Bekah Shepard is a scientist, science educator, and educational consultant in the greater Sacramento area. She is passionate about communicating and sharing the excitement of scientific discovery, and specializes in designing and delivering innovative hands-on science experiences and curricula. She has collaborated with institutions such as the Powerhouse Science Center, the Davis Art Center, and the EdForward program at UC Davis. She has worked as a Challenger Space Center educator, facilitating simulated space missions with school groups and as corporate development.
Bekah earned degrees from Oberlin College in biochemistry and geology. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in geology as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at the University of California, Davis. Trained as a geobiologist, Bekah’s primary scientific interest is the formation of modern and fossil stromatolites. More broadly, she is interested in using modern ecosystems to better identify and interpret evidence of life on early Earth and elsewhere in the universe. Bekah’s field explorations have taken her to the deserts of Western Australia and Namibia, and the reefs of the Bahamas and the eastern Caribbean. She has done research while SCUBA diving beneath meters of ice in Antarctic lakes, and while piloting DeepWorker submersibles in British Columbian lakes. Bekah also has a long-standing interest in space exploration, and has worked on several NASA and CSA space exploration analogue field sites.
Cruises:
