Meet your Instructors!

Dr. Christa Mulder (Program Director) is an ecology professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She has a long-standing interest in children’s welfare, dating back to when she worked in an orphanage in Colombia as a teenager. She started this camp because she saw foster kids were missing from other summer science programs. She loves catching back up with "old" campers and meeting "new" campers every year! (Photos: K. Spellman, M. Murphy).

Dr. Katie Spellman  (Associate Director) is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She teaches and studies plant ecology and how people learn science. She has worked creating, directing, or instructing outdoor youth camps in Fairbanks and Homer, Alaska. These have included camps designed for youth who don't get many opportunities for science camp participation, including ecology camps for homeless youth, and ecology camps for Alaska Native youth from rural villages. She loves singing crazy science songs and playing outside.

Joel Eklof  (Associate Director) is a PhD student at the University of Washington.  He studies controls on permafrost thaw and wetland carbon emissions. Joel loves to help make scientific concepts understandable to broad audiences. Joel's teaching has ranged from graduate-level groundwater courses to connecting climate change concepts to Toy Story over Zoom for an energetic group of 3-year-olds. Joel loves being outdoors and has a long history of helping young people get outdoors including mountain bike camps, backpacking and canoe trips, and as a youth climbing instructor. Joel's favorite part of the year is coming up to Alaska for camp!

Theresa Villano has a Master's degree in school counseling and loves helping kids understand their individual gifts and potential. Theresa has worked with students from coast to coast (Buffalo, NY to San Diego, CA) running and delivering youth development programs that help guide youth to behaviors that support a positive future and connect them to positive role models. She loves summer camp, and making learning fun for youth, and has directed and instructed her own youth leadership camp.  She works in the world of professional sports helping professional athletes make a difference in their communities and across the US. 

Natalie Schuldt is an artist based in Goldstream Valley, Alaska. She has an art degree and specializes in printmaking at her art studio in a black spruce forest. She grew up in rural Alaska and loves to teach nature journaling to all ages, as she believes that closely observing one’s environment holds wide-ranging lessons for everyone. She has taught many private nature journaling lessons, as well as teaching in schools, at summer camps, and at the Fairbanks correctional facility. Natalie is an enthusiastic mother of two teenage boys.

Kara Kornhauser  completed her MS degree at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she studied biology and scientific teaching. She enjoys instructing camps and doing field research in the summer months. She is currently a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer, and values making science and the outdoors accessible to everyone. She is always looking forward to camp traditions, especially the soil profile activity (a.k.a. the Candy Delicious)!