Stewards Magazine

Age-old farming methods in Chiapas, Mexico—including those variations practiced by Maya, Zoque, and mestizo cultural groups—draw interest from agroecological researchers like Helda Morales (PhD ’98) and Bruce Ferguson (MSc ’95), who train educators to use school gardens and local food systems as venues for experiential learning.

SEAS graduate Arlin Wasserman (MS ’90, MPH ’91) makes it his business to study and understand changes in the food industry, given his role as the founder and partner of Changing Tastes, “a strategy, culinary, and sustainability consultancy creating successful ventures and meaningful change in the food sector.”

Through an unexpected moment of shared inspiration, Jannice Newson (MS ’20) is now co-founder of Lillian Augusta, a company that is developing a plant-based, 100 percent biodegradable braided hair product for Black women. And if the start-up’s success in receiving $100,000 in funding is any indication, it’s an idea whose time has come.

One of the questions that sustainability entrepreneur Ajay Varadharajan (MS/MSE ’11) gets asked most often is which lifestyle changes have the biggest impact on climate change. Varadharajan, whose clients include food companies for whom he’s developed sustainability strategies, decided to meet the growing interest in a sustainable lifestyle by focusing on one aspect of it: food.

We focus on the Master of Landscape Architecture program at SEAS, and share a few highlights of how today’s alumni, faculty and students continue to build upon the program's legacy with fresh thinking, creative design and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Help citizens help themselves. That’s the intent behind neighborhood resilience, a planning initiative in which communities become climate resilient in order to more effectively respond to and rebound from natural or other disasters.