Students
2024 – Abigail Murray
Abbey is a Civil Engineering Ph.D. student focusing on Sustainable Infrastructure Design. Her research interests include flood hazard mitigation through stormwater infrastructure adaptation, decision-making in the infrastructure design process, and justice and equity in the built environment. She earned Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering from Montana State University.
2024 – Danny Kosiba
Danny is a PhD student in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences studying human-wildlife interactions. He pursues transdisciplinary approaches to understanding the connections driving life in the spaces humans share with large mammals.
2024 – Emma Christman
Emma is a graduate student in the School of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. She studies the influence of climate change on sockeye salmon growth in Alaskan lake systems. Emma uses archival tissues to give scientists a glimpse into the past ecosystems we can no longer observe firsthand.
2024 – Grace Brennan
Grace is a Master of Landscape Architecture student with extensive experience as an ecologist and environmental services consultant. She is passionate about enhancing her technical and interdisciplinary skills to better integrate ecological sustainability with landscape architecture and is excited to continue to foster meaningful connections across academic, professional, government, and community spheres.
2024 – Helen Miller
Helen is a Master’s student in Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management interested in using statistical and computational tools to inform sustainable management of natural resources. Helen’s research is focused on understanding how hydropower dams affect biological processes governing river productivity in the Lower Mekong River using a combination of satellite imagery and field data.
2024 – Hernán Querbes
Hernán is a Chemical Engineer and recipient of the Fulbright grant from Uruguay. He is working on his Master’s in Civil and Environmental Engineering, specializing in Hydrology, having been involved in water research projects since he was a teenager. He is keen to develop data science skills to improve freshwater resources monitoring.
2024 – Kiersten Maxwell
Kiersten is a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her research focuses on investigating tire rubber-derived contaminants in urban stormwater runoff within South Puget Sound. Her work is connected to how these contaminants impact tribal communities and their surrounding watersheds.
2024 – Marley Tullis-Monetta
Marley is pursuing her Masters in Communication Leadership at UW, but has had a long standing passion for sustainability and environmental justice. She hopes to link data-driven storytelling and documentary techniques to meet community members where they are in their education and inspire action in regard to water challenges.
2024 – Nate Denke
Nate is pursuing his Master’s in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, where he is a part of the People and Wildlife Lab. He also works for the Mt. Baker – Snoqualmie National Forest and will be using his research to highlight the human dimensions of recreation-wildlife impacts on the Middle Fork Snoqualmie and Pratt Wild and Scenic Rivers.
2024 – Paulyna Lara Tello
Paulyna, a Master’s student in Infrastructure Planning and Management. Passionate about fostering resilient urban development, she analyzes the intricate interconnections between water, energy, transportation, and food systems. Paulyna plans to use data analysis, visualization, and GIS skills to integrate nature-based solutions into decision-making for resilient cities.
2024 – Rachel Luther
Rachel is a student at the Evans School of Public Policy where she is studying environmental policy. She plans to study how climate change is affecting water allocation rights in Washington. In her free time Rachel enjoys trail running with her dog, biking, skiing, and windsurfing.
2024 – Sydney Sappenfield
Sydney is a graduate student in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences focusing on freshwater ecosystems and their management. She plans to direct her research toward the impacts of wildfires on freshwater ecosystem health and the related impacts on frontline communities. Her past work has included backcountry guiding and conservation efforts along sections of the Colorado River.
2024 – Thor Belle
Originally from Maine, Thor is a photographer, educator, captain, and storyteller. A current SMEA Masters student, Thor’s work focuses on using media and storytelling to change public perceptions and actions surrounding fisheries, Tribal Sovereignty, and our relationships with Land and Water. He hopes to make conservation a living, participatory process.
Aji John – 2021
Aji is a PhD candidate in Biology at University of Washington. His interests include exploring microclimatic patterns in forest understories and studying phenology of wildflower meadows using high-resolution satellite imagery. His research is aided by a desire to develop open source instrumentation for environmental sensing and plant physiology.
