2024 Scholar/Faculty Mentor Teams
We are very excited to share our 2024 cohort of students and faculty members! Our teams are approaching climate change in innovative ways to improve agriculture, forest conservation, risks from infectious diseases, carbon capture/sequestration, energy hubs and alternative energy sources, flood modeling and flood mitigation/adaptation, landscape design, community engagement, public policy, and environmental justice and equity. The teams will work with their internship partners to develop solutions that mitigate and adapt to the challenges of climate change.
Student Highlights: See what our Climate Leaders Program scholars are doing to help find viable solutions for climate change.
Abasiama-Arit Aniche and Dr. Katherine McKee
Ph.D. Student – 2025
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Dept. of Agriculture and Human Sciences
Climate Change Interests: Leadership models, curricula, etc. with smallholder farmers and small rural businesses to prioritize climate-smart and climate resilient decisions on technology use.
Kichul Bae and Dr. Sankar Arumugam
Ph.D. Student – 2026
College of Engineering
Dept. of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
Change Interests: Adapting water resources management strategies to account for the challenges posed by climate change, including estimating and mitigating the impact of climate change on floods.
Zakir Bulmer and Dr. Tal Ben-Horin
Ph.D. Student – 2026
College of Veterinary Medicine
Comparative Biomedical Sciences Program
Climate Change Interests: Infectious disease risks stemming from global change and expanding coastal aquaculture production.
Swarna Chowdhury and Dr. Celso Castro-Bolinaga
Ph.D. Student – 2025
College of Engineering and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Dept. of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Climate Change Interests: Leverage existing understanding of coastal dynamics through advanced technical interventions to ensure coastal sustainability.
Ana Cubas-Baez and Dr. Rajan Parajuli
Ph.D. Student – 2025
College of Natural Resources
Dept. of Forestry and Environmental Resources
Climate Change Interests: Integration of climate policies, forest conservation and community-based natural resource management to develop and evaluate climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Juwan Ha and Dr. Soolyeon Cho
Ph.D. Student – 2026
College of Design
Dept. of Ph.D. in Design
Climate Change Interests: Unlocking the Potential of University campuses as energy hubs, with a focus on building energy flexibility.
Elizabeth Kreick and Dr. Danesha Seth Carley
Master’s Student – 2025
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Dept. of Horticultural Sciences
Climate Change Interests: Climate justice and ecological protection via agricultural policy, education and dialogue around mitigation, and protecting and growing modern agriculture.
Lillian Lower and Dr. Joe Sagues
Ph.D. Student – 2027
College of Engineering and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Dept. of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Climate Change Interests: Sustainable energy storage materials, conversion of waste materials into value-added products, and climate and energy justice.
Erin Mansfield and Dr. Alan Franzluebbers
Undergraduate – 2025
College of Natural Resources
Dept. of Forestry and Environmental Resources
Climate Change Interests: Interaction of soil, water, and biotic factors in vulnerable ecosystems and development of climate adaptation methods to increase ecosystem resilience.
Brooke Matusko and Dr. Shuijin Hu
Master’s Student – 2025
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Dept. of Horticultural Sciences
Climate Change Interests: Agricultural practices for soil carbon sequestration, agroecology, precision agriculture and reduction in carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions.
Ryan McCune and Dr. Katherine Anarde
Ph.D. Student – 2027
College of Engineering
Dept. of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
Climate Change Interests: Understanding coastal flooding and adaptation pathways of coastal communities in a changing climate.
Mahe Rukh and Dr. Fanxing Li
Ph.D. Student – 2026
College of Engineering
Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Climate Change Interests: Renewable waste utilization, green hydrogen and carbon capture.
Kelby Stallings and Dr. Gavin Smith
Master’s Student – 2025
College of Design
Dept. of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning
Climate Change Interests: Generating resilient and equitable climate solutions by prioritizing local knowledge, community engagement, and nature-based solutions.
Jack Voight and Dr. Casey Dietrich
Undergraduate – 2025
College of Engineering
Dept. of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
Climate Change Interests: Using tidal and hurricane modeling to analyze sea level rise’s impact on storm surge, coastal infrastructure, and mitigation efforts.
