Nicholas Adams (SPH)
Advisor: Dr. Amir Sapkota
Nick is a first year doctoral student at the Maryland Institute of Applied Environmental Health. He earned a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in environmental health science and completed a certificate program in risk science and public policy. Nick is interested in understanding the impact of exposure to extreme weather events on the spread of diarrheal disease. His current project, with Dr. Amir Sapkota, aims to develop early warning systems throughout multiple countries in Asia to help minimize the burden of infectious disease associated with climate change.

Jan-Michael Archer (SPH)
Advisor: Dr. Sacoby Wilson
Jan-Michael is a second-year PhD student in the Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health (CEEJH) laboratory at the University of Maryland School of Public Health’s Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health (SPH). He received his master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Ecology from the University of Florida where he studied human-wildlife conflicts and urban planning/green design. Jan-Michael has worked in public and non-profit sectors as an environmental educator and community outreach specialist; first for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and later for Living Classrooms Foundation. Collaborating with CEEJH Lab Director Dr. Sacoby Wilson, Jan-Michael currently studies the role of urban green space in improving climate change resilience and mitigating health disparities related to air pollution in communities of color.

Kristen Croft (ENG)
Advisors: Dr. Birthe Kjellerup and Dr. Allen Davis
Kristen is a second-year Ph.D. student in the department of civil and environmental engineering at UMD. She is working on improving water quality, specifically by targeting polychlorinated biphenyls and heavy metals in stormwater. The goal of this work is to protect aquatic ecosystems that receive these pollutant loads, and protect the people that rely on this as a major food source. Kristen hopes to gain knowledge about the FEW nexus in order to apply new perspectives on her research.

Danielle Delp (AGNR)
Advisor: Dr. Stephanie Lansing 
Danielle is a doctoral student researching anaerobic digestion of algae in the department of environmental science and technology department. Her interests lie in the application of algal biotechnology for use in bioremediation and bioenergy production. She currently works with algal turf scrubber systems to grow algae on water drawn from tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay to produce a feedstock for methane production via anaerobic digestion. This combined technology presents a potential method for carbon-neutral bioenergy production while providing continuous remediation to impacted waterways.

Nora Hamovit (BEES)
Advisor: Dr. Stephanie Yarwood
Nora is a second year PhD student in the Department of Biological Sciences and is in the Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics (BEES) program.  Her research focuses on wetland microbial ecology and understanding the role the environment plays in shaping microbial community structure and function, especially in impacted and restored wetlands. She primarily studies methane biogeochemistry and nitrogen cycling and is interested in thinking about how these important wetland functions scale across landscapes.

Guangxiao Hu (BSOS)
Advisor: Dr. Laixiang Sun
Guangxiao is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Geographical Sciences of UMD’s College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. She received her master’s degree in Environmental Sciences from Peking University, China. She is a 2020 NSF UMD Global Stewards Fellow and her research interests focus on estimation of greenhouse gas emissions and their influencing factors, carbon emissions embodied in trade using input-output analysis, the pollution haven hypothesis, and pollution terms of trade.

Jennifer Kennedy (BSOS)
Advisors: Dr. George Hurtt and Dr. Xin-Zhong Liang
Jennifer is a third year PhD student in the Department of Geographical Sciences, working jointly in the Global Ecology Lab and the Earth System Science Disciplinary Center. She studied English Literature at the University of Chicago and worked as a K-12 teacher before transitioning to geographical sciences. Her current work focuses on understanding the interactions between agricultural land use and climate anomalies such as drought and extreme rainfall, as well as on developing climate-model based tools and metrics for agricultural decision support in a changing climate.

Bridget Kerner (ARCH)
Advisor: Dr. Marccus Hendricks
Bridget is a Ph.D. student in the Urban and Regional Planning and Design program in the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Bridget’s research interests are in environmental planning and equity, and she is completing her dissertation on the intersection of flooding, aging urban infrastructure, and human/ecosystem health outcomes in Baltimore, MD. Previously she received a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and a Master of Science in Sociology. 

Michele Morgado (SPH)
Advisor: Dr. Amy Sapkota
Michele is a doctoral student at the Maryland Institute of Applied Environmental Health (MIAEH) advised by Dr. Amy Sapkota. She received her BS (Marine Biology and Fisheries) in Portugal and earned an MS in Oceanography/Coastal Zone Management from Nova Southeastern University. Before beginning her PhD program, she worked as an oceanographic technician and adjunct faculty at the U.S. Naval Academy and taught Oceanography at Anne Arundel Community College. She is currently working on a project analyzing the risk of salmonellosis infection with extreme weather events across the United States, and she is also interested in understanding how to better protect public health from the increased risk of Vibrio spp. infections with climate change.

Sai Thejaswini Pamuru (ENG)
Advisors: Dr. Allen P. Davis and Dr. Ahmet H. Aydilek 
Sai is a second-year doctoral candidate in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department, with a research focus on Soil erosion management. Her work tests compost-amended topsoils (CAT) as a green alternative to reduce erosion and minimize environmental impacts through vegetative establishment and growth for highway construction projects. The overall goal of this project is to derive science-based information on environmental and geotechnical properties for CAT blends, and provide recommendation for use of CATs in highway embankment stabilization, without leading to excess environmental or management impacts. The major drive and motivation of her research is to develop novel treatment methods/applications that are long-term sustainable.

Ellen Platts (BSOS)
Advisor: Dr. Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels
Ellen is a third-year PhD student in the Anthropology department at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests include how cultural heritage can be used for solutions to global challenges and for working towards sustainable development, including responses to climate change and efforts to increase food security. She specifically researches the use of food and desert farming heritage in sustainable development efforts in the city of Tucson, Arizona, and surrounding area.