Kerri McAllister

Kerri is a passionate lifelong learner and educator who embraces the world as her classroom. She has worked extensively in international and environmental education around the globe. Her work focuses on climate change, education for sustainability, and educator professional development. She is currently a professor at Unity Environmental University in Maine. Her first connection with Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic was as Grosvenor Teacher Fellow in 2016 when she joined an expedition to the Arctic researching plankton and sea ice change in Norway and Svalbard. She has also conducted research on impacts of outdoor education in Australia; evaluated teacher education programs in the Mayan villages of southern Belize; interviewed nomadic Mongolians about the impacts of climate change on their livelihood and contributed to white shark research in South Africa’s Shark Alley.

Kerri completed her doctoral dissertation on climate change education to earn her PhD from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. She also holds a Master of Arts in Education from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies from the University of Vermont. She taught environmental education for twenty-five years; teaching and leading staff at NatureBridge in California, Shelburne Farms in Vermont, Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Minnesota, The Chewonki Foundation in Maine, and the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Kerri was a recipient of the Bishop Marcus Award for which she advanced her American Sign Language skills at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. She was also honored with the Baxter Memorial Award, for which Kerri learned to dive and became a certified rescue SCUBA diver. She has worked extensively with international education programs with Rustic Pathways, The Nature Conservancy, and Middlebury College's Global Sustainability Programs abroad. When not onboard, she maintains a small fruit orchard and sugarbush, from which she makes cider and maple syrup.