Faculty Research Presentation Dr. Hannah Shamloo, Department of Geological Sciences presented to the board on “How to think like a volcano.” She began at CWU in January 2022 and is passionate about student mentoring and success at the undergraduate and graduate level. She has a team of student researchers. The Murdoch Research Laboratory, which the group will field trip to in just a bit, is a big part of her research. In Washington state, we have the great pleasure of living around five active volcanoes, which are high to very high threat. Two areas of research that they are focusing on is Mount Baker and the Goat Rocks Volcanic Cluster, which is about an hour drive from CWU. The Goat Rocks Wilderness is an extinct volcanic center and has been eroded down to its roots. Latures have come in and exposed them, so the goat rocks represent a record of the birth and death of loonies. It’s actually a treasure trove of information to study the past to understand them. Mt. Baker is a gorgeous volcanic field and is a very high threat. Studying the most recent eruptions gives us the closest snapshot of what Mt. Baker might look like in the near future. They study lava flows that are spatially distributed around the volcano. When looking at eruption space through time, there may be discernible patterns and behavior through time. We look at the physical changes or signals that we can detect at the surface, which comes in a variety of flavors. There’s remote sensing where you have satellites constantly imaging the volcano and seeing if there’s any distinguishable changes. We can look at the volume and the composition of the gas. Basically, what are the burps made out of these volcanoes. Volcanoes breathe in when they are active and breath out when inactive, but at a millimeter scale. We have technology to be able to see these tiny changes which can tell us what the volcano is doing today. Dr. Shamloo gave board and ELT members a tour of the Murdoch Research Laboratory where they were able to see examples up close.
The next meeting of the board will be May 21-22, 2026, in Ellensburg.
Board and Executive Leadership Team members participated in a lab demonstration in Discovery Hall. No business was conducted. Adjournment Motion 26-13: Ms. Jenkins moved that the Board of Trustees of Central Washington University adjourn the meeting for February 20, 2026. Mr. Nellams seconded the motion. The motion was approved, and the meeting adjourned at 10:45 a.m.
Dania Cochran, Secretary to the
Jeff Hensler, Chair CWU Board of Trustees
CWU Board of Trustees
17 Board of Trustees Minutes February 19-20, 2026
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