Environmental Justice

Alumni

Alumni

	Latia Leonard, 2023-2024 Catalyst Fellow (Grad: Spring 2024) Latia Leonard is a graduate of SEAS with a Master’s in environmental justice (Grad: 2024). Latia, who is originally from Detroit, is passionate about many environmental justice issues such as water infrastructure, water affordability, and housing. Latia has worked with youth and local organizations to address climate change while advocating for a just transition, green jobs, and community led engagement. As a Catalyst Fellow with the Tishman Center, she completed an 18-month research project culminating in a municipal policy agenda for Midwestern Cities, in partnership with the Green New Deal Network.
	Japjyot Singh (ਜਪਜੋਤ ਸਿੰਘ), 2023-2024 Catalyst Fellow (Grad: Spring 2024) Japjyot Singh is a Sikh that acts in qualities of service, love, and justice, as given through Gurmat, the Sikh tradition and philosophy. He has spent more than three years working at various nonprofit organizations ranging from direct services, community engagement, fundraising efforts, and more. Through those experiences he has advanced understandings of anti-oppression, anti-racist, and decolonial work and thought systems—and they are now serving as his main inspiration for pursuing environmental justice education. Japjyot completed his fellowship with the direct installation of energy retrofits and environmental justice curriculum for the Mata Tripta Gurudwara in Plymouth Michigan.
	Tyler LaBerge, Storyteller (Grad: Spring 2024) Tyler LaBerge is a graduate in the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability specializing in Environmental Justice. She is particularly interested in the intersection of public health and environmental justice, and in building power in frontline communities. At SEAS, she works as the Strategic Projects Coordinator for the EEP and as a storyteller for the Tishman Center. Her master's project centers on building power for the EJ movement in Dallas, TX. Before graduate school, she worked as a Senior Energy Analyst for the international consulting firm, ICF. Previously, Tyler was the Sustainability Coordinator for St. Louis Composting, expanding food waste composting in the St. Louis region. She also has experience in corporate sustainability and alternative transportation. She completed her undergraduate degree in 2014, earning a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis with double majors in Environmental Policy and Economics. She is an avid climber, cellist, hiker, and indoor plant propagator. She lives in Ann Arbor with her husband and dog.
	Pendle Marshall-Hallmark, Storyteller (Grad: Spring 2024) Pendle Marshall-Hallmark earned her master’s degree at U-M’s School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) after nearly a decade working in the field of social, economic, and environmental justice advocacy. As an undergraduate studying sociology and Latin American literature, Pendle received a fellowship to work as a legal assistant for undocumented immigrant women survivors of domestic violence on the U.S.-Mexican border, where her mother’s family is from. Her interest in understanding the drivers of migration and inequity motivated a career in human rights and environmental advocacy. Among other experiences, she has worked in refugee resettlement as an AmeriCorps VISTA Fellow, studied social entrepreneurship in Mexico as a Fulbright Garcia Robles Scholar, accompanied threatened human rights activists in conflict zones in Colombia, and organized oil and gas divestment campaigns with an organization dedicated to defending Indigenous territories in the Amazon rainforest.
	Cat Diggs, Storyteller (Grad: Spring 2024) Cat Diggs is a Dual Master’s degree student pursuing an M.S. in Environmental Justice at SEAS and a Master’s in Urban & Regional Planning at Taubman College. Cat has accrued close to a decade of grassroots community work experience during both her seven-and-a-half years away from academic study and during her time at U-M. Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec by a family of human rights advocates, Cat decided to move to Detroit in 2016 as a dual citizen to become involved with the city’s powerful Afrocentric music communities and culture of grassroots activism. Over the years, she has worked as a grassroots recycling educator, community-based storyteller and event producer, ESL teacher, and environmental justice nonprofit worker. Through her boots-on-the-ground experience as community worker and cultural organizer, Cat has grown passionate about building the capacity of climate justice movements in their ongoing efforts to address the global plastics crisis and its impacts on EJ communities locally and globally. Cat never ceases to be humbled by the incredible people and communities she has had the privilege of collaborating with over the years. She hopes to continue contributing her storytelling and community-building skills to the social and EJ movements and causes that she is striving to work in collaboration with throughout her life.
	Deanna Geelhoed, Storyteller (Grad: Spring 2024) Deanna Geelhoed was an Environmental Justice and Policy student at SEAS. She has a breadth of lived and professional experience in the Great Lakes watershed. For the past eight years in their home of Grand Rapids MI, Deanna has coordinated the Plaster Creek Stewards Initiative at Calvin University. Within this work they have led watershed education, research, and on-the-ground projects rooted in community empowerment. She is proud that because of her work her community is better informed how to care for the water and has a deeper sense of belonging to the watershed. She is proud that now the human and non human kin have thousands of more trees and native plants to enjoy. But while doing this work they encountered many injustices. This motivated Deanna to study Environmental Justice with a focus on decolonial land management and Indigenous Rights. They believe that access to land is the basis for community floursing. Thus far at SEAS Deanna has conducted work with various Anishinaabe Tribes on land tenure strategies. They look forward to aligning their skills to work toward the Tishman Center mission of undoing inequality and securing justice.
	Alexandria (Ally) Martin (Grad: Spring 2024) Alexandria (Ally) Martin graduated in August 2024 with an MS degree specializing in Environmental Justice. She has extended her degree in order to continue to work on her masters project, which involves assisting a community partner from St. Clair Township, MI in their fight against major fossil fuel corporations (Enbridge and Energy Transfer/Sunoco), both of whom are being accused of polluting the air and water in the area. The major deliverables that Ally is working on currently involves organizing the immense amount of documentation that her community partner has amassed over the years through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, as well as reaching out to local news reporters who may have an interest in writing a story on St. Clair Township, which could potentially bring much needed attention to the community. She is originally from Buffalo, NY, and graduated with a BS in Environmental Science from Allegheny College in 2021. Ally would be honored to continue working alongside communities who are experiencing energy injustices in her future career, and is hopeful that her work for the past 1.5 years, as well as over the course of summer 2024, will have a positive impact on the St. Clair Township community.
	Dinah George 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 Kawamoto Alicia Kawamoto was an 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 Salmasi Neeka Salmasi was 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.
	Maria Dozier Maria (Mia) Dozier studied 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.
	Jessica Berger Jessica studied environmental justice 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.
	Brooke Troxell Brooke 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.