ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
FROM THE PROGRAM
Bill Hamilton
At the time of this writing, I am just passed the halfway point in my one-year term as acting head of the environmental studies program and have been leaning heavily on Debra. In no way shape or form am I filling the shoes of Robert, my intent is to simply keep the program on the solid course Robert has established. It has been very satisfying working with the new faculty members in the program, Drs. Mauricio Betancourt, Ryan McCoy and Catarina Passidomo. They bring a suite of teaching and scholarly knowledge to ENV that positions the program for continued success and to grow. With them in place the program is and will continue to provide incredible educational and experiential opportunities for our students.
When I joined the Biology Department in 2001 environmental studies was in its infancy and under the leadership of Jim Kahn it went from a certificate to a major. Through funding from the Mellon foundation, we were fortunate enough to “poach” Robert from VMI. Robert’s contributions prior to becoming director of the program and since have been transformational and will continue next year. But it was time for a sabbatical for Robert and I was more than willing to take the acting program head position on so that he could do so. As a core faculty member since the creation of the major I have made contributions primarily through teaching ENV cognate courses but now after just half of my term, in working with the always awesome Debra, our incredible majors and our great faculty in the program I am reinvigorated to continue and increase my service to environmental studies.
Virginia Farming & Agroecology Speakers
During the month of march, 2024 the Environmental Studies program partnered with several university organizations to host speakers who work in a variety of disciplines that focus on Virginia farming and agroecology. We joined with the Native American & Indigenous Cohort to bring to campus Amyrose Foll, Executive Director of Virginia Free Farm, and Desiree Shelley Flores, graduate student with the Department of Agricultural Leadership and Community Education at Virginia Tech. They presented and then lead a discussion about small – and large-scale daily efforts of Indigenous revitalization in food systems and the importance
of traditional ecological knowledge in agriculture.
We also partnered with The DeLaney Center for a screening of the “Farming” episode of the PBS documentary series “Life in the Heartland”. We viewed the documentary and then engaged in a discussion with the film’s Producer, Clay Bretz and Videographer, Zan Gillies. The film examines the decline in the number of Americans living on farms, with the number of black farmers plummeting. The film uncovers the challenges facing black and white multigenerational farmers and shows how some farmers are building a more reliable bottom line through regenerative agriculture and rotational grazing. ■
End of Year Celebration
our senior awards are given out at our annual end-of-Year celebration. we typically hold this party at the Pavilion near the Law School. It is not just a party for our seniors, however. It is a great time for all of our students, faculty, and staff to come together and talk about the year we have had and to learn about what journeys await our seniors as well as the summer journeys awaiting our returning students. We also give small gifts to the seniors to commemorate the completion of their time with the Environmental Studies Program. This year we gave the students Zero Waste Totes made from recycled t-shirts as well as a copy of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.
Career Panel
The 6th annual geoscience and Environmental Career Panel took place during winter term of 2024. Our alumni panel included: Katherine Ingram ’20 — Senior Impact Associate, Y Analytics/TPG
Tal Jacobs ’12 — Conservation Forester, The Nature Conservancy
Javier Peralta ’21 — Geophysicist and Hydrogeologist, Ramboll
Liz Todd ’19 — Product Manager, National Geographic Society
Following the panel discussion, students were invited to a reception where they could talk with our guest alumni and ask questions about their career paths. This year’s event may have been our highest turn-out ever, showing our students’ desire to learn as much as they can about the variety of career paths that might be available to them. We thank all of our alumni panelists for taking the time out of their busy schedules to share their journeys with our students. If you are interested in sharing your environmental career journey with our students, please send an email to Debra at freind@wlu.edu.
Prof. Michael Hill, Clay Bretz, and Zan Gillies discuss “Life in the Heartland”
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Catarina Passidomo
ASSOCIATE
PROFESSOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
What classes are you teaching?
ENV 110; the capstone seminar; Food, Place, and Power; Indigenous Ethnogeography and Foodways (Spring)
Can you tell us about the research / scholarship projects you are working on right now (or projects recently completed)?
