Kate Hale, PhD
Assistant Professor | Geography Department | University of British Columbia
Sharing snow and stretching scope
Continually asking questions and learning as a snow hydrologist and researcher — by engaging with colleagues, stakeholders, and beyond — has fueled my desire and ability to teach and communicate to a broader community. Knowledge and information are most powerful and refined when shared. I strive to enable more relationships with snow water resources, emphazing the importance of the subject at local, regional, and global levels.
I believe it is imperative to communicate knowledge, information, and results outside of one's scientific expertise, and to evaluate the academic platform and examine its leadership, community, components and underlying ethics. With an aim of ever-ongoing self and programmatic growth and stretching individual and collective scope, I have doubled my resolve to make science a more inclusive space for all.
2024 Snow School instructors and participants in Bretton Woods, NH
Snow Field Measurement Field School
I am a current instructor and organizer for the SINTER and CUAHSI Snow School, where a team of snow scientists provide fundamental training to students each January in a moving location across the U.S. Specifically, we teach students to make and analyze snow measurements. We aim to end the intensive week having given students the tools to perform high-quality fieldwork and design studies making snowpack measurements.
NASA SnowEx Campaign: Field Efforts on the North Slope of Alaska
NASA SnowEx efforts focused on the Arctic tundra and boreal forest biomes in 2022 and 2023, evaluating both early- and mid-season snowpack and ground conditions in northern and interior Alaska. During these field campaigns, I collected snow pit profile measurements and deployed ground-based remote sensing techniques. At the same time, I assisted the NASA and SnowEd outreach groups with real-time updates from the Toolik Field Station. You can watch all 5 episodes of this mini-series here.
New York Times
I expanded my focus on snow water resources to the northeastern United States, and I was interviewed and quoted in the New York Times regarding the University of Vermont's work to improve snow monitoring in the Green Mountains. Here, I speak to the concerning fate of the more-transient Northeastern US snowpack under current and future climate conditions.
NASA SnowEx Campaign: Community Snow Observations
As a time-series lead for the regional Niwot Ridge, CO site and a team member of the SnowEx intensive field efforts from 2017 and 2023, I have spent significant time communicating our snow science to the surrounding community, encouraging interested undergraduates, local residents, and school groups to get and remain involved.
Women in Science and Engineering
As the former president of the CU-Boulder Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) group, I remain committed to working with leadership teams across universities and institutes to fulfill the WiSE mission: providing coaching, mentorship and a platform for discussion, networking and support to encourage and inspire women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields throughout their professional careers. With CU-WiSE, I hosted monthly seminars, including: how to be an ally, climate strike storytelling, CV and resume workshop, and Actionable Steps Toward Equity in STEM). I organized K-12 outreach events, a mentorship program, semesterly content club (topics included: intersectional feminism, anti-racism) and an annual Science Communication Symposium. WiSE grew to include over 400 members, led by a passionate team of ~10 volunteers, creating opportunities for women and other underrepresented groups. These efforts were coupled with a strong emphasis on science communication toward a general audience: giving jargon-free elevator pitches to become better, well-rounded scientists. This is an effort I plan to continue making as I further my career as a woman in snow hydrology.
University of Colorado-Boulder Snow Internship
I have led the field component of the CU-Boulder Undergrad SNOTERN Internship Program for 4 snow seasons. The long-term data collected through this program has helped drive published papers through continuous collection of snowpack data. While creating relationships with the snow interns, we have developed projects showcased in the annual CU-Boulder Hydrologic Sciences Symposium, Museum of Boulder, CU-Science Discovery programs, and honors theses. This program represents a rewarding space for me, as I find natural energy to share the subject of snow hydrology to cohorts of engaged students, particularly in the field, and, in turn, learn from them as they begin to explore their own science questions.