Alanna Hildebrandt – 2023
Alanna is a PhD student in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She is interested in developing novel materials for the removal of emerging organic contaminants from stormwater. She hopes to work with impacted communities to implement best management practices and innovative removal methods.
Alyssa Poletti – 2021
Alyssa is a graduate student in the Atmospheric Sciences department studying the impacts of global water movement on climate. She hopes to research the intersections between racial justice, community water and energy rights, and climate change to create equitable, justice-oriented climate solutions.
Amirah Casey – 2023
Amirah Casey graduated from Western Washington University and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree at the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences in the Applied Ecology Lab. Her past research focused on the impacts of PCBs and PBDEs in the marine environment, and she hopes to continue similar work while at UW.
Amy Quintanilla – 2022
Amy is a PhD student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department. Her past research has centered environmental conservation through a hydrological as well as material science lens. During her time at UW Amy hopes to collaborate with local communities of color to form solutions to the impacts of climate change on aquatic systems and urban water supply.
Anna Mounsey – 2021
Anna has been a commercial fisherwoman for the past six years and is excited to direct her research towards the interactions between communities and commercial fisheries. When not in school or working in Alaska, Anna enjoys skiing, biking and cooking for friends and family.
Ashli Blow – 2023
Ashli Blow is pursuing an MPA at Evans School of Public Policy and Governance with a focus on environmental management. She is studying policy design and environmental economics and learning to apply the practices to climate solutions journalism. As a journalist herself, Ashli often reports on freshwater ecosystems and the people who live near them.
Becky Kann – 2022
Becky is a PhD student in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences studying the impacts of drinking water and wastewater infrastructure on health. She uses environmental epidemiology methods to explore the interaction between engineering and public health and inform strategies for reducing water and sanitation insecurity in low- and middle-income settings.
Ben Makhlouf – 2023
Ben is a fisheries biologist who uses stable isotopes to reconstruct spatial patterns in ecosystem patterns. In doing so, he hopes to help illustrate how these patterns are shifting in the face of global climate change and human resource use.
Carolina Martinez/Lizana – 2021
Carolina is a Natural Resources Engineer and student of Urban Planning. Her work has focused on restoration ecology, landscape ecology and environmental planning using GIS, remote sensing and data analytics in Chile and the Pacific Northwest. Currently, she is interested in forested wetlands and how they are responding under climate change and urbanization processes.
Casey Duncan – 2021
Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Casey received a Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Casey has lived and worked as a researcher across a broad geography, from Kodiak Island, Alaska to the Northern Rockies. In her free time, Casey enjoys scrambling peaks in the Cascades, gardening, gravel biking and dancing. Casey’s research interests include climate adaptive watershed and landscape management. Her experiences as a field biologist, organic farmer and environmental justice advocate have led back to academia at the University of Washington where she currently investigates strategies to protect critical habitat for salmon in Washington state.
Claire Schollaert – 2020
Claire is a PhD student in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. Through the use of interdisciplinary data sources and modelling approaches, she seeks to identify climate resilience solutions that optimize ecology restoration and management while protecting the health of communities most vulnerable to climate-related hazards.
Claire Vaage – 2022
Claire is a graduate student in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences interested in community-scale ecology. She will be investigating the effects of climate change on invasive species dynamics and the consequential impacts on juvenile Chinook salmon in the Columbia River Basin. Beyond academics, Claire enjoys alpine ski touring, mountain biking, and learning new languages on DuoLingo.
Emily Jameson – 2021
Through ecological modeling, Emily hopes to examine the impacts of invasive species and other anthropogenic disturbances and how to mitigate their effects on aquatic ecosystems. She is excited to continue developing scientific communication skills to facilitate collaboration between academic and non-academic organizations to improve resource conservation and management efforts.
Emma Boudreau – 2023
Emma is a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Emma hopes to use remote sensing techniques to improve snow modeling to better understand water resources and streamflow conditions in regions heavily dependent on snowmelt. In her free time, she likes to hike, ski, or be on the water.
