Initial Publication Date: October 29, 2010

CLEAN Project Team Members

If you have questions about the CLEAN collection or the CLEAN project, please contact the team at clean@colorado.edu.

Current CLEAN Team

Anne Gold - CIRES , University of Colorado, Boulder, C (CLEAN PI)

Anne Gold is the Director of CIRES Education & Outreach and the Project Investigator for the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) contract from NOAA. She has been with CLEAN from its beginnings and has led the development of the CLEAN peer-review process. She holds a Ph.D. in Paleoclimatology, a Master's in Geographic Information Systems and Science, and Diploma in Physical Geography. Anne has taught many graduate and undergraduate classes focused on climate science.

Katie Boyd - CIRES , University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (CLEAN Program Manager)

Katie Boyd is the program manager for the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) and an Education & Outreach Associate at CIRES. She has been with CLEAN from its beginnings and has led the development of the CLEAN peer-review process. She earned her BS from the University of Washington and her MS from Colorado State University (CSU), both in Atmospheric Science. During these programs, she became interested in science education and outreach and worked with many groups helping the general public learn about weather & climate. She then returned to school and completed an interdisciplinary program with a focus on science education research, receiving a second MS in Ecology and Education from CSU.

Gina Fiorile-Desranleau - CIRES , University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (CLEAN Coordinator)

Gina Fiorile is the CLEAN (Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network) Program and Communication Coordinator at CIRES. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Vermont and an M.A. in Science Communication from George Mason University. In her former roles, she has worked at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Climate Adaptation Science Center as a Science Communication Specialist, at the Center for Climate Change Communication's Program on Climate and Health at George Mason University, and in non-profit climate education and program coordination roles. This work earned her recognition from the EPA and The White House, as a Champion of Change for Climate Education and Literacy. She has served as a US delegate to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change's Conference of Parties at both COP 21 in Paris and COP 26 in Glasgow and is recognized as a "Global 30 Under 30" leader in Environmental Education by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). She was recently awarded the Joe Witte Special Recognition in Science Communication Leadership Award and currently serves on the Leadership Board for the CLEAN Network and the Youth Climate Summit Program with The Wild Center, Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks.

Patrick Chandler - CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (CLEAN Education Specialist)

Patrickis an Education Specialist for the Climate Literacy Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) and other Cooperative Institute for Environmental Sciences (CIRES) climate education projects. His current focus is developing support and resources for teaching climate change across the curriculum in both science and non-science classrooms. Previously, Patrick designed educator guides and workshops for the CU/United Nations' Right Here Right Now Global Climate Summit (RHRN) centered on helping teachers bring a human rights lens to climate change. Before starting with CIRES, Patrick was the Education Director for the Washed Ashore Project, raising awareness about marine debris through art/science partnership exhibits; taught biology for Kenai Peninsula College; was the International Coastal Cleanup Coordinator for Alaska; and the Special Programs Coordinator for the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies. He has over fifteen years working in and developing environmental education, art, stewardship, and science programs and received his Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from CU, Boulder focused on art and science partnerships to catalyze community action on environmental and social justice issues.

Alicia Christensen - CIRES , University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (CLEAN Educator Coordinator)

Alicia Christensen is an Education and Outreach Associate at CIRES and manages the CLEAN Elementary Collection and Support pages, as well as the CLEAN expert science review process. Alicia is passionate about connecting students from underserved communities with the natural world. Before joining CIRES, Alicia served as outreach programs manager for Denver Zoo and as a program coordinator for the Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences Program (Oregon State University) and at Oregon Coast Aquarium. Alicia has facilitated teacher professional development workshops and taught and developed programming in informal science settings for over 15 years. She holds an M.S. in Marine Resource Management, focused on marine education, and is an enthusiastic ocean lover who can be found exploring some coastline with her 2-year-old daughter when not in Colorado.

Naomi Ochwat - CIRES , University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (CLEAN Science Specialist)

Naomi Ochwat is a research associate at CIRES. She works in glacier and climate research and is a member of the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) team. She helps curate the CLEAN resources as well as participates in the review process. She manages the expert science review process and also provides web page technical development. She holds an MSc. in Glaciology from the University of Calgary and a BSc. in Geology and Geography from the University of Colorado, Boulder. When not working on CLEAN she researches collapsing Arctic ice shelves and melting glaciers. She also extends her interest in science education and outreach by working and volunteering for Inspiring Girls Expeditions.

Sean Fox - SERC, Carleton College, Northfield, MN (Technical Lead)

Sean Fox is the Technical Director for SERC and is the technical lead in charge of the infrastructure supporting the CLEAN website and the review process. Sean has a Masters's in theoretical solid-state physics. Before joining the SERC office in 2002 he was the Academic Computing Coordinator for the Natural Sciences at Carleton College. He worked closely with science faculty implementing a wide variety of computing technologies in support of curricular innovation and was part of a team nationally recognized for excellent faculty support. more ...

Monica Bruckner - SERC, Carleton College, Northfield, MN (Technical Support)

Monica Bruckner works for the SERC office at Carleton College helping to build and maintain its web-based digital collections that support its many workshops. In the summer of 2009, she began to provide evaluation assistance for the SERC pages. In 2008 she completed a Master's degree in Earth Sciences at Montana State University with a thesis project involving biogeochemical changes and hydrology in alpine catchments in response to glacier retreat. more ...

Karin Kirk - (Independent Consultant)

Karin Kirk supports CLEAN as an independent consultant. She leads the development of the Teaching about Climate and Energy pages, is the author of the popular Energy Quiz, and has been part of the CLEAN review team from its beginning. Karin further provides web support for the CLEAN web portal. Her background in the earth sciences is in environmental geology and hydrology. Her master's research involved investigating the Madison Aquifer for a potential public water supply for the city of Bozeman, MT. Before that, she taught geology and environmental science at Skidmore College. more ...

Frank Niepold- NOAA ( This site may be offline. ) , Silver Spring, MD (Advisor to CLEAN)

Frank Niepold is the Climate Education Coordinator at NOAA's Climate Program Office and co-chair of the Climate Education Interagency Working Group at the US Climate Change Science Program. At NOAA, he develops and implements NOAA's Climate goal education and outreach efforts. He is a co-managing author of the 2009 USGCRP-released Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science, a collaborative effort of NOAA, NSF, NASA, AAAS Project 2061, CIRES, the American Meteorological Society, and various members from both the science and education community to define climate literacy in the United States. He received his MSEd in Earth Space Science Education (2006) from Johns Hopkins University with areas of concentration in Earth Observing Systems, Scientist/Teacher/Student Collaboration, and Earth Systems science education focused on climate.

Tamara Ledley- (Advisor to CLEAN, former Principal Investigator)

Tamara Ledley a 2017 Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow. She holds a Ph.D. in meteorology and has published 15 scientific research papers on climate science and Earth system science. The focus of her research is on the cryosphere and its impact on atmosphere-surface energy exchange and the global climate. Her educational experience includes teaching undergraduate and graduate students and acting as the lead editor and author of the "Earth as a System" investigation of the GLOBE Teachers guide. She is particularly interested in how to bridge the scientific and educational communities to make Earth science data accessible and usable in educational contexts. more ...