Ulyana Horodyskyj Peña is a glaciologist and experienced science communicator. She earned her Masters from Brown University and PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship with the National Snow and Ice Data Center, where she conducted National Geographic-sponsored fieldwork on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. 

In 2013-14, Ulyana received a Fulbright Fellowship to Nepal, where she spent 10 months completing her PhD and launching The Sherpa-Scientist Initiative, a participatory science program engaging local communities in glacial research. During her time abroad, she also authored an eight-part blog series for Scientific American. 

In 2022, Ulyana was selected as a "Voices for Science" ambassador by the American Geophysical Union. She deliver a TEDx talk at MIT, for a Planet Action Summit in November 2024, focused on the climate crisis. When not in the office, Ulyana can be found aboard research ships in the Arctic or Antarctic, or out in the mountains of Colorado with her husband, Ricardo, climbing the state's highest peaks.