Grad Fellows
The Center for Environmental Politics seeks to play a leading role in training next generation scholars of environmental politics and governance. We welcome UW graduate students from any department to participate in the Center’s activities. To be designated as a Duck Family Graduate Fellow in Environmental Politics and Governance, students should submit a letter of interest along with a short (2 pages max) description of their research to envirpol AT uw.edu. CEP Duck Family Fellows will enjoy:
- Invitations to all CEP-sponsored events, including talks and colloquia;
- Invitations to join outside speakers for lunches and dinners;
- Opportunities to participate in the annual Pacific NW Duck Family Graduate Workshop in Environmental Politics and Governance;
- Invitation to participate in the 2-day overnight annual Camp Casey Whidbey Island retreat to discuss your research;
- Opportunities to develop their academic networks by interacting with CEP faculty and outside visitors;
- Apply for Mel Belding Travel and Research Grants for conference travel.
Graduate fellows, 2019-2020
Ellen Ahlness
Ph.D. student
Department of Political Science
Ellen is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science, with a background in Scandinavian studies. Her main area of research is the Arctic, with a strong interest in the way indigenous policy, environmental policy, and comparative state policy intertwine in this region. Her research focuses on the state indigenous policy among Arctic states and what motivates states to resist both indigenous land rights and attempts to join global organizations, such as the Arctic Council. This is of particular interest, given her wider interest in the link between indigenous land rights and environmental activism.
Email: eahlness AT u.washington.edu
Young Eun ‘Alicia’ Ahn
Ph.D. student
Evans School of Public Policy and Governance
Alicia is a Ph.D. student in the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. Her main area of research is environmental policy, with a focus on the political economy of global environmental governance. Topics that excite her include measuring environmental stringency across countries, the varying effects of environmental policy instruments on business choices, and the spread of environmental policies to and among developing countries. A native of South Korea, Alicia has worked for the national trade and FDI promotion agency of Korea for several years prior to her doctoral studies. She has a B.A. in economics from Ewha Womans University (Seoul, Korea), and a MPA from Columbia University (New York, NY).
Email: yeahn AT u.washington.edu
Katie Breen
Graduate Student
School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
Katie Breen is a graduate student researching Wildlife Ecology in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Her focus is on how climate change affects wildlife in northern climates, collaborating with researchers in Norway. She intends to use her conclusions to facilitate conservation planning for wildlife. Before joining the program, she worked on conservation policy at The Wilderness Society and energy efficiency policy on contract to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She is a member of the Clean Energy Leadership Institute and the Seattle chapter for the grassroots group, 500 Women Scientists, which works to connect and mobilize women scientists around the globe to create action on policy. She holds a BA in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University.
Email: cbreen AT u.washington.edu
Rachel Castellano
Ph.D. student
Department of Political Science
Rachel is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science, focusing on international relations and nonprofit studies. Her research interests include human trafficking, environmental migration, climate change advocacy, and political violence. Prior to her studies at UW, Rachel was the Program Director for StolenYouth, a Seattle-based nonprofit which raises funds and awareness for child sex trafficking in Washington state. Rachel holds a B.A. from Skidmore College.
Email: rcastell AT u.washington.edu
Kylie Clay
Ph.D. student
Department of Political Science
Kylie Clay is a doctoral student in the Department of Political Science. She studies comparative and international political economy, focusing on natural resource management and land use in developing countries. Her current research looks at the effects of agricultural productivity and land tenure on land use decision-making and deforestation in Sub-Saharan Africa. She holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and Political Economy from the London School of Economics and, prior to her studies at UW, worked as an economic consultant for the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Email: kyclay AT u.washington.edu
Rebeca de Buen Kalman
Ph.D. Student
Evans School of Public Policy and Governance
Rebeca de Buen Kalman started her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance in 2015. Before joining the program, she worked as a corporate social responsibility analyst at KPMG Madrid and as a Program Associate at the Latin America Regional Climate Initiative sponsored by the ClimateWorks Foundation. Rebeca is interested in a broad range of issues about environmental policy, climate change policy, transportation, and public health. She holds a BS in physics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and an MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management from Oxford University.
