Seidl, Dara

By

Dara Seidl, Geographic Information Systems Faculty at Colorado Mountain College Leadville

Dara Seidl, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Geographic Information Systems
719-486-4222 | deseidl@coloradomtn.edu

Education

  • Ph.D. in Geography, San Diego State University and University of California at Santa Barbara
  • M.S. in Geographic Information Science, San Diego State University
  • B.A. in Geography and French, Colgate University

About

Dara is a geographer and GIS scientist who loves to help students effectively capture, produce, analyze, display, and communicate geographic data. She strives to create classroom experiences to position students for success after graduation. Spatial analysis and mapping skills can open doors to a wide set of employment opportunities, and Dara enjoys designing interactive exercises to foster creativity and spatial problem-solving across disciplines.

Dara's teaching of GIS is informed by ten years of GIS industry experience on a wide range of transportation, health, environmental, business, and demographic projects. Her goal is to help students apply the tools and techniques of GIS to issues that interest them and are helpful to their communities.

Dara is also passionate about incorporating ethics into geography education. Her scholarly research centers on geoprivacy, which is the right of individuals to control their personal location data. She was named a 2019-2020 EthicalGEO Fellow by the American Geographical Society to develop an educational toolbox of short films on geoprivacy. She regularly published on cartographic techniques to protect privacy in mapping and societal reactions to personal location collection.

Outside the classroom, Dara is an avid trail runner and eager to get out and explore the fascinating geography of the Rocky Mountain region.

Videos

Dara recently completed a yearlong fellowship with the American Geographical Society, to study privacy issues. Her findings are now framed in an eight-part series of short educational videos.

The AGS initiated the EthicalGEO Fellowship in September 2019. Dara was one of seven fellows selected from academia, government and business to conduct research and fieldwork on how geographic systems are used in collecting location data, both nationally and worldwide.

Dara created the Geoprivacy Video Series, a resource for educators teaching ethical issues related to collection of location data. Her videos cover topics from the potential to falsely identify crime suspects to using GPS data to track shopping and dining habits of private citizens.

Haselhorst, Monia

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Monia Haselhorst, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Ecosystem Science & Stewardship; Program Chair of Ecosystem Science & Stewardship
719-486-4218 | mhaselhorst2@coloradomtn.edu

Education

  • Ph.D., Program in Ecology, Department of Botany, University of Wyoming (2017). Advisor: Dr. C. Alex Buerkle. Dissertation title: Genomic and geographic diversity patterns in the genus Picea in western North America.
  • M.S., Biology, Department of Plant Ecology, Uppsala University, Sweden, (2007). Advisor: Dr. Brita Svensson. Thesis Title: Can Management of Hay-Meadows Cause Speciation? A demographic and genetic study of early and late flowering morphs of Succisa pratensis.

Teaching & Learning

Monia joined CMC in the fall 2019. Her goal as an educator and mentor, is to engage her students in learning and for it to be a positive component of their undergraduate experience - not only as a stepping stone to a degree, but also to enrich their everyday life. To accomplish this goal, Monia’s courses are experiential, highly interactive, and based on the student’s participation in discussions and team activities that require them to think about real-world problems in a collaborative setting. Being a teacher is very rewarding to Monia and she genuinely enjoy working with students, to see them develop knowledge and grow as people. When students take her courses, she wants them to feel comfortable asking questions, be inspired and connected to the content, and develop ownership over their personal learning. Monia is convinced that when students enjoy a subject and feel motivated to participate in class, they gain the desire to learn as well as to apply their new-found knowledge in new situations. Moreover, when active and engaged learning is incorporated into classes, it tends to close achievement gaps for underrepresented minority students, women, and first-generation students.

2022 CMC Leadville Faculty of the Year

Scholarly Interests

Monia’s research experience prior to joining CMC, strengthened her understanding of the natural world and how science is done, which she brings into her interactions with her students. Monia’s broad research interests revolve around biogeographical patterns of genetic and ecological variation in plants at different scales (molecular to ecosystem; local to global). In her dissertation projects, she used an interdisciplinary approach integrating genomics, ecology, GIS, and statistical models to investigate species of spruce across their western North American range. Her main goal was to characterize factors that contribute to the maintenance and distribution of divergent species in this genus.
Monia’s curiosity about the natural world lead her to investigate a spectrum of species living in various habitats, for example devil's-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis), sunflowers (Helianthus annuus and H. petiolaris), cottonwoods (Populus deltoides and P. angustifoila), spruce (Picea spp.), and field mustard (Brassica rapa). Moreover, during her time as a doctorate student at the University of Wyoming, she learned about many different ecological systems, from fish in lakes and streams, Penstemon living on sand dunes, alpine butterflies and their hosts, native vs. invasive species interactions, plant-soil microbiome relationships, to forest disturbance management.

