Middle row: Jennie Bahramian, Joseph Rodriguez, Julia Piper, Katryna Niva, and Kiera O’Donnell
Bottom row: Matthew Alexander, Michelle Jones, Spencer Rhea, and Yiqun Tian
As a cohort, Climate Change Communication Fellows will engage UNIV102 students in small group discussions about climate change.
Archit Guha is in the third year of the PhD program in the History Department, and has interests in the climate and extreme weather phenomena in Modern South Asia and the Indian Ocean region.
Dylan Munson has a background in both economics and the humanities and is currently a PhD student in Duke’s environmental policy program. He is interested in modeling community adaptation policies to better understand how individuals and institutions can protect themselves against disruptions due to climate change.
Emily Klein is a Master of Global Health Student whose research focuses on understanding how environmental issues, such as air pollution and changes to the natural environment, impact human health.
Hannah Medsker, a Master of Science in Global Health student, is most interested in using creative communications to promote health equity across global socioeconomic and geoenvironmental divisions. She works part-time as a professional artist, and used this skillset to lead a project that has educated thousands of people on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Jake Webb is a Master of Divinity Student at Duke Divinity School pursing the Certificate in Anglican Studies. His interests lie in theological anthropology and ethics, with a particular focus on rethinking human agency in light of the Anthropocene.
Jennie Bahramian is a first-year Ph.D. student at Nicholas School of the Environment. For her Ph.D. research, she is interested in understanding the dynamics of wetland ecosystem carbon sequestration and how land management strategies can help mitigate the negative impact of climate change in the most vulnerable communities.
Joseph Rodriguez is a PhD student in Political Science. His research interests lie broadly in normative political theory, constitutional design, and jurisprudence.
Julia Piper is an educator and choreographer investigating the social dimensions of environmental issues through performance and movement. She is a student in Duke Dance Program’s MFA Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis.
Katryna Niva is a second year PhD student in the Earth and Climate Sciences Department. Her research focuses on open ocean and coral reef biogeochemistry where she is examining metabolic and nitrogen fluxes at a high resolution in order to understand the relationship between shifting environments, biological behavior, and nutrient cycles.
Kiera O’Donnell is a sustainability scientist focusing how social-ecological systems respond to climate hazards such as hurricanes and flooding. She currently runs a research coordination network focused on synthesizing and sharing information about saltwater intrusion and sea level rise.
Matthew Alexander is a Master of Liberal Studies student who studies the intersection of media and performance through an artistic lens.
Michelle Jones is a Master of Arts candidate in the Graduate Liberal Studies program. She is interested in climate change, de-colonizing conservation and traditional ecological knowledge in Indigenous cultures.
Spencer Rhea is a second year Ecology PhD student studying biogeochemistry in freshwaters. His research seeks to understand how sea level rise and saltwater intrusion causes forest loss in coastal wetlands and the consequences for greenhouse gas emissions.
Yiqun Tian is a third-year Earth and Climate Sciences PhD student. Her research focuses on mechanisms of tropical ocean warming pattern formation.