Missy Holzer has been teaching for over 20 years and currently teaches Honors Earth System Science and A.P. Environmental Science at Chatham High School in Chatham, New Jersey. Ms. Holzer believes in using hands-on, minds-on, and data driven inquiry activities as a way to promote life-long learning in her students. She enjoys field research immensely and has assisted in data collection in places such as Nicaragua, Kenya, Ecuador, Jamaica, off the coast of Chile, and Oregon. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Planning and Design and Masters degrees in Secondary Science Education and in Physical Geography. In the classroom, Ms. Holzer uses her field experiences to develop units of study that inspire students to get out and explore their natural world. Outside the classroom she enjoys learning, traveling, running, hiking, kayaking, and spending time with her nephews.

Al Werner grew up along the shore of Lake Michigan and is a professor of geology at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Dr. Werner’s primary research involves taking sediment cores from lakes in arctic areas and analyzing them to interpret records of environmental change. He believes research is an important part of the educational experience. Not only is it rewarding to learn about things but it is also a great feeling to understand things that were not previously understood. For him, research is "a "whodunit" investigation - you typically have some information, you collect bits and pieces of additional information, and you use your insights and wits to figure things out."

Mike Retelle is a professor at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Dr. Retelle teaches courses that focus on Earth surface environments and records of environmental change. Dr. Retelle has been working in Svalbard since 2005 and has previously mentored numerous undergraduate students in the field through the National Science Foundation’s REU Program (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) as well as four past TREC teachers.

The team is working on and around the glaciers and lakes of Kapp Linne near their field camp at Isfjord Radio on western Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard arctic archipelago. The Svalbard archipelago is situated in the Arctic Ocean, north of mainland Europe, approximately mid-way between Norway and the North Pole.