Biography & Scholarship
Karla Eitel is of Irish and Swedish descent, the daughter of an artist who grew up on a 600-acre farm in Northern Minnesota and a scientist who came from Northern Ireland to complete graduate school in the US. She is also a wife and a mother to two children. She was raised in Maryland, went to college at Williams College in Massachusetts and majored in Art and American Studies. After graduation, she spent time in New York City before moving to the West Coast and then a little inland where she landed in Idaho to study Conservation Social Sciences at the University of Idaho. Her experience of being raised by a scientist and an artist and also being disconnected from the lands that raised her ancestors has led her to be interested in the connections and relationships that people hold to the Land, and the ways that these shape their identities, particularly in science, and their sense of responsibility to people and Land. She explores these ideas in partnership with communities, including everyone on the Cultivating Relationships team. She currently serves as the Director of the UI McCall Field Campus and McCall Outdoor Science School. Outside of professional work, she spends a lot of time riding bikes and skiing on skinny skis with her family.