Kristina Young is a dryland ecologist and place-based science communicator living and working on the Colorado Plateau. At eighteen, Kristina moved from New Jersey to Montana and has been studying Western landscapes ever since. Kristina received her MS degree from Northern Arizona University and PhD in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from the University of Texas at El Paso. She is the Founder and Board Chair of Science Moab (sciencemoab.org), a place-based science engagement nonprofit that works to make regional science accessible to all. Kristina has published many peer-reviewed publications related to dryland ecology and in 2015, was awarded the Wyss Scholar Award for Conservation of the American West. As an avid river runner, Kristina spends her free time rowing the rivers of the Southwest.