Rate My Professor Christina Catanese

Christina Catanese serves as the Education Specialist at the Robert B. Annis Water Resources Institute (AWRI) at Grand Valley State University in Muskegon, Michigan. In this capacity, she leads the institute's environmental education and outreach programs, overseeing hands-on educational experiences aboard AWRI's research vessels, the W.G. Jackson and the D.J. Angus. She coordinates K-12 classroom programs, designs and delivers teacher professional development workshops, and collaborates with AWRI scientists to incorporate educational outreach into the broader impacts of their research. Catanese maintains active involvement with professional environmental and educational organizations, fostering collaboration on environmental issues. She holds an M.S. in Applied Geosciences with a specialization in Hydrogeology and a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Political Science, both from the University of Pennsylvania. Her professional interests include place-based environmental education, interdisciplinary and experiential learning, integrating the arts into environmental education, and science communication.

Prior to her current role, Catanese was Director of Environmental Art at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Philadelphia for seven years, curating and implementing an exhibition program across 340 acres and gallery spaces. As an environmental artist and choreographer, she embodies ecological processes through dance, with projects exploring dam removal and restoration in Michigan's Grand River, lichen symbiosis, ginkgo trees, tree grafting as a metaphor for motherhood, and soil as a place foundation. She has undertaken artist residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute, Signal Fire, Works on Water on Governors Island, and the SciArt Center. Her publications comprise the 2026 article 'Climate Science on the Farm: Connecting Community to Research Through Movement and Creative Action' and the 2015 chapter 'Academically Based Global Service Learning.' Catanese is a Michigan Master Naturalist since 2020, trained in Project WET and Aquatic WILD, serves as Secretary of the Groundswell Advisory Council, and holds memberships in the Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education, National Dance Education Organization, and Michigan Dance Council.