Keene Karlsson

Office

Biography

I was born in Napa, and grew up there and in San Rafael, so I consider myself a North Bay native. I've always been an avid hiker, biker, and outdoor enthusiast, and after starting out in college as a physics major, I soon realized that physicists spend a great deal of time indoors and started looking for another science that I found equally interesting and would allow me to work outdoors. I ended up getting hooked on geology after a short section on it in a GE California Geography class. I received my BS in geology from San Francisco State University in 2014, and my MS in geology from San Diego State in 2019. During grad school, I taught an intro geology lab, and absolutely loved it! Sharing my passion for Earth science with my students was the most rewarding job I've ever had. 

After completing my master's thesis on the earthquake history of a fault in Baja California, I worked as a geologic consultant for a small company in Southern California specializing in active fault investigations, and then for PG&E in San Francisco. After being laid off during the pandemic (like so many people I know), I moved back home to the North Bay and won a USGS research grant to conduct another active fault investigation, this time on the Green Valley fault, just east of Napa. I taught a geology lecture and a geology lab at Napa Valley College (NVC) in Spring 2022, an upper-division geology lecture, lab, and field mapping class (Sedimentology and Stratigraphy) at Sonoma State University in Spring 2023, and then a geology lab at NVC Spring 2024 semester while working part-time as a private K-12 tutor in physics, chemistry, English, Spanish, and Earth Science. 

I started a full-time lecturer position in the geology department at Sonoma State in the Fall 2024 semester, where I taught Intro to Geology, Natural Disasters, and Climate Change. In Spring 2025 semester, in addition to one geology class, I taught Weather and Climate for the department of Geography, Environment, and Planning (GEP). This semester. I'm teaching Global Environmental Systems and Land Processes for the GEP Department at SSU, and Intro to Earth Science at NVC. I'm passionate about both Earth Science and education, and hope that my enthusiasm will be contagious!