Dr. Michaeleen Gerken Golay is passionate about student success and collaborative learning, working to support students and fellow educators. She joined Unity after teaching in higher education for more than a decade. She earned baccalaureate degrees in English and Environmental Science at the University of Iowa and received her master’s and doctoral degrees in Forest Biology at Iowa State University. Her research in forest biology spans across several levels of ecology including molecular, organismal, community, and ecosystem scales with a focus on forest understory plants.

Dr. Golay has worked with students and peers from faculty as well as private and public land managers on studies that ranged across field, lab, greenhouse, and digital data sets to understand and restore plant function in nutrient cycling and other ecosystem services in response to human disturbance from agriculture, urbanization, and climate change.  

Dr. Golay has also served in several leadership roles within and outside of academic settings. She has served in local government, as a member of community organizations, and with non-profit organizations to help further goals of natural resource conservation. As avid outdoors folk, she and her husband and their dogs are enjoying learning about and experiencing the beauty of Maine and New England.