Faculty

Maria holds a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from Rutgers University and a Master of Science in engineering geology from Drexel University. Maria's professional experience in the environmental field ranges from applications of analytical soil and water chemistry to multiple facets of environmental consulting. Her focus of interest has been the behavior and interaction of inorganic and organic pollutants in the environment. Maria has been teaching at Penn since 2002 and is currently the Associate Director for Undergraduate Programs in Earth & Environmental Science.

Jill Kelly is a classroom GIS instructor. Her dissertation identified areal aggregation effects in forest biomass prediction from lidar metrics. In addition to an ongoing focus on spatial aggregation, scale of analysis, and data smoothing, Jill's current research interests include GIS as a liberatory technology, raster-based spatial statistics, and public data quality.

Dr. Yvette Bordeaux received a BS in Biology-Geology from the University of Rochester and MS and PhD in Geology from the University of Pennsylvania. Yvette was the Associate Director for Undergraduate Programs in Earth & Environmental Science at Penn from 1998-2008, and has been Director for the Professional Masters Programs (Master of Environmental Studies and Master of Science in Applied Geosciences) since 2007.

Siobhan is a geomorphologist with a particular interest in landslides. Siobhan holds a BSc, MSc, and PhD in Physical Geography from the University of Durham, UK, and completed a postdoc at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, working part-time for a geotechnical consulting firm. Her research focused on natural hazards, specifically understanding issues of slope stability and working to better forecast slope failure events.

Professor Alain Plante joined the Department of Earth & Environmental Science at Penn in 2007. He currently serves as Undergraduate Chair in the department and as the Faculty Director of the University Scholars program at the University’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF). Professor Plante is a soil scientist by training and studies organic matter cycling and storage in soils. His research uses biological, chemical and physical methods to characterize soil organic matter with the goal of predicting its behavior in the global carbon cycle. Prof.

Kim provides consulting services to organizations seeking to manage and realize performance improvements through sustainability best practices, with a particular focus in the food service and hospitality industry. Through her consulting work, she has helped a wide range of organizations align impact-focused goals with business strategies. Kim serves on the Board of Directors for the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia and teaches a course at the University of Pennsylvania, Leading Change for Sustainability.