Aaron Hirsh

Board Chair Aaron Hirsh is a writer and biologist with strong interests in education, evolution, and the environment. He is a research affiliate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, as well as a Board member of the Vermilion Sea Institute. Aaron was first introduced to EPI while teaching environmental science with his wife, Veronica, in Baja, where he met co-founders Julie Osborn and Scott Pankratz. They discovered a shared love for that extraordinary moment when a student has his or her eyes opened wide by a magnificent place.

For Aaron, two aspects of EPI’s work and Mission stand out: first, the way the organization gets students involved in real science, showing them how science is done and what it means to know something; second, how EPI brings environmental science to local kids. While teaching in the Gulf of California, he met many young people who had not been given the opportunity to learn about the wondrous place they live, and feels it is essential, both for their future and for the fate of the ecosystems around them, that they are given authentic support and opportunities to learn and thrive. Through his background in science education and his writing, including his highly-acclaimed book, Telling Our Way to the Sea, Aaron specializes in effective communication of science in imaginative and resourceful ways.