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Education & Training:

• Doctorate of Philosophy, School of Human Services, Capella University, 2008
  Concentration: Social Work
• Master of Science in Social Work/Human Services, School of Human Services, Capella University, 2003
• Bachelor of Science in Child Development,University of Idaho, 1977
• Bachelor of Science in Education, University of Idaho, 1977.

Research Interests:

• Mental and Physical Health Effects of Climate Change
• Recruiting and Retaining Rural and Indigenous Students in to Higher Education

Selected Publications & Presentations:

Publications:

• Renes, S. (Ed.). (2017). Global voices in higher education. Retrieved from https://www.intechopen.com/books/global-voices-in-higher-education
• Driscoll, D., Barker, R., Johnston, J., Mitchell, E., & Renes, S. (2016). Unusual weather events associated with climate change in Alaska have adverse outcomes: Findings from a community based sentinel surveillance system. International Journal of Epidemiology, 44, 65-66. doi:
•  Driscoll, D., Mitchell, E., Barker, R., Johnston, J., & Renes, S. (2016). Adaptation in Alaska to assessing the health effects of climate change in Alaska.Climatic Change, 136(2), 1-12. doi: 
• Renes, S. (2015). Increasing access to higher education through e-learning In B. Gradinarova (Ed.), E-Learning: Instructional design, organizational strategy and management.
• Renes, S. (2014). Amplifying Indigenous voices in the higher ed. classroom. Hybrid Pedagogy.  Retrieved from 
• Driscoll, D. Sunbury, T., Johnston, & Renes, S. (2013). Employing a community-based sentinel surveillance system to assess the health effects of climate change in Alaska: Initial findings. International Journal of Circumpolar Health Studies, 72, 1-9. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ijch.v72i0.21405
• Renes, S., & Strange, T. (2011). Using technology to enhance higher education. Innovative Higher Education, 36(3), 203-213. doi: 10.1007/s10755-010-9167-3

Presentations:

• Cognitive and Exploratory Learning in a Digital Age in Algrave, Portugal, in October 2017. Topic: I might not be as tech as you think: Collegiate print versus digital preferences.
• Maamwizing - Indigenous Conference at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, in November 2016. Session Co-Chair, Panel Discussion: Placing Alaska Native and Indigenous Knowledges in the Academy.
• Pathways into Health in Seattle, Washington in October 2015. Topic: Uniting and Sustaining Pathways into Health Professions: An Overview and Highlights Of Alaska’s Progress For “Growing Our Own” Sustainable, Culturally Attuned Behavioral Health Workforce.  
• National Indian Education Association in Anchorage, Alaska in September 2014. Topic: Reclaiming Indigenous Spaces In Higher Education:  Examining Recruitment, Retention, And Mentoring Of Alaska Native Students At The University of Alaska Fairbanks.
• American Geophysical Union Science Policy Conference in Washington DC, in June 2013. Topic: Community-Based Sentinel Surveillance and Preference Elicitation Inform Climate Change Adaptation in Rural and Frontier Communities in Alaska. 
• Native American and Indigenous Studies Association in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in June 2013. Topic: Indigenous Studies in Alaska: Interdisciplinary Initiatives in Research, Service and Pedagogy.
• The International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences Circumpolar Perspectives in Global Dialogue: Social Sciences Beyond the International Polar Year in Akureyri, Iceland, in June 2011. Topic: Expanding Access For Indigenous Students To The Behavioral Health Workforce Through Distance Education. 

Professional Organization Memberships:

• International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals
• Arctic Alliance for People
• National Association of Social Workers
• American Counseling Association

Education and Training:

• Ph.D. University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017, Cross-Cultural Education and Futures Studies. Resilience and Adaptation Program (RAP) Fellow- NSF funded.
  Thesis: Compulsory Education and Resilience in Northern Alaska: The Role of Social Learning and Youth in Healthy Sustainable Communities
  IRB certificate, 2021

• Cognitive Coaching Advanced Training, 2019

• Alaska Type B Administrative Certificate, 2017

• Certificate in Foresight Seminar, January 2015, University of Houston.

