Kara Haas
Kara L. Haas joined the Kellogg Biological Station team as Environmental Education Coordinator for the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary in October 2009. Kara has a B.S. in Biology from Hope College and Master's in the Practice of Teaching: Early Childhood Education from Western Michigan University. Kara’s role at the sanctuary includes managing the day to day operations, teaching programs for children, families and adults and helping to fundraise and implement a long range strategic plan. Kara is an avid birder and enjoys traveling and spending time with her family.
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Matt Hawkins
Matt graduated from Huntington College in Indiana with a degree in business management, but immediately began working in the education field. Starting with the the YMCA of the Rockies in Colorado and continuing with the Battle Creek Outdoor Education Center, he taught environmental education for nearly a decade before returning to school to earn his Michigan Teaching Certificate through Grand Valley State University. Since completion of his certification he has been teaching at Gateway Academy, looking for opportunities to add real work experiences for students to the core curriculum.
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Tomomi Suwa
I am broadly interested in community and restoration ecology. Restoration attempts to promote biodiversity and ecosystem function but is often stricken by unpredictable outcomes when looked at through a plant species composition lens. My research attempts to understand the utility of plant functional traits as predictors of how communities assemble during restoration and, subsequently, how restored ecosystems function. I am studying the functional trait make-up of restored prairies in Michigan in order to answer questions related to the functional assembly of sites and functional convergence/divergence across sites. My research also addresses questions related to variation in functional traits within and across species and the relationship between functional traits and ecosystem function/services
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Rachael Wilber
Rachael recently obtained her teaching certification for high school Biology from GVSU. She is interning with this program for the summer, and looks forward to keeping in touch with Gateway and KBS in the future to see how its implementation goes! Rachael grew up in the UP of Michigan and has enjoyed the outdoors her whole life. She received a Bachelors of Science degree in Biology/Ecology from Northern Michigan University in 2010 and spent the following two years coordinating a mentoring program in three UP school districts through Big Brothers Big Sisters. Her love of science and students is what has brought her here today!
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