Faculty, Staff and Graduate Students

Faculty

	Phil Brown - Professor of Environmental Studies & Sociology e-mail Prof Brown		Donald Pryor - Visiting Lecturer
	Steven Hamburg - Adjunct Faculty e-mail Prof Hamburg		Dianne Quigley - Adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies (Rsch) e-mail Prof Quigley
	Timothy Herbert - Professor Geological Sciences & Environmental Studies e-mail Prof Herber		J. Timmons Roberts - Director, Center for Environmental Studies, Professor of Sociology & Env. Studies e-mail Prof Roberts On sabbatical 2012/2013 AY
	Caroline A. Karp - Senior Lecturer in Environmental Studies e-mail Prof Karp		Dov Sax - Assistant Professor of Biology e-mail Prof Sax
	Heather Leslie - Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology e-mail Prof Leslie On sabbatical Fall 2012		Johanna Schmitt - Stephen T. Olney Professor of Natural History, Professor of Biology and Env. Studies e-mail Prof Schmitt
	Amanda Lynch - Professor of Geological Sciences e-mail Prof Lynch		Leila Sievanen - Postdoctoral Research Associate e-mail Sievanen
	Stephanie Malin - Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Studies e-mail Malin		Kurt Teichert - Lecturer in Environmental Studies and Mgr. of Env. Stewardship Initiatives e-mail Prof Teichert
	John Mustard - Professor of Geological Sciences & Env. Studies e-mail Prov Mustard		Kathryn Teigen De Master - Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies e-mail Prof DeMaster
	Sriniketh Nagavarapu - Assistant Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies e-mail Prof Nagavarapu		Harold Ward - Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies
	Talbot Page - Professor Emeritus of Economics e-mail Prof Page		Susan Chemerynski Wason - Adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies e-mail Prof Wason
	Stephen Porder - Assistant Professor of Biology e-mail Prof Porder

CES Staff

	Patti Caton Administrative Manager Box 1943 Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Patti_Caton@Brown.edu Center for Environmental Studies Office: Room 203 Phone: (401) 863-1224 Patti came to Brown in 1989 as a Resumed Undergraduate Education Student. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies in 1992 and her Master's Degree in Environmental Studies in 2002. When not at CES, she can be found at her sewing machine, quilting. AB Environmental Studies Center for Environmental Studies Brown University 1992 Thesis: "The Consumption of the Colorado River: Water Supply Management in the Southwestern United States" MA Environmental Studies Center for Environmental Studies Brown University 2002 Thesis: Developing an Effluent Trading Program to Address Nutrient Pollution in the Providence and Seekonk Rivers
	Jeanne Loewenstein Administrative Assistant Box 1943 Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Jeanne_Loewenstein@Brown.edu Center for Environmental Studies Office: Room 202 Phone: (401) 863-3449 Jeanne Loewenstein currently resides in historic Warren, Rhode Island, a seaside town with an emerging art community. Though originally a native of upstate New York, she draws constant inspiration from New England’s coastal region, and has developed a deep affection for her adopted home. Jeanne majored in ceramics at Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with a BFA honors degree in 1996. While attending RISD, her work was displayed in two juried exhibitions, and granted a feature presentation at the Ceramic Department’s senior show. Although an art major, Jeanne also has an extensive business background. She has worked as a small business consultant, project coordinator, production coordinator, administrator and a shipping manager. Previous employers include Hasbro, Farmaesthetics, Altamira Lighting and Pat Warwick’s Studio. Jeanne is very excited to become the newest member of the CES team.
	Lynn Carlson GIS/Systems Manager Lynn_Carlson@Brown.edu Box 1846 Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Environmental and Remote Technologies Lab Office: MacMillan Hall Room 111 Phone: (401) 863-9917 Lynn Carlson came to Brown in October of 1998 to manage the Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System lab in MacMillan Hall and to provide technical support, instruction through courses and workshops, project management, and GIS-related services to the Brown University community. Prior to taking this position, she was employed by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management for ten years, first as staff in the Nonpoint Source Pollution Management Program, and for the last six years, as the Department's GIS Coordinator. Lynn has served on the Executive Board of the Northeast Arc User's Group, and as Chair of the Rhode Island Geographic Information System Executive Committee. Her goals here at Brown are to integrate the use of GIS technology throughout the campus, and provide students, faculty, and staff with assistance in utilizing the technology in their courses and research. Lynn holds an undergraduate degree in Biology from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon; her graduate degree is in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island. She is a native of the State of Colorado and is a die-hard Broncos fan. EARTH Lab Homepage
	David Murray Senior Research Associate and Facility Manager in Environmental and Geological Sciences dmurray@brown.edu Box 1943 Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Office: MacMillan Hall Room 114 Phone: (401) 863-3531
	Joe Orchardo Instrumentation Specialist Joseph_Orchardo@brown.edu Box 1846 Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Office: GeoChem 126 Phone: (401) 863-3316 Joe Orchardo is the Instrumentation Specialist for Environmental and Geological Sciences. One half of his effort is to maintain, troubleshoot, and provide training for analytical equipment in the Environmental Chemistry Facility in MacMillan Hall. He splits the remaining time supporting activities in the Benedum Stable Isotope Laboratory and the Analytical Core of Brown’s Superfund Research Program.

