• MEM Environment Concentration: Terrestrial and Freshwater Environments (TFE)
  • MEM Management Concentration:鈥疌ommunity 糖心传媒ment and Environmental Justice (CEEJ)
  • Expected Graduation Date: May 2028
     

What factors were most important in your decision to choose the Nicholas School for your graduate studies? And, how will your time at the Nicholas School help you reach your career aspirations?

When I started looking at master鈥檚 programs in environmental management (specifically environmental justice), I knew that I probably wouldn鈥檛 be able to afford a degree in this field. I applied anyway and told myself that I would move on to other career paths if I couldn鈥檛 justify the cost of attendance. Receiving a Nicholas Scholars award meant that I didn鈥檛 have to make that difficult choice. It also reassured me that I was in the right place and that my background and experiences (environmental humanities, nonprofit management, fundraising, and participatory philanthropy) were strengths that would help me add to the Nicholas School community, even though I didn鈥檛 have a strong scientific or quantitative skillset.

I was also drawn to the Nicholas School, Durham, and North Carolina because I felt such a strong sense of place and belonging here. I鈥檓 originally from Louisville, Kentucky, but I鈥檝e spent the past nine years living in coastal Maine. While Maine is now a second home to me, I felt like I needed to return to the Southeast US if I wanted to focus on environmental justice issues. This region (specifically Warren County, NC) is the birthplace of the environmental justice movement, and there are so many thorny ecological, economic, and social challenges here that I want to understand and address. Beyond my experience learning from faculty and peers at the Nicholas School, I鈥檓 looking forward to learning from community members doing critical work in Durham and throughout North Carolina.

After graduating from the Nicholas School, I plan to pursue a career in organizing, fundraising, and/or grantmaking with a focus on supporting EJ communities. Some areas of work I鈥檓 particularly interested in include: supporting a just energy transition in Appalachia and community-driven work to restore ecosystems impacted by coal mining; working with private foundations to build more equitable funding practices that center community voices in grant decisions; and fundraising and advocating for environmental justice work in an era of constrained federal grants. I鈥檓 confident that the Nicholas School鈥檚 combination of environmental science curriculum and applied management courses will equip me to build a meaningful career in these areas.