Meet Our Rachel Carson NELF Fellows
Rachel Carson National Environment Leadership Fellows (NELF) are competitively selected nationwide. RCC NELF Fellows carry out educational, organizing, and communications projects that support RCC’s mission from their campus into the community and beyond.
This year’s class of RCC Fellows (2024-2025) was chosen from our most talented and diverse group of applicants ever.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow — Landon Bishop – Yale University
Landon Bishop is a sophomore at Yale University, studying Ethics, Politics, Economics, and Urban Studies with a certificate in Education Studies. A believer in the power of digital media to tell far-reaching stories about the climate crisis, Landon is passionate about communicating environmental messages through filmmaking. In the summer before college, Landon was selected to present his environmental documentary work on the Cancer Alley region of Louisiana on behalf of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield and EPA Administrator Michael Regan. At Yale, he is leading the post-production process on a documentary for the School of Architecture’s Urban Media Project. During the summer of 2024, he will be a marine and community conservation extern with National Geographic and The Nature Conservancy.
RCC Fellowship Project: Landon’s project will create an undergraduate community of environmental and community storytellers. The project will specifically focus on digital media – short documentaries concerning environmental justice, interviews with environmental leaders and changemakers, podcasts, photography, blogs, articles, etc. The project will prioritize students who have never had the opportunity or resource access to pursue creative endeavors in digital media and who are interested in telling stories concerning environmental justice and chronicling the climate crisis globally and in their communities. Considering a wide range of talents and interests, the project will be split into several focus groups, each curated to a particular form of digital media or environmental issue. The project also plans to organize several events for members to showcase their work to the Yale student body, faculty, and New Haven community. Through his project, Landon hopes to inform the world about the power of digital media to act as a positive educational force for promoting environmental justice narratives, policy, and government action. Furthermore, he hopes that the project will take steps toward democratizing the art of filmmaking for students everywhere.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow — Zoe Tseng – Barnard College
Zoe Tseng is a senior at Barnard College studying political science with a focus on international relations and the environment. Prior to transferring to Barnard, Zoe was a student at Boston University where she initiated a column interviewing professors in the Earth and Environment Department about their climate change research. At Columbia, she writes for the Science Review and Political Review on environmental policy and emerging climate solutions. She is interning at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and hopes to pursue a career addressing challenges and bridging divides in sustainability.
RCC Fellowship Project: Through writing and storytelling, Zoe will showcase the work of New Yorkers, including academics and students, devoting their lives to combating climate change. Zoe envisions this to be similar to Humans of New York, except specifically focused on how people have devoted their creativity and passions to addressing the climate crisis. She will interview individuals and share their stories through RCC publications and a website, aiming to build solidarity and show the diverse ways people can combat climate change. She hopes to engage citizens from all walks of life, using science to build a more sustainable and just future.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow – Benjamin Trost – University of Alabama
Benjamin is a senior 2024 Udall Scholar studying freshwater science and environmental humanities at the University of Alabama. He combines data science, ecology, and sociopolitical approaches to examine issues of environmental injustice in his home state of Alabama. His passion for research has led him to collaborate with the Black Warrior Riverkeeper on water quality advocacy and publish on the politics of plant conservation. Ben loves to hike, identify plants, and with his newfound interest in creative writing, explore the connections between Southern history, queer identity, and the environment.
