Figgie enjoying the catio | PC Shellene Patience

Accompanied by her three cats and one dog, it took Rosemary (Ro) Millham PhD eight days to drive the 6600 km trek from Queensbury, New York to Prince Rupert. After visiting Haida Gwaii four times, Ro has now put down roots in Daajing Giids Queen Charlotte.

An accomplished scientist and teacher, Ro’s work is of special relevance to Haida Gwaii and its people. Currently, her research focus is to delve deeper into the indigenous perspective on the natural world. She has visited the Navajo Dine’, the Pueblo in New Mexico, and the Māori of New Zealand exploring why western science, in their silos of knowledge, separate all the parts of the natural world when indigenous peoples see it as a whole.

“It is important to note,” Ro states, “that western science diverges from indigenous thinking in that they know what to take from the Earth system, what not to take, and to always leave plenty for others and nature to ensure future generations have access to those natural resources.”

A former Associate Professor Emerita in the Education Department at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz, her expertise is in Atmospheric Science, Environmental Science, Geology, and Science Education. She was an Aerospace Education Specialist for National Aeronautics and Science Administration (NASA) in Maryland where she taught earth science, space science and technology and was assigned to the group that had the first chatroom via satellite. She has met astronaut Neil Armstrong and approximately 70 other space travelers. She has written about ozone, air quality, and gases in the earth’s atmosphere for the AURA spacecraft mission, launched in 2004.

Ro is also an expert in curriculum and professional development for teachers and has written the book Everything Moon - A Teacher Guide and Activities for Teaching and Learning about the Moon. Sixteen years as a classroom teacher, Ro is an advocate for Brainstorm, Investigate, Debrief, Debate and Identify (BIDDI) teaching, which she developed early in her teaching career. This educational methodology encourages students to learn through doing.

In January 2013 she wrote a paper called “Mapping the Surface of the Moon,” an activities module for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission and was asked by the dean of her department at SUNY to manage a Master Teacher Program. In 2016 she was asked to run it.

How did the study of science and teaching come together for Dr. Millham? Although Ro is a Canadian citizen, she grew up in Massachusetts where her parents owned a dairy farm, and she began a career path towards becoming a vet. After her two children were born she took a course in geology and found her niche, getting a degree in historical geology and then a Masters in secondary education where she discovered she loved teaching.

Her research has sought answers to some of nature’s most intriguing questions such as a possible link between sunspot activity, earth’s magnetic field distortions and the phenomenon of what happens in the oceans in El Nino and La Nina events. Enquiry into the impact of temperature and climate change led her to the Bodele Depression - a large dry lakebed at the western end of a pass on the edge of the Sahara Desert in Chad, Africa. The dust source is 500 km long, 150 km wide and approximately 160 km deep. The prevailing summer trade winds annually blow millions of tons of the fine white dust west to fertilize the Amazon rainforest area in South America and areas of the southern U.S. and Bermuda. In the winter months it blows into Europe and feeds plankton in the Atlantic Ocean. The dust contains nutrients for the Amazon area enriching the soil which in turn removes excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which could mitigate global warming by slowing its rate. Ro’s research led to her PhD at NASA.

Dr. Rosemary Millham PhD | PC Shellene Patience

Next Project

Ro has been asked by Gitkinjuaas, the Chief of Cumshewa – a Haida village located on southern Moresby Island - to capture his biography. Gitkinjuaas was one of the members who shared his oral testimony detailing his life experiences before and during residential schooling.

Ro accompanied him to the Port Alberni healing ceremonies in the fall of 2019 where he was one of the people responsible for urging survivors of the school to conduct the ceremonies. In reference to attending this sacred event, Ro shares, “They were spiritual, enlightening, heartbreaking and healing in a way difficult for someone who did not experience this atrocity.” She continues, “I received much more than I had bargained for when I began my research into indigenous knowledge - and it will forever alter the way I think about the bridges we need to build to engage with nature in a more forward-thinking way.”

As a part of our interview, Ro shows me around her new additions to her home including the back porch catio that she, with a bit of help from her son, designed and constructed. Accessible by a 24/7 cat-door, it is quite the safe-haven kitty palace. It is clear Ro is a lady of many talents.