CES Graduate Students

Erika Bradbury

Erika graduated from University of California, Los Angeles in 2010 with a double major in political science and geography. While at UCLA she became interested in how industrial processes, particularly mining, affect both the environment and local community health. Her undergraduate research explored mountaintop removal in the Appalachian Mountains, the alteration of the Appalachian environment as a result of surface mining, and the impact of the General Mining Act of 1872 on the environment of the Western United States. Erika plans to continue her research on industrial contamination with emphasis on environmental justice, community health, and government regulation.

Deanna Kristine Dottai

Deanna comes from both the land of the rain (Seattle, WA) and the land of the sun (Santa Cruz, CA). She completed her undergraduate studies at California State University Chico, receiving a B.S. in Sustainable Coordination and Resource Management. During her time at Chico she played a leadership role in various environmental campaigns, projects, and events both on campus and in the community. The highlights of her undergrad were working as the Assistant Sustainability Coordinator for the Associate Students, the Project Director for Take Back the Tap, and as Conference Coordinator for Chico’s fifth annual sustainability conference. At Brown, her research interests revolve around the intersection of public awareness, industry response, and policy formation/enforcement of environmental issues, specifically regarding toxins and product stewardship. Among her favorite hobbies, Deanna enjoys cooking, cycling, local food, good wine, live music, yoga, and playing with her 3 cats.

Katherine England

Kate graduated from Northeastern University in 2008 with a BA in Political Science and a BA in International Affairs. While in undergrad, she spent time abroad in Egypt, Brussels and Geneva where she studied desertification in the Middle East and North Africa as a result of climate change and potential policy solutions. After graduation, she spent three years overseeing an environmental education program that employed at-risk urban teens to do maintenance, restoration and programming work in the Boston Parks. Kate is currently the UEL Community Garden Coordinator and is working on her thesis at RIDEM. She is studying Stormwater Utility Districts and their application in improving Rhode Island's stormwater management by incentivizing impervious surface reduction. When not working on her thesis or in the garden, Kate enjoys playing ultimate frisbee, hiking/backpacking and traveling.

Adam Kotin

Adam is a lifelong Californian braving the fabled East Coast weather (and accents) for the first time. He graduated from Pomona College in 2009, where he studied Environmental Analysis and Theatre. Research topics there included environmental guardianship practices in New Zealand; the ‘ecological’ theatre; and depictions of gender in Balinese dance. He’s worked in the non-profit world on issues from sustainable agriculture to electric vehicle infrastructure to environmental art, and in the theatre world as crew member and actor. Interests include: environmental history, sustainable agriculture, green urbanism, and environmental awareness through the arts. He’s currently attempting, without success, to write a musical theatre adaptation about ethical crises in a resource-depleted world. In his spare time he enjoys purchasing warm clothing he prays he’ll never have to wear.

