CLIMAS - Former Fellows

Rachel Zollinger

gigi — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 17:57:16 +0000

2022 recipient of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) Environment & Society Dissertation Improvement Grant

Rachel Zollinger is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and PhD student in Art and Visual Culture Education at the University of Arizona. She has worked in museums, community spaces, and other informal learning sites developing and facilitating arts integration, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) curricula, and environmental education programming for K-12 students, families, and education professionals. Her research interests primarily focus on place-based learning and multidisciplinary approaches to children’s ecological literacy and agency through art and science. Rachel’s dissertation research seeks to study children’s drawing practices as an expression of their ecological identities.

Project Title: Learning with Ants: Children's Drawing as a Socioecological Practice

Abstract: Through this work, she aims to establish better understanding of how intertwining science practices, art cultures, and first-hand experiences with plants, animals, and places influence children’s imaginative capacities. Her work is part of a broader, collaborative project with a science museum and local community partners in New Mexico to develop environmental education curriculum and teaching practices that support children’s intellectual and emotional capacities to effectively respond to environmental issues. The curriculum will be shared with other educators and through outreach programs in New Mexico to engage children in the local ecosystems where they live.

University of Arizona

Former Fellows

First Name:

Rachel

Last Name:

Zollinger

Titles and Affiliations body:

Fellow, Climate Assessment for the Southwest

Jake W. Dean

ben — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 20:00:41 +0000

2022 recipient of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) Environment & Society Graduate Fellows Program.

Jake W. Dean is a Master of Arts student in the Center for Latin American Studies with concentrations in Anthropology and Politics & Environment. He is also pursuing a graduate certificate in social, cultural, and critical theory. He leverages his academic background in anthropology, earth science, and history to conduct research around two scholastic foci: (1) political ecology-informed anthropology of the Americas with emphases on water and marine resources (2) historiographical approaches to gender hegemony and equity in North American soccer. He is also a freelance journalist who has published in outlets such as Mexico City's El Universal, Slate Magazine, Tucson Weekly, and the Indian publication The Wire.

Title: Cesando la Sal: A Social Ecology of Pacific Grey Whale Conservation and Ecotourism in El Vizcaíno, México

Abstract: Located on the coast of a critical Pacific grey whale breeding ground in Baja California Sur (BCS), Mexico called Laguna San Ignacio, Ejido Luis Echeverría Alvarez (ELA) has faced multiple attempts by Mitsubishi to purchase their land development rights to expand their massive sea salt production facilities. Despite pressure from such a wealthy, powerful multinational company, in 2005 ELA became the first ejido in the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve to sell their usufruct rights instead to Pronatura, a Mexican conservation group who maintains the land and associated lagoon as a Pacific grey whale conservation area while also providing economic development funds and ecotourism opportunities to the local community. This attempt at conservation-as-development added to the complex interplay between whaling protections and the fishing industry that historically served as ELA’s central economic industry. In the aftermath of this partial economic transition, Dean's research will focus on the tensions between whale conservation and the fishing industry of ELA, the social ecology and conservation advocacy of the surrounding area, and the rise of the whale-watching ecotourism industry in BCS. Through ethnographic research in collaboration with local stakeholders, he seeks to understand the socioecological and economic impact of this conservation development deal on the multi-species community of ELA.

University of Arizona

Former Fellows

First Name:

Jake

Last Name:

Dean

Titles and Affiliations body:

Fellow, Climate Assessment for the Southwest

Julia Davies

ben — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 19:55:52 +0000

2022 recipient of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) Environment & Society Graduate Fellows Program.

Julia Davies is a PhD candidate in the University of Arizona’s School of Geography, Development and Environment. She holds a BSc (Honors) in Environmental and Geographical Science and MSc in Climate Change and Development from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Julia’s PhD research addresses how low-income urban households in Zambia maintain food security amid persistent social and environmental challenges. Through this work, she aims to establish a more integrated understanding of the interactions among key components of urban food systems in sub-Saharan Africa, including household-scale urban agriculture, transitions in urban food retail environments, and urban food systems governance. Her work forms part of a broader, collaborative project that investigates the linkages between coupled human-natural systems and across rural-urban continuums in sub-Saharan Africa. As a CLIMAS Environment and Society Fellow, Julia will leverage her dissertation research to engage in stakeholder outreach with decision-makers and the public in Zambia. Along with her partners at the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute, she will co-produce a series of two online webinars, two policy briefs, and one op-ed that will stimulate conversations among the stakeholders who are responsible for various functions related to food security in Zambia. The title of her project is “Urban Food System Transformations and Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

University of Arizona

Former Fellows

First Name:

Julia

Last Name:

Davies

Titles and Affiliations body:

Fellow, Climate Assessment for the Southwest

Bailey Stephenson

ben — Tue, 11 May 2021 14:46:33 +0000

2021 recipient of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) Environment & Society Graduate Fellows Program.

