Robin Kodner

Robin Kodner is an Associate Professor of Biology at Western Washington University (PhD Harvard University, BS University of Wisconsin-Madison). Robin has been studying algae for over 20 years and has studied algae biodiversity and population change over many time scales. Her passion for playing in both the mountains and ocean led Robin to focus her current research activities on field-based studies. She uses environmental-based genomic methods that integrate evolution with analysis of community structure and phylogeography. Currently, her lab works on the snow microbiome from the Pacific Northwest as a model to study how these communities evolve in response to environmental change. Robin has also been an outdoor educator, in the mountains and on sailboats, using these environments as platforms for teaching basic sciences. This connection between science and adventure inspired the Living Snow Project, as a way to offer that broadly to the outdoor recreation community.

In addition to her biology research, Robin has been working on helping create equitable and inclusive spaces in science. She and her colleagues Regina Barber DeGraaff and Lina Dahlberg co-created and co-facilitate the ISMs (Inclusion and Social Mindfulness in STEM) workshops. They are now dipping their toes into social science research to learn about the impacts of faculty development on individual and institutional change.

Lab Website

November 2020