• Alaska Professional Teacher Certificate, 2013, English, Grade 5-12

• M.F.A. University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2010, Creative Writing; Thesis: Analog Pop

• M.A. (with Distinction) California State University - Northridge, 2005
  Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Thesis: English Language Learner Mainstreaming: A Qualitative Action Research Project Examining How Students’ Attitudes Affect Success

• California Certificate of Eligibility Administrative Services Credential, 2005
  State of California Commission on Teacher Credentialing

• California Professional Clear Single Subject Teaching Credential - English, University of California, Los Angeles and California State University-Dominguez Hills, 2002
  Writing and Cross-Cultural, Language, and Academic Development emphasis

• B.A. University of Southern California, 1995
  English/Creative Writing; Honors: Resident Honors/Thematic Option Program; Dean’s Scholar; Semester Abroad at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic

Research Interests:

• Co-Primary Investigator, National Science Foundation, Robert Noyce Research Grant, Track 4 grant- Sufficient Compensation for Retention and Equity (SCORE), 2020-2025; $799,815. With SCORE, we seek to understand how high-need schools succeed in retaining STEM teachers. SCORE applies a mixed-methods research design exploring two overarching research questions: (1) what influences STEM teacher retention in high-need schools and (2) how does compensation encourage STEM teachers to stay? We have developed datasets including teacher pay scales and benefits negotiated in collective bargaining agreements; individual teacher certification, salary, and employment records over two decades; and district, school, and community characteristics for all teachers and schools in Alaska. We are developing models that use the data we have compiled to predict turnover, and will conduct case studies in schools that realize better-than-expected STEM teacher retention. 

• Researcher, Margaret A. Cargill Foundation- Sustaining Indigenous and Local Knowledge, Arts, and Teaching (SILKAT). The purpose of the SILKAT project is to bring local cultural knowledge to the forefront of the curriculum and to recruit, equip and retain new teachers with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to competently and confidently teach in and through the arts and culture in Alaska's schools.

• Researcher, National Science Foundation- Public Participation in Scientific Research: Arctic Harvest (), 2017-2020; $878,592, with PI Katie Spellman and Co-PIs Deb Jones, Christa Mulder, and Elena Sparrow. is a community ("citizen") science project where University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists and community volunteers investigate how shifting seasons could affect when berries are available to animals and people. 

• Research Assistant, National Science Foundation - The Northern Alaska Scenarios Project (NASP): Envisioning Futures and Strategizing Pathways for Sustainable Healthy Communities, 2013-2016; $954,290. Participated in writing the grant and research assistant. Responsible for facilitation and coordination of the school districts of Northwest Arctic Borough and North Slope Borough for participation of students, teachers, and administrators in scenarios workshops and follow-up meetings. Northern Alaska Scenarios Project | Center for Arctic Policy Studies

• Principal Investigator, Arctic Futures Makers Project, 2015-2016; $51,250. Designed, coordinated and facilitated two-day scenarios workshop with high school students from all ten villages of the Northwest Arctic Borough (NWAB), Alaska. Produced and presented reports, with student-participants, to the community and councils of Kotzebue and NWAB.
  
  In my research, I research the role of education in community resilience. Specifically, how different modes of learning and success can be facilitated in rural and largely Indigenous communities. Many varied factors impact students’ lives during the high school years so that success in schooling outcomes cannot be used as the sole educational predictor in assessing a community’s resilience. I am considering resilience as a community’s ability to rebound in the face of perturbations. In Alaska, as well as across the Arctic, changes related to climate and resource exploitation, as well as historical and present culture shifts and dynamics related to modernization, add to the pressures of remote communities. For such communities learning among youth is generally in two modes – one considered Indigenous and primarily grounded in Indigenous knowledge, culture, languages, land, connectedness, and subsistence practices. The second is the Western mode of education that takes place in a public school system.  The dislocation of youth in communities has paralleled a decrease in high school graduation rates partly because these two modes of learning remain disconnected.  This context is further problematized by a rapidly changing climate in the North that challenges the knowledge of elders and others with traditional knowledge concerning the land and seascapes.
  
  In brief, my research is directed at understanding the role of rural schools in regional resilience in Arctic Alaska and more specifically:  (1) How do schools serve as a tool of governance and what does this mean for rural, largely Indigenous communities? (2) What would be the best method to help communities deliberate about the future of community resilience, in particular the role educational practices play? (3) How might communities draw on both Indigenous and Western modes of learning to plan for the future and create capacity for successful lives of the youth as integral parts of community resilience?
  
