Pacific Northwest Section

Welcome to the home of the Pacific Northwest Section of NAGT! The section includes the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska, as well as the Canadian Provinces of British Columbia and Yukon.

If you are not a member yet, please visit the registration section of NAGT and register online.

Section newsletters (past and present) can be found here.

Like us on Facebook at NAGT Pacific Northwest Section. Find the national NAGT Facebook page here.

Annual Meeting

Our 2026 annual meeting will be June 21-23, 2026 and hosted by Jacob Selander at Highline College in Des Moines, Washington

For more information on our upcoming meeting or past meetings, click here.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday January 21, 6 – 7 pm PT: Iceland's Fire and Ice – Beth Johnson , University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Geo2YC Division President

Iceland is a popular place for tourists and scientists alike and for good reason! In this presentation, Dr. Beth Johnson of University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh will discuss the basics of Iceland's geology, from its volcanism, its glaciers, and how the people there have interacted with the geology. Topics include the tectonic setting, the 1973 eruption of Heimaey, and getting up close and personal with the glaciers of Vatnajökull.


Monday March 16, 7 – 8 pm PT: Benefits and barriers for faculty implementation of Course-based Research Experiences (CUREs), Kaatje van der Hoeven Kraft, 
Whatcom College

Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) provide opportunities for students to engage in authentic research embedded in the course. Rather than opting in, like many undergraduate research opportunities, CUREs create a space for all students to participate. This means that students are learning the content while also developing skills as researchers in their course. This moves a step beyond inquiry-based approaches to labs and even problem-based learning experiences in that there is typically an outside "stakeholder" to which students report their results, making the learning more relevant for the students. CUREs have demonstrated deep implications for student success and opportunities to increase a more diverse array of students into pathways in STEM. This pedagogical approach can be particularly impactful for students in the introductory classes where students have the opportunity to gain exposure to skills critical for the success of both upper division courses, transfer, and future jobs.But what is the experience and motivation of faculty who implement this pedagogy? I conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 community college faculty who had already created CUREs or were interested in implementing one into their classes. I asked them about their motivations for teaching/wanting to teach CUREs and compared them to those identified in a larger multi-institutional survey employing the same questions. Motivations for these community college faculty were much more focused on students and equity as compared to the original comparison study. During this talk, I'll share out these results as well as what some of the barriers and supports that helped faculty implement and sustain CUREs toward a larger goal of institutionalization, followed by a larger discussion with attendees.

Lunchtime Teaching Discussion Groups:
Wed, Jan 28, 12 pm PST – Physical Geology/Geography, Host: Jacob Selander
Thu, Feb 26, 12 pm PST – Environmental Science, Host: Todd Redding
Wed, Mar 11, 1 pm PDT – Historical Geology, Host: Craig Nichol

Section members will receive an email or newsletter with the links to these and other events. If you did not receive an email, contact Zach Schierl. If you are not an NAGT Pacific Northwest Member, join us! 

Section Officers


President: Craig Nichol
Vice President: Jacob Selander
Secretary: Jodie Harnden
Treasurer/Website: Zach Schierl
Newsletter Editor: Todd Redding
Archivist: VACANT
Past President/Awards Coordinator: Derek Turner

Section Councilors


Alaska: Nicole Abib
British Columbia: Todd Redding, Saoirse MacKinnon
Idaho: VACANT
Oregon: Eriks Puris, Steve Carlson
Washington: VACANT

Elections & Term Lengths

Elections are held annually at the annual meeting of the section (typically in June):

  • The President, Vice President, and Immediate Past President serve one-year terms.
  • The Secretary-Treasurer shall be elected for a three-year term and may be re-elected to an unlimited number of consecutive terms.
  • The Editor shall be elected for a three-year term that coincides with the editing of at least three complete volumes of the Section newsletter. The Editor may be reelected for additional terms without limit.
  • The Councilors shall be elected for not more than a three-year renewable term of office (excepting the first election of Councilors). To establish a set of Councilors with staggered terms of office, the first group will draw lots to determine who will serve 1, 2 or 3 year terms so that no more than approximately 1/3 of the body will be up for election in any one year. ln the event that a Councilor position is vacated for any reason. the President shall appoint a member in good standing to serve the remaining term of office for that position.

If you are interested in serving as an office or councilor, contact section President Craig Nichol.



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