Fran Ehrenberg Azcárate – 2023
Francisco is a PhD student at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. His current research centers on understanding the process of natural forest regeneration in abandoned agricultural lands in Mexico, his home country. Before starting his graduate studies, Francisco worked in the Mexican civil society sector, leading various initiatives focused on wildlife conservation and community development.
Gabby Commisso – 2023
Gabby is a PhD student in the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences focused on the interactions between urban development and pollution, freshwater fishes, and parasites. Gabby is interested in museum specimens and their uses in historical ecology, as well as their potential to connect the public with pressing issues affecting freshwater resources.
Gabriel Wisswaesser – 2020
Gabriel has been ambling around the forests and mountains most of his life. Recently, his curiosity was piqued by increasing human interaction with alpine lakes and streams. He wants to measure that interaction and protect those valuable spaces while improving access for marginalized communities and stewardship of alpine waterways by proximal communities.
Gio Jacuzzi – 2022
Gio is an acoustic ecologist interested in the sonic relationships between organisms and their habitats. His research utilizes soundscape analysis to monitor animal behavior, evaluate ecosystem biodiversity, and assess the impact of anthropogenic noise. He is eager to collaborate with others to ultimately transform insights from our soundscapes into tangible management decisions and conservation results.
Grace Henry – 2023
Grace is a Masters student in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. Her research uses compound specific isotope analysis of amino acids to identify shifting primary production baselines in the North Pacific. Broadly, she is interested in nutrient cycling, whole ecosystem scale processes, and the link between food webs and climate.
Gus Wettstein – 2023
Gus is a graduate student in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences studying climate adaptation. Gus intends to focus his research on the decision making processes within adaptation and the interactions between climate science and frontline communities during these processes. Outside of school, Gus is an avid runner and enjoys surfing when he can.
Hannah Besso – 2020
Hannah is a PhD student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. She hopes to improve snowpack modeling to inform streamflow and water management. When she is not working, Hannah enjoys climbing, skiing, cooking, and reading.
Hörður Helgason – 2021
Hörður is a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is exploring new methods to model and predict glacier melt, snowmelt, and streamflow under climate change. Hörður grew up on the banks of a glacial river in Iceland and, in summer, when he is not working, he is usually outside trying to catch a glimpse of the terrifying Lagarfljót Worm, Iceland‘s ancient equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster.
J Kahn – 2023
J is a graduate student in the Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management program and is currently pursing their Master’s degree in Sunny Jardine’s lab in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs. They are interested using computational tools to support habitat restoration and conservation projects that benefit human and ecosystem health.
Jessica Diallo – 2020
Jessica has a passion for international development and is interested in working on sustainable conservation efforts that include local communities. Managing conflicting freshwater resource demands in a changing climate is especially fascinating to her.
Jocelyn Munoz – 2022
Jocelyn has worked as a wetland biologist for the Washington DoT since 2019 and is now pursuing a Masters in Environmental and Forest Sciences. She is interested in bridging the gap between wetland management and data science by using remote sensing tools to improve long-term wetland monitoring. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding, climbing, and playing with her dog.
Joey Teresi – 2023
Joey is a masters student in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. He is interested in understanding the effects of climate change on public health outcomes and our natural resources, water resource management, and sustainable communities. In his free time, he enjoys running, biking, and exploring new parks in the Seattle area.
Keenan Ganz – 2022
Keenan is a Masters student in the Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis Laboratory at UW. Previously, Keenan studied lake morphology in the Rose Lab at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His current research focuses on modeling forest water stress from satellite imagery.
Kelly Neal – 2023
Kelly is a graduate student at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. She has interest and expertise in areas that include salmon ecology, terrestrial-aquatic linkages, and habitat restoration. Her current research is focused on improving the understanding of how beaver dams impact salmon at different life stages, with the ultimate goal of this research helping to guide salmon habitat restoration projects.