RCC Fellowship Project: Ben will use interdisciplinary, collaborative methods to document the unjust impacts of water pollution on Alabama’s residents. He will study environmental racism by leveraging open access datasets to quantify the distribution of aquatic pollution. He aims to make this work useful to the Black Warrior Riverkeeper, a local organization that monitors industry for Clean Water Act pollution permit violations. To broaden the context for this work, he will compile a history of Alabama water policy to show the state has been a site of unjust environmental extraction for decades. In addition, he will conduct interviews with local environmental advocates to highlight the ongoing resistance of Alabamians fighting against pollution in one of the nation’s most toxic states. Ben will produce a publicly-oriented website consolidating his research to foster dialogue in his hometown which is embroiled in a highly polarized lawsuit about the environmental justice impacts of the city’s failing sewage infrastructure. He hopes his project will show that protecting Alabama’s incredible freshwater biodiversity should happen alongside efforts to address the state’s history of deeply rooted environmental injustice.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow — Arianna Lawrence – Pomona College
Arianna is a third-year at Pomona College studying Public Policy Analysis with a concentration in Environmental Analysis. Born and raised in a heavily-polluted community in Brooklyn, she is passionate about sustainable urban planning and the potential of the adaptive and creative reuse of the built environment in building greener cities. She is also interested in exploring nature-based solutions in climate adaptation and resilience. In her mission to advance environmental justice, she’s worked with Natural Resources Defense Council, the San Francisco Environment Department, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Arianna serves her college community as an Eco-Rep and runs a Rooftop Garden program to expose underserved youth to green space.
RCC Fellowship Project Description: Arianna’s project seeks to organize students across the U.S. to “green your campus”, undertaking community-led urban greening projects on college campuses. Understanding the potential of each campus to serve as a microcosm of environmentalism and environmental learning, Arianna’s project will design a scalable toolkit for creating rooftop gardens, wildflower lawns, urban farms, and other urban greening projects in a collegiate setting through the creative and adaptive reuse of underutilized spaces and structures. Prioritizing the needs of students and the wider community of which each campus is situated, this campaign intends to create multi-use, biodiverse green spaces on college campuses and increase community access to green spaces by harnessing the power of student organizing. Ultimately, Green Your Campus hopes to illuminate the role of institutions of higher learning in building climate resilient communities in the face of rapid environmental degradation, urbanization, and green space loss.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow — Anusha Kumar – Northwestern University
Anusha Kumar is a junior at Northwestern University, majoring in Social Policy and Environmental Policy and Culture. Central to her identity is the recognition that her experiences as a queer South Asian woman guide her perspectives. An environmental organizer at heart, Anusha aims to understand the impacts of policing and surveillance on environmental racism. Her organizing ethos is rooted in radical resistance as a means of healing from systemic violence and trauma. At Northwestern, Anusha is active in Fossil Free Northwestern, Students Organizing for Labor Rights, and The Jasmine Collective, where she collaborates with fellow students to address South Asian social justice issues.
RCC Fellowship Project: Anusha’s will focus on the Central Utility Plant (CUP) on Northwestern’s Evanston campus, which provides heating and cooling to all buildings on campus and is also the largest natural gas producer in the city of Evanston. She plans to launch a campaign with Fossil Free Northwestern to decarbonize the CUP while raising awareness about the ways that Northwestern University can be a more intentional, just, and sustainable neighbor to Evanston.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow — Elizabeth Gilg – Christopher Newport University
Elizabeth Gilg is a senior at Christopher Newport University majoring in Environmental Studies with a double minor in Leadership and Spanish. She is an active member of the Student Sustainability Commission, a club dedicated to making CNU a more sustainable campus. This includes promoting eco-friendly behaviors, educating the community about sustainability, and pursuing beneficial environmental initiatives. She recently returned home from a semester abroad in Costa Rica where she learned about the environmental conservation practices and laws their government has put in place for businesses of all sizes. Her goal is to bring back the knowledge she learned abroad and provide different perspectives on aspects of the environment to create an eco-friendly future and a stronger community. In the future, she wants to pursue a career in environmental consulting to work with businesses to lower their greenhouse gasses and develop sustainability plans.
