Who Are We
Inside the greenhouse.
Creative framing and storytelling of issues surrounding climate change through video, theatre, dance, and writing can connect a wider audience to the deep and pressing need to address climate change. Project leaders Max Boykoff (Professor, Environmental Studies; CIRES Fellow), Rebecca Safran (Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), Beth Osnes (Professor, Department of Theater and Dance) and Phaedra Pezzullo (Professor, Department of Communication) have been producing events and classes over the past six years under the banner of the ‘Inside the Greenhouse’. Support for this work catalyzes creative climate communication and builds capacity among CU Boulder undergraduate and graduate students in particular. Our efforts to engage our students, those working at the science-policy interface, and the public alike seek to help concerned make climate change meaningful in the lives of everyday people. Students are involved directly and collaboratively connecting work in the classroom to applied contexts.
Max Boykoff is a Professor in the Environmental Studies department at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is also a Fellow in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. Max has ongoing research interests in science and environmental communications, science-policy interactions, political economy, business and the environment. He has experience working in several country contexts, and is a co-author and editor of seven books and edited volumes, along with many articles, reports and book chapters. Max also leads the Media and Climate Change Observatory (MeCCO) while he co-Directs Inside the Greenhouse.
Beth Osnes is an Professor of Theatre and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado. She is co-director of Inside the Greenhouse, an initiative for creative communication on climate. She recently toured an original musical Shine to cities in the Rockefeller Foundation 100 Resilient Cities Initiative to facilitate local youth voices in resilience planning, and her book on this Performance for Resilience: Engaging Youth on Energy and Climate through Music, Movement, and Theatre was recently published. Open Source Materials for using Shine to engage youth are available here. She is currently developing a method towards vocal empowerment for young women that she is researching in Guatemala, Tanzania and the USA. Her book Theatre for Women’s Participation in Sustainable Development includes her work specific to gender equity in Panama, Guatemala, India, Nicaragua and the Navajo Nation. She is featured in the award-winning documentary Mother: Caring for 7 Billion.
Dr. Rebecca Safran is a Distinguished Research Lecturer and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Safran received her bachelor’s degree in Ecology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, her master’s degree in wildlife ecology from Humboldt State University and her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University. She was a Council on Science and Technology postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University before beginning her assistant professorship at CU in 2008. As an evolutionary biologist, Becca’s interests are focused on the formation of new species with a special focus on one of the most widespread birds on planet earth: the barn swallow. Her research group works on a variety of projects related to the physiological, behavioral and ecological and climate factors that influence genomic divergence among closely related populations of barn swallows around the world from villages above the Tibetan Plateau in China to barns and bridges near the University of Colorado in Boulder. Funded by the National Science Foundation through several grants including the CAREER award, Becca's research has appeared in over 100 peer reviewed journals. She is co-director of Inside the Greenhouse for creative climate communication and she teaches a science communication class where students translate climate change science into creative films. Becca is passionate about belonging in STEM and it’s the focus of a new NSF grant her team is working on. Becca lives in Boulder Colorado with her husband, Sam, their two boys, and two dogs. For more information about her research team, go to her website: https://www.safran-lab.com/
Phaedra C. Pezzullo (BS, BA, MA, PhD) is a professor in the Department of Communication in the College of Media, Communication, & Information at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA, as well as a Faculty Associate of Environmental Studies and a Faculty Affiliate of Ethnic Studies and Media Studies. Pezzullo’s latest monograph is: Beyond Straw Men: Plastic Pollution and Networked Cultures of Care (University of California Press, 2023), which is based, in part, on her podcast, Communicating Care. Beyond Straw Men has been recognized with the following awards from the National Communication Association: the Tarla Rai Peterson top Book Award in Environmental Communication; the James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric/Public Address; and the Diamond Anniversary Book Award, which is the highest book award honor in the organization. For more information about her work, go to her website: https://phaedracpezzullo.com/
Interns
Joe Yoder is a junior at the University of Colorado Boulder pursuing a degree in Creative Technology & Design with a minor in the Leeds School of Business. His academic interests include Electrical Engineering, Physical Computation, and Product Design. After graduation, Yoder plans to pursue a master’s degree in electrical engineering. Yoder’s engineering skill set includes Python, C++, R Studio, Computational Thinking, Arduino, Excel, HTML, and JavaScript. He has also developed design expertise in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, CSS, video editing, Ableton, and FL Studio. For the past two years, Yoder has worked as a graphic and web design intern here at Inside the Green House. Check out his personal website: yoejoder.github.io
Calvin Boykoff is a student at the University of Amsterdam, currently in his second year in Media and Information. Calvin's work as an intern for Inside the Greenhouse consists of social media management, taking upon the responsibility of aiding ITG across platforms like Instagram, X, Bluesky, and YouTube. While working as video editor and social media manager of Inside the Greenhouse at CU Boulder, Calvin has developed and will continue to develop his craft for a passion of his–bringing difficult discussion by means of kindness and from a place of curiosity into spaces where discussion is enigmatic or absent. In doing so, Calvin learned and refined his video editing skills, as well as getting a sense of how to properly run a social media page.
Amanda Sturman is a theatre artist, born and raised in Southwestern Colorado. She attended Arcadia University in Glenside, PA where she expanded her knowledge on acting, stage management, devising, writing, and costume design. She is currently studying at CU Boulder to earn a Masters degree in theatre. Amanda began interning with Inside the Greenhouse in early 2025. When not doing theatre or studying, she enjoys hiking, reading, and traveling