Kerry Wininger

Director

Kerry Wininger

she/her

Contact

w: 707-664-4056
[email protected]

Kerry Wininger serves as CEI's Director, after spending several years as CEI Educational Outreach & Program Development Lead. As Outreach Lead, she created events where experts in everything from poetry, mushrooms, health, fire, and technology, to sustainability, ecosystem resilience, wildlife-human interactions, and more guide the SSU community and public in skill-building experiences that make a difference and reinforce our connection with nature. These events also showcase SSU research and community collaborations, and supplement course curriculum for students here and around the world, such as through The Virtual Field initiative. With Communications Strategist, Gina Baleria, she co-managed the Marketing & Outreach Student Associate to create systems and content for radio, TV, social media, news stories, marketing approaches, and at tabling events on campus and throughout the community. As Program Development Lead, she worked with community leaders in government, non-profit, education, and business to bring environmental challenges they're facing into the academic space across all disciplines, leading our Education into Action efforts for community-engaged research and creative inquiry projects that assist CEI in delivering its mission. She believes that a diverse, engaged community is crucial to addressing environmental challenges, and strives to foster inclusivity, such as through prioritizing accessible events, supervising a Bilingual Educator Student Assistant to infuse Spanish language into events and resources, and by collaborating with partners from a wide variety of backgrounds.

With undergraduate degrees from UC Berkeley in both Integrative Biology and Theater, and a Master of Science in Biology from SSU, Kerry values the role each side of our brains plays in this pursuit. She has worked with various environmental organizations as a researcher, educator, developer, and naturalist. She is a passionate communicator, presenting research at international conferences and in scientific journals, and working with the media. She also serves as coordinator for the Sudden Oak Death Program through University of California Cooperative Extension Sonoma County, Advisor to the North Bay Science Discovery Day, member of the Development Committee for The Organization for Biological Field Stations, and Secretary for California Native Plant Society’s Milo Baker Chapter.