RCC Fellowship Project: Elizabeth’s project focuses on researching and implementing a community-wide art and renovation project for building blight in her college town of Newport News, Virginia. She hopes to transform these vacant buildings into vibrant green spaces and community art hubs. By repurposing neglected spaces, she will not only address urban blight but also promote environmental stewardship and bring the community together through engagement in art and green initiatives. This project furthers her goal of creating an inclusive community and carrying out sustainability initiatives that benefit both the environment of Newport News and residents living there.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow — Brianna Cunliffe – University Centre, Westfjords
Brianna (Brie) Cunliffe graduated from Bowdoin College in 2022 with majors in Government and Environmental Studies after completing an honors thesis focused on environmental injustice perpetrated by the biomass industry. She is now an MA student in Coastal Communities and Regional Development at the University Centre of the Westfjords. As an Island Institute Fellow, Brie led the town of Tremont in developing a Community Resilience Plan that prioritizes energy affordability and reliability, supporting the working waterfront through coming changes, and building a connected, thriving year-round economy. She also coordinated community-wide programming designed to empower people of all backgrounds to find their unique contribution to climate action. Brie has worked for the US National Park Service, Elected Officials to Protect America, the Dogwood Alliance, and is currently the co-chair of the Next Generation Advisory Council for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. She is also a creative writer, published poet, avid hiker, and music-maker.
RCC Fellowship Project: Brie will build citizen literacy and empowerment by enabling people of all backgrounds to participate in charting a path to a just transition through a Community Energy Futures Workshop, Toolkit, & Storytelling Series. Brie will design, pilot, and iteratively improve a workshop designed to bring together diverse stakeholders to envision different energy transition pathways. They will leave the workshop with a toolkit to help them make the solutions they envision a reality. To reach broader audiences, she will supplement the workshop and toolkit with solutions-focused journalism in audio format, interviewing guests and laying out case studies that exemplify the abundance, prosperity, and vision needed in a series called “Local Power: Stories of Community Energy Transition.” to be produced as a short-form podcast (15-20 minutes per episode) and syndicated through community radio stations as well as Spotify.
RCC Environment Leadership Fellow — Elena Hsieh – UC Berkeley
Elena Hsieh is a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, double majoring in English and Conservation & Resource Studies, and minoring in Politics, Philosophy, and Law. Within these spheres of interest, she is passionate about environmental litigation, ecological literature, and the preservation of biodiversity. On campus, she is affiliated with environmental and literary student publications including The Leaflet, The Perennial, and the school newspaper the Daily Cal. Additionally, Elena leads monarch conservation research at the Gill Tract Farm and is Berkeley’s Housing and Dining Sustainability Garden Coordinator, tending and harvesting crops from campus gardens to contribute over 125 lbs. of produce annually to local food pantries. In summer 2024, Elena interned with Earthday in Washington, DC. In all her environmental work, Elena explores how environmental initiatives can be pursued through literature, media, and the law. As a second-generation Taiwanese, Elena emphasizes diversity in her environmental efforts by uplifting fellow person of color voices in the interviews she weaves into her literary publications, while hosting gardening workshops that invite historically-oppressed students into green spaces
RCC Fellowship Project: Pictures can speak a thousand words, and in a world where environmentalism is dominated by legislative advocacy, protests, and verbal education, nature photography is the mode of activism that Elena will use to amplify the voice of the Earth. Even though it is evident that the deterioration of the Earth is becoming visibly cataclysmic, there is still bountiful beauty in the nature that surrounds us. In recognizing the wonders of nature at a local scale, the efforts to fight for a habitable Earth become more immediate. For her RCC work, Elena will zoom in on the Bay Area, using photographs of nature that she took in California to challenge the notion that nature is completely overwhelmed by the unforgiving forces of climate change. Afterwards, Elena will gather environmental photographs and other creative media from students across the University of California system to create a zine that encapsulates Generation Z’s fight for the right to a habitable planet. Elena hopes to complete her project with a published visual magazine distributed to the student population across all nine California campuses.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow — Carson Mease — Appalachian State
Carson is a senior Sustainable Development major concentrating in Environmental Studies at Appalachian State University, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Boone, North Carolina. Carson will spend the summer working as a farm hand on App State’s Sustainable Development Teaching and Research Farm, where they continue to broaden their knowledge on sustainable agricultural production and the preservation, restoration, and symbiosis of the land. During their trip to Washington, D.C. in the spring of 2024 for the Rachel Carson Council’s Environmental Justice Advocacy Days on Capitol Hill, Carson felt a strong desire to expand their efforts through the sharing of the RCC’s mission to their community in Watauga County, North Carolina.
