Increasing Public Engagement with Earth Science: science communication training, and collaborations with K-12 educators

Eileen van der Flier-Keller is a Teaching Professor in Earth Sciences and Special Advisor to the Dean of Science for Public Education and Outreach at Simon Fraser University. She very much appreciates this role for the opportunity it provides to champion science education, community collaborations with local school districts and the informal education community, and to promote science communication as a critical part of the science enterprise.

Eileen grew up in Ireland where her parents sparked and encouraged her passion for the natural world. After an undergraduate degree in Geology at Trinity College Dublin, she moved to Canada to pursue a PhD at Western in Ontario and then was hired at the University of Victoria in the Geography Department. Together with the geoscience community in Victoria she helped establish the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at UVic and was a founding member and faculty there for over 30 years. She and her husband moved to Simon Fraser University in 2016. Eileen is a board member and director for the Canadian Geological Foundation and past president for the Canadian Geoscience Education Network. She is very proud of two grown children Connor and Alison and over the moon to have recently become a grandma.