passion; 10 have authored peer-reviewed journal articles and 25 have given conference presentations at regional and international meetings, including five with Keck research students, as well as more than 20 SOURCE presentations at CWU. Dr. Kaspari’s mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students has given several of them research opportunities in China, Switzerland, and Iceland. Many of her students have conducted research on glaciers or the seasonal snowpack, and/or worked in her ice core laboratory and conducted geochemical analyses. The students’ posters associated with these projects that were included in the dossier are impressive in the range of topics and visual appeal. The samples of student articles are equally impressive. Dr. Kaspari’s teaching materials on How Will Climate Change Impact Kittitas County? are hosted by the Science Education Resource Center (SERC), earning “Exemplary” status in 2011 and 2024. She also has published pedagogical research, including co-developing a two-week module, Understanding Our Changing Climate: Melting Ice and Changing Sea Level, for GETSI (Geophysics Tools for Societal Issues), and conducted workshops for the American Geophysical Union to help other faculty integrate it into their teaching. She was also invited to co-write a book chapter Empowering Students to be Changemakers through Action-Based Sustainability Courses for the book Reimagining Education for Ecological Civilizations (still under review). To reiterate: all of Dr. Kaspari’s support letters speak to her passion for her subject and student learning, her impact on teaching and learning, her care and compassion, her scientific expertise and excellence, her collaborative and collegial attitude, the innovation in her teaching, her overall commitment, determination, leadership, and advocacy for sustainability and for students. Dr. Kaspari meets the criteria for excellence in teaching. Dr. Kaspari’s dossier shows that over her time at CWU, she has created an international research reputation that has brought noteworthy recognition to the university. Her research is particularly focused on measuring the effects of light-absorbing particles (dust, black carbon, colored organic material) on melting snow and ice, and reconstructing climate and environmental change using ice cores. The locations for her research range from local (in the Cascades and Olympics) to international (Arctic, Antarctica, and Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau). She is also involved in paleoclimatology (“how we got here”), as she says, “using ice cores from glaciers and ice sheets to reconstruct past climate and environmental changes, as well as examining how our rapidly changing climate impacts snow, glaciers, and water resources. This work provides me with a front-row seat to the impact that human activities are having on the climate and environment.” In her self-statement and confirmed by her support letters, Dr. Kaspari says she is “deeply committed to moving beyond observation to action, and a major emphasis of my work is to reduce environmental impacts and foster sustainability. Sustainability is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It encompasses environmental, social, and economic dimensions, all of which are interconnected. I firmly believe in the ability of individuals and communities to drive meaningful change, starting where we live and work.” This belief is borne out in noteworthy research that is highly relevant to our contemporary world, producing 30 Category A publications since starting at CWU, with 705 citations and an H index of 15. Dr. Kaspari is the first or second author on 15 of these publications, which are cited 397 times. These articles have appeared in an impressive mix of prestigious professional journals: Journal of Geophysical Research, The Cryosphere, The Journal of Glaciology, Atmospheric Environment, Advances in Climate
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