Knowledge & leadership for a sustainable future

Water is fundamental to public health, food supplies, and energy production, and therefore vital to national security. Kelsey Semrod ’16 MESc, a water resilience program manager with the Office of the Assistant Secretary worked to establish the first comprehensive water security program for the Navy. Now, as a senior scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, she supports the Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Defense (DOD) on water resilience issues, including leading water resources management training for DOD and DOE utility managers and supporting a new water and energy resilience program for DOE's Water Power Technology Office. 

Goal:Expedite decarbonization by helping to move clean energy projects to implementation on the legal side

Sara Cody entered Yale with the goal of pursuing a career in environmental litigation. However, her studies in the joint degree program at the Yale School of the Environment and Pace University’s Elisabeth Haub School of Law led her in a different direction. Her courses gave her a deeper understanding of environmental economics — and the inseparability of market forces and climate change mitigation, she said. 

“My focus has shifted to more affirmative decarbonization efforts,” Cody said.

After she graduates, Cody would like to work with clean energy companies on legal agreements that allow them to build out key environmental infrastructure projects.

Goal: Quantifying and communicating the impacts of climate change on public health 

Phoebe Merrick believes that she can have the most impact on climate mitigation efforts by communicating more directly to the public about how climate change affects human health. Using the data visualization skills she learned at Yale, Merrick plans to pursue work in quantitative analysis and climate communication, helping to display data in ways that are accessible to the general public. 

“We talk about the economic reasons to mitigate climate change, but we don’t talk as often about the health benefits,” she said.  “I think that there's a place to move health communications to the forefront.”

Goal: Reducing corporate supply chain emissions

Vermont is the third-most forested state of the U.S. mainland, with approximately 4.5 million acres of forestland covering nearly 80% of its territory. After witnessing the destructive effects of mining activity on the state’s forests, Colby Richardson’ 25 MEM, who grew up in the rural town of Thetford, was inspired to study environmental policy in college.

Richardson spent several years working in environmental consulting and at an online renewable energy marketplace. He came to YSE with the goal of deepening his quantitative skills to build a business case for sustainability, and last summer he interned at The Coca-Cola Company, where he focused on the company’s sustainability strategy. After graduating, Richardson would like to continue working to reduce supply chain emissions.

Goal: Mitigate climate change through carbon dioxide removal

In her first semester at the Yale School of the Environment, Olivia Rhodes ’25 MEM took a class in carbon dioxide removal (CDR). The class changed the direction of her studies.

Rhodes arrived at YSE with a desire to focus on energy after a stint at a bioenergy firm, but when she learned of CDR’s potential for helping to abate greenhouse gas emissions, she saw an opportunity in a growing field.

“At the rate we're going without reducing our overall emissions, there's going to be a bigger need for it with every passing year,” Rhodes said. “CDR is an area that's very much still being created.”

Over the past seven years, George Gemelas ’18, '21 MEM has worked to educate people, mainly young Americans, about climate change, clean energy, and carbon dividends—the policy of putting a price on carbon emissions and returning the money directly to the people.

As a fellow at the Mitch Daniels Leadership Foundation, a development program for young professionals, Gemelas launched Build Clean Indiana to accelerate the clean energy transition in Indiana and inform fellow Hoosiers of business opportunities made available by continuing to grow the state’s clean economy. “Our strong business environment, our pragmatism, and our excellence in agriculture and industry will be needed to meet our country’s environmental challenges.”

Washington state is aiming to eliminate or offset its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Mike Johnson ‘16 MEM heads the auction process of the state’s cap-and-invest program, which has generated massive revenue for investments in climate resiliency, clean transportation, and other community programs.

“Washington taking action on climate change through a market-based approach not only creates financial incentives to reduce emissions but also drives innovation in energy production and carbon removal — whether through natural processes or engineered solutions. Our goal is an economy-wide transition away from carbon fuels, toward more efficient, equitable, and sustainable solutions.”

Siria Gámez tracks big cats — all the way up 80-foot trees.  A doctoral student in YSE's Applied Wildlife Ecology lab, Gámez had special training to set up camera traps in the tree canopy of the El Triunfo Biosphere to examine how jaguars, pumas, and other carnivores use vertical spaces in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains in Mexico.

“This particular region of Mexico is quite understudied,” says Gámez. “We’re exploring how these animals survive in this three-dimensional forest structure.”

Goal: Engage in sustainable business and development projects that empower local communities

Ever since she was a child, Mahica Iyer ’25 MEM has straddled two worlds: She grew up amid the glittering towers of Dubai, UAE. The community in her hometown of Mumbai, meanwhile, experienced frequent power outages, a scarcity of clean water, and poor waste management. Iyer later attended college in Illinois and then went on to work as a consultant in supply chain sustainability.

Researching natural ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Ben Girgenti ’22 MESc tested whether adding minerals to wetland ecosystems can reduce biological methane emissions. After adding iron to the soil of mini wetlands, Girgenti found that methane was reduced by the mineral enhancement.

“If you’re building or using wetlands for natural carbon capture, you could shut off or decrease methane emissions, reducing the amount of time it takes for wetlands to begin having new sequestration of carbon,” Girgenti says.

Goal: Advancing Ghana’s transition to a net-zero economy

Benedicta Asiedu ’25 MEM has witnessed profound economic transformation in her home country of Ghana. It is one of the world’s largest exporters of gold, and it exports agricultural goods, most significantly cacao, to global markets. Since 2007, when oil in commercial quantities was first discovered, Ghana has also become a producer and exporter of crude oil. These three commodities alone have helped the country move from the edge of economic collapse three decades ago to, as the World Bank declared in 2019, the world’s fastest growing economy. (This growth has since slowed.)

Goal: Merge finance and water management for a more just and secure water future

According to the World Bank, the Global South could lose up to 6% of its GDP by 2050 due to water scarcity, with women and the poor most vulnerable.

Srishti Singh ’25 MEM is well aware of these, and many other, water-related challenges, as she most recently worked at India’s Central Pollution Control Board, where she was the sole social scientist on a team of physical scientists. “I realized I needed interdisciplinary training to become an effective leader in the water and climate space,” she says. “This led me to Yale.”

After Rae Wynn-Grant ’10 MESc studied bears in the Nevada mountains, the National Geographic Society sent her to conduct similar work with the American Prairie Reserve in the grasslands of Montana — a region where bears are not common.

The nonprofit is seeking create a national wildlife refuge. Wynn-Grant began working with carnivores while at YSE, tracking lions in Tanzania. She has leaned on her expertise to predict which habitats will attract bears, using state and federal data and camera traps to monitor bear movements and habitats.

Forests help mitigate climate change because of their ability to remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but they become carbon emitters during wildfires. PhD student Reid Lewis '20 MF is researching how satellite data and machine learning models can help fire-prone forests become more resilient.

“When we make these forests more fire resilient, we can not only store more carbon, we can also help protect human communities, foster wildlife habitat, safeguard watersheds, and can use the process of restoration to partner with and empower Indigenous nations,” says Lewis.

In July, Indonesia hosted the Y20 Summit, an annual gathering of youth leaders from G20 nations. This year's summit emphasized a sustainable and livable planet, and its recommendations will be presented at the upcoming G20 Summit in November. Caroline Tasirin ’19 MFS — a lecturer in the forestry program at Indonesia’s Sam Ratulangi University and co-founder of SULUT Semangat, a program that empowers Indonesian youths to connect with nature — represented the host nation and served as co-chair of the selection committee for Indonesia. “I'm proud to have contributed my insight and honored to collaborate with diverse youth leaders,” she says.