I’m working on a book project called “Gastroimaginaries: Dreams of Food and Place in Peru and the American South.” It traces the dominant narratives connecting food and place in both regions, focusing on mythologies of hospitality, nostalgia, multiculturalism, and sustainability.
Studying the environment can sometimes be disheartening. What is something you have seen or read recently that makes you excited about the environment?
Yes, it can! But it’s more disheartening, I think, to ignore reality or to surrender to despair. I have been reading Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s book What if We Get it Right: Visions of Climate Futures. It’s
“Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act.”
REBECCA SOLNIT
a collection of interviews with the sort of people we should all be looking to in this moment (and should have been listening to for the past several decades). I wouldn’t say this book makes me excited, exactly, but it fills me with love and appreciation for the transformative and visionary scientists and thinkers and creative people who have the capacity to “joyously imagine life on the other side” of existential crisis.
In disheartening times, I also often turn to the writing of Rebecca Solnit, who has some radical ideas about hope that I find useful. (Can I include a long quote here?):
“Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognize uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able to influence the outcomes—you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both opti-
mists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists take the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand” (Hope in the Dark 2016, xiv).
If you could be anyplace in the world right now – real or fictional –where would you go and why?
Well, the theme of my responses here is imagination, so I’m going to take the liberty of bending both time and space with this hypothetical. I’d like to be in the town of Gravina in southern Italy where my grandfather was born a hundred years ago. I’d like to be there with my kids, sisters, parents, grandparents, as many generations as we might imagine stretching backwards and forwards in that place, all gathered along an infinitely long table in an olive grove, eating figs and drinking wine and singing and laughing. That sounds pretty great. ■
Environmental Studies faculty in the Tucker Hall basement-home to Environmental Studies
2024 SENIOR CAPSTONES
The senior capstone in environmental Studies is a central part of our curriculum, where students design their own culminating experience to integrate and apply what they learned in their studies at Washington and Lee. The Senior Capstone Poster Session gives students the opportunity to discuss their projects with faculty, staff, and students from around the University. It is always an exciting time and pictures are provided here. As the interests of our students continues to diversify, so does the range of topics they tackle in their capstone projects. Below is the list of capstone titles produced by the class of 2024:
Hope Baumeyer and Ally Hoffmann — The W&L University Store and Sustainability
Virginia Bernot and Sara Kate Durkee — The Future of Ginseng through the Lens of Business Analysis, Conservation, and Ecology
Josh Fingerhut — Microstegium vimineum on the W&L Back Campus Disc Golf Course: A Community— Oriented Management Plan
Sarah Footer — Perspectives on Climate Change in French Polynesia
and What They Can Teach Us About Effective and Considerate Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies
Tim Keefe and Jackson Hotchkiss — Farm Distribution From Producers to Consumers: Investigating Supply Chains, Barriers, and Opportunities
Ian Kinney — Urban Pedestrianization: A Review of the Origins and Promise of Moving Beyond Car—Centric Cities
Izzy Koziol — Business Action as the Pathway to a Sustainable Future: W&L and the Green Energy Transition
Jordan Lambe — Virginia Wildlife Crossings’ Effectiveness in Mitigating Habitat Fragmentation Caused by Roads
Elise Molinaro — The Buena Vista Community Garden: A Site for Investment in Community, Education, and a Local Food System
Giang Nguyen — Impact of Sustainability News on Stock Prices — A Case Study in Fashion Companies
Clara Ortwein — Native Plants, Public Education, and W&L: Using Campus Examples to Encourage a Shift in Landscaping Trends
Abby Portwood — Lake Robertson, Virginia: Trail Assessment and Recommendations for Management
Cameron Reed and Nathan Unger — Isolating the “E” in ESG: An Investigation into the ESG Space
Sophia Rollo — Energy Consumption Analysis and Recommendations for W&L’s Natatorium
Adam Roy — Sustainable Affordable Housing: How Copenhagen’s Initiatives Can Inform Boston’s Policies
Jules Seay — Empowering Local Sustainability through COREWorks Carbon Markets and Boxerwood’s Forestry Education
Allyssa Utecht — Data—Driven Sustainability: Harnessing the Power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Climate Change Mitigation
Chase Verdery — Teeing Off Towards Sustainability: Assessing and Promoting Golf Courses’ Environmental Practices
Sarah Zungailia — Effective Intervention Methods to Increase Environmental Awareness in Skincare Products
Seniors gather for a photo just prior to the start of the Capstone Poster Session.
