Field Educators & Faculty

 Kasper Busk is the Greenland project lead for JSEP. He has taught Biology in Greenland high schools and now works on education reform for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Church and Foreign Affairs in the Government of Greenland.

Rikke Jørgensen is a JSEP educator with a specialty in geology and glacial geomorphology. Rikke is based in Denmark but spent two years teaching in Greenland and has worked with JSEP every year since 2012. She earned her M.S. in Geology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Dr. Miilla Lennert is a JSEP educator with an interest in education policy and sustainable development. Miilla is from Sisimuit, Greenland and now lives in Nuuk, where she has recently received her Ph.D. at the University of Greenland (Ilisimatusarfik). She has been a part of the JSEP team since 2015.

Profile coming soon.

Erica Wallstrom is a JSEP educator with a specialty in earth sciences and engaging students in interdisciplinary and hands-on learning. She works for the Rutland Public School System in Vermont and has been the lead U.S. JSEP educator since 2015.

Mary Albert is a Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth and a U.S. project co-lead for JSEP. She directs the U.S. Ice Drilling Program Office and is an expert on snow and firn physics, ice cores, and climate science.  She is also the PI an NSF-funded project on community resilience for communities in NW Greenland. 

Matt Ayres (he/him) is a professor in Dartmouth’s Department of Biological Sciences and a U.S. project co-lead for JSEP. He has worked in Greenland for over ten years as a scientist and educator. Matt also has previous Arctic experience in Alaska, Finland, and Sweden.

Dr. Matt Ayres is an ecologist who studies the ecology of insects, including exploring the effects of climate change and other anthropogenic impacts on the distribution and abundance of insects – especially those that we think of as pests. Matt teaches courses in ecology and is co-chair of the Dartmouth’s graduate program in Ecology, Evolution, Environment and Society. He has a long-standing commitment to immersive field-based education, including on JSEP and the Biology foreign studies program in Central America.

Zoe Courville is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering and a Research Mechanical Engineer at CRREL, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, NH. She has worked in Greenland since 2003 to lead research and infrastructure projects related to ice core drilling and she is also a member of the Science Coordination Office for Summit Station.

Lauren Culler is a faculty member in the Department of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth. She has worked in Greenland for over ten years as a scientist and educator and enjoys sharing her love of insects and the Arctic with JSEP students. Lauren is the former PI of JSEP and is currently on assignment as a Program Director to the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Lauren is an ecologist who studies the impacts of rapid environmental change on northern ecosystems. She works with undergraduate and graduate students on field-based research in Greenland with a focus on insect ecology. She also serves as UArctic liaison to Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), the biodiversity working group of the Arctic Council. With IAS and international partners, Lauren co-leads NSF-funded projects for field-based science outreach in the polar regions and for developing ethical practices for co-produced research in Greenland. Lauren is committed to scholarship that fully integrates research, education, and policy and that helps train the next generation of polar and STEM professionals in a collaborative framework.

Lars Demant-Poort is a JSEP educator and faculty member at the University of Greenland (Ilisimatusarfik). Lars is based in Nuuk, Greenland and specializes in earth science education, science education research and best teaching practices for inquiry-based science.

Ross Virginia is a Professor of Environmental Studies and directs the Institute of Arctic Studies at Dartmouth. He is a U.S. project co-lead for JSEP. His research spans both polar regions with a focus on ecosystem ecology and soil-plant interactions.

Jessica Trout-Haney (she/her) is an aquatic ecologist and assistant research professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth. Jess has worked in Greenland for 10 years as a scientist and educator and is passionate about issues relating to freshwater resources and lake water quality. 

Jess works in systems across diverse environments from polar lakes in Greenland and Antarctica, to alpine ponds, to recreational lakes across the northeastern U.S. A major theme of her research involves understanding how cyanobacteria and their toxins influence aquatic and terrestrial food webs, including teasing apart ways in which humans and other organisms are exposed to cyanobacterial toxins.