Liz Elmstrom – 2020
Liz loves to study streams and rivers almost as much as she loves to play in them. In the future, she hopes to use science to build community and strengthen river health from headwaters out to sea.
Matias Korfmacher – 2022
Matias is a concurrent Masters student in Urban Planning and Public Health. His interests lie in community health and recovery in the wake of disasters and other traumatic events, with a specific focus on placemaking post-relocation. In his free time, Matias likes to spend as much time as possible outdoors, preferably on or near the water.
Nicole Doran – 2022
Nicole is a graduate of The Ohio State University and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree at the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences in the Applied Ecology Lab. Her research focuses on the impacts of climate change, urbanization, and introduced species on Kokanee salmon in Lake Sammamish.
Rachel Fricke – 2020
Rachel is interested in the impacts of anthropogenic manipulation of watersheds through invasive species transmission and altered flow regimes and developing conservation approaches which employ an array of big data sources. Her thesis research leverages mobile applications, online forums, and social media to model risk of invasive species’ movement between inland waters via human-driven pathways.
Robin Ruhm – 2021
Robin is a PhD in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department. They are interested in working with communities to model the effects of wildfire and cultural-burn practices on water systems to help in climate adaptation and resilience. During their free time, Robin enjoys cooking, hiking, and playing piano.
Sabikunnahar Shorna – 2020
Shorna is from Bangladesh and majored in Fisheries. She seeks to understand the aquatic ecosystem, and learn more about conservation. She wants to restore polluted aquatic environments in order to ensure environmental wellbeing as well as human wellbeing.
Sage Fox – 2023
As a graduate student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sage will be studying the impacts of watershed land use change on riverine export of carbon and nutrients to coastal systems. Previously, Sage has worked in a broad variety of stream surveying and fisheries monitoring roles across the Western U.S. and Southern Chile. Sage also enjoys ski mountaineering, scuba diving, and backpacking.
Sanchit Minocha – 2022
Sanchit is a graduate student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department solving the problem of reservoir sedimentation management using machine learning. He believes in developing ML/AI based tools using remote sensing for society that can help towards the development of a sustainable environment. He is from India and loves to play chess.
Sara Faiad – 2020
Sara is excited to explore underwater ecosystems with the School of Aquatic and Fishery Science, where she will bring her expertise in animal behavior to the study of disease. Her long-term career goal is to engage in interdisciplinary exchange and to build a strong foundation for understanding the multifaceted and interwoven social, ecological, economic, and demographic factors that drive disease transmission.
Shubroto Kumar Sarkar – 2022
Shubroto is a PhD student at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Using physiological and modeling approaches, he seeks to improve the water use efficiency in crop plants curtailing the use of groundwater towards freshwater sustainability in changing climate. He enjoys traveling and likes photography during his free time
Sofi Courtney – 2020
Sofi is an MS/PhD student in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences and plans to study riparian plant restoration ecology with tribal nations along the Klamath River as dams are removed along the watershed. Ultimately Sofi hopes to work at the intersection of wetland conservation science and indigenous sovereignty in order to help mitigate climate change and promote a more just world.
Sophie Hammond – 2023
Sophie received a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Environmental Health Sciences. She plans to study water quality and its implications on community and ecosystem health using an environmental justice perspective, focusing on common contaminants in surface waters and the impacts of climate change. She also enjoys kayaking and making jewelry.
Viviana Atalia Alban – 2023
Viviana is a PhD student in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. She is interested in expanding her knowledge of water as a driver of health, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Her current research focuses on understanding the links between animal exposure, enteropathogens, and infant gut health in Ecuador.
Yasmine Hentati – 2022
Yasmine is a graduate student in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences studying the health of urban carnivores in King County’s terrestrial and aquatic systems. She hopes to conduct wildlife research within the OneHealth framework, working with interdisciplinary teams across institutions and agencies. When not doing research, Yasmine can be found baking, reading or enjoying the beauty of the Cascades.