James LaChance

Jim graduated from Emory University in 2007 with a degree in English and a minor in Music. After working for a year in Austin, TX as a technical writer and editor, Jim spent two years working as an apprentice on a small organic farm near his home town on the North Shore of Boston. His academic interests include climate adaptation strategies for sustainable agriculture and aquaculture, heritage-based approaches to rural economic development, and community development of resilient food systems. As a member of Brown’s Agricultural Resilience Initiative (BARI), his thesis research investigates New England’s oyster aquaculture sector as a potential economic cluster, with a specific focus on its heritage and climate resilience. When not studying or farming, he spends his time fishing, running, or on his boat, a Swampscott Dory.

Susanna (Suzy) Mage

Susanna (Suzy) Mage is a M.A. student in the Center For Environmental Studies. She graduated in May 2010 from the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment at University of Delaware with a B.S. in Environmental Science. Her undergraduate research focused on temperate deciduous forest hydrology and biogeochemistry. Her research interests at Brown University involve terrestrial biogeochemical cycling, particularly soil fertility (P dynamics) in the tropical rainforest ecosystem of Puerto Rico. She is researching the controls of soil nutrient availability, in particular the importance of parent material, climate and topography as predictors of soil fertility. Her other interests include environmental science policy and advocacy. When Suzy is not in the lab, she enjoys cooking, traveling, and being outdoors.

Loreana Marciante

Loreana’s work experience is concentrated on major urban transportation development projects, including the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose, Costa Rica and the Sound Transit Link Light Rail System in Seattle, Washington. An affinity for living near to city centers, and the realization that an ever increasing majority of the world's population now lives in an urban setting, have led her to an exploration of urban sustainability issues at Brown University. Loreana earned her undergraduate degree in Engineering from the University of Costa Rica and holds a certificate in Construction Management from the University of Washington.

Taryn Martinez

Taryn is a native New Yorker who received her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Brown University. Her undergraduate honors thesis assessed how Rhode Island governmental and non-governmental organizations internalized environmental justice principles, and offered suggestions for improvement. After graduating from Brown in 2008, Taryn worked for conservation nonprofit The Audubon Society for two years, where she assisted in outreach and promotion for the new TogetherGreen initiative. Her academic interests include literary ecocriticism, environmental justice, urban environmental education, and increasing the diversity of the environmental movement. She looks forward to participating in the environmental justice dialogue here at Brown! In her spare time, Taryn likes birdwatching, travelling, watching terrible reality shows, and playing with her dog, Abby.

See Taryn's page

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Sara Mersha

Sara Mersha was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, grew up in Lynn, Massachusetts, and has been living in Providence, Rhode Island since 1993. She studied International Health and Human Rights during her undergraduate years at Brown, and was Visiting Faculty in the Department of Ethnic Studies in 2008, teaching the "Activism Practicum" course. On May 1 of this year she made a transition from her position as Executive Director of DARE - Direct Action for Rights and Equality, a grassroots community organizing group in Providence where she had been working for the past twelve years. During this time, Sara organized around a variety of issues, including low-wage worker organizing, youth organizing, anti-criminalization, and anti-gentrification work, along with political education and broader movement-building work. Sara's involvement with national networks has included the Right to the City Alliance, Grassroots Global Justice, and Jobs with Justice (of which she is a former board member). After wrapping up her transition from DARE, Sara took some time off this summer to garden with her father and spend time with her 11 nieces and nephews. Sara is interested in exploring issues of climate justice on local and international levels.

Lauren Watka

After receiving a dual degree in Biology and French from UMass Dartmouth in 2009, Lauren spent a year working in unfamiliar places ranging from the Gulf of Mexico Coast to George’s Bank as well as tutoring math and science to high school students (an equal but entirely different challenge). During this year post-undergrad, she identified her passion to improve environmental stewardship in New England by educating the general public- children and adult, alike. While at Brown, Lauren is looking forward to joining the conversation regarding the use and protection of coastal waters in the greater Providence community. Having interned at the Medical School at Dartmouth College and in a toxicology lab at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Lauren considers her most valuable research experience to be afternoons tidal pooling with her younger cousins on the beaches of Cape Cod.

