Co-sponsored by GMU’s Graduate Division and the Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE), the 2025 Sustainability Summer Fellowships for Graduate Research Partnerships program provided financial support and professional development to doctoral students who worked with local to global partner organizations on applied research projects. This opportunity is designed to connect students with organizations making a positive impact on our world. Together, students and partner organizations identify and implement co-creative research and action priorities for the summer semester, allowing students to gain valuable experience and organizational access that they can also leverage in their dissertation work and beyond.
During their summer placements, the grad student research fellows simultaneously participated in a 6-part professional development series, enabling them to process their research placement experiences, build community, learn with and from each other, and gain valuable insights from an all-star group of guest speakers comprised of faculty and administrative leaders across GMU. Topics included research impact pathways, translational research, graduate fellowship and funding opportunities, research innovation and ethical considerations, and exploring different career pathways.
Congratulations to our Summer Grad Fellows for completing their placements and contributing to the advancement of sustainability science-in-action. Many thanks to the wonderful project/partner mentors, faculty advisors, guest speakers, and our funding and administrative partner (GMU’s Graduate Division) who made this program possible.
Summer Grad Research Fellow Projects, Partnerships, and Mentor/Advisory Teams
Note: Read descriptions of the projects online here.
Project: City of Fairfax Urban Forestry Program— Stewardship Mapping and Assessment (STEW-Map) Project
Grad Student Fellow: Neha Gour, PhD student in Communication; College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Partner: City of Fairfax Urban Forestry
Mentor: Anna Safford, Urban Forester
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Xiaoquan Zhao, Department of Communications, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Project: Future Earth Australia Nature Positive Summit
Grad Student Fellow: Gideon Ameh, PhD student in Bioscience; College of Science/School of Systems Biology
Partner: Future Earth Australia Nature-Positive initiatives
Mentor: Kate Nairn and Danielle Celermajer, Australian National Academy of Science
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Amira Roess, Department of Global and Community Health, College of Public Health
Project: Sustainable Lifestyles Handbook Project
Grad Student Fellow: Meng (Casey) Yuan, PhD Student in Earth Systems and Geoinformation Sciences; College of Science
Partner: Systems of Sustainable Consumption and Production Knowledge Action Network
Mentor: Maurie Cohen, Professor and Chair, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Donglian Sun, Geography & Geoinformation Science Department, College of Science
Project: Global Mountain Biodiversity Thesaurus – Chinese Language Text Analysis
Grad Student Fellow: Yuan Yue, PhD student in Env Science & Public Policy; College of Science, Dept of Env Science & Public Policy
Partner: Future Earth, Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA)
Mentor: Davnah Urbach, GMBA executive director and Mark Snethlage, University of Bern
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Christophe E. Clarke, Department of Communications, College of Humanities & Social Science
Project: Global Mountain Biodiversity Thesaurus – Spanish Language Text Analysis
Grad Student Fellow: Juliana Maria Villa, PhD student in Communication; College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Partner: Future Earth, Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA)
Mentor: Davnah Urbach, GMBA executive director and Mark Snethlage, University of Bern
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Daniel Hanley, Biology Department, College of Science
Project: Chickahominy Tribe Community Partnership (continued project partnership)
Grad Student Fellow: Charles Sterling, PhD student in Env Science & Public Policy; College of Science, Dept of Env Science & Public Policy
Partner: ISE partnership with Chickahominy Indian Tribe
Mentor: Dana Adkins, Environmental Director
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Dann Sklarew, Environmental Science & Policy Department, College of Science
For more information about the ISE Summer program, contact ISE Associate Director Dr. Julianna Gwiszcz ([email protected]).