Dr. Kiki Patsch is currently an Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Resource Management at California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo, California. Patsch completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia in Environmental Science and earned her Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences with a focus on coastal geology, processes, and hazards under the guidance of Dr. Gary Griggs at the University of California Santa Cruz. Patsch joined the CSUCI faculty in the fall of 2015. Through her work, Dr. Patsch aims to bridge the gap between policy makers, scientists, engineers, and private citizens on issues related to the coastal zone.

Dr. Patsch's past and current research focuses on coastal geomorphology and processes, shoreline hazard assessment, sediment budgets analysis, sea cliff and beach erosion, reductions in the natural supply of sediment to the coast, coastal armoring, and coastal access equity along the California coast. Dr. Patsch is a co-author of the book, Living with the Changing California Coast, published by the University of California Press, Berkeley which covers the processes and hazards associated with California’s geologically dynamic and heavily populated shoreline.

Dr. Kiki Patsch is currently developing regionally based, socially relevant research projects and programs with fellow faculty members as well as undergraduate students and pushing the boundaries of our knowledge of the dynamic coastal zone in the framework of environmental science and resource management. Our beaches and coastal environments are an important natural resource that needs to be studied and preserved. California’s beaches alone generate billions of dollars annually to California's economy, not to mention the US economy on a whole. With a dynamic sea level threatening to erode our beaches and sea cliffs, coastal zone planning and regional sand management will need our attention in the coming years.