SEAS News

A compilation of news and updates from SEAS and PitE alumni, all in one spot.

Fai Foen is the director of green infrastructure at The Greening of Detroit, a nonprofit organization that enhances the quality of life for Detroiters by planting trees, repurposing the land to create green spaces, and helping communities rebuild their neighborhoods one lot at a time.

As a staff data scientist at FlowWest in northern California, an organization that uses technology to find solutions to water and natural resources issues, Inigo Peng utilizes data integration, analytics and visualization tools on large government projects.

Islands offer boundless opportunities to inform basic ecological science and applied conservation biology, and are integral to protecting global biodiversity. For nearly a decade, SEAS Associate Professor Johannes Foufopoulos and his students have studied island biology to identify what endangers resident species and how biodiversity can be protected.

Becoming a journalist wasn’t always the plan for Jena Brooker, the environment and food reporter for BridgeDetroit. Moving to Detroit after graduation, her first job was as a substitute teacher. When COVID hit and teaching moved online, she pursued freelance writing. By the following spring, Brooker was named the first Midwest fellow for Grist.

As a senior associate at Better World Group, an environmental, energy, climate, and conservation policy and advocacy firm, Kimberly Guo takes on projects that address park equity and natural resources, with a focus on conservation and environmental justice.

Soil degradation threatens our ecosystems and climate, and thus the future of food access. To be sustainable, ecological processes will need to be managed using species diversity to sustain production and support important functions including restoring soil health, which is the focus of research being conducted by SEAS Associate Professor Jennifer Blesh alongside students and other collaborators.