Christa has had life-long passions for science, education, and travel – all of which have shaped her career path. After graduating from Penn State with a Bachelors’ in Astronomy & Astrophysics, Christa joined Teach for America, a corps of recent college graduates who dedicate two years to teach in under-resourced public schools. She went on to obtain her PhD in Atmospheric Sciencefrom the University of Colorado, where she studied what the atmosphere was like billions of years ago when life first formed. Pursuing more contemporary research for her postdoctoral work, Christa developed and is implementing a two-year field campaign to study air pollution in Ulaanbaatar through funding from a Fulbright Grant and an NSF International Research Fellowship. She is affiliated with the University of Colorado and the National University of Mongolia. She is also a PEER (NSF + USAID initiative) partner with Prof. Lodoysamba at NUM on an air pollution and health impacts study. While in Mongolia, Christa has developed several outreach projects, the newest of which is a mentoring program called Global Science Share that pairs scientists abroad with scientists in developing countries in order to forge new international collaborations and improve mentees’ technical writing.