Alison Sloat

Scientists tend to draw conclusions based on the factual evidence at hand. Which is why, when the U.S. economy took a nosedive in 2008, Alison Sloat figured it was only a matter of time before she would lose her job as a senior staff geologist for a Southern California-based environmental consulting firm.

“Like many industries, even environmental work follows economic boom and bust cycles,” Sloat says. “So when the economy is going well, people care about the environment. But when most of the country was struggling to survive [during the Great Recession], environmental protection was not a priority.”

Her hypothesis proved to be accurate in late 2008. That’s when her work dried up and she was notified that the only way to continue collecting a paycheck (and temporarily so) was to take her unused vacation. 

Sloat hardly knew it at the moment, but the unscheduled downtime proved to be a blessing, as it changed the course of her life and career. 

Sloat connected with her best friend, an aquatic chemist who was facing a similar Great Recession-driven employment plight. Rather than search for full-time employment in a down market for environmental researchers, the friends decided to search for places to pursue their doctorate degrees.

Sloat’s search led her to UNLV geoscience professor Matthew Lachniet, who extended an invitation to visit the university. Sloat was intrigued and drove to Las Vegas that very weekend.

Some six months later, she was back in the desert, only this time as a UNLV doctoral student. Within weeks, though, Sloat was on a plane to Alaska, where she would spend three consecutive summers cutting up ice for her dissertation research.

While she enjoyed returning to nature and doing hands-on environmental work, Sloat also took a liking to the classroom aspect of her doctoral program. So much so that in 2011, she accepted a part-time position as a physical geography and laboratory instructor.

Needless to say, the experience sparked a passion, because a decade after completing her doctorate, Sloat is still on campus, only now as a professor in residence in the UNLV College of Sciences.

“When I started teaching classes,” Sloat says, “I knew I had finally found my purpose in life.”

Fortunately, Sloat followed that purpose, because her work in the science education space has been massively impactful — and not just in her classroom. Because in addition to educating and mentoring UNLV students, Sloat also has developed numerous outreach programs that highlight the importance of STEM education — science, technology, engineering, and math — throughout the Las Vegas community.

These STEM-centric initiatives are geared toward K-12 students and teachers in the Clark County School District. But those aren’t the only groups who benefit. Sloat designed her outreach initiatives to also include UNLV undergraduate and graduate students, who assist with activities while sharing their expertise and love of science in hands-on settings.

Sloat’s commitment to helping others teach and learn how to positively interact with the environment is apparent in each of the innovative programs she has developed. This includes the Resident Scientists-in-Schools program, the STEM Teacher Development Academy, and Rebel Science Camp.

Each of these community-based educational efforts recently culminated with yet another program that Sloat spearheaded: the Las Vegas Urban Forest Center. 

The tree planting and workforce development initiative — which received $5 million in federal funding from the USDA Urban and Community Forestry program — aims to mitigate extreme heat in disadvantaged communities throughout Clark County.

The initial five-year mission of the Las Vegas Urban Forest Center: plant 3,000 trees, educate 45 arborists-in-training, and provide educational and planting workshops for community members about the importance of urban forestry.

“My hope is that in 10 years, everyone will have a shadier and cooler walk to school and work; students will have trees on their playgrounds that provide nesting habitats for bird observation activities; and commuters will have trees to shade them while they wait for the electric bus,” Sloat says.

Of course, this short-range goal is part of a grander plan that is at the heart of every community-based environmental education program that Sloat has developed during her time at UNLV. It’s a plan that she insists is necessary for planetary survival: Encourage kids at a young age to pursue a college education and consider careers as scientists. 

“I initially became a geologist because I naively thought that I could mitigate climate change during my career,” Sloat says. “But as I’ve gained more experience, I can better appreciate that it is a much larger problem that will take generations of scientists to help solve. That’s the phase of my career I’m in now: mobilizing the next generation of scientists to take on this important task.

“There’s something about explaining climate change to a third-grader that really puts into perspective how much damage we have done to the Earth and our environment — and how much work still needs to needs to be done to try to repair it.”

What drew you to science as an undergraduate student?

I always loved the outdoors, specifically spending time camping in Yosemite and the Eastern Sierra as a kid with my mom. I first went to college at San Francisco State intending to be a screenwriter, but I quickly realized I wasn’t artistic enough to make it a career.