Email: rdebuen AT uw.edu
Michael S. Diamond
Ph.D. Student
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
Michael Diamond is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. His research focuses on aircraft observations of clouds and smoke off the coast of southwestern Africa to better understand the regional climatic implications of large-scale agricultural burning and wildfires on the African continent and, ultimately, to better understand how clouds will respond to and feed back on climate change and anthropogenic particulate emissions in general. He is also active in the interdisciplinary Program on Climate Change and is involved in the Graduate and Professional Student Senate’s Science & Policy committee.
Email: diamond2 AT uw.edu
Mathieu Dubeau
Center for Environmental Politics Graduate Chair
Ph.D. student
Department of Political Science
Mathieu Dubeau is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science, and a graduate fellow at the Center for Environmental Politics. His primary research interests study the intersection of political ecology, political theory, and international relations as they relate to logics of capitalism. His previous work investigates the dual exploitation of labor and appropriation of non-human “nature” necessary for the creation of surplus-value. More recently, he has turned his gaze towards the increasing dependence of capitalism on the extraction of value from non-human sources. His dissertation seeks to further problematize these relationships of exploitation, and hopes to dislodge the dominate logic of possessive individualism that provides the ideological foundation and justification for capitalist extraction.
Email: mdubeau AT u.washington.edu
Eduardo Gallo-Cajiao
Ph.D. candidate, University of Queensland
Visiting student at University of Washington
Ed is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Queensland, with a background in biology and environmental science. His main area of research is on the governance dimensions of migratory species conservation. His dissertation focuses on the emergence and effectiveness of the global environmental governance framework for conserving migratory shorebirds in the Asia-Pacific. He is also interested in improving the understanding of threats to biodiversity and how this knowledge can be better integrated through the policy process. Prior to embarking on his Ph.D., Ed worked on biodiversity conservation projects for several years for government and NGOs in Colombia and Australia. He currently serves as the vice- president for education and outreach of the board of governors of the Society for Conservation Biology.
Email: e.gallocajiao AT uq.edu.au
Will Gochberg
Ph.D. student
Department of Political Science
Will is a doctoral student in the Department of Political Science, and his primary interest is in the environmental politics of developing countries. His work has focused on local and state-level management of renewable resources. He holds a Master’s degree in political science from the University of British Columbia, where he researched illegal logging and REDD+ implementation. Will’s more recent work has looked at the conditions under which local user groups act collectively to manage forests sustainably. Prior to returning to school, Will was a mathematics teacher in Vermont as well as a volunteer teacher in Namibia through WorldTeach.
Email: gochberg AT u.washington.edu
Maria Gracia Gauto
MPA Candidate
Evans School of Public Policy and Governance
Maria Gracia is an MPA student from Asuncion, Paraguay at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. Her background ranges from conservation and environmental policy in Latin America and community development in Paraguay. She is interested in further deepening her knowledge on existing collaboration and success stories between Environmental Non-Profits and the private sector in Paraguay and how they could be replicated in Latin America. She intends to become a liaison in the region between the private sector and government institutions, in order to create policy platforms for innovation and incentivize better environmental practices in business. She received her BA in Political Science from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut and interned in the External Affairs Department at The Nature Conservancy HQ, the Americas Field Division at Conservation International HQ, and in the Risk Reduction and Adaptation, a local non-profit in Ecuador. She also worked for CSR in the Paraguayan private sector and at EducationUSA, a U.S. State Department Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs program. She is currently the first year international student representative at the Evans Student Organization and is a Teacher Assistant in the University of Washington Political Science department.
Email: mariagracia.gauto AT gmail.com
Jeffrey Grove
Ph.D. student
Department of Political Science
Jeffrey studies American Politics and Political Theory, using a historical institutionalist framework to examine legal and political development. His research centers on issues of territorial expansion and western settlement, with a particular focus on how courts utilized available institutional mechanisms to enhance federal state control of Native nations. Jeffrey takes a strong interest in the intersections between indigenous sovereignty and environmental activism as well as the development of American jurisprudence on environmental law. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Moravian College and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington.
