Kathleen Harris, Educator

Kathleen Harris began working as the Ephraim Historical Foundation's Educator in May, 2020. That same year, she authored From the Lookout: Peninsula State Park's Summer Camp for Girls (WI Historical Society Press). "I enjoy teaching others about the interplay between people and landscape, the geographical context that influences the human experience. This interplay helps create legacy. Ephraim has an amazing legacy, rich with compelling stories. Sharing Ephraim stories so that people love and preserve a bit of Door County is a great fit for me, and great fun!"

Before coming to the Foundation, Kathleen worked for nearly twenty-five years as Peninsula State Park's full-time naturalist. She also worked in the 1990s at The Ridges Sanctuary and as a classroom teacher at SS. Peter and Paul School in Institute. In the 1980s, she was an environmental education coordinator for six school districts in Iowa.

Kathleen has a Master of Science degree in Natural Resource Management and Interpretation from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Her thesis, The Interpreter's Guidebook: Techniques for Programs and Presentations, was used for many years at the UWSP as a course textbook and was also published in Japanese. She earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in History and Sociology, with a Minor in Environmental Education, from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Kathleen grew up in Glenview, Illinois. She has two grown sons who were born and raised in Door County. She enjoys writing both historical blogs and poetry. Her poem "Cutting Ash with Lance" was included in the 2020 Door County poetry collection, Halfway to the North Pole: Door County in Poetry. When not writing or ambling trails, she enjoys exploring the wooded brook that tumbles across her own five-acre property with Penny, her rescue Vizsla.