Brianna Craft

Research

The Least Developed Countries and Technology Transfer under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: Do current Policies under the Convention Protect the Most Vulnerable?

Description: The world desperately needs an effective piece of international climate legislation in order to move cohesively forward towards a sustainable future. The Least Developed Countries (LDC) negotiating bloc represents forty-eight of the countries suffering most from the devastating effects of climate change. However, the opportunities that will allow LDCs and others to quickly shift to a cleaner development pathway that limits the level of risk associated with a changing climate almost fundamentally involve technology transfer (TT) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Currently, the policies that govern TT represent a distinct area of demarcation between developed and developing countries. For TT policies to be effective, their goals would need to be redefined to account for not only greenhouse gas emissions reductions, but also the stated desires of the LDCs and other developing countries. My research interests revolve around the intersection between the LDCs’ goals for TT and the UNFCCC policies that determine which projects make it to reality. Preliminary thesis questions include: To what extent do the current UNFCCC TT policies reflect the key positions, desires, and needs of the LDC bloc?; Why do the various elements of UNFCCC TT policies meet or not meet LDC demands?; and, more generally, are TT negotiations advancing or hindering the world’s progress toward an international climate agreement? My thesis research will draw its findings from an analysis of the UNFCCC’s TT Clearinghouse Database, a series of stakeholder interviews, and a thorough review of the literature surrounding TT, LDCs, and the UNFCCC.

Linlang He

Research

Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and beyond…

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a cooperative effort among nine states – Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont- to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electric power plants. Together, these states have capped and will reduce power sector CO₂ emission by 10 percent by 2018. RGGI is the first mandatory, market-based CO₂ emissions reduction program in the United States. The RGGI states have implemented a regional auction platform to sell CO₂allowances. Proceeds from these auctions are returned to states and invested in consumer benefit programs: energy efficiency, renewable energy, direct energy bill payment assistance and other greenhouse gas reduction programs. It is believed that 14 percent of the RGGI auction proceeds has been used to provide energy bill payment assistance, including assistance programs for low-income ratepayers. These programs have the potential to bring tremendous social benefit because they “shield” the low-income families from increases in the electricity price, a possible byproduct of energy efficiency and renewable energy development, ensuring their access to affordable electricity. However, proceeds spent on these programs receive little attention.

Hence, in my thesis, I hope to: filter and compile all RGGI-supported assistance programs for low-income ratepayers and look at how the proceeds are managed and distributed; ask if these programs are paying off well; comment on possible reasons behind participating states’ different levels of spending on these programs; figure out if there has been private sector investment in these programs; and compare and contrast these programs with other initiatives that serve a similar purpose. The big question I am trying to answer is “would the RGGI model offer developing countries a way to find a balance between the responsibility to push forward energy efficiency and renewable energy development, and the promise of providing cheap electricity access for the poor?”

Rebecca Keane

Research

Hydraulic fracturing (“hydrofracking”) is a technique used by natural gas companies to access methane supplies trapped within layers of shale deep below the earth’s surface. The process involves uses a series of explosions and injects millions of gallons of water and chemicals into the ground to create fissures in shale bedrock, releasing methane gas and allowing it to be collected as it rises to the surface. Until recently, hydrofracking has not been widely used during natural gas production. As the U.S. undergoes a natural gas boom spurred by a desire to minimize our dependence on foreign oil supplies and by the marketing of natural gas as a “climate friendly” alternative fuel, the use of hydrofracking throughout the nation will likely escalate.

My thesis work will investigate what this increased spread of hydrofracking might mean for agricultural communities. As hydrofracking activity expands, the gas industry will appropriate more and more land, and agricultural land seems a likely target for that consumption and it is thus important to interrogate what sort of impacts this spread might have on agriculturally based rural communities. Currently, though, there is a lack of peer-reviewed literature on the environmental impacts of hydrofracking in general and an even more severe lack of research on the nexus between hydrofracking and agriculture. I seek to contribute to this dearth by researching what perceived and tangible opportunities and barriers hydrofracking poses for small-scale farmers in northern Pennsylvania; I will focus specifically on Bradford, Tioga, and Susquehanna counties, areas where hydrofracking is actively unfolding and where its impacts on agriculture might already be discernible.