Capstone Turn-in
A new tradition has quickly taken hold in the Environmental Studies Program. In 2023 we held our first Senior Capstone Paper Turn-In party. It was such a huge success that we did it again in 2024. And with how much the students and faculty have enjoyed this, it is now officially a “tradition” that we hope to continue every year.
Typically these days, papers are turned in on-line. However, there is little excitement involved when you hit “send” on your keyboard to submit your work. In 2023 Professor Humston decided that given the amount of work our seniors put into their Capstone papers, something more significant should happen.
In 2023 and 2024 the Seniors have been directed to turn in hard copies of their capstone papers at Salerno’s. And then, once they turn the paper in, it is time for everyone to celebrate. Pizza, pasta, and beverages are provided and it gives the seniors a chance to reflect on their time at W&L and in the Environmental Studies program. It is a joyful and nostalgic evening filled with hope and excitement for their futures.
Please enjoy a few pictures from our 2024 Senior Capstone Turn-In party.
ALUMNI IN ACTION
Kaitlyn Fitzsimmons ’20
What is your current professional position?
Briefly describe your journey from W&L to your current position.
I’m a consultant at Tideline, a specialty impact investing advisory firm. After graduating from W&L, I worked in ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investing. This quickly evolved into an interest in impact investing, which takes “sustainable investing” a step further. While ESG focuses on mitigating risks, impact investing deploys capital toward solutions with positive, measurable outcomes—for example, financing the development of early-stage climate tech or developing new affordable housing units. In my current role, I project manage engagements for clients interested in integrating impact and sustainability considerations into their investment activities. I love the dynamic nature of this work. Impact investors have diverse strategies with varied investment themes, such as waste reduction and healthcare, and differing priorities, such as innovation, equity and access, and growth.
Who or what had the greatest influence on your getting to your current professional position?
My path was heavily influenced by my experience at W&L, where I majored in Environmental Studies and Business Administration. Exploring the intersection of these two disciplines, through courses like Environmental Economics and Sustainable Accounting, confirmed my belief that sustainability has become highly relevant from a business perspective.
On campus, I had unique opportunities to gain experience in sustainability-focused roles. I served as a student representative on the University Sustainability Committee, which oversees campus sustainability projects and reports to the University Treasurer and VP for Finance and Administration. For W&L’s 27th Mock Convention, I was fortunate to serve as the organization’s first Sustainability Chair. In this role, I oversaw efforts to integrate sustainability into Mock Con’s operations. This experience taught me how to advocate for sustainability across different organizational functions. We offset guest speaker travel, designed lower-impact memorabilia, and created digital signage and multimedia to educate convention-goers on the climate crisis. The Presidential gala, themed “Blue Meets Green,” highlighted sustainability as a core focus of the Democratic Party.
Today, nearly all large companies have ESG teams to manage environmental and social risks and capitalize on related opportunities. I hope more university organizations, particularly those with large physical footprints, will consider creating similar roles
to provide students with experience in developing and executing sustainability strategies.
Describe a project you are currently working on (either professionally or personally) and what you like most about it.
Last year, I contributed to a report exploring the relationship between impact investing and financial value. This research project was particularly important to me because while significant work has been done to justify the value of ESG investing (and its acceptance by most as a risk mitigator), there’s more limited research on the financial value of impact investing. While our paper doesn’t definitively prove a link, it aims to deepen the conversation and provide a common language for investors to leverage when speaking to their activities. You can see the report here: tideline.com/NewFrontiersinValueCreation.
What motivates you? (Please interpret this any way you want to! You could describe what motivates you at work, what motivates you in life, or anywhere in between.)
