Catherine Halversen

Catherine Halversen is emerita Senior Program Director and Co-Director of MARE, University of California Berkeley and UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. Catherine’s work focuses on developing and disseminating in-person and online professional learning programs, instructional materials, and courses for STEM university/college faculty, K–12 teachers, and informal science educators. At UC Berkeley, she served as PI on many federal-funded projects, including most recently, PI for the NSF-funded Transforming STEM Teaching Faculty Learning Program, providing a blended professional learning program for STEM faculty; PI of ACLIPSE a NOAA-funded Climate and Data Literacy project for science educators and grades 9–12 students; and Co-PI for the NSF-funded Reflecting on Practice (RoP) program providing regional professional learning for informal science educators in museums, science centers, and aquariums across the country.

Catherine has written/co-written numerous instructional materials, including the NOAA-fundedOcean Sciences Sequence for Grades 3–5, and the Ocean Sciences Sequence for Grades 6–8: The Ocean–Atmosphere Connection and Climate Change. She served as a Lecturer at UC Berkeley where she co-developed, disseminated, and taught university courses (Communicating Ocean Sciences and Communicating Climate Science) for science undergraduate and graduate students to learn about learning and how to effectively communicate their science with diverse audiences.

Currently, Catherine serves as Co-facilitator for K–12 school district strategic planning efforts. She is Vice-Chair of the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) Ocean Literacy Committee and has been a part of the Ocean Literacy campaign since its inception. Her ocean literacy work involves providing professional learning opportunities for diverse audiences, and most recently the publication A Handbook for Increasing Ocean Literacy: Tools for Educators and Ocean Literacy Advocates. Catherine received her Masters in Integrative Biology/Marine Science, and a Secondary Teaching Credential, both from University of California Berkeley.