GRAD STUDENT – Classical Studies PhD Candidate “I was born and raised in rural Appalachia, like super rural. Technically Virginia, but [at] the intersection of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. [It was] a very poor area, coal country, an area hit hardest by the opioid crisis. And when I was there, just seeing so many people…
Category: People
Evan Petrosky
GRAD STUDENT – Physics PhD Candidate & Sustainability Champion “I grew up in a small town in western Massachusetts. I went to undergrad at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. And I had no idea what I wanted to do and I tried out a lot of things. I ultimately decided on Physics [because] I really enjoyed…
Meghan Duffy
FACULTY – Susan S. Kilham Collegiate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies “So I’m a professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and I ended up here because [U of M] is a really wonderful university. It has amazing students. It has amazing resources. And my research focuses on aquatic…
Jill Myers
STAFF – Biodiversity Lab Manager “When I was doing my PhD, I kind of joked with my advisor that I was never going to leave. And then I defended my PhD in summer of 2020, which was a tough time to find a job…everyone had a hiring freeze. And this was not the job that…
Sara R. Rivera
STAFF – Geomicrobiology Lab Manager “Yeah, so I’m originally from Michigan. And I came to University of Michigan as an undergrad, with every intention of transferring and leaving, because I really wanted to do oceanography and live on the coast by the ocean somewhere. Really, when I was eight, I decided I wanted to get…
Alex Bryan
STAFF – Director of Student Life Sustainability “I was a student here in my undergrad degree and [I had a] great time. [I took] English Lit as a degree with a double minor in PitE and Earth Sciences. I learned a lot and had some pretty transformative experiences. I think many of those were around…
Maddie Clough
GRAD STUDENT – 3rd Year Materials Chemistry PhD I’m now a third year PhD student in the Department of Chemistry. I grew up in rural Mid Michigan, so actually not too far from U of M, but I ended up going to Central Michigan University for my undergrad. There, I studied chemistry and I was…
Stuart Kirsch
FACULTY – Roy A. Rappaport Collegiate Professor of Anthropology I’m an environmental anthropologist, [though I wasn’t always one]. At the beginning of my career, I worked in Papua New Guinea with a group of people who lived downstream from a large copper and gold mine that was slowly destroying their environment. And, over time, I…
Sara Soderstrom
FACULTY – Director of Program in the Environment (PitE) “I grew up in a family of Wolverines. My parents met here. My dad was starting med school and my mom was an Undergraduate Transfer, and they were up in Bursley cafeteria as the non first year students finding each other and hanging out. So I…
Ella Mannino
STUDENT – Chair of TREES Subcommittee “I’m from Ortonville, Michigan, which is about like an hour north of here, in between Flint and Pontiac. Ortonville is kind of a rural farm town, like I lived in the woods, so that’s a big part of why I care so much about the environment. I’m an International…