I was tired of being in the loud and crowded city, and while I was searching through the class catalog for interesting classes to take that were related to the environment, Geology of National Parks caught my eye. It included an asterisk that said, “Requires strenuous hiking, Oct. 12-14.” I knew that meant we must be going to Yosemite, which really excited me, so I signed up for the class.

How did you end up settling on geoscience as a major?

I fell in love with geology during that trip to Yosemite for that class. I loved learning about all the rocks and trees and animals, and couldn’t believe my good luck that I could have a career where I could be outside hiking around and saving the Earth.

I changed my major to geology, and when I told my mom, she said, “Are you crazy?” She did not think that I could make a career out of “looking at rocks all day.” 

Living in San Francisco was really expensive, so I transferred to Cal State San Bernardino. During my senior year there, I started working full time as a staff geologist doing groundwater monitoring and environmental contamination cleanup. I also earned my master’s while doing that work, and it gave me great industry experience that I now use to teach my upper-division geoscience courses.

You have been teaching in the UNLV College of Sciences since 2011. Was stepping to the front of the class to educate the next generation of scientists part of the plan when you got here?

Definitely not. But I come from a long line of educators, so I think it was destined to happen.

My grandmother taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Nebraska during the Great Depression, and my mom is a retired kindergarten teacher. I grew up watching my mom work tirelessly to create innovative lessons with a nonexistent budget, and her influence helped me think about teaching in a different way.

I love the ability and flexibility to create new courses that meet the needs of students and changing industries. I am so thankful for the support I have received from College of Sciences Dean Dr. Eric Chronister, Associate Dean Dr. Andy Andres, and the geoscience department in creating these new courses.

Whether I’m guiding students through their first scientific research project, taking them on a field trip to a national park to learn about its geology, teaching them about the impacts of climate change, showing them how to safely collect environmental samples, or guiding them through their innovative climate solutions projects, I absolutely love my job. 

As part of your work for the UNLV College of Sciences, you developed four community enrichment programs, all designed to stimulate interest in STEM education. What motivated you to create these programs?

We know that if students are not introduced to science early on, they likely will not be interested in it later or pursue it as a career. We also know that underserved communities are disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change, so solving it will take scientists from all backgrounds.

I started Rebel Science Camp for fifth-graders in 2017 because I knew there was not a formal science curriculum in the Clark County School District. When I pitched the idea to Dr. Javier Rodriguez — our associate dean in the College of Sciences at the time — he was enthusiastic and became instrumental in helping to secure seed funding for the pilot program.

Part of the reason the program is so successful is because UNLV College of Sciences undergraduate students lead the activities, so the fifth-graders learn from diverse scientists and are able to envision themselves going to college and pursuing STEM careers. 

Because the once-a-week camp is only offered on Fridays in the spring semester, demand for it quickly surpassed our available space. That’s when I created a new second-year seminar course that included a service-learning component. The students in my class visit elementary schools to teach young students about the impacts of climate change on our community. 

While visiting these schools, teachers began asking if I offered programs for them. So I created the STEM Teacher Development Academy and Resident Scientists-in-Schools program in 2022.

This program has been one of the most rewarding for me personally. I have loved getting to know these incredibly kind, committed, and dedicated teachers and their students. At the end of the year, everyone in the program visits UNLV on a field trip for Science Day to tour the labs of their resident scientists. It is such a joy and so inspiring to watch the connection between the students and their resident scientist.

Your outreach efforts also include the recently launched Las Vegas Urban Forest Center. What inspired this piece of community service?

In 2023, I was visiting one of the STEM Teacher Development Academy schools, and as I walked across their blazingly hot asphalt playground and saw a lone tree off in the distance, I couldn’t shake the urgency of the need to provide nature-based climate solutions before it’s too late. 

As one of their activities investigating the Urban Heat Island Effect, the students at this school had already measured the temperature of their playground (103 degrees in September). Their one tree meant that they only had a tree canopy cover of 3%. The goal for the Mojave Desert is 15%.

This prompted the idea for the Las Vegas Urban Forest Center. Along with programs like Rebel Science Camp and Resident Scientists-in-Schools, it’s another small cog of a very large wheel. And I truly believe that each component is necessary to move us toward a more scientifically literate community.