Past Tishman Organizing Fellows
The Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment worked with Organizing Fellows to assist in the year-long strategic planning process. The Strategic Plan generated conversations within and across campus, and extended to survey alumni and Environmental Justice Organizations within the U.S. to inform the position and framework of the Tishman Center, and its unique position in the field of climate justice.
Brooke TroxellBrooke is a second-year dual-degree master's student at SEAS and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (MURP). She has a background in research and informal science education and is using education to pivot to a career focused on environmental justice-focused participatory planning around climate and sustainability topics. For her master's capstone project with SEAS, Brooke is working with the City of Ann Arbor to develop an equity- and resilience-focused circular economy strategy to help the City reach its carbon neutrality goals. Brooke will graduate in April 2024. | |
Megan GrossMegan is a first-year master's student at SEAS studying environmental justice, using food as a cipher to understand relationships and power in the social-natural world. She has a background in food justice nonprofit organizing, small-scale farming, communications, and Hispanic studies. As she returns to school, she is excited to build from her experiences and explore adaptive, boundary-crossing pedagogies for transformative food movements. She is currently preparing a thesis with Professor Ivette Perfecto’s Agroecology Lab to examine the linkages between emancipatory agroecology, land justice, and food sovereignty in her ancestral home of Mexico. In her free time, Megan loves to doodle, cook meals for friends, and talk to strangers. |
Past Tishman Social Justice Accelerator Fellows
This scholarship is designed for students in the environmental justice specialization who are second-year students planning to graduate. The scholarship seeks to honor the service commitments that students take on during the course of their studies in advocacy of justice. The scholarship program provides tuition assistance of $20,000 to five students who have demonstrated a commitment to social justice through their tenure at SEAS.
Jessica BergerJessica is a second-year environmental justice student at SEAS. She has more than eight years of grassroots organizing around student rights, municipal composting, and energy justice. She began organizing when her undergraduate university prohibited incoming Iranian students from participating in certain graduate engineering and natural sciences programs. Jessica is most proud of her anti-DTE campaign work with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition and her master's project work around Line 5 while at SEAS. Jessica will graduate in Spring 2023 and hopes to continue working with grassroots organizations around environmental justice issues. | |
Maria DozierMaria (Mia) Dozier is an environmental justice and environmental policy/planning student at SEAS. She has five-plus years of experience in climate-related work, focusing particularly on building climate justice-centered coalitions in local governments across Michigan, organizing for policy change, and uncovering the subjugated histories of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of color) communities as a researcher and graduate student instructor. Maria is excited to graduate and focus on pursuing a career in academia and climate change adaptation. She is most proud of her work in the Decolonizing SEAS Initiative and as one of the Environmental Justice Track Leaders while at SEAS—and will graduate in Spring 2023. | |
Dinah GeorgeDinah George is a second-year student at SEAS. Dinah uses they/them and she/her pronouns. They have five-plus years of experience in academic research, focusing on concepts such as the African diaspora, community food systems, and community engagement. Dinah is excited to finish their work in EJ and focus on community food system models and sustainability practices. Dinah is most proud of their work with the Sustainable Action Learning Team (SALT) and their capstone, Mapping Environmental Justice and Community Resiliency in Southwest Detroit, while at SEAS. They will graduate in Winter 2023. Dinah's primary goal is to help foster healthy relationships with the environment for marginalized (and dynamic) peoples. | |
Alicia KawamotoAlicia Kawamoto is a second-year environmental justice student at SEAS. She has six years of experience in program development and implementation, practicing community engagement and education. Alicia is excited to finish her work in EJ and focus on local, urban climate action planning. Alicia is most proud of her work hosting inclusive events as Community Co-Chair in SEAS Student Government. She will graduate in 2023. | |
Neeka SalmasiNeeka Salmasi is a SEAS student specializing in environmental justice and ecosystem science and management. She is interested in anti-colonial approaches to environmental sciences, and the ways that these studies can bolster Indigenous rights and land defense globally. She has worked as a land defender, educator, and organizer with several frontline communities fighting extractive industries and other environmental injustices. Neeka is also a writer and is currently working on historical fiction, VATAN, based on her family's immigration story. She also is a musician working on an album in partnership with the U-M Duderstadt Center. |