  My research has included qualitative interviewing and conducting scenarios development workshops, honing these skills and expertise through my work with the Northern Alaska Scenarios Project and the Arctic Futures Makers project. This development and refinement will likely continue in my role as a research contributor and scenarios development workshop coordinator with the recently funded National Science Foundation, Robert Noyce Research Grant, Track 4 grant- Sufficient Compensation for Retention and Equity (SCORE), 2020-2025, researching teacher retention and mobility, as well as the factors impacting these aspects across the state of Alaska. I think the connections and collaborations possible amongst Arctic communities could be impactful and lead to greater understanding and adaptation in educational systems, and therefore sustainability in circumpolar communities. I think the connections and collaborations possible amongst Arctic communities could be impactful and lead to greater understanding and adaptation in educational systems, and therefore sustainability in circumpolar communities.
  
  I am passionate about each and every student in our school systems having the opportunities and resources to reach their full potential. I am passionate about play, about love, about Humanity and how we present and treat each other on this Earth. I am passionate about legacy. I am passionate about leaving this place better than when I found it and each day becoming better than when I woke up. I'm passionate about being fuller everyday in a world where openness can sometimes seem like a very far off place. I'm passionate about people: the people I care about, the people I know, and the people I will never meet. I'm passionate about sport, play, and fun: Go ‘Stros, Go Dodgers, Go Trojans. I'm passionate about sharing that love of sport with my son, Wulfric. I'm passionate about teaching, learning, education, growing, and the pursuit of lifelong learning, recognizing the luxury of what that is and that all folks don't have access to the luxury of lifelong learning when working just to survive. I'm passionate about recognizing my privilege and power and using those to leverage and to amplify other human beings to realize the potential and success that they would like to realize.

Selected Publications:

• 2023 Chapter (editorial team review) Alexander, E., D.S. Cost, and D.B. Hirshberg (2023) . Education, Equity, and Inclusion: Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable North, UArctic Press. 

• 2021 Journal Article (peer review) Spellman, K.V., D.S. Cost, and C.P. Villano (2021).
  Frontiers in Ecology and Evolutions. 

• 2020 Journal Article (peer review) Cost, D.S. and A.L. Lovecraft (2020). Scenarios development with Alaska’s Arctic Indigenous youth: perceptions of healthy sustainable futures in the Northwest Arctic Borough. Polar Geography, 1-24. 

• 2019 Chapter (editorial team review) Lovecraft, A.L. and D.S. Cost (2019) in Nord, D. Ed. Leadership for the North: The Influence and Impact of Arctic Council Chairs. Springer International Publishing. 

• 2019 Chapter (peer review) Hirshberg, D. B., Harvey, H., Cost, D. & Ohle, K. (2019). In Including the North: A comparative study of the policies on inclusion and equity in the Circumpolar North. Rovaniemi, FI: Lapland University Press. 

• 2019 Journal Article (peer review) Nilsson, A.E., M. Carson, D.S. Cost, B.C. Forbes, R. Haavisto, A. Karlsdottir, J.N. Larsen, Ø. Paasche, S. Sarkki, S.V. Larsen, A. Pelyasov. (2019). Polar Geography, 1-15. 

• 2019 Journal Article (peer review) Spellman, K.V., J.D. Shaw, C.P. Villano, C.P.H. Mulder, E.B. Sparrow, D. Cost. (2019). Citizen science across ages, cultures, and learning environments: Alaska Arctic harvest-public participation in scientific research. Rural Connections.

• 2019 Abstract Spellman, K., Cost, D., Stanley, S., Villano, C. P., Shaw, J. D., Sparrow, E. B., Mulder, C. P. H. & Buffington, C. (2019). Does storytelling make a difference for inclusion and learning in an intergenerational Public Participation in Scientific Research project? AGUFM, 2019, U32A-04.

• 2017 Chapter Contributing author. Lead authors B. Preston and A.L. Lovecraft. (2017). Arctic Council, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, ADAPTATION ACTIONS FOR A CHANGING ARCTIC (AACA), regional (Bering/Beaufort/Chukchi) report, Chapter 8, “Scenarios.”

• 2017 Report : Creating Healthy Sustainable Communities in Arctic Alaska. A.L. Lovecraft, N. Fresco, D. Cost. (2017). 84p, research report for community members and participants regarding NSF grant research. 

• 2015 Journal Article (peer review) Cost, D. (2015). “The Role of Public Education in Governance for Resilience in a Rapidly Changing Arctic.” Ecology and Society 20(3):29,
  

Professional Organization Memberships:

• Alaska Evaluation Network
• American Educational Research Association
• American Association of Colleges of Teachers Education
• Association of Writers and Writing Programs
• Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
• National Council for the Social Studies
• National Council of Teachers of English
• National Education Association
• National Writing Project
• Native American and Indigenous Studies Association