Monia Haselhorst's CV/ Professional Resume

Mountain Life

Living and working in a small mountain town makes Monia exceedingly happy! When not being indoors or outdoors with her students, you can find Monia running, hiking, or skiing on the numerous mountain trails around Leadville and beyond. She often stops to take a closer look at a plant or simply to take in the beautiful scenery and listen to nature’s sounds.

Monia Haselhorst Pd.D. Natural Resource Management professor hiking in ColoradoWhat Students Say

“Monia is a great instructor. Before I took a class with Monia, I had never experienced a structure like she facilitates in her classrooms. She is extremely engaged and available to all students. She is also exuberantly passionate about what she does and very confident about what she knows and willing to admit when she doesn’t. I absolutely loved the open learning environment she provided and felt generally accepted and aware of my own learning in her classroom. Her implementations of reflection in learning are phenomenal. Monia is one of the best and inspiring instructors/mentors I have ever had.” /Anonymous; from student course evaluation in the Spring 2020.

“I really enjoyed the dynamics of this class. I gained a lot of important and vital information. I was taught how to reflect on my perspective of what I'm learning. The support and making us reflect is appreciated. It makes me feel like I actually accomplished something.”

“I really enjoyed this class as it was different from any other science class I have taken. I have learned a lot of useful academic skills in this class that I will use in other classes.”

“Monia's teaching style stood out to myself and the rest of my peers. She was more of a facilitator than any teacher I've had before. She demanded independent thinking and creativity from us as well as group work and team building in new and challenging ways. She emphasized the importance of experiential learning which was extremely powerful.”

Stepanek, Josh

By

photo: Josh Stepanek

Josh Stepanek, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Biology
970-569-2977 | jstepanek@coloradomtn.edu

Joshua Stepanek Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • Ph.D. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO
  • M.S. Ecology and Natural Resources, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN
  • B.S. Ecology and Field Biology, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN

Awards

  • 2020 - 2021 CMC Vail Valley at Edwards Faculty of the Year

Professional Interests

I was introduced to aquatic and evolutionary biology while earning my B.S. and M.S. in Ecology and Field Biology from St. Cloud State University in central Minnesota, where I was drawn to the important but largely neglected world of freshwater microalgae. Taking this love of evolution and microalgae I worked on projects as diverse as the effects of estrogenic compounds in our waterways, nutrient pollution and its effect on the primary production community, and the fluid dynamic pressures driving shape evolution in my favorite group of algae, diatoms. The greatest lessons I took away from this time was the critical importance of basic research in evolution and diversity when approaching any applied biological question.

After leaving Minnesota to move west, I was able to continue exploring the intersection between basic biological research and application during my Ph.D. at the University of Colorado Boulder. At CU I utilized molecular and comparative phylogenetic techniques to examine evolutionary patterns in ecology and oil accumulation within diatoms, with an emphasis on the production of biofuels and high value lipid products.

Before coming to CMC I was a research faculty at St. Cloud State University where I participated in the development of the campus Bioenergy and Biomass Sustainable Energy Facility. A facility that creates renewable energy from campus cafeteria waste while mitigating energy waste streams through the production of high value algae.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My current research interests include genetic studies in algal taxonomy and systematics, the evolutionary patterns and timing of ecological shifts within algal lineages, and diversity studies within unique Colorado habitats.

TEACHING AND LEARNING

I can trace my own passion for science and biology directly to many of the laboratory and field experiences during my undergraduate education. These lessons directly inform how I approach the courses that I offer with an emphasis on hands-on learning that strives to include actual research in class activities.