Email: jgrove91 AT u.washington.edu
Sarah Inman
Ph.D. student
Human Centered Design & Engineering
Sarah Inman is a doctoral student in the Human Centered Design and Engineering Program at the University of Washington. She has a background in Political Science and Science and Technology Studies. Her primary research interests include: 1) knowledge production and distribution through large-scale research; 2) individual and collective tensions when solving global problems such as climate change; 3) data science and visualization. For her master’s thesis, she conducted an ethnographic study of how citizens engaged with scientific data in the context of extractive industries. She also explored how citizens can use mobile air quality sensors to collect information about their environment. She is currently researching the challenges of drawing together heterogeneous Alaskan Salmon data from across diverse scientific and regulatory actors. She holds a Master of Arts from Georgetown University and is an aspiring mountain climber.
Email: sinman1 AT u.washington.edu
Steven Karceski
Ph.D. student
Department of Sociology
Steven is a doctoral student in the Sociology Department at the University of Washington. His research focuses on the political economy of environmental taxation, specifically how carbon tax policy is shaped by political institutions and societal beliefs. More generally, he is interested in political sociology, comparative historical sociology, and political economy. He earned a BA in Business and Economics from North Park University in Chicago. In the time between his undergraduate and graduate education he worked at the Chicago Board of Trade as an Options Clerk and Futures Trader, and later as an Investigator in the Regulatory Division at the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
Email: stevek7 AT u.washington.edu
Inhwan Ko
Ph.D. student
Department of Political Science
Inhwan Ko is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science with a focus on international relations and environmental politics. His research interests are climate policy and climate clubs, social movement, East Asia, quantitative research methods and politics of technology. He holds a Master’s degree in Political Science (Yonsei University, 2019) where he conducted a case study on the effect of transnational advocacy networks of Minamata disease (mercury poisoning) patients from 1972 to 2011, drawing from the fieldwork in Minamata, Japan. After participating in UNFCCC COP21 in 2015, he served as a steering committee member in a climate change NGO and produced a climate change podcast series in Korean from 2016 to 2019.
Email: inhwanko AT u.washington.edu
Namrata Kolla
MPA Candidate
Evans School of Public Policy and Governance
Namrata Kolla is a graduate student at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. Her focus is on the use of technology in the public sector, particularly ways that data and machine learning can help governments function more efficiently and become more transparent. Her current work explores how technology can improve the channels of communication between domain experts (e.g. environmental scientists), marginalized communities (e.g. climate refugees), and policymakers. Her Bachelor’s in Earth Sciences gives her a strong background in climate change modeling. She is also experienced in the nonprofit and public spaces. She worked in the Office of the President at The Nature Conservancy and on Capitol Hill researching natural gas and public health policies for a highly agricultural district.
Email: namkolla AT u.washington.edu
David Lucas
Ph.D. Student
Department of Political Science
David Lucas is a doctoral student in the department of political science studying political theory, international relations, and public law. His research interests include deliberative democratic theory, human rights, as well as theories of sustainability. He is particularly interested in the practice of deliberation and “truth seeking” as an alternative logic within international relations. He holds an M.A in Conflict Resolution and B.A in Philosophy from Portland State University, and has worked previously for various international organizations abroad.
Email: dclucas AT u.washington.edu
Hanna Navarro
Graduate Student
Evans School of Public Policy and Governance
Hanna Navarro is a Masters of Public Administration Candidate at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. She is interested in policy and organizational failures and successes in the context of environmental health and justice. Prior to enrolling at the University of Washington, she worked in the environmental sector as an educator, outreach coordinator, and fundraiser for large and small nonprofit environmental organizations. Currently she is a first year advocacy board member of the environmental policy student interest group GreenEvans, and a Research Assistant for the Technology and Social Change Group at the School of Information on a project in collaboration with the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and Environmental Studies from California Polytechnic State University.