RCC Fellowship Project: Combining their interests in environmental justice and agroecology, Carson will work to limit transportation barriers among rural Watauga County communities as major contributors to the county’s heightened food insecurity rates. Carson will facilitate campus-wide efforts through the construction of a mobile food pantry. The pantry will provide predominantly low-income communities with boxes filled with a variety of sustainably sourced, nutritious foods packed by Boone’s Hunger and Health Coalition. Once constructed, Carson’s mobile food pantry will travel to serve rural, low-income communities facing large distances to grocery stores, few points of access to healthy foods, and inaccessibility to Boone’s centralized public transportation system.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow — Shreya Chaudhuri — UC Berkeley
Shreya Chaudhuri is a senior at UC Berkeley, majoring in Environmental Science and Geography and minoring in Global Poverty & Practice and Data Science. Her family is from India, so she grew up seeing inequity in environmental impacts which motivated her at an early age to become involved in environmental justice. Shreya is passionate about supporting Indigenous sovereignty across the world, studying the revival of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and building equitable climate solutions. She runs a 501c(3) non-profit called Project Planet that carries out decolonial environmental education. One of its main projects is a course at Berkeley called Decolonizing Environmentalism. She also works as a Climate Action Fellow at the Student Environmental Resource Center, where she creates projects on student engagement and equity within UC Climate Policy. On campus, she is also involved with the Students of Color Environmental Collective and a Conservation+Tech Fellowship. This summer, Shreya conducted her senior thesis on her family’s ancestral tea farm in India, studying the Indigenous ecological knowledge present there and modes of climate resilience. Her current work is at the intersection of scientific research, policy, education, and advocacy for climate solutions and uplifting Black and Brown communities globally.
RCC Fellowship Description: Shreya’s project will build on the work of Project Planet by creating a hub that is dedicated to exploring the intersection between decolonization and the environment. UC Berkeley’s student community has organized around similar topics, but a network to support student-led initiatives dedicated to anti-colonial environmental education and advocacy would allow for greater solidarity and interdisciplinary action. Drawing on the principles of the Third World College, she hopes the project will actively advocate for a decolonial future and build new climate solutions, where Indigenous knowledge, environmental justice, and the experiences of BIPOC communities are centered and legitimized at Berkeley and beyond.
RCC National Environment Fellow — Keira Nakamura – Stanford University
Keira Nakamura is a junior at Stanford University. She is a Biology major and works in the Lab of Organismal Biology, studying the behavioral and neural functions of poison frogs. At Stanford, she is a core member of Fossil Free Stanford, a student-led organization trying to convince Stanford to divest its fossil fuel holdings. She is also a Zero Waste Intern with Stanford’s Office of Sustainability, where she works to accomplish Stanford’s goal of Zero Waste by 2030. In her free time, Keira enjoys crocheting, reading, gardening, and spending time outdoors with her tortoise, Thunder.
RCC Fellowship Project: Keira’s work will focus on divesting from fossil fuel companies at the university level, particularly at Stanford. She also will include dissociation from fossil fuel funding. Ironically, Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability has accepted money from fossil fuel companies, despite their responsibility for major carbon emissions and pollution. The bias that university research may have due to fossil fuel funding is highly unethical—such funding may even influence important research about climate change or climate resilience strategies. Ultimately, Keira hopes to mitigate climate disasters and increase equitable policy through her work for the divestment and dissociation of fossil fuel funding.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow – Shovik Saha – Florida State University
Shovik was born and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida, and is a third-year student at Florida State University. He is majoring in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences with concentrations in Public Administration and Geography. Driven by his desire to foster tangible change, Shovik aspires to attend law school after graduation to become an environmental attorney. With a passion for environmental justice and conservation, Shovik is dedicated to addressing environmental issues through policy and advocacy.
