Kayla Gabehart is a Colorado Native from the rural Eastern Plains of Colorado. Kayla currently holds an MA in environmental and economic history from the University of Colorado Denver, as well as a BA in history, summa cum laude and a BA in psychology from the University of Colorado Denver. She also spent a semester abroad in Berlin, Germany, where she studied environmental policy and politics and served as a policy intern for the European headquarters of the Nature Conservancy. 

Kayla currently works in non-profit management and is the Associate Director of National History Day in Colorado, a K-12 outreach social studies and literacy program at the University of Colorado Denver in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences that annually reaches over 25,000 4th through 12th graders across the state. She has also served as the Associate Director of Colorado Student Leaders Institute, a Governor's School housed in the School of Public Affairs at the CU Denver, since it was legislated by the State of Colorado in 2015. The program is a residential, interdisciplinary college-preparatory institute that welcomes up to 100 of Colorado's best and brightest high school students annually in July. 

Kayla's past research has focused on the commodifying of the natural environment and its effects on efforts to combat global climate change inclusively. She is currently pursuing research on grassroots, collaborative policy making that fosters inclusive and meaningful climate change policy and focuses on the populations most deeply impacted. Her research areas include environmental politics and policy, rural vs. urban politics, and democracy.