Daniel Hellerstein writes: “After 32 years of working at USDA as an ag/environmental economist, I retired in January 2023 (though I work occasional gigs on pollinator and other issues). I happily fritter away my time writing php/js code (investment performance simulation, photo display, etc. ... ) using my not-quite-obsolete skill sets. Walks in the local woods, Celtics on TV, etc., etc. (don't travel much). The kids are working but unmarried (where did I go wrong?). Wife still works, she is afraid of lacking meaning in life if she retires.”  

Cyril “CJ” May writes: “Although I mostly perform recycling magic for public schools as part of my job with Waterbury Public Works, I am also enjoying developing more water-focused enviromagic in the form of ‘Once Upon a River.’ In this fairytale magic show, a boy is offered riches and potions if he helps a conjurer steal a river. I also enjoy weaving together magic and environmental messages with other Cyril the Sorcerer performances and for professionals and other grown-ups with Better World Magic. Still living in New Haven, I welcome all Foresters back for a beer and a visit!”

Jen Lamb writes: “Hello, Everyone! I remain rooted at the base of the Wind River Mountains in west central Wyoming, where I'm in my 12th year at The Nature Conservancy. I had the joy of hiking in the Winds for a day this past fall with Chip Isenhart ’91 and Jill (Bermingham) Isenhart ’91, catching up on 30+ years of life, and have also spent many fun hours with Sarah Millham watching ski races near her home Park City, Utah. It’s a gift to stay connected! Look me up if you head to Yellowstone!

Kirsten Struve writes: “Hi everyone, I continue to live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my family. I am working as the assistant officer of the water supply division at the Santa Clara Valley Water District, our county’s water resource agency (wholesale water supplier, groundwater manager, flood protection, and watershed stewardship). The water supply division works on long range water supply planning, recycled water and potable reuse, water conservation, and drought response. Never a dull moment.”

Josh Foster writes: “I just passed 30 years working on climate change adaptation, initially working for NOAA in Washington, D.C., but leaving in 2008. After working on climate advocacy at the Center for Clean Air policy in D.C., I took a Rooseveltian-like sojourn in the west at Oregon State University. I returned to the D.C. metro area (DMV) in 2018, becoming climate resilience policy lead for the Maryland Department of Transportation. I started at Versar, Inc. last October as senior program manager for coastal climate resilience. Our main client is the DoD, that not only is adapting their missions to climate change, but also helping communities adjacent to bases and worldwide to become more climate resilient. In my travels, I adopted a dog in Oregon, married a wife in D.C., and bought a house in Maryland. I saw YSE alums Lisa (Lumbao) Pagkalinawan ’92 and her husband, Dale, while they were visiting D.C. in July 2022 from the Philippines, along with Susan Pultz ’92, who also joined us. Hope to see other alums in the DMV as life continues to evolve!”

Margaret Williams writes: “In 2022, a gang of 1993 classmates met up in Pepperell, Massachusetts, my hometown, where we explored the Nashua River watershed, met local conservation leaders, and celebrated 30 years of friendship. Our news: Ann Tartre is running her own business, which advises a variety of companies on sustainable practices; I stepped down from being director of WWF’s Arctic program after 25 years; Lois Morrison is advising a family foundation on environmental program investments in the greater Chicago area; Susan Helms is active in Brookline, Massachusetts, civic affairs while ushering her children out of high school into college; and after a long career in science communications (most recently with Boston University’s Pardee Center), Cynthia Barakatt is now volunteering with a local nonprofit and teams up with her husband Rich Bizozzero in managing a tree farm in Vermont.”

David Publicover writes: “I recently retired after 31 years as senior staff scientist for the Appalachian Mountain Club, based in the heart of the White Mountain National Forest. My work focused on applied research and public policy engagement in New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts, covering land conservation, management, and use. For 20 years, I have managed forest planning for AMC's Maine Woods Initiative, aiming to restore over 100,000 acres of forest to a natural state through a combination of reserves and conservative timber management. I also oversaw AMC's engagement with forest carbon markets, developing three projects. The opportunity to put Aldo Leopold's Group B forestry into practice is a privilege I couldn’t have imagined when I graduated. I have had the pleasure of working with and learning from many YSE graduates in New England, including (but not limited to!) Steve Blackmer ’83, Jennifer Melville ’89, Kathy Fallon Lambert ’92, Bob Perschel ’79 MFS, Kenny Fergusson, Bob Seymour ’80, and Bill Keeton ’94. Several classmates have remained among my oldest and closest friends.”

