Karla Eitel

Dr. Karla Eitel is a Professor of Place-based Environmental Education and Director of the McCall Field Campus at the University of Idaho's College of Natural Resources. She holds a Ph.D. in Natural Resources (2007), M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction (2008), and M.S. in Conservation Social Sciences (2003). Her work focuses on culturally relevant STEM education, place-based learning methodologies, and technology integration in outdoor education contexts.

She leads the McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS) serving over 20,000 K-12 students annually through residential programs. Her outreach includes the MOSS Teacher Institute (277 teachers trained since 2009) and a decade-long service-learning partnership with Donnelly Elementary School's watershed restoration projects.

Dr. Eitel has secured over $4.3M in grants including a 2023 NSF ITEST Award for drone-based STEM education with Native American students. Her research emphasizes energy literacy, biofuel education, and Indigenous science pedagogy, with publications in Research in Science Education and Journal of Sustainability Education.