Kelsey Knutson
Kelsey is an education innovator, novice surfer, former varsity alpine ski racer, and spicy and colorful food enthusiast. For the past decade, she has worked in multiple areas of the education field, including teaching social studies, Spanish, history, and interdisciplinary studies. Kelsey also loves leading experiential learning opportunities, emphasizing purposeful and ethical travel, and her approach to service learning is grounded in local lived experiences and inclusive of Indigenous wisdom. Her passion for experiential learning has brought her to homestays with Karen communities along the Myanmar-Thailand border and the Guna Yala islands of Panama with the Guna people. She is also a former international travel agent, international programs director, UNESCO Headquarters doctoral fellow, and consultant for global youth leadership programs. Kelsey is currently pursuing a Doctor of Education degree. Her doctoral specializations are in international education leadership and diversity and equity, and her methodology specialty is Youth-led Participatory Action Research (YPAR). Kelsey’s favorite biome is the ocean: as a master scuba diver, she would much prefer to be underwater.