RCC Fellowship Project Description: Shovik’s project aims to catalyze fossil fuel divestment at Florida State University and reinvest in renewable energy initiatives, while addressing environmental justice and sustainability. Building on the efforts of the previous DivestFSU campaign and inspired by the University of Florida’s Green New Deal, this initiative will lead to collaboration with campus environmental groups to launch a coordinated, multi-faceted effort for fossil fuel divestment.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow – Chiara Grimes – George Mason University
Chiara Grimes is a graduate of Georgetown University earning her Master of Public Administration at George Mason University with a concentration in Environmental Science and Public Policy and has served as an intern for the Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA) Global Programs. Chiara believes we must cultivate and reimagine a culture that respects and finds immense value in our environment simply because it exists; not because of any resource or economic goods it can provide. She has a deep interest in eco-feminist studies and research focusing on Black womanhood, Indigenous autonomy, and their connection to violent colonialist efforts to control land and the environment. Chiara believes a path to gender-equity and justice lies in creating a culture that actively seeks to live in peace with our environment and nurture (not profit from) its life-sustaining qualities. In the future, Chiara wants to continue her work researching how to improve our culture’s relationship with our Earth and its correlation to the creation of progressive, feminist environmentalist policy.
RCC Fellowship Project: Biodiversity in urban environments, especially in Washington, D.C., is under threat due to rapid urbanization, habitat destruction, and pollution. The loss of biodiversity not only disrupts ecosystem functioning but also contributes to environmental degradation and harms human health. To ensure a sustainable and resilient urban ecosystem for current and future generations, Chiara is leading a project to create and advocate for the implementation of vegetal canopies, green street lamps, and pollinator gardens across Washington, D.C. She aims to create green spaces within the urban landscape, providing habitats for wildlife, improving air quality, and enhancing the overall ecological value of the city. By promoting the transformative power of urban biodiversity conservation and pollution reduction, her project will demonstrate a commitment to sustainable communities and to understanding that people and nature are fundamentally interconnected.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow – Cassie Varrige – University of Illinois Chicago
Cassie is a second-year graduate student in the University of Illinois Chicago’s Master of Urban Planning and Policy Program, concentrating in environmental planning and spatial planning. She is a proud Midwesterner and passionate about planning cities that support the well-being of people and the planet. Cassie is a teaching assistant with UIC’s Urban Data Visualization Lab, supporting undergraduate and graduate-level courses in GIS and spatial analysis. She is also a research assistant with the Institute of Environmental Science and Policy, supporting a technical assistance project to reduce PFAS contamination in food contact materials at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) and BIPOC-owned businesses. Outside of school, Cassie volunteers with tree equity nonprofits and enjoys spending time in Chicago’s many natural spaces.
RCC Fellowship Project: Cassie plans to expand UIC’s GIS curriculum through the creation of climate action mapping workshops. These standalone workshops will build climate literacy for students at UIC, provide extracurricular opportunities to build spatial analysis and mapping skills, and foster connections between GIS students and environmental justice nonprofits in the Chicago region and beyond. The project is intended to support a new model for community-engaged GIS learning that can be sustained for many years at the Urban Data Visualization Lab.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow — Ana Young – Duke University
Ana is a senior at Duke University studying Public Policy with a focus on clean energy and environmental justice, a minor in Journalism and Media, and a certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, concentrating on clean and climate tech. Born and raised in Chicago, which has faced its fair share of environmental superstorms, Ana has long understood the importance of adapting our world for climate resilience while supporting and uplifting the voices and opportunities of those who are disproportionately affected by environmental problems. Ana is, passionate about climate resilience and mitigation, and, as a 2023 RCC Stanback Fellow, co-authored the RCC report, Tides Up, about coastal resilience for sea-level rise and a second, Greenwashing, about misleading public relations and lobbying in the biomass industry. In 2024, she has been a Stanback Policy Fellow at Earthjustice advocating for the passing of landmark environmental legislation in New York State and researching the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining. In her senior year at Duke, Ana is joining a research team focusing on the design and innovation of a clean energy prototype.
