Dr. Monica Paulson Priebe, Natural Resources Faculty
Monica grew up working and playing outside in the Black Hills of South Dakota. She studied Ecology and received her BA degrees in Environmental Studies and Biology. Monica served in Peace Corps in Guatemala leading work in Ecotourism, trail network development, community ecology training and reforestation. She taught regular courses at the local forestry school and started Becas Especiales, a grassroots sustainable scholarship program for rural impoverished Guatemalan youth. In Guatemala, Monica realized there was a lack of coordination and communication between natural resource scientists and practitioners, and decided to go back to school so she could work on bridging this gap. She taught graduate ecology classes while receiving an MS in Environmental Science and MS in Environmental Policy from Indiana University. She studied how different interpretation of forest policies in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras were manifested on the forest ecosystem in the course of obtaining her PhD in Environmental Science with a focus in Forestry. Previously Monica has taught at Portland State University in the Environmental Science and Management Department and at Mount Hood Community College in addition to her teaching at Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Monica is excited to be working with the Natural Resource Program at Green River College where she gets to fulfill her passion for teaching. She thinks she has the best job out there and loves her work! She is excited to expand this passion into the 4-year Bachelors of Applied Sciences degree program she helped bring to the Natural Resources department. Her current project is a student-centered wildflower identification guide for the area.