The desire for a healthy, happy environment. As a California native now living far from home in London, I’m heartbroken by the increasing climate-driven destruction in my home state. It’s clear evidence we need to act faster and on a larger scale to protect our communities, and vigorously defend the progress and protections we’ve achieved.
What was your favorite thing to do in Lexington when you were a student and what is your favorite thing to do now when you visit Lexington?
During my senior year, I visited a few farms in Rockbridge County as part of a course on soil health. This illuminated the abundance of local food in the community and inspired me to begin frequenting the Lexington Farmers Market on North Jefferson Street and the Cattleman’s Market. These interactions with community members helped me feel more connected to Lexington. I also loved how intergenerational the farmers market was as a student.
Complete this sentence: “If I could be anywhere in the world and doing anything I want right now, I would be…” In a sauna! I’ve become obsessed with saunas (and the occasional cold plunge). I love the regional rituals surrounding them, and of course, the health benefits. It’s especially lovely on a chilly, gray London afternoon. I’m hoping to do some sauna-centric travel soon, perhaps to Finland, where it’s a way of life for many, or so I’ve heard!
STUDENT AWARDS 2024
Alicia Nguyen ’24
Bates Prize for Academic Achievement in Environmental Studies
this award recognized not only Alicia’s outstanding record of success in her courses, but also her excellent work in the capstone course. Alicia’s capstone project (A depth-classified Machine Learning model to identify arsenic-safe groundwater resources and inform policy on groundwater extraction efforts in the transboundary Ganges River delta) was an outstanding culmination of her academic work in our program. The quality of the analysis was supported by her insightful interpretation of the results and produced a work of the highest quality.
Elise Molinaro ’24
Bates Prize for Academic Achievement in Environmental Studies
this award recognized Elise’s outstanding record of academic excellence throughout her time in Environmental Studies. Her consistent academic success was reflected in the outstanding work she completed in her capstone project and report (The Buena Vista Community Garden: A Site for Investment in Community, Education, and a Local Food System). The combination of academic research and community engagement in her project demonstrated her commitment to applying her experience to support environmental progress, and is beautifully communicated in the accompanying report.
Josh Fingerhut ’24
Bates Prize for Environmental Citizenship in Environmental Studies
this award recognized Josh’s example of engaged environmental citizenship captured in his capstone project. His work to engage the local disc golf community around the issue of Japanese stiltgrass control on back campus has led to increased awareness of its potential impacts and tangible energy within that community to contribute to its control. We particularly appreciate that this project was inspired by his previous experience working to eradicate invasive species in a shared greenspace in his home community. Josh’s efforts connected stakeholders on and off campus around this issue and have created a buzz in the disc golf community even beyond our local area. We feel confident that Josh has fostered an environment in which his proposed plan will indeed be enacted.
Giang Nguyen ’24
Bruce M. Flohr Sustainable Commerce Award
this award recognized Giang’s commitment and contributions to the field of sustainable commerce, particularly as demonstrated in her capstone project. In this work, Giang applied the ‘event study’ method in a novel context to assess patterns of stock price fluctuations in response to positive corporate sustainability news releases. Not only was this a new application of this method, but the methodology itself was completely new to her as well. Giang’s work highlights the importance of recognizing the role investors and consumers have in recognizing corporate commitments to advancing socially and environmentally responsible business practices.
Above: Giang Nguyen, Elise Molinaro, and Josh Fingerhut at the Student Awards. Not pictured: Alicia Nguyen
KNIGHT INTERNS 2024
As recently highlighted in W&L Magazine, Fall/Winter 2024 in Kelsey Goodwin’s article “Learning Environment,” the A. Paul Knight Internship Program in Conservation was made possible by a generous donation from Al Knight ’51L in 1988, in honor of his son, W&L student Paul Knight. The Program has continuously operated since 1988 and recently celebrated its 35th year of continuous service in the Henry’s Fork watershed in Eastern Idaho. Over 135 students have benefited from Knight Program internships, supporting a vast array of land and water conservation organizations.