RCC Project: With a journalism and media background, especially in feature and news writing, Ana plans to connect her writing with her environmental background to create an e-magazine that chronicles Durhamites’ and nearby North Carolinians’ relationship to food and ignite meaningful conversations about the intersection of food, culture, and environmental sustainability. The magazine will include long-form feature articles, short features, interview-style stories, and 35mm photo spreads encompassing the effects of food insecurity, inequality, and waste on people who live in the state. The content aims to amplify the voices of those who have confronted these challenges through sharing recipes, storytelling, or engaging in activism and advocacy for food justice. The magazine’s content will also be extended through a website with blog posts about advocacy and organizing for food justice. Additionally, Ana plans to create partnerships for joint content creation with local organizations such as aquaponic farms or food equity groups extending RCC’s network and goals of fighting for sustainable agriculture and against climate change.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow — Madison Maxwell – North Carolina A&T State University
Madison Maxwell is a senior at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, where she studies Biological Engineering with a concentration in natural resources. Born and raised in Greensboro, NC—a major city significantly impacted by food insecurity—Madison has developed a deep passion for environmental justice and food policy. At North Carolina A&T, Madison has initiated numerous community projects including Green Week within the Earth and Environmental Science Club (EESC), an initiative dedicated to educating her peers and community members on the importance of adopting sustainable habits and fostering environmental change through informative and engaging programs. Madison’s commitment to environmental justice began with her volunteering at Peaceful Seeds Farm of Warnersville. There, she assists in growing fresh produce for local families, works on regenerative land projects such as constructing compost systems, and helps the farm transition towards a permaculture-based system. After completing her undergraduate degree, Madison plans to become a Public Policy Advocate in Environmental Justice, supporting black and brown communities in the Southern United States and, eventually, the global South.
Project Description: Madison is developing a sustainability plan called GO F.R.E.S.H (Fostering Resources for Environmental Sustainability and Health) for the East Greensboro neighborhood of Warnersville, a historically black community facing environmental injustices, including food insecurity and health disparities. Her plan includes establishing a Warnersville community advisory board consisting of students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Bennett College, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. These students will collaborate with Warnersville residents and community leaders to address and mitigate food insecurity and environmental injustices in the community. As part of their efforts, the advisory committee will interview local government officials, food pantry leaders, and nonprofit organizations to identify ways to improve public and private food programs at the county level.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow — Bear Vogt – Miami University
Bear Vogt attends Miami University in the Western Program majoring in Creative Writing and Individualized Studies with a focus on Found Object Art, with an Art Therapy co-major. Bear specializes in transforming trash, waste, secondhand objects, and discarded material into works of art in an effort to destabilize both categories: “waste” and “art.” Driving this creative process is the belief that “trash” and “waste” are words used when an individual or society cannot or refuses to imagine any potential for a given person, place, thing, or action. Bear started creating found object art after his great uncle died, preserving his memory by transforming his possessions into works of art. At Miami, seeing trash littering the campus that Robert Frost once called the “most beautiful campus that ever there was” inspired Bear to create a six foot tall sculpture made almost entirely of litter. Bear has also worked with internationally acclaimed artist Ron Fondaw to build a sculpture out of adobe clay at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and has participated in the Altman Program on Environmental Justice through community advocacy in neighborhoods adjacent to the Chem-Dyne Superfund site in Hamilton, Ohio.
