Explore.... Learn.... and Change the World

Shelley is a biologist, educator, photographer, and environmental storyteller. She has a PhD in evolutionary ecology and population genetics, has been a university professor of biology and has taken numerous students exploring in the field, including trips to Costa Rica, the desert environments of Utah and Colorado, the Colorado Rocky Mountains, and the forests and seashores of Maine.

Shelley is also an extremely experienced public speaker and is passionate about sharing her thoughts and experiences in education, nature, conservation, photography, environmental entrepreneurship, leadership and professional development and environmental storytelling with audiences around the word. To book Shelley for an event, please send us your request via our CONTACT US page.

From Dr. Shelley Ball:

As founder and president of BIOSPHERE Environmental Education, I am passionate about educating people, especially youth, about environmental and conservation issues and inspiring them to become stewards, protecting nature for themselves and for future generations. 

The best education comes through experience. This is why expeditions are a core component of our environmental education program. Nothing can substitute for first-hand experience - seeing a Humpback whale breeching, watching polar bears lumber across the tundra, or witnessing the calving of a massive glacier. The best way to foster an understanding, appreciation, and sense of stewardship for our natural environment is to be part of it and to witness with one's own eyes, the human impacts on it.

The Biosphere Mission Statement

To connect people with nature, to educate them about its importance and value; to inspire people to love nature and to motivate them to cherish it and protect it.

In 2014, Shelley participated in the Students On Ice Arctic expedition as a volunteer educator in photography and environmental communication. Learn about Shelley's adventure with Students On Ice by clicking HERE. As part of Shelley's photography education program on the expedition, she created the Arctic Impressions photography exhibit, which features 40 images from the students themselves (aged 14 - 25), which convey their impressions of their encounter with the arctic in Canada and Greenland. Click HERE to view the Arctic Impressions exhibit slideshow.

In December 2016, Shelley will embark on an adventure of a lifetime. She is one of 78 women headed to Antarctica on the Homeward Bound Women In Science Leadership Expedition. The purpose of Homeward Bound is to elevate the leadership role of women in science, especially in the areas of sustainability and climate change, and to ultimately have more women with a seat at the table of some of the most important decision-making tables in science and science policy, globally. To read more about Shelley's participation in Homeward Bound, click HERE.