Campus Directory

Division Graduate Studies Division

Department/College/Unit Art Department

Title MFA Student | Teaching Assistant
Ecological Artist; Horticulturist

Graduate Major Environmental Art and Social Practice

Affiliation Graduate

Web Site

Mail Stop Art Department

Biography, Education and Training

Elissa Callen is an ecological artist using natural pigments sustainably made from invasive plant species to accessibly engage the public with their environments and educate them about the circular importance of protecting native biodiversity. She aims to strengthen widespread interest in environmentalism, support vulnerable communities against climate issues, and advocate for native landscape conservation. 

Her research is rooted in California ecology and environmental justice, with forward emphasis in local extraction issues that are propelling biodiversity loss and human exploitation. Following methodology learned across her biracial experiences, she centralizes interdisciplinarity toward mending the accessibility gap between the general public and environmental academia. 

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She has taught nearly 30 workshops statewide from 2023-2025, has guest lectured at UC Berkeley and Laney College, and was a speaker at the 2024 California Invasive Plant Council Symposium. She comes from a professional background as a horticulturist and landscape designer and is a current board member of Sonoma County Mycological Association.

Select institutions worked with: 

Cal-IPC, Fibershed, Theodore Payne Foundation, Alliance for Felix Cove, California College of the Arts, Point Reyes National Seashore, Save the Bay, Los Angeles Mycological Society

Summary of Expertise

- Natural dyes and pigments (gathered)
- Plant identification (California native, invasive, ornamental spp.)
- California ecology
- Sustainability, circular practices
- Horticulture

Research Interests

• Environmental conservation, justice, and policy

• California ecology

     - Biodiversity, botany
     - Endangered and threatened native plant spp.
     - Plant invasion ecology; conservation biology
     - Climate change, native species adaptation challenges and outlooks
     - Indigenous stewardship
• Extraction sites and new/pending projects 
     - Anthropogenic impact on sensitive native habitats, environmental negligence
     - Exploitation of vulnerable human communities

• California history (~1800-present):
     - Short- and long-term impacts of colonialism
     - Gold Rush, Industrial Revolution, urbanization
     - Extraction projects and sites
     - Anthropogenic landscape shifts and environmental succession
     - Indigenous history
     - Migration history

• Mexican-American/Mexican/Latin American studies

     - Mexican Repatriation Act
     - Generational impacts of violence/trauma/assimilation pressures in the US borderlands
     - Identity loss, amnesia, abandonment of cultural/family heritage
• Community Engagement
     - Stimulating, accessible, and rewarding education on environmental issues for communities most vulnerable to them
     - Resourcing for vulnerable human communities, sensitive native habitats via amplification, education, crowd sourcing
     - Interdisciplinary pedagogy