School of Nursing

Jessica LeClair with advisor Susan Zahner, DrPH, RNR, FAAN, associate dean for faculty affairs and Vilas Disinguished Achievement Professor

LeClair, BSN, MPH, is a doctoral student and clinical faculty member with the School of Nursing, where she is integrating the concepts of planetary health and environmental health into academic  courses. She  holds an affiliate appointment with the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. LeClair  has worked as a public health nurse for Public Health Madison and Dane County and as a community health nurse for the Ho-Chunk Nation. She co-chairs the Sustainable Madison Committee for the city and co-chairs the Global Nurses Climate Change Committee for the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. Her research explores how to build the capacity of nurses to work in the context of planetary health with a focus on environmental justice.

College of Letters & Science

Pearly Wong with advisor Maria Lepowsky, Ph.D., professor, Anthropology

Pearly Wong is a third year doctoral student in Cultural Anthropology and Environment and Resources. Her current research interest is in development, environment, sustainability and intersectionality, through a decolonizing lens. Wong’s dissertation examines changing discourses and practices of development and sustainability by community actors in Nepal in the context of rapid socio-ecological transformation, including climate change.

Wong is particularly interested in looking at development as experienced through the intersection of gender and caste in semi-rural Kathmandu Valley. She is also looks at how resources are mobilized with and for these discourses and practices. She will focus on how insights at her field site converge or diverge from the rhetoric of ‘sustainability’ prominent in the development field today.

College of Agricultural and Life Sciences

Martin Ventura with advisor Susan Paskewitz, Ph.D., M.A., chair, Entomology; director, Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector Borne Disease

Ventura is a master’s student in Entomology exploring biodiversity and efficiency in systems for raising insects for human food and animal feed. He is a member of the Mission to Improve Global Health Through insects, MIGHTi,  research project. Ventura is dedicated to broadening the scope and scale of insect agriculture worldwide as a contribution toward addressing the complex problem of food insecurity. The principal aim of his laboratory research is to formulate low-cost insect feeds derived from common crop residues such as maize stover and straw that have been inoculated with edible fungus.

College of Engineering

Jonathan Lala with advisor Paul Block, Ph.D., M.S., associate professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Lala is a doctoral student in Civil Engineering. His research focuses on the intersection of climate, water and human development, particularly through the use of climate forecasts for informed management of water resources. Lala’s research has spanned three continents and ranges from natural disaster preparedness to agricultural planning and effective communication of risk. He plans to focus his Planetary Health Scholarship work  on using forecasts to ensure household food security and reduce poverty for agricultural stakeholders.

Colleges of Letters & Science, Agricultural and Life Sciences

Ben Iuliano with advisor Claudio Gratton, Ph.D., professor, Entomology

Iuliano is a doctoral student in the Department of Integrative Biology and a master’s student in the Agroecology program, researching how to make agricultural landscapes healthier for people and the rest of nature. His interests lie at the intersection of insect conservation, sustainable agriculture and political ecology. He studies biological pest control by lady beetles in Southern Wisconsin, seeking to understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of this important ecosystem service.

College of Engineering

Ramin Ghamkhar with advisor Andrea Hicks, Ph.D., M.S., assistant professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Ghamkhar is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering with a minor in Sustainability. His work focuses on the food-energy-water nexus and sustainability of food production systems. He uses the Life Cycle Assessment approach to evaluate the environmental impacts of different food production processes such as aquaponics. He is also compiling economic analysis and mapping techniques to incorporate fiscal and spatial parameters in the quantitative sustainability evaluations.