By Dr. Kristin Drexler
Faculty Member, School of STEM
and Dr. Kelsey Hotaling
Director, APUS Research and Academic Excellence
The University’s first Center for Research in Earth/Environmental Sustainability and Technology (CREST) Conference on April 22 drew positive feedback from presenters, organizers, and audience members. We’re planning annual CREST conferences for 2027 and beyond.
Dr. Danny Welsch, an environmental science professor and the Chair of the CREST Con Organizing Committee, says, “I could not have asked for a better first conference. I can’t wait for next year!”
Danny adds, “A surprising theme that emerged from the conference was the importance of stories. Storytelling, both scientific and conversational, is the way our shared histories and discoveries can contribute to our sustainability.
“The importance of scientific communication, indigenous knowledge, and eco-narratives came through in many sessions at the conference, and I hope some interesting connections between researchers were made.” To hear more from Danny about this conference, read our recent CREST Con article.
We also say a hearty thank you to University Events manager Lacy Dailey and her team of Corey Huffman, Michelle Shuff, and Melody Sowden for managing the event.
Several presenters posted on LinkedIn® about CREST Con.
Images courtesy of Kristi Drexler and LinkedIn.
In addition, we thank the moderators for this event who are all part of the CREST team:
- Dr. Danny Welsch
- Dr. Michelle Watts, Associate Dean of Security and Global Studies
- Dr. Kelly Reiss, Professor of Environmental Science
- Dr. Daniela Messina, Professor of Natural Sciences
- Dr. Suzanne Agan, Professor of Environmental Science
- Mr. Charlie Venuto, Professor of Environmental Science
- Dr. Shelli Carter, Professor of Natural Sciences
- Dr. Kristi Drexler, Professor of Earth Sciences
Also, thank you to all the CREST Con presenters, including School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Dean Dr. Brian Freeland for his welcome and opening remarks.
CREST Con keynote speaker Dr. Andreea Mosila, a recent Fulbright Scholar and graduate of the University’s global security doctoral program, presented her dissertation research. She spoke about climate change and its impacts on global security in Romania.
All of the sessions during CREST Con were recorded. Please contact UniversityEvents@apus.edu for more information.
CREST Con’s Closing Remarks from Danny Welsch
Danny Welsch also had some closing remarks during CREST Con. “If there’s a single thread that ran through everything I heard today, it was this: stories matter.
“We opened this morning with Marie Isom, who reminded us that climate change is not an abstraction – it is a human experience, felt as grief and anxiety by real people in real places. The first step toward addressing that, she argued, is telling those stories honestly and with compassion.
“Susan Lowman-Thomas built on that foundation, showing us how eco-narratives can do more than document loss – they can be a source of healing, a way of metabolizing grief into action. Storytelling, she reminded us, is not passive. It is a tool.
“Our keynote speaker, Andreea Mosila, took that idea deeper still, into something older and more enduring. Traditional ecological knowledge has always been carried forward through story – passed from generation to generation not in databases or journals, but in the living act of telling. That knowledge, she argued, is itself a form of climate resilience.
“From there, the day became a kind of expanding circle. The CREST Team brought us to Costa Rica, where a nation’s story of environmental progress sits in productive tension with the harder story of implementation.
“Jamaal Blake, Kristi’s student from ERSC 402: Earth and Planetary Sustainability, zoomed in, using the “Drexler SPEECH tool” to examine the warming of arctic soils – applying her framework to a specific community whose story is being rewritten by a changing climate whether they chose it or not.
“Janie Harrison gave us something rare: she shared that story in verse. Her poetry of sustainability – including the striking Depression Era Thinking, a lament for our throwaway culture – resonated in ways that data alone rarely can. It echoed something Terry Trevino raised earlier about the forces driving the nanoplastic crisis in arctic phytoplankton: that at some level, this is a story about values, about what we’ve decided is worth keeping.
“And finally, absent some technical issues, Lee Stocks would have reminded us that storytelling doesn’t always require words. Through UAV imagery and LiDAR data, landscapes tell their own stories of change — if we develop the tools and the will to listen.
“So we leave today, Earth Day, with a challenge and, I think, a kind of hope: that if the crisis we face is partly a failure of imagination and empathy, then stories – scientific, traditional, poetic, and visual – may be among our most important tools for meeting it.
“Thank you all for being here, and for the stories you’ve shared. We’ll see you next year!”
A Conversation about CREST Con with Kelsey Hotaling
I recently had the chance to catch up with Kelsey Hotaling, the Senior Director of the University’s Research and Library Services.
Kristi: Kelsey – what a great inaugural CREST Conference! Twenty-seven moderated sessions – wow! How do you think it went?
Kelsey: It was a great program! The website experience was user-friendly, and the agenda was jam-packed with excellent sessions. If anything, it was hard to pick which one to attend because there were so many good presentations.
