| | Stephanie Austin (BS ’10, MLA ’13) and her team at Quinn Evans won a 2021 Honor Award in Analysis and Planning from the American Society of Landscape Architects for the project, “Indian Mounds Regional Park Cultural Landscape Study.” |
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| Elizabeth Chong Baskerville (BS ’07, MS ’14, MLA ’16) was profiled by the Landscape Architecture Foundation as part of its Perspectives series, which highlights landscape architects from diverse backgrounds. She is the owner of earthling design LLC in Seattle. |
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| Catherine (Simmons) Benson (BS ’96) has joined the law firm of Simms Showers LLP as an associate. She specializes in admiralty and commercial litigation representing domestic and international clients. |
| | Laurence J. Choinard (BS ’76) reports that he is retired and “living the good life up north, hunting, fishing, shooting, and riding my bike.” |
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| Allison Clements (BS ’98) was sworn in as a commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in December 2020. She will serve a four-year term. Clements has two decades of public and private sector experience in energy regulation and policy, representing utilities, independent power producers, developers and lenders, nonprofits, and philanthropies on grid-policy issues. |
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| M. Rupert Cutler (BS ’55), who previously served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment under President Jimmy Carter, has donated papers from his environmental career to the Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives. The collection documents Cutler’s environmental, political, and business activities prior to and following his service in the Carter administration. He lives in Roanoke, Virginia. |
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| Kerry Duggan (MS ’06) was appointed to the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) by Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. SEAB will provide advice and recommendations to help the Department of Energy achieve its clean-energy goals. In addition, Duggan, Lauren Cooper (MS/MUP ’12), and Charlotte Jameson (MS ‘14), along with SEAS Dean Jonathan Overpeck and SEAS Professor Sam Stolper, were appointed to the Council on Climate Solutions by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The Council acts in an advisory capacity to the governor and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy to formulate and oversee the implementation of the Michigan Healthy Climate Plan, which will serve as the action plan for the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition toward economy-wide carbon neutrality. |
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| Julia Elkin (MS ’15) is a Sea Level Rise Planner with the County of Marin Community Development Agency. As part of the County’s Advance Planning team, she helps local communities address current and future coastal hazards through adaptation planning programs and projects that address human health and safety, critical infrastructure, ecological systems, and equitable open space access. Current projects include managing the Stinson Beach Adaptation and Resilience Collaboration, a multi-year process engaging diverse stakeholder input on sea-level rise adaptation pathways for the town of Stinson Beach. |
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| Andy Giarrizzo (MLA ’83), who worked as an associate landscape architect for the New York State Parks Niagara Region, retired in December 2020. “My career was a triumph!” he writes. “I persevered in a rigorous MLA program that required me to learn skills I never had. With time and the right experience and more perseverance, I accomplished what I set out to do. Luck, time, freedom to make choices, and some street smarts helped, too. A couple of ‘godfathers’ along the way also helped.” |
| | Dale Hauke (BSF ’77, MF ’81) is vice president of Urban Mining Industries, “which has commissioned the first manufacturing plant of its kind in the world to convert dirty waste glass that would otherwise be landfilled into a ground-glass pozzolan.” Trade named Pozzotive, it is made from 100 percent recycled post-consumer glass and is described as a “safer, sustainable, and higher-performing material that dramatically reduces embodied carbon dioxide emissions in concrete.” |
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| Collin Knauss (MS ’19, MBA ’21) joined the Great Lakes Protection Fund as its Project Development Manager in September. In his role, Knauss will lead the Fund’s project development efforts, spotting new opportunities and launching new approaches to improve the health of the Great Lakes and its communities. Prior to graduate school, Knauss worked as the Youth Programs Manager for National Park Trust, an environmental NGO that acquires and preserves parkland and engages the next generation of park stewards through its youth program initiatives; while there, he addressed equity and inclusion challenges by connecting under-resourced youth to outdoor education opportunities. |
| | Chris Kolb (BS ’82), who previously served as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s state budget director, was appointed vice president for government relations at the University of Michigan. Kolb has more than 20 years of experience in public service both in the government and nonprofit sectors, including three terms in the Michigan House of Representatives. |
| | Yu-De Lee (MS/MAE ’14) is the founder and CEO of Tsaitung Agriculture, a platform that helps restaurants purchase vegetables and fruits directly from farmers. It was named one of the top food and beverage start-up companies in Taiwan by BestStartup.Asia. |
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| Derek Martin (MS ’17) has taken a new role as the Sustainability Program Manager at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In this role, he will focus on zero waste, food, procurement, and health and wellness initiatives. He previously served as the Sustainability Coordinator—and then as the Assistant Director of Sustainability—at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. |
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| Trisha Miller (BA ’98) is now the Chief Innovation and Development Officer at Elevate, a national organization focused on “making the clean energy economy accessible to everyone.” Her role supports Elevate’s federal policy work and facilitates its presence as a federal partner of the Biden administration’s Justice40 Initiative. Previously of Gates Ventures and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Miller is an expert in climate and energy solutions, clean manufacturing, and sustainable housing. |
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| Amisha Parekh (MS/MBA ’07) joined Blackstone as the global head of ESG for private equity. She previously worked at Bloomberg, where she led ESG data acquisition and curation within Bloomberg’s Sustainable Finance Solutions team. |
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| Dr. Peter Perschbacher (BS ’68) retired in 2012 as an associate professor in the Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He is the co-editor with Robert Stickney of Tilapia in Intensive Co-Culture (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017), now in 163 libraries worldwide. The book is the culmination of 44 years of research on increasing the sustainability of aquaculture by employing the filtering ability of tilapia to improve water quality. He credits U-M professors John Bardach and Karl Lagler, as well as former U-M classmates, for helping to shape his career direction. |
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| John Petoskey (MS/ JD ’20) was appointed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to the Climate Justice Brain Trust, which will help to identify barriers that impede environmental justice communities from realizing the benefits of the energy sector’s transition to cleaner energy sources. |
| | Devon Danz Preston (MS ’03) was appointed to the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in July 2021. Since 2014, Preston has worked with children living in foster care as a court-appointed special advocate with Marin CASA. Her professional career has primarily focused on the environment and sustainable development. She has held positions as an environmental program officer with the Rhode Island Foundation, executive director of the Washington County Regional Planning Council, environmental compliance officer and sustainability manager with the Presidio Trust, and with the National Audubon Society. |
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| Dr. Ashley Rust (BS ’95, MS ’99) was featured on the cover of the Summer 2021 issue of Trout Unlimited magazine and was interviewed for the article, “Fish and Fire in the West.” A research associate at the Colorado School of Mines, her research focus is on fish, wildfires, and stream restoration. Photo: Josh Duplechian |
| | Sue Shink (MS ’95) is chair of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners. A county commissioner since 2019, she has been leading climate action work in Washtenaw County. She is a founding member of the Environmental Council, has been instrumental in galvanizing support for climate action planning, and will oversee a one-third reduction in carbon emissions from county operations by the end of 2021. |
| | Morgane Treanton (MS ’12) welcomed her daughter, Armelle, on April 9, 2021. She joins her older brother, Ryan, who is 2 years old. Treanton is an economist/energy analyst in the Electric Power Division of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. |
