Debra Colodner

Debra Colodner is Associate Director of the Center for Sonoran Desert Studies at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The Center for Sonoran Desert Studies conducts the educational and scientific functions of the Museum and is a hub for research, education ad conservation of the Sonoran Desert Region. As the Center’s Associate Director, she oversees the Museum’s school and camp programs as well as the Earth Sciences Center. Dr. Colodner has more than 15 years experience in environmental science research end education. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution where she focused on the use of ocean sediments as indicators of past climate change. She also has a BS in Geology and Geophysics from Yale University, where she won the Penfield Prize in Mineralogy. She was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, where she continued her research on ocean sediments, dove to the bottom of the ocean in the submarine, Alvin, to study hydrothermal processes, managed a new research lab and began her teaching experience. Prior to her current position, she was Education Director and Associate Director at Flandrau Science Center.