Kevin Coffey

Kevin Coffey grew up at the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. He studied at UCLA, earning a B.S. in Geology and Biology, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Geology. He did field research throughout the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles, bushwhacking in search of rock exposures, and his studies also took him across much of western North America and beyond. His research focused on mapping geologic patterns to better understand the geographic and tectonic histories of these regions. He is now an award-winning instructor at UCLA, where he specializes in teaching field geology and regularly leads a variety of field trips.

An avid outdoorsman and nature-lover, Kevin also explores the word’s geology in his free time: he has road-tripped to national parks across the U.S.A., backpacked the John Muir Trail of the High Sierras and bogs and coastlines of Ireland, sailed into Alaskan fjords, kayaked Catalina’s coves and Cape Cod’s estuaries, scrambled over ancient lava flows from Iceland to Hawai’i, and stood beside Dover’s White Cliffs and China’s crater lake Tianchi. He has trekked down to the riverbanks in canyons from Waimea to the Grand Canyon, and to summits from Mount Whitney to the shifting peaks of the Mojave’s sand dune fields. Back home, he tends a native-plant garden with his father and is involved with the local land conservancy.