Title: Responding to Flooding in Ottawa County, OK

Moriah Bailey Stephenson has received training in participant-observation, archival, and oral history research methods from the School of Anthropology, History Department, and Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona. Drawing on this training, Stephenson is collaborating with Local Environmental Action Demanded (LEAD), an environmental justice organization in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, to create a flooding response resource for Ottawa County residents. Ottawa County is located in the far northeastern corner of present-day Oklahoma and is made up of the territories of the Quapaw, Seneca-Cayuga, Miami, Modoc, Wyandotte, Ottawa, Peoria, Shawnee, Eastern Shawnee, and Cherokee tribal nations. Flooding has threatened communities in Ottawa County, OK since the construction of the Pensacola Dam in 1940 which led to the creation of Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees (south of Ottawa County). The recent passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for the year 2020 will exacerbate already dangerous flooding by allowing the Army Corps of Engineers to increase lake water levels. This project investigates the question: How have residents in Ottawa County, Oklahoma grappled with and responded to flooding risks in the past, and how do residents continue to navigate flooding risks in the present? In collaboration with LEAD, Stephenson will compile interviews focused on flooding and responses to flooding, and treating residents as experts, Stephenson will create a resource for residents who are at heightened risk for flooding due to the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for the year 2020.

University of Arizona

Former Fellows

First Name:

Bailey

Last Name:

Stephenson

Titles and Affiliations body:

Fellow, Climate Assessment for the Southwest

Lea Schram von Haupt

ben — Tue, 11 May 2021 14:40:49 +0000

2021 recipient of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) Environment & Society Graduate Fellows Program.

Lea Schram von Haupt is a Master’s student in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona. Her focus is National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) planning on federal lands. As a Environment and Society Fellow with CLIMAS, she will be implementing a project that focuses on fire restoration practices on the Coronado National Forest and how US Forest Service staff and stakeholder attitudes towards fire restoration and forest resilience influence forest planning. The project is entitled, “Line Officer and Stakeholder Attitudes towards Resilience and Fire Restoration and Fuels Management Practices on the Coronado National Forest”.

University of Arizona

Former Fellows

First Name:

Lea

Last Name:

Schram von Haupt

Titles and Affiliations body:

Fellow, Climate Assessment for the Southwest

Simone A. Williams

ben — Tue, 11 May 2021 14:35:32 +0000

2021 recipient of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) Environment & Society Graduate Fellows Program.

Simone A. Williams is a 1st year graduate student in the Arid Lands Resources Sciences PhD Program. She has a background in natural resources management and sustainable development planning. Her general research interest is international water governance. Currently, the main focus of her research is examining risk and vulnerability assessments and enhancing climate change adaptation outcomes in karst groundwater aquifers in islands and arid regions.

Project Title: Examining Karst Groundwater Scarcity and Vulnerability in Coconino Plateau, AZ

As a 2021 Environment and Society Fellow, Simone will collaborate with the Coconino Plateau Watershed Advisory Council and Coconino Plateau Watershed Partnership to conduct exploratory research to characterize karst groundwater security issues (quantity, quality and access) in a critical geographic area. She will produce a series of thematic resource maps, a searchable geodatabase and a story map of regional karst groundwater vulnerability in Arizona. Her work will build local water stakeholders’ adaptation capacity by providing data and information products and tools to enhance advocacy, public awareness and understanding of karst groundwater scarcity and vulnerability in the Coconino Plateau region. The research will also provide multiple opportunities for cross learning between karst aquifers in arid regions and island states. In particular, this work will inform design of her dissertation research which targets assessment of the specific and intrinsic vulnerability and risks of arid regions and island karst aquifers to pollution and climate change.

University of Arizona

Former Fellows

First Name:

Simone

Last Name:

Williams

Titles and Affiliations body:

Fellow, Climate Assessment for the Southwest

Rachel Rosenbaum

ben — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 16:44:54 +0000

2020 recipient of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) Environment & Society Graduate Fellows Program.

