As the spring sun warms the St. Paul campus, a familiar face is preparing to trade the corridors of Green Hall for the volcanic trails of the Galapagos. Kristen C. Nelson, professor, former interim department head, and a cornerstone of the Department of Forest Resources, is retiring – though "retiring" feels like a loose term for a woman who has spent her career building soil labs in Nicaragua and mentoring scientists across the globe.
"It’s been a while since I’ve had a 'next period' in life," Kristen says. "The question is which of those things I did before do I do more of, and what new things do I do? I’m looking forward to the journey of exploring."
Kristen’s path to environmental sociology was never linear. Though she was born in Minneapolis, she grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey, just a short train ride from Times Square. Her early "teaching" career began at age 13, helping kids from the Bronx adjust to sleepaway camp at the Delaware Water Gap. "I basically helped them accommodate themselves to this crazy place," she recalls. "I think that was the beginning."
After designing her own interdisciplinary degree at St. Olaf College through the "Paracollege" program – focusing on the intersection of religion, science, and the environment – Kristen’s life became a series of global chapters. In the mid-80s, she found herself on Genovesa Island in the Galapagos, living with her then-boyfriend in a volcano caldera and monitoring Darwin’s finches.
"We were really disconnected," she says, recalling the moment a passing sailboat brought news of the 1986 Challenger disaster. "The best folks were the fishermen, because they always had extra fish for us. We looked a little like Gulliver’s Travels by the end."
While she loved the many creatures she studied, Kristen realized that if she wanted to effect real change, she had to focus on the human element. "I decided in the end, the people mattered most," she explains. This realization led her to the University of Michigan for her Master’s and PhD, where she focused on conflict management and participatory research.
Her work took her to Nicaragua and Mexico, where she lived with her husband, Tom Will, and their children, Kyla and Tor. In Nicaragua, she helped build a soils lab from a dilapidated building so that young farmers could learn science. In Chiapas, Mexico, as a Rockefeller postdoc, she taught at research institutes and advised Mexican scholars, all while perfecting her Spanish through the immersion of daily work.
At the University of Minnesota, Kristen’s impact has been just as profound. Whether serving as a faculty member or stepping up as the interim department head of Forest Resources, her guiding star has always been mentorship.
Her philosophy is simple: don’t let anyone tell you something isn't possible, and always finish what you start. As she prepares for her return to the Galapagos – this time as a traveler rather than a field researcher – she leaves behind a department shaped by her belief in social justice and community-led science.
"Be sure to finish something," she advises. "Know when the end of something is... and then pass it on such that they then become the maker of what is the next new thing."
For Kristen Nelson, the "next new thing" is just over the horizon. Happy trails, Kristen.