Join us for a spring-filled, wide-ranging conversation with Marist University Environmental Science professor, and outdoor educator extraordinaire, Dr. Zion Klos about the transformative importance of immersive outdoor experiences for young people as well as the dynamic intersections of earth sciences like hydrology and geology with human psychology and decision making around community responses to the climate crisis. Also, beavers!

As an environmental Earth scientist, Zion focuses on integrating the physical, ecological, and social sciences, often through the lens of issues surrounding water and climate. Before Marist, he was based at the University of California, Santa Barbara while pursuing research focused on the overlap of ecohydrology, geology, and land management in mountain systems. This work stemmed from doctoral research at the University of Idaho focused on the interaction of water, ecology, and society in the western US, Costa Rica, and the Eastern Seaboard (via a year on a sailboat). There he specialized in physical hydrology and climate science, but was also part of a unique, team-based Ph.D. focused on using a psychological lens to communicate and evaluate how changes in climate were impacting decision-making in resource-dependent communities.

Zion’s foundational interests in physical sciences stem from his undergraduate major in geology at Colorado College. There he fostered another major personal interest in outdoor leadership. At Marist, he brings these same types of transformative outdoor-based, project-focused research and course experiences to his students to help them better understand the natural world and its integration with society, both locally and globally.