Reema Garabadu Headshot

 

Reema Garabadu

Master of Environmental Management, 2023 

Concentration:

Ecosystem Science and Conservation, with a Community-Based Environmental Management Certificate

Employer:

Eno River Association

Role:

Conservation Manager

 

For Reema Garabadu, a day of trail building with volunteers along the Eno River may roll into another spent researching land in need of protection. It鈥檚 par for the course as conservation manager for the .

The nonprofit organization works to protect and maintain land, plus historical and cultural heritage sites located on those properties, through purchasing land and conservation easements. Garabadu supports that mission through a blend of field work and strategic partnerships.

The role satisfies her twin desires to serve local communities and conserve natural areas for generations to come. 鈥淒oing land protection helps me feel like there鈥檚 like a legacy to leave behind,鈥 says Garabadu, who grew up outside Atlanta.

Her first brush with stewardship came during college at the University of Georgia, where she volunteered on a community farm and became the site鈥檚 first herb garden intern. 鈥淚 found that to be a lot of rewarding work compared to some of my classes where I was trapped indoors,鈥 Garabadu says.

After graduating, she moved to the California Bay Area for an internship with the Golden Gate National Park Conservancy. The position was tailored for recent graduates, offering entry-level experience working in parks.

鈥淭hrough park stewardship, I learned a lot more about native and nonnative plant species, and how to manage lands. Farms do not require species management in the same way other ecosystems do,鈥 Garabadu explains.

Around that time, she began considering grad school. 鈥淚 recognized that a lot of the professionals I was working with had hard skills that I wanted to become more versed in,鈥 she says.

The MEM program offered an appealing blend of science and experiential learning opportunities, according to Garabadu. During her two years at the Nicholas School, she also earned a community-based environmental management certificate while immersing herself in extracurricular activities in Durham and the surrounding region.

A group of volunteers works in a wooded area, pulling weeds and clearing vegetation from a lush green forest floor. Several people are bent over or kneeling among grasses and low plants, wearing hats and work gloves. Tall trees with full canopies surround the scene. A mulched path is visible on the left. Photo by Brandon Rice
As part of her work for the Eno River Association, Garabadu, in overalls, leads community workday events that engage volunteers in helping maintain protected lands. The events are 鈥渁lways productive in the end, but the scale of what you accomplish doesn't really matter,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 more about the experience and cultivating a positive one for community members.鈥 Photo by Brandon Rice

In addition to working at the Duke Campus Farm, Garabadu received a Stanback Fellowship to intern with Earthjustice, an environmental law nonprofit. In that position, she helped coordinate research geared toward understanding the effects of agricultural practices on conservation in the Southeast.

For her , Garabadu collaborated with the Triangle Land Conservancy to develop a process for selecting farmland for historically marginalized farmers.

She continues collaborating with the Conservancy through her role with the Eno River Association, a position that grew out of a part-time job she secured after grad school.

Since leaving Duke, Garabadu remains in touch with Nicholas School classmates.

鈥淚 still feel connected to many of the people that I met in the program, and I really value their friendship firstly, but also their thought processes and their experiences, because we鈥檙e all in different areas of work,鈥 she says. 鈥淓ven though we are in different realms of the environmental world and spread out across the country, we still support each other a lot.鈥

This article is part of Nicholas Narratives series called 鈥淓arth Ambassadors,鈥 which profiles alums from the Master of Environmental Management and Master of Forestry programs at the Nicholas School of the Environment. Find more profiles here.