EcoBlitz Team

Dr. Kimi Waite is an Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. A former elementary school teacher in South Los Angeles and a STEM curriculum specialist in Compton, she has received both national and state recognition for her leadership in environmental education, social studies, and climate change education. She is an early career fellow with the UCLA Center for Diverse Leadership in Science; the 2021 California Council for the Social Studies Outstanding Elementary Social Studies Teacher of the Year; a 2021 Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis with the OpEd Project and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication; and a 2019 Environmental Education 30 Under 30, awarded by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). Since 2019, she has been a steering committee member for California’s statewide climate change initiative, the Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Projects (ECCLPS). Her work has been published by outlets such as PBS, The Boston Globe, Grist, Ms. Magazine, The Progressive Magazine, The Journal of Curriculum & Pedagogy, and more. She is a National Geographic Certified Educator, and a National Geographic Explorer. Kimi Waite is the co-author of the book, "What Teachers Want to Know About Teaching Climate Change: An Educator's Guide To Nurturing Hope and Resilience (Grades K-12)," published by Corwin Press. Learn more about her: www.kimiwaite.com 

As the EcoBlitz program leader, she is leading the expansion and scaling of EcoBlitz as a continuation of her NAAEE fellowship project, with the support of a National Geographic Society grant. She is the instructor for the EcoBlitz micro-credential course, which was co-designed with EcoBlitz team member Jessica Lura. Kimi taught the spring 2022 online course through Teachers College of San Joaquin and the spring 2023 and spring 2025 courses through Cal Poly Humboldt College of Extended Education & Global Engagement. 

The EcoBlitz Team is honored to partner with the National Geographic Explorer Community Hub in the Philippines, led by Ellie de Castro and Erina Molina. The goal of the Community Hub is to build the next generation of planetary leaders by empowering Philipino communities through sciencetelling, storytelling, and collaborative action. Their hub goals are: 1) Build a community of National Geographic Explorers in the Philippines and spark collaborations for impactful projects within and outside the community; 2) Build empathy and instill curiosity among Filipino communities through opportunities led by the Explorer Community Hub. 

Ellie and Kimi will be working with teachers in Olongapo for the 2023 to 2024 school year. 

Learn more about the National Geographic Explorer Community Hub in the Philippines. Link to their website.

Jessica Lura, a National Board Certified teacher, works with K-8 students, parents, and teachers so that teachers are supported and empowered as leaders and professionals and students develop the skills, attitudes, and knowledge necessary to be successful in today's global society. She leads professional learning around project-based learning and design thinking methodologies, how to integrate of technology and digital citizenship into the core curriculum, and how to design learning experiences that provide opportunities for problem-defining, problem-solving, and real world interactions.  She helped co-design the EcoBlitz microcredential online course. An explorer at heart, she is a National Geographic Educator Certification Mentor.

Dr. Rebecca Tarvin is an evolutionary biologist, a National Geographic Explorer, and an Assistant Professor / Assistant Curator of Herpetology in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies the evolution of animals that acquire chemical defenses from their environment, including poison frogs, nudibranchs, and snakes. As a young girl she was known to fill kiddie pools with frogs so she could learn how to swim like them. Dr. Tarvin helped design the first EcoBlitz and was the Project Leader for EcoBlitz 2.

Dr. Joe Cutler is an ichthyologist and conservationist based in central Africa. He currently works with the Nature Conservancy in Gabon and over the past four years, has conducted seven fish sampling expeditions, collecting hundreds of fish species — including dozens new to science. Using this data, coupled with museum records, Cutler provides guidance to central African governments and conservation NGOs on balancing development and freshwater conservation. Cutler earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and currently serves as the president of the pilot National Geographic Explorers Chapter — a group based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. Cutler’s stories, writing and photographs have appeared in National Geographic’s Explorer magazine, National Geographic Learning, and on National Geographic Adventure's website.

David McGuire is a National Geographic Explorer, an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco, and a research associate at the California Academy of Sciences. David is the founder and director of the Ocean Health and Shark Conservation non profit Shark Stewards. He is also a documentarian, notably producing the Emmy Award winning Reefs to Rainforest. For the first EcoBlitz, McGuire paired with schools in Los Angeles and contributed in the design of the trash survey.