 Marti Klein
Geography Instructor
Email: mklein@saddleback.edu
Phone: 949/582-4900 x3285 (email is preferable!)
I began teaching Geography at Saddleback College in January 2004. I also taught Geography at Irvine Valley College and Long Beach City College. In addition, I teach workshops for the California Air Resources Board.
I truly enjoy teaching, and I try to make my classes relevant, interesting, and worthwhile for every student in the class. I work hard to make my classes very organized so that all of the time students spend in my class is productive. I also enjoy meeting, getting to know, and communicating with my students, whether on-campus or on-line. Please email me if you have any questions. :)
Education:
- B.A., University of California, Los Angeles, CA
- M.U.P., San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
- Graduate work in Epidemiology & Environmental Health, California State University, Northridge, CA
Professional Experience:
I have been employed in fields related to Geography since the Dark Ages. While in college and graduate school, I worked as an urban planner. My first job after college was as a research assistant with the Rand Corporation think tank, working with fascinating people on really interesting projects. I spent several years as a real estate research consultant; then as a consulting environmental planner/scientist for a company that designed, built, and managed power plants; and then managing environmental compliance programs for the Rockwell International Corporation division that built the Space Shuttle. For the last fourteen years, I have served as an administrative law adjudicator on the Hearing Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Current Research Projects:
- The effect of housing preferences on ethnic distributions in Irvine, California; and
- Travel narratives as a pull factor for temporary mobility in early nineteenth century New England, especially through the
eyes of three young men featured in Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr..
Professional Affiliations:
- California Geographical Society
- Association of Pacific Coast Geographers
- Association of American Geographers
- Air and Waste Management Association
- National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary.
Travel and Leisure:
I like to travel when I can afford to do so. I recently returned from a trip to Antarctica on a small polar/oceanographic research ship. The scenery was breathtaking! Our voyage across Drakes Passage was, uh, memorable, as we spent ten hours trapped in our cabin due to high waves and wind, clinging to our bunks and dodging flying objects. Also memorable was our night of camping on a glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula, in a pup tent in subzero weather. It was a once in a lifetime experience (and I do mean once) comparable to sleeping(?) on a snow cone (the kind you eat). I particularly enjoyed hanging out with literally hundreds of thousands of adorable penguins, many large birds (some of which were carnivorous), several very large seals, a few whales, and one very nasty leopard seal. All kidding aside, it was a truly wonderful experience that I would repeat in an instant if I was lucky enough to have the chance.
I spent time in South America in 2007 and 2008, during which I (1) hiked in the Atacama Desert (the driest desert in the world) and picnicked with llamas on the altiplano (elev.15,100 ft.) in Northern Chile; (2) watched glaciers calve in Tierra del Fuego and rounded Cape Horn (the southernmost tip of South America); and (3) visited the sights (and shops) in Lima, Peru, the Chilean cities of Santiago and Punta Arenas, and the Argentine cities of Ushuaia (el fin del mundo!) and Buenos Aires. Other recent travel memories include, among others, hoping to see fresh, hot, steaming lava up close and personal (but settling for watching Kilauea volcano erupt from a distance) and climbing (the last 100 feet) to the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, climbing moraines of the Athabasca glacier (Alberta, Canada) in a snowstorm, and hiking through a herd of very big, hairy, smelly, and mean-looking cows on the slopes of Jung Frau in the Swiss Alps.
Leisure pastimes include cleaning my office (which, unlike my classes, is definitely not organized and unfortunately, seems to never end), musical performance (although that is on the back burner these days), and spending time with my webmaster/husband, Jim, and two miniature poodles, Cherie and Max.
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