Publications

  • Kociolek J.P., Lowe R.L., Sánchez K. & Stepanek J.G. 2021. Benthic diatom (Bacillariophyta) flora of Torch Lake, Michigan, an oligotrophic, alkaline ecosystem with evident benthic diatom production, with a consideration of some new and interesting species. The Great Lakes Botanist 60: 24–55.
  • Stepanek J.G. & Kociolek J.P. 2019. Molecular phylogeny of the diatom genera Amphora and Halamphora (Bacillariophyta) with a focus on morphological and ecological evolution. Journal of Phycology 55: 442–456.
  • Hamsher S.E., Keepers K.G., Pogoda C.S., Stepanek J.G., Kane N.C. & Kociolek J.P. 2019. Extensive chloroplast genome rearrangement amongst three closely related Halamphora spp. (Bacillariophyceae), and evidence for rapid evolution as compared to land plants. PLoSONE 14(7): e0217824. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217824
  • Pogoda C.S., Keepers K.G., Hamsher S.E., Stepanek J.G., Kane N.C. & Kociolek J.P. 2019. Comparative analysis of the mitochondrial genomes of six newly sequenced diatoms reveals group II introns in the barcoding region of cox1. Mitochondrial DNA Part A 30: 43–51.
  • Kociolek J.P., Williams D.M., Stepanek J.G., Liu Q., Liu Y., You Q., Karthick B. & Kulikovskiy M. 2019. Rampant homoplasy and adaptive radiation in pennate diatoms. Plant Ecology and Evolution 152: 131–141.
  • Stepanek J.G. & Kociolek J.P. 2018. Amphora and Halamphora from inland waters of the United States and Japan, with the description of 33 new species. Bibliotheca Diatomologica 66: 1–260.
  • Lowe R., Kociolek J.P., You Q., Wang Q. & Stepanek J.G. 2017. Diversity of the diatom genus Humidophila in karst areas of Guizhou, China. Phytotaxa 305: 269–284.
  • Stepanek J.G., Fields F.J. & Kociolek J.P. 2016. A comparison of lipid content metrics using six species from the genus Halamphora (Bacillariophyta). Biofuels 7: 521–528.
  • Stepanek J.G. & Kociolek J.P. 2016. Re-examination of Mereschkowsky’s genus Tetramphora (Bacillariophyta) and its separation from Amphora. Diatom Research 31: 123–148.
  • Stepanek J.G., Hamsher S.E., Mayama S., Jewson D.H. & Kociolek J.P. 2016. Observations of two marine members of the genus Cymbellonitzschia (Bacillariophyta) from Tokyo Bay, Japan, with the description of the new species Cymbellonitzschia banzuensis. Phycological Research 64: 26–34.
  • Thomas E.W., Stepanek J.G. & Kociolek J.P. 2016. Historical and current perspectives on the systematics of the ‘enigmatic’ diatom genus Rhoicosphenia (Bacillariophyta), with single and multi-molecular marker and morphological analysis and discussion of the monophyly of ‘monoraphid’ diatoms. PLoS ONE 11(4): e0152797. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0152797.
  • Kociolek J.P., You Q., Stepanek J.G., Lowe R.L. & Wang Q. 2016. A new Eunotia C.G. Ehrenberg (Bacillariophyta: Bacillariophyceae: Eunotiales) species from Karst formations of southern China. Phytotaxa 265: 285–293.
  • Kociolek J.P., You Q., Stepanek J.G., Lowe R.L. & Wang Q. 2016. New freshwater diatom genus, Edtheriotia gen. nov. of the Stephanodiscaceae (Bacillariophyta) from south-central China. Phycological Research 64: 274–280.
  • Stepanek J.G., Mayama S. & Kociolek J.P. 2015. Description and phylogenetic position of Amphora aliformis (Bacillariophyta), a new species from Tokyo Bay. Phycologia 54: 78–86.
  • Stepanek J.G. & Kociolek J.P. 2015. Three new species of the diatom genus Halamphora (Bacillariophyta) from the prairie pothole lakes region of North Dakota, USA. Phytotaxa 197: 27–36.
  • Stepanek J.G. & Kociolek J.P. 2014. Molecular phylogeny of Amphora sensu lato (Bacillariophyta): an investigation into the monophyly and classification of the amphoroid diatoms. Protist 165: 177–195.
  • Hamsher S.E., Graeff C.L., Stepanek J.G. & Kociolek J.P. 2014. Frustular morphology and polyphyly in freshwater Denticula (Bacillariophyceae) species, and the description of Tetralunata gen. nov. (Epithemiaceae, Rhopalodiales). Plant Ecology and Evolution 147: 346–365.
  • Stepanek J.G. & Kociolek J.P. 2013. Several new species of Amphora and Halamphora from the western USA. Diatom Research 28: 61–76.
  • Kociolek J.P., Stepanek J.G., Lowe R.L., Johansen J.R. & Sherwood A.R. 2013. Molecular data show enigmatic cave dwelling diatom Diprora (Bacillariophyceae) to be a raphid diatom. The European Journal of Phycology 48: 474–488.
  • Julius M.L., Stepanek J.G., Tedrow O., Gamble C., & Schoenfuss H.L. 2007. Estrogen-receptor independent effects of two ubiquitous environmental estrogens on Melosira varians Agardh, a common component of the aquatic primary production community. Aquatic Toxicology 85: 19-27.

