NORTHBROOK, IL -- The Institute for Research Experiences & Education welcomed new scholar in residence, Deb L. Morrison, Ph.D., to explore innovative approaches for expanding access to safety science learning across educational and community settings.

Morrison fosters just collaboration, communication, engagement, information access, and learning at the intersection of climate science, sustainability, and learning sciences through partnerships toward climate empowerment and action. She is a globally recognized scholar on climate and sustainability, and a lead author on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 7th climate assessment report currently underway.

Morrison is an experienced facilitator of convenings across diverse communities of practice leveraging her experiences across applied science, K-16 learning contexts, and community-centered collaborations. Morrison earned her doctor of philosophy in curriculum and instruction, science education, from the University of Colorado at Boulder building on her bachelors and masters degrees in science from Canadian universities.

Over the coming year, Morrison will collaborate across UL Research Institutes to better understand how research, learning across networks, education, and community partnerships can work together to address complex challenges shaped by societal, economic, and environmental shifts.

Using community-centered, design-based implementation, and participatory research methods, she will help examine how people learn about safety science throughout their lives and how those learning experiences can influence behaviors, perceptions, and practices across individual, community, and network-level contexts. Her work will also explore how communication and collaboration can strengthen knowledge exchange across disciplines, communities, and cultures.

Morrison’s work will support the institute in expanding opportunities for people to engage with safety science. Insights gained through her residence will help inform future strategies for building learning networks, supporting community partnerships, and connecting research to practice.