Jessica Thompson

“Climate Change”is the topic of guest speaker, Jessica Thompson.Jessica Thompson is an associate professor in the Communication and Performance Studies department at NMU. She teaches courses in public relations, new media and environmental communication. She serves on the Marquette Climate Adaptation Task Force and is the current director of the Northern Climate Network. Prior to NMU, she was on the faculty in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources department at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. While there she worked on collaborative climate change related projects focused on parks and protected areas in the Western US, Mexico, India, Singapore and Mongolia. She has published more than 40 manuscripts including her dissertation, which became a book, “Interdisciplinary Team Dynamics: A Systems Approach to Understanding Communication and Collaboration in Complex Teams.” She is currently finishing editing her second book, which is collection of 20 case studies of learning in America’s national parks, “America’s Largest Classroom: What We Learn From Our National Parks.” Jessica earned her doctoral degree in Environmental Communication and Conflict Resolution at the University of Utah in 2007. She is also a trained facilitator and has a graduate certificate in Adaptive Management of Environmental Systems. Finally, she is a proud graduate of NMU (class of 2001).