RCC Fellowship Project: Bear’s project for the Rachel Carson Council is a series of found object artworks created from secondhand materials and trash. In addition, Bear will continue their work in Hamilton, Ohio focused on community engagement related to eco-gentrification in the area surrounding the Chem-Dyne Superfund Site, advocating for families who have experienced the brunt of environmental injustice. Disentangling these separate but connected projects seems futile because art is never solely art and advocacy is never solely advocacy. Bear believes an interdisciplinary approach is key to solving environmental justice issues since they transcend categories, borders, and boundaries.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow — Anna Hyslop – University of Oklahoma
Anna is a junior at the University of Oklahoma studying Economics and Global Energy, Environment, and Resources, with a minor in the Arabic language. During her freshman year, she founded Students for Local Action (SLA), the university’s first organization dedicated to providing students with real-world experience in sustainable policy creation. In the summer of 2024, she interned in the Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions. When not thinking or talking about energy justice, Anna can be found training for her next endurance event, giving unwanted stand-up comedy performances for her friends, or watching the latest free movie on YouTube.
RCC Fellowship Project Description: Anna will spend her time as an RCC Fellow revising SLA’s local climate action plan, originally released in August 2023. She will be updating the climate-related recommendations within the plan, which will now provide broader sustainability objectives based on additional stakeholder insight. Additionally, Anna will develop a Student Sustainability Plan for OU alongside her fellow SLA members. The plan will parallel the citywide sustainability plan in its focus on environmental justice.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow — Dae Borg – Appalachian State
Dae Borg is a sophomore at Appalachian State University studying Sustainable Development with a concentration in Community, Regional, and Global Development with a minor in Journalism. Dae was the founder and President of the Enloe Marine Conservation Club which has hosted stream cleanups in Raleigh, NC. She is an active member of several other environmental organizations in the city and volunteers with Raleigh Parks for invasive species removal and stream cleanups.
RCC Fellowship Project: Working with residents, Dae will develop a food forest in the known food desert of Southeast Raleigh, a predominately low-income Black community. This environmental justice initiative will engage community members in sustainable food production and sustainable development..
RCC National Environment Leadership Presidential Fellow – Molly Herring – University of Santa Cruz
RCC Presidential Fellow Molly Herring is pursuing a Masters in Science Communications from UC Santa Cruz. She graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill with a double major in Biology and Global Studies and a minor in Creative Nonfiction. Molly was born in the North Carolina Appalachian Mountains and raised between Richmond and the beaches of Sandbridge, Virginia, but has journaled from the kitchen tables and living room floors of host families all over the world. She has been published in Oceanographic Magazine, Coastal Review, The Marine Diaries, and Cellar Door.
RCC Fellowship Project: As an RCC Presidential Fellow, Molly will be writing regularly for RCC publications, especially creative non-fiction and nature writing inspired by Rachel Carson
RCC National Environment Leadership Presidential Fellow – Sophie Valkenberg
Sophie Valkenberg is a Master of Environmental Management student at Duke University, concentrating in Community Engagement & Environmental Justice and Ecotoxicology & Environmental Health. A graduate of Loyola College Maryland, she was born in the Netherlands but quickly moved to and grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. Coming from a country with a very robust eco-friendly infrastructure initially sparked her interest in environmental studies and sustainable living. She hopes to work in a field that enables her to promote justice and inclusion in environmental work, particularly within communities disproportionately impacted by pollution and suffering negative health effects. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, and improving her (very minimal) sewing skills.
RCC Fellowship Project: As an RCC Presidential Fellow, Sophie will work as part of the RCC environmental health team with a focus on the hazards of pesticides and toxins in Maryland, as well as writing on related RCC issues.
RCC National Environment Leadership Presidential Fellow – Jack Sanitate – Duke University
Jack Sanitate is a senior at Duke University double majoring in Public Policy and Theater Studies, with a minor in Environmental Sciences & Policy. Growing up in Michigan around the Great Lakes, he has always been passionate about environmental justice, especially regarding plastic pollution in our oceans and freshwater. He worked at the Duke University Marine Lab researching the effects of light pollution and climate change on sea turtle nesting habits, as well as advocating for living shorelines for North Carolina coastal properties. At Duke, he is the Fundraising Chair for Alpha Phi Omega, and aims to incorporate environmental consciousness through volunteer work and service. In his spare time, he loves to perform theater and serves as the Publicity Chair of Duke’s musical theater organization, Hoof ‘N’ Horn.
