The alumni in the 4+1 ENVS MS program are an impressive group, demonstrating the breadth of research opportunities available for an ENVS graduate student. The 5-year program offers students an in-depth understanding of the complexities of scientific evidence in both the natural and social sciences. The undergraduate preparation and graduate curriculum support independent research, with close supervision and collaboration with an ENVS graduate faculty member. Student research opportunities are broad and reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the Department on Environmental Sciences (ENVS), including research in air pollution, climate change, conservation, development, ecology, health and resource management.
The MS in Environmental Sciences prepares students to follow many paths. Students may use the degree as preparation for a doctoral program. Others may use the MS as a springboard for a careers across a spectrum of professional opportunities – governmental, non-governmental, non-profit, etc.
We could not be more proud of the students who have completed the 4+1 in ENVS! Read on to learn more about the 4+1 alumni, their work at Emory and what they are doing now.
After her graduation from the Laney Graduate School, Halle spent a year with the UN Environment Programme before moving back to Georgia to become the Community Projects Coordinator for the City of Savannah. Halle’s time at Emory was enriched as a participant in the Emory Climate Talks group that attended the UNFCCC COP in Katowice, Poland in 2018. Especially important for Halle during her time on campus was her involvement in residence life and her service as a Residence Hall Director on campus. Halle defended her master’s thesis, The Effect of a State’s Commitment on Policy Responsiveness of the Endangered Species Act,” in the spring of 2019.
Sahana is a PhD student at the University of California/San Diego in the lab of Professor Aspen Reese. Her doctoral research focuses on how animal-associated microbial contributions are balanced between host energy use and immune function and how these trade-offs change under infection in domestic animals. As a student at Emory, she conducted research in Professor Tom Gillespie’s lab. She received a National Geographic Young Explorers grant for her research in disease ecology that she conducted in Argentina. She completed her MS thesis on the “Prevalence and distribution of Giardia intestinalis genotypes in black and gold howler monkeys, Alouatta caraya, in relation to interspecies overlap and inter-annual variability in Northern Argentina”. Her publications are available on Google Scholar.
Mori was a trailblazer as the first undergraduate to apply and pursue the new 4+1 program in ENVS. Mori immersed herself in all that Emory had to offer. As an unofficial Tibetan Studies double-major, Mori’s work in ecology was much informed by her participation in Students for a Free Tibet and the China Tibet Initiative at Emory. She spent the spring of 2015 in Dharamsala, India in Tibetan Studies Abroad course. As a graduate student, Mori received the Charles Elias Shepherd scholarship from Emory to support her graduate work. Awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Research Grant in 2017, Mori spent a year working with the Snow Leopard Conservancy-India Trust after graduation, an extension of her master’s thesis, “Patterns of conflict and coexistence between agro-pastoralists and snow leopards in Ladakh, India.” Mori is now working as a conservation ecologist and holistic stewardship advocate in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is the Program Coordinator of the Santa Fe Watershed Association and the Land and Water Coordinator for the Quivira Coalition.
Department of Environmental Sciences 