1980s
Barry Lonik (MS ’87) has been at the forefront of Washtenaw County, Michigan’s land preservation efforts for over 30 years and recently closed his 100th land preservation project. He started what is now called Legacy Land Conservancy (originally the Potawatomi Community Land Trust) and led it for 10 years, along with the charge to promote public funding for the purchase of land as natural area preserves and conservation easements on farmland. He consults on conservation projects through his firm, Treemore Ecology and Land Services.
Robert H. Lucacher (MS ’82) retired after serving for 40 years in corporate environmental, safety and operations management. He now researches and publishes on the complexities of corporate regulatory management.
Carolyn Poissant (BS ’81, MLA ’87) writes: “After serving as the parks, trails and open space development manager for the City of Bozeman, I headed to the East Coast to work as a community development planner for the City of Newport News, with many visits to beaches with my yellow lab, Daisy. At the ripe age of 64, I headed back West to take on my current position as senior planner with the beautiful City of Salida, Colorado, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains and Greater Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area. I hope to stay put and retire there. SEAS alumni: Come visit and say ‘hi!’”
Karen Rollet-Crocker (MLA ’83) retired as a professor of landscape architecture from the University of Arkansas in 2006. She joined the university in 1985 after working as the park planner for Washtenaw County. She is the recipient of two American Society of Landscape Architecture Merit Awards for the Civil War historic gardens at the Colonel Samuel W. Peel House and the planning and urban design of the Compton-Putnam property in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Dwisuryo Indroyono Soesilo (MS ’81), a geological engineer, politician and diplomat from West Java, was appointed the Ambassador of Indonesia to the United States in August 2025.
1990s
William G. Moseley (MS ’93) published “Decolonizing African Agriculture: Food, Security, Agroecology and the Need for Radical Transformation” (Columbia University Press, 2024), which was partly inspired by his classes with SEAS Professor Ivette Perfecto. It is available as an open-access book. He is the DeWitt Wallace Professor of Geography at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Lee Skabelund (MLA ’90) and Tao Zhang (MS/MLA ’08) were elected to the 2025 Class of Fellows by the American Society of Landscape Architects, one of the profession’s highest honors. Skabelund is an associate professor in landscape architecture/regional and community planning at Kansas State University. Zhang is a principal at Sasaki, an integrated design practice based in Boston.
2000s
Marc Gaden (BA ’91, PhD ’07) is the executive secretary of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, a Canada-U.S. organization located in Ann Arbor that is charged with implementing the 1954 Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries. The convention is the treaty under which the two nations protect Great Lakes fish stocks of common concern, direct research dollars and control the invasive sea lamprey. He also is an adjunct assistant professor at SEAS.
Stephen Higgs (MS/JD ’05) is the recipient of the 2024 President’s Sustainability Award from the Oregon State Bar “for his efforts at bringing generations of Oregonians together to ensure a brighter future for all.” Since 2013, he has been the executive director of Senior Advocates for Generational Equity.
Theodore Lawrence (MS ’06, PhD ’15) received the 2025 International Association for Great Lakes Research Large Lake Champion Award for his contributions to the science, governance and international collaboration surrounding large lakes, particularly the African Great Lakes. He is the executive director of the African Center for Aquatic Research and Education.
Jennifer Lee Johnson (MS ’08, PhD ’14), an associate professor in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University and founder and director of the Toxic Action Lab, was awarded a $500,000 grant from the State of Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy as part of its Environmental Justice Impact Grant Program. The project, “The Otsego Story Project: Uplifting Voices to Improve Public Health in a PFAS Impacted Community,” is a community-engaged research collaboration between the Toxic Action Lab and the frontline environmental justice organization Justice for Otsego. This phase of their work will advance three primary goals to: 1) create an interactive, multimedia storybank to honor the experiences and knowledge of current and former residents of Otsego and Plainwell, Michigan, 2) conduct citizen-led environmental sampling and analysis, and 3) create a fellowship program to involve high school students in our work.
Sharon Shattuck (BS ’05), a documentary filmmaker, won a 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science Kavli Science Journalism Award for her short film, “Decoding Ancestral Knowledge,” about Hawaiian microbiologist Kiana Frank, who investigates ancient Hawaiian stories with modern scientific methods.
2010s
Sara Cawley (MS ’15) married Scott Rigney on May 3, 2025, in Paradise Valley, Montana, north of Yellowstone National Park. Kristiane Huber (MS ’15) and Becca Robinson (MS ’15) were part of the bridal party, while Dania Gutierrez (MS ’15) gave a reading during the ceremony. Also in attendance were Lexi Brewer (MS ’15), Meghan Hemken (MS ’15) and Ellen Spooner (MS ’16).
2020s
Matthew Aumeier (MS ’21) was named the 2025 Alumni of the Year by the SEAS Career Services office. He is an environmental compliance and systems innovation expert at Idaho National Laboratory.
María Isabel Dabrowski (MS ’22) was awarded a spot in the American Bird Conservancy’s Seabirds and Stories of Multi-Species Kinship Fellowship Cohort. Her longform story will focus on the work she did at SEAS, which centered Ecuadorian artisanal fishers’ perspectives on ocean conservation. She is the senior outreach associate at Rare’s Center for Behavior and the Environment.
Ben R. Lee (PhD ’20) married Elissa Mueller (MS ’18) on July 19, 2025, on Old Mission Peninsula just north of Traverse City, Michigan. The couple was married under white pines overlooking Lake Michigan during a break between storms. In attendance were Kyle Welch (MS/MEng ’15) and Class of 2016 graduates David Carruthers, Ben Kunstman, Julian Plough, Becky Spellissy, Shreyas Vangala and Allegra Wrocklage.