Email: hanavarr AT u.washington.edu
Tyler Nicholas
Ph.D. Student
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
School of Public Health
Tyler Nicholas is a Ph.D. Student in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences studying Environmental Toxicology, which is the study of adverse responses to chemical, physical, or biological agents in human environments. He seeks to evaluate and translate the potential for risks posed by engineered nanomaterials. His proposed dissertation aims to determine if silver nanoparticle (AgNP) exposures pose a risk of triggering the dysbiosis-inflammation cycle, a novel mechanism relating lung microbiome dysbiosis to exacerbations of inflammatory lung diseases. He is interested in promoting chemical safety for exposed populations through policy recommendations for sustainable solutions to prevent AgNP inhalation exposures. Tyler holds a BS and MS in Environmental Health from the University of Rochester and the University of Washington School of Public Health, respectively.
Email: nicholat AT u.washington.edu
Daniel Olsen
Ph.D. Student
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Daniel Olsen graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Electric Power Engineering. Before coming to the University of Washington, he worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researching industrial demand response capabilities. His current research focus is on regulatory policies which incentivize the construction and operation of low-carbon power systems. Specifically, he develops models of power systems, including decisions by independent stakeholders, and uses those models to determine the optimal degree to which various policies (e.g. carbon pricing, efficiency standards, grid-scale storage) should be implemented in order to achieve carbon emissions reductions goals.
Email: danieljolsen AT gmail.com
Christianna Parr
Ph.D. Student
Department of Political Science
Christianna is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science and a steering committee member of the Equality Initiative in Political Science. Her main area of research is international relations and comparative politics, focusing on the region of South East Asia. She has a strong interest in the relationships civil society has with states and international organizations. Additional interests include the political strategies employed by environmental NGOs, ecofeminism, and human rights in Malaysia and Singapore. Her research focuses on the ascension efforts of NGOs in international organizations, and the types of NGOs that are given ascension status. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington and previously attended Taylor’s University in Malaysia.
Email: parr182 AT u.washington.edu
Michael Quinlan
Graduate student
Department of Communication
Michael Quinlan is a graduate student studying communication in digital media. His areas of focus include habit formation, motivational interviewing, and the science of storytelling for environmental change. As part of his studies, he produces mission driven videos for nonprofits and government organizations addressing environmental issues, including the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association and Seattle Public Utilities. Michael holds a B.A in political science from the University of Vermont.
Email: quinlanm AT uw.edu
Andres Sheikh
MPA Candidate
UW Evans School of Public Policy & Governance
Andres is pursuing a specialization in Environmental Policy. He has over two years experience in the nonprofit sector campaign organizing and researching issues to protect public lands. As an undergrad at UC Berkeley he majored in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations and has taken coursework with an emphasis on Conservation and Resource Studies. His research interests are evaluating climate change and international environmental policy impacts to political institutions and international relations.
Email: amsheikh AT u.washington.edu
Judy Twedt
Ph.D. student
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
Judy Twedt is a Tacoma native and a doctoral student in the department of atmospheric sciences. She uses climate models to understand the connections between tropical oceans and the polar regions. She is also a founding member of the King County Labor Council Climate Caucus, where she co-leads a student-run speakers bureau on climate justice.
Email: jtwedt AT u.washington.edu
Hanjie Wang
Ph.D. student
Department of Political Science
Hanjie is a Ph.D. Student in the Department of Political Science. She studies international relations, focusing on international environmental politics and international law. Currently, her research interests include 1) global politics of renewable energy, the dynamic between energy transition and international political order; the issues of transnational environmental migrations, in particular international regulations and human rights; and 3) eco-feminism. She holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from the Graduate Institute, Geneva (IHEID), and has worked for the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
Email: hjwang AT u.washington.edu
Matt Ziegler
Ph.D. student
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Matt Ziegler is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science with a background in ecological informatics, studying computing for underserved communities and developing countries. His research currently focuses on tools for natural resource management and environmental conservation in places where remoteness and socioeconomic factors present challenges for technology deployments, with particular interests in technologies for conservation project management and governance by local populations, and for facilitating communication and understanding between different participant groups. He holds a B.S. from University of Wisconsin in Computer Science and Biological Aspects of Conservation, and has previously worked on software for ecology research.
Email: mattzig AT cs.washington.edu