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Global Change Fellows Summer News Roundup

August 2, 2019

Classes may have been dismissed for summer break, but our Global Change Fellows have still been hard at work! Whether they are analyzing data in the lab, presenting findings throughout their community, or being recognized for their outstanding work, these students have continued to advance their scientific and professional goals. A new cohort of Fellows will be joining our team this August, but before introducing them, we would like to recognize the recent achievements of some past and present students.

Gabrielle Corradino Headshot
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2018-2019 Fellow, Gabrielle Corradino was announced as a finalist for the 2020 Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship. This one-year fellowship program provides valuable educational and professional experience to graduate students with an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources. This is an outstanding opportunity for Gabrielle who is pursuing her doctorate in biological oceanography at NC State University. Her work focuses on nanoplankton, and she studied the characteristics of a previously unknown nanoplankton species that she isolated from the waters of North Carolina.
Danielle Lawson speaking at the Women in Environment conference.
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2018-2019 Fellow, Danielle Lawson has spent time after graduation inspiring the next generation. She spoke at the inaugural NCSU College of Natural Resources’ Women in the Environment conference, introducing female high school students to potential careers in natural resources. Danielle recently earned her PhD from NC State in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management and will begin a postdoc position at NC State.

2012-2013 Fellow, Adrienne Wooten, presented a NCASC ‘Science You Can Use’ webinar about how climate projections can affect our understanding of future precipitation, and why all this is important for impact assessments and climate adaptation planning. Stay tuned for a recording of the webinar which will be provided here soon.
2018-2019 Fellow, Emilee Briggs, presented a Lunchtime Discovery series talk about the effects of urbanization on populations of freshwater fish in North Carolina. This series is a partnership between the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs and the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. Check out Emily’s presentation here.
Spring 2018 Fellow, Emily Reed, presented her research at the Evolution 2019 conference in Providence, Rhode Island. Emily investigated the distribution of the highly invasive Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, which was found in Wake County, North Carolina.
2018-2019 Fellow, Deja Perkins, travelled to Paris, France for “The Nature of Cities”conference. There Deja had the opportunity to interact with politicians, scientists, landscape architects and designers from all over the world to talk about how they envision the future of nature in cities, how we can build more sustainable cities, and how to make green living affordable for all. She was able to compare urban conservation work in the United States to various other countries and exchange ideas on how to build a better future.
2016-2017 Fellow, Elsita Kiekebusch, gave a presentation about measuring the population responses to temperature across the annual life cycle of the butterfly at the 2019 International Congress for Conservation Biology conference.
2013-2014 Fellow, Michael Just recently received a USDA NIFA Postdoctoral Fellowship. His research will analyze urban areas to identify forest insect herbivore ‘sleeper’ species and their future distributions.
2015-2016 Fellow, Geneva Gray received a position as an ORISE Student Fellow for the Environmental Protection Agency. Geneva models city design storms with modified climate change conditions specifically looking at how the high-impact precipitation events happening now are changing under future climate conditions. The results are being used by city planners and hydrologists to enhance the climate resilience of their built environment.
2015-2016 Fellow, Laura Villegas Ortiz has a new position with the New Climate Economy where she conducts empirical research to help build evidence to back the economic case for climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, particularly in developing countries.
Congratulations to current and former Global Change Fellows who were invited to present at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America: 

  • 2018-2019 Fellow, Tina Mozelewski | “Conservation planning under uncertainty: A landscape modeling framework for restoration and connectivity”
  • 2015-2016 Fellow, Erica Henry | “Species resilience to catastrophic hurricanes requires human-maintained refugia”
  • 2015-2016 Fellow, Kristi Backe | “Insects in temperate urban forests: Comparing distributions over space and time”

Recent Publications from Global Change Fellows:

Interested in staying up to date with our former fellows as they advance their career paths? The “Where are they now?” section of Global Change Fellows profiles are updated as positions are announced.