Given the immense success of the Program and the interest of former interns in perpetuating, enhancing and amplifying the Program for future generations of W&L students, an effort is underway, lead by and seeded by former interns, to enhance the corpus of the A. Paul Knight Endowment.
Should you have any questions or interest in learning more, please contact Chris Brand ’89, ccbrand@gmail.com.
Lessons Learned: Insights from W&L’s Knight Interns
I aided in educating visitors about the natural and cultural heritage of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and completed tasks such as: flood irrigation, barbed wire and electric fence maintenance, cattle management and herding, construction and demolition, waste disposal, facilities maintenance, ecological restoration, and invasive species mapping and control. All relevant and interesting work toward my Environmental Economics degree at Washington and Lee.
CONNOR
SMITH ’26 — THE NATURE CONSERVANCY AT FLAT RANCH
My role allowed me to work on a research project that began last summer, concerning water temperatures along the Harriman Ranch. To decide which points along the Ranch would be good for water temperature sampling, anglers were surveyed, making it a community-based, grassroots sort of project. Each week, I ventured into Island Park to download temperature data that was collected by HOBO monitors every 15 minutes at 17 points along the ranch. This meant hiking, biking, kayaking, and wading to each point — a wonderful way to both get outside and do field work!
LILY GREENWALD ’25 — HENRY’S FORK FOUNDATION
My schedule this summer was flexible enough that I had plenty of time to go hiking, backpacking, fishing, to concerts, etc. with the other interns. This was my first experience going out west and I cannot express how moved I felt by its natural beauty. The Knight internship gave me the opportunity to meet so many people who care deeply about the environment, and seeing how they brought such different educational backgrounds to their conservation work was inspiring.
LOREN HERTZLER ’27 — FRIENDS OF HARRIMAN STATE PARK
Outside of work, there were many things to do and accomplish and we made the most of it. I spent several hours each week fishing the legendary waters and learned a lot about the sport. From bug identification to perfecting the double haul cast, there is no limit on what is possible to learn and improve upon. I was able to fish or float many rivers in several different states this summer such as the Snake, Madison, Flathead, Firehole, Yellowstone, Beaverhead, and countless small feeder creeks. I had the privilege of teaching people how to fly fish as well as learn from others about how to improve. I will never forget a lot of those experiences this summer out on the water and hope to return for a lifetime.
ROW STERNE ’25 — THE NATURE CONSERVANCY AT FLAT RANCH
Row Sterne, Loren Hertzler, Connor Smith, and Lily Greenwald
Step into the Field
SUMMER INTERNSHIPS AND RESEARCH
The summer of 2024 saw many of our students partaking in really interesting internships and research projects. Below are just a few:
Estelle Fisher ’25
This summer I had the opportunity to work in Dr. Alicia Reigel’s lab. I spearheaded a project analyzing the effects of stress on the microbiome and metabolome of Eastern oysters following exposure to mud crab predator cues. This was an incredible opportunity for me to build up my research skills and has solidified my decision to continue in this avenue of microbiome research in the context of conservation and ecosystem health.
Lauren Achter ’25
This summer I was a national lending rotational intern at Forbright Bank in Chevy Chase, MD. Forbright is a bank whose mission centers around sustainability. I learned the day-to-day of various roles, executed case studies, and assisted analysts. My internship ended with a 2-week capstone project in conjunction with the sustainability team providing recommendations to Forbright’s ESG due diligence process.
Julia McDonald ’26
I worked with Professor Humston this summer investigating the decline of trout populations in the Jackson River, about 45 minutes west of Lexington. My role was to examine whether high flows impact trout spawning success by destabilizing spawning gravel and altering habitat through sediment starvation. As a team, we mapped potential spawning sites, and I used scour chains to measure gravel bed fill and scour, quantifying changes during peak flow periods when significant bed-load transport and streambed reshaping occur. This research was an incredible experience that gave me firsthand exposure to fieldwork and data collection, deepening my understanding of conservation practices. (Julia subsequently won the Best Undergraduate Poster Award at the January 2025 Virginia Chapter American Fisheries Society Conference for her poster titled, “Understanding High Flow Impacts on Trout Spawning Habitat Using Scour Chains and Tributary Mapping”.)
