KRISTIINA A. VOGT was born in Turku, Finland and eventually moved to the US when my father moved to the states to practice medicine. I have a BA degree in Biology from the University of Texas and a MS and PhD degree in Biology from New Mexico State University. We first lived in Germany after leaving Finland and this is when my cultural immersion began as we explored the European continent and northern Africa. This is also when I discovered my fascination with other cultures and their stories that could not have occurred if I had continued to live in Finland. My extensive travels around the world and research flourished once I was hired as a faculty member by Yale University. I spent 14 wonderful and stimulating years at Yale where the faculty and student milieu necessitated that you relish cultural diversity. Being at Yale really extended my travels and research throughout Asia, South and Central America, and Iceland. These travels further fostered my fascination with other cultures and how people survived and made choices under a diversity and sometimes extreme environmental conditions. I became Professor at Yale in the School of Forestry and Environmental and was the first female to get tenure and to obtain a full professor rank in this program. I was appointed the Margaret K. Musser Professor of Forest Ecology at Yale and acquired an honorary Master's degree in the Arts. I moved to the University of Washington in 2000 and became the first female Dean of a Forestry program anywhere in the world. My research focus encompasses solving complex interdisciplinary problems around the world in conservation, sustainable development, bioenergy and forests.