Knowledge & leadership for a sustainable future

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.”

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.

At YSE, Hardik Pokhrel ’21 MEM focused on the intersection of finance and energy.

“One of the most impactful experiences I had was the ‘Renewable Energy Project Finance’ course — it remains incredibly relevant to what I do every day. Courses like ‘Renewable Energy and Energy Systems,’ combined with the school’s network and resources, prepared me to take on the challenges of decarbonizing some of the most emissions-intensive sectors of the economy.”

Pokhrel says he regularly applies the skills he acquired at YSE in his work at Sol Systems, a renewable energy firm delivering sustainable solutions for corporations, utilities, and institutions.

As a PhD student at the Yale School of the Environment, Helen Siegel ’19 MEM, ’24 PhD spent three years collecting groundwater samples across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia to better understand the sources and risks of contamination in the northern Appalachian Basin. Her research revealed that while fracking wasn’t the primary culprit, pollution from waste spills, road salt, and mine drainage posed serious risks  which are shaped, in part,  by local geology. 

Now a postdoctoral fellow at The University of Texas at Austin, Siegel partners with underserved communities to study PFAS exposure and co-create practical, locally informed solutions rooted in equity.

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. 

For Maxwell Webster ’17 MEM, parks have always been more than places to play — they’re spaces for connection, creativity, and self-care. As the new director of New Haven Parks , he is leading efforts to reimagine parks as centers of climate resilience, food production, and community support, while preserving their role as beloved neighborhood gathering spots. Rooted in both personal experience and professional training from the Yale School of the Environment, his vision is focused on equity, adaptability, and meeting the evolving needs of New Haven’s diverse communities.

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: 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: 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.”

Kelly McGlinchey ’23 MEM views  kelp not only as a nutrient-dense food option,  but also as a tool for building climate resilience and advancing sustainable coastal community development. As a student at the Yale School of Environment, she  co-authored a report, ‘Surf to Turf,’ that bridged the gap between regenerative agriculture and restorative aquaculture and directly informed local infrastructure planning in Stonington, Connecticut. Her research helped secure a $172,000 USDA grant to expand kelp processing capacity, benefiting both land and sea farmers. Now a sustainability strategist at Quantis, McGlinchey continues to advise global food brands while remaining deeply committed to strengthening regional food systems through partnership, innovation, and place-based solutions.

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.”

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.

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.”

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.