Adjunct Professor Environmental Science
Phone:
720-414-2503
Department(s):
Career Technical Education
Kat Ivey (she/her) is the CTE teacher for Environmental Science. Originally from Los Angeles, Ca., Kat grew up having a love for animals and being outdoors. Originally wanting to become a veterinarian, she attended California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) where she obtained her bachelor’s degree in animal science with a minor in biology. Her love for environmental science and biology came when she took a herpetology course her last year of her undergraduate career. She gained an immense amount of respect and knowledge for snakes and lizards and understood how important they are for a balanced and healthy ecosystem. She went back to school at Cal Poly and obtained her master’s degree in biology with an emphasis on the physiological ecology of reptiles. With the help of undergraduates in her lab, she published two first author manuscripts on the thermal ecology of a federally endangered lizard in the San Joaquin Desert. With this newfound love for mentoring, teaching, and learning more about the natural world, she moved to Texas and obtained her second master’s degree from the University of Texas at Arlington in quantitative biology with an emphasis in population genomics. There, she researched how and why certain traits are selected for over evolutionary time across a large ranging species complex of rattlesnakes in the Western United States (including species found in Colorado!) She has worked as a biological surveyor in California monitoring for endangered species and as a forensic biologist in Dallas, Texas where she extracted DNA from evidence found at crime scenes throughout the city. She has a strong background in teaching college level biology courses which include introductory biology, herpetology, and anatomy and physiology to premed students. In her spare time, she can be found hiking (and looking for snakes), surfing (when she is back in California), doing outreach and educating the community about how incredible rattlesnakes are, or snuggled up with her Golden Retriever, Ozzy, and reading a book.