Stewart, Nathan, Ph.D.

By

Nathan Stewart

Nathan L. Stewart, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Sustainability Studies
970-870-4562 | nlstewart@coloradomtn.edu


Location: Steamboat Springs Campus

2019-20 College-wide Faculty of the Year

Education

  • Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks
  • B.A. in Biology from Carleton College, MN

Sustainability Studies Courses

  • SUS 310, Ecology & Sustainability
  • SUS 311, Integrated Sustainability Science
  • SUS 375, Wildland Fire Science & Mitigation
  • SUS 375, Water, Weather & Climate Extremes
  • SUS 387-488, U.S. Forest Service I-IV
  • SUS 387, Wildlife Monitoring
  • SUS 391, Field Experience in Sustainability
  • SUS 410, Conservation Biology
  • SUS 440, Watershed Science & Land Use Impacts
  • SUS 489, Sustainability Capstone

About

My approach to sustainability science, practice and teaching is informed by my training in ecology and conservation biology. My research broadly focuses on ecosystem function, resilience and recovery, and combines long-term observations from field studies with experimental manipulations and multivariate analyses of change. Wherever possible I strive to integrate research training, field techniques and laboratory methods into my coursework with the goal of providing students with the skills and experience necessary to pursue meaningful careers in science, stewardship and natural resource management.

I was previously faculty of biology at Boston University, and field program lead with the BU Marine Semester. I have taught at Tufts University, Wellesley College, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Columbia University’s Earth Semester, and the University of Arizona’s Nyanza Project, Tanzania (National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates). I am delighted to join the faculty in the Bachelors of Arts in Sustainability Studies Program here at Colorado Mountain College.

Rocky Mountain Land Management Internship

I serve as Program Director for the Rocky Mountain Land Management Internship Program, a rigorous field-based internship offered in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service. This first-of-its-kind in the nation, two-year paid internship is designed to train the next generation of land managers, natural resource specialists, and mountain sports rangers. Learn more about the Rocky Mountain Land Management Internship Program.

graphic - learn more about the Rocky Mountain Land Management Internship Program

Select Publications

Lee, JC, K Lesneski, K Donnellan, L DiRoberts, A Lindseth, J Okechi, SH Doshi, D Minkoff, R Branconi, ER Newmark, JS Tower, KA Tobin, NL Stewart, R Rotjan, V Disanto, & JR Finnerty (2018) Morphological and physiological differences among alternative morphs of the queen conch (Lobatus gigas) near Calabash Caye, Belize. Belize Fisheries Department, Research Permit #000064-17. Submitted November 7. 2018.

Bengtsson ZA, Kuhn KM, Battaglino AT, Li AS, Talbot MN, Wafapoor M, Atta CJ, Kowalski MB, Margolis SP, Rar EA, Burmester EM, Lesneski KC, Scavo K, Kaufman L, Stewart NL, Finnerty JR. 2015. Corals of the genus Porites are a locally abundant component of the epibiont community on mangrove prop roots at Calabash Caye, Turneffe Atoll, Belize. PeerJ 3:e1811

Stewart NL, Konar B, and Tinker MT. 2014. Testing the nutritional limitation and predator avoidance hypotheses for restricted sea otter habitat use in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Oecologia 177(3):645-55.

Stewart NL, Konar B, and Doroff AM. 2014. The influence of habitat complexity and prey availability on sea otter resource selection in a heterogeneous environment. Bulletin of Marine Science 90:921–939.

Stewart NL and Konar B. 2012. Kelp forests vs. urchin barrens: alternate stable states and their effect on prey quality in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Journal of Marine Biology 2012:1–12.

Freiwald J, Stewart NL, Yates DC, and Bernardi G. 2009. Isolation and characterization of nine polymorphic microsatellite loci of the kelp greenling, Hexagrammos decagrammus, a temperate reef fish. Molecular Ecology Resources 9:563–565.