Kristi: Did you have a favorite session or impression?
Kelsey: I was struck by the interdisciplinary nature of the agenda, and I found myself reflecting a lot on the humanities sessions. Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we have to enact change when statistics and facts don’t cut it. There’s something deeply human about sharing our anxiety, grief and hope in a community setting.
Our keynote speaker was wonderful as well. Dr. Mosila’s work on climate change and global security demonstrated how institutions and communities can learn from one another. In a way, it represented CREST’s entire program, reaching across disciplines to grapple with climate change.
Kristi: How important are these conferences to our University community?
Kelsey: These conferences symbolize the University’s thought leadership and give us opportunities to be in conversation with our disciplines, get inspired, and share knowledge. Hosting them remotely lowers barriers to access and enables folks from around the world to join in.
Kristi: How does your office support these types of initiatives?
Kelsey: There are a lot of stakeholders involved in planning a conference, and we support them by connecting the planning committees to these teams and resources.
Kristi: What’s next? What are you looking forward to?
Kelsey: I’m already looking forward to next year and hope to see some sessions return to reflect on evolving work and ongoing research. We want to build on the thought leadership around the conference.
I’d also like to offer a sincere congratulations to the committee for their hard work in putting on this event. Well done!
A Second CREST Initiative Is Coming Up
The CREST Conference was the organization’s first major initiative. A second initiative – a customized field research experience in Costa Rica – is planned for November. Five faculty members and four graduate students from the University will be on this trip.
The History behind CREST
CREST was created in 2025 by 16 professors. So far, we have faculty representing the following departments in STEM and Security and Global Studies.
- Environmental Science
- Earth Sciences
- Natural Sciences
- Global Security
- Emergency Management
- Political Science
CREST welcomes any and all departments. The goals of CREST are to:
- Engage students and faculty in applied hands-on science and interdisciplinary research, necessary for both academic and professional development
- Establish innovative and scholarly faculty/student research collaborations with the aid of local and international partners
- Promote the University as a global leader through faculty-student collaborations and initiatives at the University such as the Global Digital Journey
More faculty members – from all departments and schools at the University – are welcome to join us. We’d like interdisciplinary ideas to design experiential programs for students who need hands-on experience in their fields.
CREST focuses on the interdisciplinary aspects – the intersections – of sustainability issues with human factors. We are critical and systems thinkers and believe an interdisciplinary approach is best for understanding and solving global-to-local complex issues, including:
- Climate change
- Environmental health
- Food insecurity
- Habitat degradation
- Development pressures
CREST seeks more faculty subject matter experts in various disciplines, including:
- Science
- Philosophy
- Business
- Health
- Security
- Education
- Art, media, and design
- Governance
Contact CREST
If you’re interested in joining CREST or want more information, please email CREST@apus.edu.
Sustainability and Research-Related Organizations at the University
Also, students, faculty and alumni can get involved in the University’s science and research efforts by joining these student organizations for free:
- Women in STEM (wSTEM)
- Association of Women in Science (AWIS)
- The Research and Scholarship Team (RAST)
- The National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP)
- The Society for Advancement for Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)
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About the Authors
Dr. Kristin Drexler is a full-time faculty member in the Space Studies and Earth Sciences Department. She teaches geography, environmental science, earth and planetary sciences, and sustainability for the School of STEM.
Dr. Drexler holds a master’s degree in Latin American studies with an emphasis in natural resources management from Ohio University. She earned her Ph.D. in educational leadership at New Mexico State University with research in socioecological systems, sustainable agroecology, and community education.
Dr. Drexler earned the Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Award for the School of STEM (2020) and the Dr. Wallace E. Boston Leadership Award (2021). Dr. Drexler has conducted numerous community surveys in Belize regarding agroforestry, conservation, sustainable agriculture, and COVID-19 impacts and was a co-investigator for “A Case Study Comparison of Pandemic Experience of Indigenous Groups in the Americas” (2022-2025).
In the late 1990s, Dr. Drexler served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Belize; she co-founded Full Basket Belize, a 501(c)(3) and has served on its Board of Directors since 2005. She produced the award-winning short film Yochi; she also founded “Science Talks with Dr. Drexler and Friends” to assist teachers during the pandemic. Dr. Drexler serves as a faculty advisor for the University’s wSTEM, AWIS and SACNAS chapters.
Dr. Kelsey Hotaling is the Senior Director of Research and Library Services at the University and Chair of the Institutional Review Board. She holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from West Virginia University and master’s degrees in business administration and history from American Public University. In 2024, she earned her Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership and Organizational Studies from Bay Path University. Her research focuses on improving training frameworks for research ethics in practice. She is deeply passionate about supporting student and faculty researchers across the lifecycle of their projects, from data collection to publication.
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