Estelle Fisher picured on the right.
Lauren Achter picured on left.
Ava Grace Flory ’26
This summer I worked with Dr. Bill Hamilton continuing his research on how bison grazing affects the Yellowstone ecosystem. We spent time in the field in Yellowstone collecting soil data and also in the lab at W&L conducting experiments. I learned so much about the complex ecosystems in Yellowstone and developed confidence with biological research techniques in both the field and the lab.
Kiki Mittner ’25
This summer I started doing research for my senior capstone project: an ecological, economic, and policy analysis of cover crops in the northeast U.S. I spent a lot of time reading journals, papers, and articles on the topic. In order t hone in on the policy aspect, I traveled to D.C. to talk with federal policy makers in the House and Senate as well as to New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Maine to interview farmers and experts in the field. I also began the tedious task of assembling my data set using statistics from the USDA and cover crop information from the Operational Tillage Information System.
Daymon Lujan ’26
This summer I interned in the U.S. Senate for New Mexico Senator Ben Ray Luján. I helped communicate with constituents as well as assist his legislative team with important environmental legislation such as The Farm Bill. I learned a lot about politics and the inner workings of our federal government and I couldn’t be more grateful for the experience.
Emma Scott ’26
I interned at The Wonki Collective, a small supply chain sustainability startup, through the Williams School’s London Internship Program. The Wonki Collective works to redistribute surplus ingredients that manufacturers no longer need. Most often, the cheapest and easiest solution is to throw the ingredients away, but The Wonki Collective’s solution works to support a more circular supply chain. In my role, I attended conferences and speaker events, connected with clients, and learned about how to reduce food waste on an industrial scale.
Damon Lujan picured on left.
Tania Kozachanska ’26 had the opportunity to intern at two environmental organizations back home in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Summer Internships in Ukraine
BY TANIA KOZACHANSKA ’26
This summer, i had the opportunitY to intern at two environmental organizations back in my hometown, Kyiv, Ukraine, thanks to the support received from the Environmental Studies Program. From May 6 to August 31, I was a part of the Ukraine Nature Conservation Group and the Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group.
Ukraine Nature Conservation Group
My work at UNCG varied from field work to research. One of my favorite parts of work was the hands-on experience in Ukrainian forests. My colleagues monitored the governmental policies and laws on forest management and in case of any violations, would write complaints and reports that they would base on the field trips conducted by the team. Although there is limited access to the forests due to war, we would still go to the forests located in the safe regions of Ukraine and map the endangered species. These trips would not only be fun but extremely educational. Firstly, I would learn the native and endangered species of Ukraine. I’ve realized by studying abroad that I lack knowledge of the local plants, insects, and animals, and especially the endangered species, so having an opportunity to wander around Ukrainian forests with local zoologists and ecologists was precious. Secondly, I’ve learned basic skills like using QField app for mapping during field work.
Additionally, my research skills helped to introduce international conservation practices and policies (with a focus on the United States) to the organization. I prepared briefs on USDA program Grasslands CRP, Virginia Clean Economy Act, Land and Water Conservation Fund, Green New Deal VA and contextualized it for Ukraine. This work was especially meaningful to see how what I learn at W&L as an international student could help the organization back home to broaden their perspective and benefit from the new knowledge.
The final grasp of work I did at UNCG was analyzing forest fires that occurred because of the war using services like QGIS and EFFIS. QGIS was a completely new software for me—I learned the basic skills from scratch thanks to my supervisor. It was a mind-blowing experience to realize the scale of destruction and to track the frontline based on the satellite imagery. It sparked my interest to take a GIS class at W&L to deepen my knowledge and develop better skills in this program. I learned there is so much information you can get if you know how to analyze and interpret satellite imagery!
I was extremely happy to work with and learn from my supervisor, Petro, who patiently answered all my questions
and whose expertise in the conservation field in Ukraine still amazes me.
Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group
UWEC WG unites environmental experts from various countries (including Germany, the United States, Belarus, Ukraine), who research, analyze and publish reports on the available war damage data and its potential consequences on the environment. I was excited to join the team, even though it was mainly a learning opportunity rather than a chance to contribute.
Over the summer my main project at UWEC was to improve the existent database of all the resources the team bases their work on. For this, I utilized a lot of my skills gained in DCI-101 (Introduction to Digital Culture and Information) to improve the user experience and accessibility of the spreadsheet. I had to create a new excel sheet and review every existent resource in the previous database to check its relevance for 2024. A lot of information centers were launched in 2022 to cover the Russian war in Ukraine, but gradually their work loses its relevance because it stops getting updated. Through this, I had a great opportunity to learn about the existence of certain databases and research centers that work on war damage and environment in Ukraine, as well as explore the data available. It took long scrupulous work to complete the database, which consisted of more than a hundred sources.
The team has also shared the organization’s resources and Google drives with me, which allowed me to access an enormous amount of information that I can use for my further research on the environmental consequences of war.
Even though I didn’t get a chance to write for UWEC, as I expected, this internship helped me develop my personal “library of resources” that I will use for my studies at W&L, as well as meet international environmentalists who are actively working on the Ukrainian cause.
I came back to campus full of gratitude for this experience. Not only did it allow me to develop professionally, deepening my understanding of what I would like to do within the field of environmental studies in the future, but also to meet people who are fighting the environmental frontline in Ukraine. There is an enormous amount of work to be done, and the consequences of this war are tragic and irreversible, so it’s precious to develop a network of people who, despite the chaos around, stick to the vision of protecting the environment in the war-torn country. Additionally, I am grateful for the opportunity to combine my professional development with the comfort of home, which I don’t get as often as I would like to.
204 W. Washington St. Lexington, Virginia 24450-2116 www.wlu.edu
INTERIM DEPARTMENT HEAD
Bill Hamilton
Biology Department Chair; Professor of Biology hamiltone@wlu.edu
Robert Humston
John Kyle Spencer Director for Environmental Studies and Professor of Biology humstonr@wlu.edu, 540-458-8341
CORE FACULTY
Mauricio Betancourt
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies mbetancourt@wlu.edu
Jamie Casey Professor of Economics caseyj@wlu.edu
Lisa Greer
Earth and Environmental Geoscience Department Chair; Professor of Earth and Environmental Geoscience greerl@wlu.edu
Andrew M. Hess
Ehrick Kilner Haight, Sr. Term Associate Professor of Business Admin. hessa@wlu.edu
Megan F. Hess
Associate Professor of Accounting hessm@wlu.edu
Lawrence E. Hurd Herwick Professor of Biology hurdl@wlu.edu
Ryan McCoy Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies rmccoy2@wlu.edu
Catarina Passidomo Associate Professor of Environmental Studies cpassidomo@wlu.edu
AFFILIATED FACULTY
Brian Alexander Associate Professor of Politics alexanderb@wlu.edu
Paul Cabe
Professor of Biology cabep@wlu.edu
Madhumita Chakraborty
Assistant Professor of Earth & Environmental Geoscience mchakraborty@wlu.edu
Leah Naomi Green
Visiting Assistant Professor of English greenl@wlu.edu
Joseph Guse Winfrey Term Professor of Economics gusej@wlu.edu
Rebecca C. Harris Professor of Politics harrisr@wlu.edu
Margaret Anne Hinkle
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Geoscience hinklem@wlu.edu
Elizabeth Knapp
Director of the Johnson Program in Leadership and Integrity, Professor of Earth and Environmental Geoscience knappe@wlu.edu
David Marsh
Professor of Biology marshd@wlu.edu
Kary Smout
Associate Professor of English smoutk@wlu.edu
EMERITUS FACULTY
Greg Cooper Professor Emeritus of Philosophy cooperg@wlu.edu
Jim Kahn
Professor Emeritus of Economics and Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies kahnj@wlu.edu