Donna Caraway Willette is a Petroleum Geochemist Research Scientist at the Illinois State Geological Survey/University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her areas of expertise include petroleum systems modeling, petroleum and isotope geochemistry, and unconventional petroleum systems with a specialization in maturity modeling and biomarker characterization. She received her B.S. and M.S. from Colorado State University and PhD from Colorado School of Mines and has over 17 years in government (U.S.G.S) and industry experience (Energy Minerals, ARCO International, BP). She also has been a part-time faculty member at Colorado State University teaching Stratigraphy and Sedimentology, Geochemistry, and introductory geology courses. She is an active member of AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geology) and ACS (American Chemical Society) and is currently Vice-President of the Illinois Geological Society and Treasurer for the Eastern Section AAPG. She has also held numerous positions in educational outreach for AAPG.