Rachel Rosenbaum (she/her) is a sociocultural anthropologist studying the politics of urban infrastructure in Beirut, Lebanon. Her doctoral dissertation research examines how Lebanese grapple with decades of infrastructural and environmental degeneration, histories of violence, and issues of ineffective governance. Her research centers local environmental and infrastructural change-makers who are working collectively to tackle these issues and institute alternatives. Her project with CLIMAS will use this ongoing research to facilitate the design and implementation of a data visualization platform with her local partners, Recycle Lebanon. The platform, “Regenerate Lebanon,” is an open-source online platform visualizing interconnected environmental and infrastructural issues around the country and connecting people to solutions.

School of Anthropology

University of Arizona

Former Fellows

First Name:

Rachel

Last Name:

Rosenbaum

Titles and Affiliations body:

Fellow, Climate Assessment for the Southwest

Kunal Palawat

ben — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 16:43:05 +0000

2020 recipient of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) Environment & Society Graduate Fellows Program.

Kunal Palawat (they/them) is pursuing a masters in soil and water science at the University of Arizona Department of Environmental Science. They have a background in soil/water science and community organizing from their time living in Vermont and are excited to blend their passions together in Arizona. Kunal’s research focuses on public participation in science, environmental pollution, and ecological modeling through the community rainwater harvesting study called Project Harvest. They are also passionate challenging the oppressive norms of western science through the democratization of science, supporting queer, trans, and two-spirit BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) students, mentorship, and climate activism. Their project with CLIMAS involves creating a climate change and contamination informed community cookbook. The Arizonan communities participating in the process are the members of Project Harvest in four towns (Dewey, Globe, Hayden, Tucson) and the Mission Garden in Tucson. The cookbook will have recipes developed by community members and Kunal in addition to photographs and historical narratives of each dish.

University of Arizona

Former Fellows

First Name:

Kunal

Last Name:

Palawat

Titles and Affiliations body:

Fellow, Climate Assessment for the Southwest

JoRee LaFrance

ben — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 16:41:02 +0000

2020 recipient of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) Environment & Society Graduate Fellows Program.

JoRee LaFrance (she/her) is a PhD student in the Department of Environmental Science. She comes from the Crow Reservation located in southeastern Montana and is Apsáalooke (Crow). Her Apsáalooke name is Iichiinmaaáatchilash – Fortunate with Horses and she comes from the Greasy Mouth clan and is a child of Ties in the Bundle clan. She uses the intersection of her background in earth sciences and Native American studies to focus on water quality issues on her reservation. JoRee’s PhD research aims to understand the contaminant behavior in the Indigenous Food, Energy, Water Security and Sovereignty (Indige-FEWSS) nexus in the Little Bighorn River watershed. More specifically, she will address the contaminant concentration-discharge relationship in the river to further determine any implications and to characterize exposure routes unique to Apsáalooke people. As a CLIMAS fellow, she plans to produce a short documentary about surface water sampling and will collaborate with artists to create the hydrologic cycle from an Apsáalooke perspective.

University of Arizona

Former Fellows

First Name:

JoRee

Last Name:

LaFrance

Titles and Affiliations body:

Fellow, Climate Assessment for the Southwest

Emily Cooksey

ben — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 16:37:38 +0000

2020 recipient of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) Environment & Society Graduate Fellows Program.

Emily Cooksey (she/her) is PhD student in Environmental Health Science in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman School of Public Health. Her doctoral dissertation is focused on presence, persistence, and human health risk associated with pathogenic Vibrio from oysters harvested in Southern California through a collaboration with Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP). The primary focus of her research is to expand scientific knowledge of the interactions between shellfish, microbial water quality, environmental factors, and public health. As an Environment and Society Fellow, Emily will identify implications for human health by coupling oyster research in Southern Californian estuaries and in simulated marine environments with QMRA. Her laboratory findings will influence her QMRA model and assess regulatory standards. The collaboration between the University of Arizona and SCCWRP provides a platform for groundbreaking Vibrio research on the West Coast and the ability to influence current oyster harvesting policy in Southern California. Emily will use her research to evaluate existing policy to reduce human health risk from exposure to pathogenic Vibrio.

University of Arizona

Former Fellows

First Name:

Emily

Last Name:

Cooksey

Titles and Affiliations body: