Director

Megan K. Halpern (she/her) Dr. Halpern is an Associate Professor of Science and Society at Lyman Briggs College and the founder and director of MSU’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Collaboration, Learning, and Engagement (CIRCLE). Her research interests include art-science studies, interdisciplinary collaboration, public engagement with science, feminist approaches to science communication, and research through design. She teaches science communication, science and technology studies, and courses that blend arts practice with science in society themes, including a comics course as well as a nature journaling course. She earned her PhD in Science Communication at Cornell University and completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Arizona State University’s Center for Nanotechnology and Society and Center for Science and the Imagination. Before earning her PhD, Dr. Halpern received a BA in studio art from Smith College. She worked as a set designer and scenic artist in New York City from 1997 to 2004 and in 1999, she co-founded Redshift Productions, a company that created performances inspired by science in collaboration with scientists. Her work with Redshift inspired her interest in researching science communication as well as art-science studies.

Associate Director of Teaching and Learning

Ellie Louson (she/her) Dr. Louson is an educational developer at MSU’s Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation and is CIRCLE’s inaugural associate director of teaching & learning. She previously led the Spartan Studios pilot project where she worked with MSU faculty members to design interdisciplinary, experiential courses with community partnerships. She is also the co-Faculty Mentor for the CTLI graduate fellowship and is an experienced facilitator for MSU educators and academic units. Ellie earned her bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry and philosophy from Bishop’s University, her master’s degree in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Toronto’s IHPST, and her PhD in Science & Technology Studies at York University. She is a member of the teaching faculty at MSU’s Lyman Briggs College, where she teaches courses in Science & Society focused on human-nature interactions. Her research interests include wildlife films’ representation of animal behavior and interdisciplinary, experiential teaching and learning. Her teaching, research, and learning design backgrounds have taught her the value of interdisciplinarity, storytelling, and engagement for higher education. Ellie is originally from the Montreal area and plays in a rock band.

Associate Director of Research and Scholarship

Lissy Goralnik (she/her) Dr. Goralnik is an assistant professor in the Department of Community Sustainability and the associate director of research and scholarship at CIRCLE. Her research, teaching, and service all intersect in their shared focus on community-based, interdisciplinary, environmental inquiry. Prior to joining MSU, she got a BA in English from Stanford University, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Idaho, and a PhD in Fisheries and Wildlife at MSU. She also spent three years as a postdoctoral scholar at Oregon State University in Forest Ecosystems and Society and worked for a decade as a wilderness leadership instructor. She is a qualitative social scientist who writes in the tradition of the humanities about human-nature relationships and art-science integration, and as a transdisciplinary scholar, she engages with stakeholders to observe, implement, and evaluate individual and social change for community wellbeing. Her work primarily investigates how connections to place - the sentimental, practical, psychological, and social meaning that places hold - catalyze care and responsibility for landscapes, communities, and the interplay between them. For a decade she has been studying arts and humanities integration in the LTER network, a collection of 28 sites across different biomes funded by the National Science Foundation to support long-term investigation of place. She currently co-facilitates an environmental science, arts, and humanities program – In a Time of Change – hosted by the Bonanza Creek LTER site in Fairbanks, Alaska.