor Schwartz advises the Center, and has collaborated on a citizen science initiative at Stebbins Research Reserve. Read more
Monique Borgerhoff-Mulder
Professor
Department of Anthropology
Evolutionary Wing
Professor Borgerhoff Mulder is a human behavioral ecologist (HBE) working on projects relating to life history, inequality, natural resource management, and patterned cultural variation. Together with Professor Tim Caro and the Department of Forestry and Non-Renewable Natural Resources (Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar), and with support of Max Planck Institute funding, she is developing an education and citizen science centre in Pemba (Tanzania)”. Read More
Neal Williams
Pollination Ecology
Department of Entomology and Nematology
Professor Williams interests include Pollination ecology, bee biology with emphasis on foraging behavior, ecology and evolution of trophic specialization and plant-pollinator Interactions, landscape change and community dynamics, ecosystem services and conservation. Read More
Pernille Sporon Boving
Academic Coordinator Wildlife, Fish & Conservation Biology
I coordinate all the outreach, engagement and logistics for the APPLES workshops. APPLES is an NSF-funded project that provides hands-on training for K-12+ educators in research methods used to study plant phenological responses to climate change in the Arctic. We would like to broadcast our professional development workshops to K-12+ science teachers through a formal UCD interface. Read More
Sara Giordano
Assistant Professor
HATCH Feminist Science Shop
College of Letters & Science; Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies; Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
They with Dr. Rana Jaleel are co-founder and co-director of the first and only U.S. based feminist arts and science shop, HATCH: Feminist Arts and Science Shop at UC Davis, which is currently funded through the Mellon Foundation. Science shops typically provide space for non-academic communities to participate in the creation of scientific and technological research agendas. HATCH builds on this by including the arts and specifically orienting our research agendas towards social justice ends. Read More
Sarah McCullough
Associate Director, LWOS Science & Technology Studies
I work on participatory research in mobility justice, with a strong emphasis on making planning processes more engaged with local residents. This is part of a broader motivation to make research more responsive to community needs and involve communities in the process of undertaking research. Read More
Shane Waddell
Quail Ridge Reserve Director, John Muir Institute for the Environment, UC Davis Natural Reserve System
I am interested in place-based research and educational programs cutting across many disciplines and departments on campus, and willing to host citizen and community science projects. Read More
Skye Kelty
PhD Candidate, Center for Health and Environment
The Knights Landing Environmental Health Project is a collaboration between UC Davis Environmental Health researchers and the residents of Knights Landing. We are connecting university researchers and resources to meet needs in the Knights Landing Community. Read More
Tabatha Yang
Education and Outreach Coordinator, Bohart Museum of Entomology
I helped coordinate the MMMILC (Monitoring Milkweed-Monarch Interactions for Learning and Conversation) project that connects teenagers with research on monarchs and milkweeds. Read More
Alumni and External Affiliates
Sinead Brien
Sinead’s background is in secondary level science education and environmental education in Mozambique and the United States. Her current focus is on ways citizen science can support formal science education and contributes to youth development of science identity. She is pursuing her PhD at Michigan State University.
Emily Harris
Emily is a researcher and teacher educator interested in teacher and youth science learning, and identity work in the context of citizen science and school gardens. She received her PhD from UC Davis in 2017, and worked on the Youth-focused Community and Citizen Science project from its inception. Read more
Jennifer Metes
Jen completed her MS with the Community Development Graduate group at UC Davis. Her work at the Center focused on the recruitment and retention of participants in coastal citizen science and how the use of citizen science data informs natural resource management and decision-making. Previously, Jen taught environmental education in several National Parks and worked as a field technician for the US Forest Service.
Lina Yamashita
Lina is the Medical Programs Director for Volunteers in Asia, based in San Francisco. She received her PhD from UC Davis in 2017, and worked with Heidi Ballard on the NSF-funded EESIP project. Lina is interested in using the food system to explore as well as deepen students’ and teachers’ understandings of the social, environmental, cultural, and economic aspects of sustainability. Read more