RCC Fellowship Project: As an RCC Presidential Fellow, Jack serves as the co-lead of the RCC Coasts and Ocean program and editor of the RCC Coasts and Ocean Observer.
RCC National Environment Leadership Presidential Fellow – Zoe Kolenovsky – Duke University
Zoe Kolenovsky was a 2024 Stanback Fellow at the RCC and is a junior at Duke University studying Public Policy, Environmental Science and Policy, and Journalism and Media Studies. Originally from New Orleans, she experienced the effects of the climate crisis firsthand throughout her childhood and has been engaged in climate justice work since Hurricane Ida hit her hometown in 2021. Zoe is particularly interested in the role communications media can play in improving climate literacy and uplifting the voices of frontline communities to find policy solutions to environmental problems. She serves as the news editor of The Chronicle, Duke’s student newspaper, and is also an executive producer of Operation Climate, a student-produced environmental podcast. She was secretary of the Duke chapter of Amnesty International and project lead for a partnership between the Penny Pilgram George Women’s Leadership Initiative and Keep Durham Beautiful, where she worked to produce a sustainability guide for the City of Durham. Zoe received the 2023 Chester P. Middlesworth award for her research paper using archival sources to examine the centuries of race- and class-based discrimination leading up to today’s Cancer Alley in Louisiana.
RCC Fellowship Project: As an RCC Presidential Fellow, Zoe will be an editor for RCC publications.
RCC National Environment Leadership Presidential Fellow – Jackson Ronald – Duke University
Jackson Ronald is a Master of Environmental Management student at Duke University studying Environmental Economics & Policy and Energy in the Environment. He was a 2024 Stanback Fellow at the RCC. Before coming to Duke, Jackson double majored in applied environmental studies and German language & culture studies at Tufts University. Deeply curious and interested in the environment, he is passionate about the intersection of environmental law, indigenous justice and the energy transition. From California, Jackson has seen first-hand the stress that droughts, fires and sea level rise can put on local communities. An active member of Duke Restore’s Eco-cultural team, he helped organize events between Duke and the local Coharie Tribe in North Carolina. His interests include cooking, reading, volleyball and spending time outdoors.
RCC Fellowship Project: As an RCC Presidential Fellow, Jackson serves as part of the research and policy team for the RCC’s national campaign to end deforestation and the production of industrial-scale wood pellets (woody biomass) with special attention to the expansion into California of Drax Global, UK, a major producer of wood pellets.
RCC National Environment Leadership Presidential Fellow – Clarissa Casper – Utah State University
Clarissa Casper is studying English Creative Writing as a master’s student at Utah State University. She was born and raised between the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake in Northern Utah. While living there, she grew to love the stories nature told by observing the flowers, mountain goats, and waterfalls decorating the green slopes near her home. Clarissa has loved birds all her life and enjoys writing about ecosystems through their lens. She is a recent graduate of Utah State with a degree in Journalism and minors in Environmental Studies and English. As an undergraduate, she worked as a reporter for her local newspaper and was published in Salt Lake Magazine.
RCC Fellowship Project: As an RCC Presidential Fellow, Clarissa will be writing regularly for RCC publications, especially creative non-fiction and nature writing inspired by Rachel Carson with attention to destruction of the Great Salt Lake.
RCC National Environment Leadership Presidential Fellow – Sabrina Kianni – Duke University
RCC Presidential Fellow Sabrina Kianni is a senior at Duke University studying Psychology on the pre-health track. Born in Washington D.C. and raised in nearby McLean, VA, Sabrina’s passion for environmental health and advocacy sprouted during a middle school trip to Iran, where she noticed the disproportionate effects of climate change. Sabrina has attended climate conferences in Paris, Washington D.C., and Milan, where she spoke one-on-one with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
RCC Fellowship Project: As an RCC Presidential Fellow, Sabrina will be writing regularly for RCC publications, focusing on environmental health and justice issues, and expanding on her passion for environmental advocacy.