Chelsea Parker

Research

The working title of my Master’s Thesis project is: “Sea Surface Temperatures, Cyclone Intensity and the Effects on Coral Reefs”. My primary Supervisor is Dr. Amanda Lynch, Environmental Change Initiative.

The idea of the project is first to use regional weather modeling to understand the atmosphere-ocean interactions in tropical cyclones and how they drive the magnitude, track and timing of cyclone events; and second, to quantify the damage that intense cyclones have on coral reef ecosystems. To carry out these aims, I am using WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) regional model and a case study of the unusually intense, category 5 cyclone Yasi (that made landfall on the Queensland, Australia coastline, Feb 2011). With this I will analyze to what extent the intensity of cyclone Yasi was controlled by the spatial distribution and extent of sea surface heating over the region of cyclogenesis and over its path to landfall. Then I will analyze what effect altering the extent and location of warming has on the cyclone intensity. Preliminary simulations show that WRF is capable of simulating this cyclonic activity and that with higher resolution SST data and with increased SSTs in the region of cyclogenesis and by the coast, the intensity of the event increases greatly. I will be analyzing the spatial extent and level of damage caused by Yasi on the Great Barrier Reef using first hand data from the reefs in its path in collaboration with the Coral Reef Ecosystems Laboratory, Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and remote sensing of 250m resolution MODIS images of the coral cover and water optical properties from before to after the event. Preliminary data suggests there was a significant loss of live coral cover and that receding flood-waters following the cyclone brought large concentrations of suspended sediments and pollutants from land into the coastal waters over the reefs with considerable negative consequences.

Hannah Ross

Research

Exploring the Role of Traditional Agricultural Practice in Social and Cultural Cohesion for Providence Refugee Communities

My proposed Master’s thesis project will involve collaboration with refugee farmers and gardeners living in Providence RI, exploring the agricultural practices brought by refugees from their home countries, the adaptation processes that these agricultural knowledge systems go through in new contexts, and the role that traditional agricultural knowledge plays in social and cultural cohesion and economic livelihood. Through exploring the specific growing methods used by Hmong, Liberian and Burundian refugees, I wish to learn how these methods address issues of crop diversity, intercropping, use of cover crops, and biological pest control. I hope that this work will shed light on how the support of traditional knowledge systems held by refugees may benefit both the individual growers and their communities, how traditional knowledge systems adapt to new environments, and what might be learned from diverse communities in terms of the ecological production of food as farmers, gardeners, researchers and communities seek to develop sustainable growing methods. In a broader sense, this work seeks to contribute to discourse surrounding agro-ecology, community development, and food sovereignty, and the role of diverse knowledge systems in fostering all three of these aims.

I seek to answer the following research question: What role does traditional agricultural knowledge and practice play in helping refugees adapt to new sociocultural and economic contexts? How might the fostering of this knowledge help inform mutual learning processes surrounding the development of more sustainable growing methods in Providence, while contributing to food sovereignty and community development? Informing this key inquiry are the following questions: What are the specific growing methods used by refugees here in Providence? How are these growing methods similar and different between refugees of different backgrounds? What are the processes of adaptation to make these knowledge systems work in a new environmental and socio-cultural climate? What does the refugee community need in order to be more supported, and what might this support mean for the larger community?

My overarching goal is to identify areas of improvement in the ways that the refugee community is currently supported in terms of agricultural production and traditional knowledge systems. I hope that my exploration will provide data that lead to actionable recommendations for the fostering of this diverse community of knowledge and culture, working towards an environment that values a multiplicity of knowledge systems. Actionable recommendations may include improved refugee resettlement policy that give more space for traditional knowledge practice, or improved technical and educational assistance regarding ways to extend the growing season or mitigate issues like toxic soils. I look forward to being involved with the Providence Community Growers Network community and will be in continuous dialogue with my collaborators on the kinds of projects and data collection that would be most useful for them.

OLD INFORMATION BELOW THIS BAR

Phil Brown

Professor

Phil_Brown@Brown.EDU

Chris Deacutis

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Adjunct Faculty

Professor and Chair