Katie Jacobson was born in Eugene, OR. and has two older brothers and an older sister. Katie was able to spend her entire childhood growing up in the same home with her family. She describes herself as being very energetic as a child, a real "hands on" learner. She was constantly playing outdoors, mostly in the woods or she was in the gym, playing a variety of sports. Katie started playing basketball at age four, also playing soccer, softball, tennis, water polo and both flag and tackle football as she grew up. Katie was raised in a very sports-minded family and all of her friends were involved in sports. She said her childhood and school were really fun because of that. In high school she also held a job as a flower delivery person for a local Eugene hospital. After graduation, she headed to college at Florida State Univ. for one year. That was not a good fit, so she transferred to to the Univ. of Washington where her sister was also attending. UW offered a strong science program and she graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Conservation, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Prior to her college graduation, she spent time traveling. Katie first traveled all through Western Europe, then to Central America. Her third trip was through Eastern Europe. She wanted to see the world first hand and journeyed with her friends, often backpacking her way through the countries that they visited. Katie graduated in 2002 from UW and then moved to New York. She got a job working for an environmental education center as an educator, leading trips with kids through the great outdoors. After a year, she moved to Portland to work for OMSI, leading backpacking trips for Pacific Marine Science Camps, then she worked at their museum as an educator. After six years with OMSI, she worked for the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership as a science educator for three years. She then moved to attend Northern Arizona Univ. to earn her Master's degree in Science Education. She simultaneously taught a college biology lab. Katie graduated and then headed back to work again at the Estuary Partnership. At this time she also began full-time substitute teaching at Corbett for Rhiannon Young while she was on maternity leave. In 2013, Katie was hired as an AP Environmental Science teacher at Corbett High School. During the summer of 2013 she and her mom went to Northern Spain to hike over 300 miles together along the Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage. Her mom was 65 years old at the time! Katie is now married and they are a family of four, living in Portland with a dog named Roscoe and a salt water fish tank full of fish! Katie still plays basketball for fun and the family enjoys the great outdoors with a huge vegetable garden and lots of berries in their yard.