Gregory Harris writes: “I am now a graduate student and researcher at the University of Minnesota, where I am on a team investigating the diversity and dynamics of decaying trees in mixed pine, northern hardwood, and oak savanna cover types of the Lake States Region. We are studying the role of standing dead trees in forest carbon management as well as species-specific decay patterns and factors affecting their longevity. Our goal is to develop silvicultural guidelines for managing the deadwood component of these forest ecosystems, i.e., ‘morticulture.’”

Carolyn Mayer Hope writes: “I was fortunate enough to start my new job the same day as President Obama, and watch the inauguration too. I am now a senior park planner for the City of Richmond, Washington, the high tech capital of the world and home of more than 25 miles of developed trails and 1,000 acres of parks. I am also a newly appointed King County trustee for the Cascade Land Conservancy, an active volunteer for the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, and a member of the City of Shoreline’s Citizens Trails Advisory Committee and Long-Range Financial Planning Committee. I am still loving life in the Seattle area with Paul, Cormac, and Blaze.” 

Lindsey (Brace) Martinez writes: “Peter and I live in Dedham and our two boys have flown the coop, both currently living in Maine. Thankfully, we all share a love of the outdoors and enjoyed some good hikes in New Hampshire and Vermont this winter. The apple hasn’t fallen too far from the tree as McQuillen (22) is a sustainability analyst and Rhodes (20) is an environmental science and philosophy major at Colby. I get to connect with fellow Yalies through the Center for Business and Environment at Yale and have been running StarPoint Advisors for almost a decade. I am rotating off two sustainable finance boards this summer, so keep me in mind if you have any ideas!”

Jessica (Eskow) McGlyn writes: “I’m working remotely from Playa Venao, Panama, as director of corporate and partner engagement for Science Based Targets Network and also leadership coaching. When not at work, I'm surfing these awesome waves and admiring all the wildlife here.”

Nicola Robins writes: “Been head down writing a book. It’s the true story of how an ancient cognitive technology found its way into the boardrooms of some of Africa’s largest and most powerful corporations. It is also a philosophical critique of sustainability informed by ‘what science requires,’ which generally assumes that Western science is the only science that matters. I hope to have found a publisher by the time this is posted. Our daughter, Kim, is eight years old. She, Steve, and I still live on Porcupine Ridge in the Deep South Cape Peninsula, South Africa. Book has been all consuming but we are finally getting back to the kelp forest.”

Nick Shufro writes: “I continue to lead FEMA’s risk assessments — natural, man-made, and technological hazards — as we view resilience as sustainability 2.0. In my role, I spend a lot of time collaborating with Juli Trtanj at NOAA federal actions to combat climate change and extreme heat. Now an official snowbird splitting my time between Avon, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., and Sarasota, Florida. Next adventure is joining 6,000 bike riders to raise $72 million for my third Pan Mass Challenge (290-mile bike ride across Massachusetts to raise money for pediatric cancer research in August 2024). Would be great to catch up so please give me a call if in Sarasota in the winter, Avon in the summer, or D.C.”

Graham Trelstad writes: “Julie and I celebrated Lizzy's and Ellie's 30th birthdays in February. A lot has happened in the last 30 years and no year seemed to be more challenging than last year. Lizzy and Ellie both got married, bringing us much joy. Unfortunately, Lizzy's husband lost his battle with pancreatic cancer soon after their wedding, giving us much sadness. My work as an environmental impact practitioner became more complex as changes to the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Historic Preservation Act (among others) upended decades of understanding and what passed for stability. Julie remains at the forefront of the publishing world. I find balance in my photography (@gtrelstad; grahamtrelstad.com) and travel. Caring for cats at home and volunteering at an animal shelter helps ground me. Julie and I are thinking of what’s next and hope to reconnect at our 30th reunion to share notes.”

Fabio Vancini writes: “I am still happily living in France with my wonderful family and am recently plugged back into the wider Yale alumni network here. Any YSEers in the Paris region? After more than two decades in the global consulting sector up to partner level, I decided to make a positive pivot to set up my own company leveraging an ever-expanding network in the green tech, startup, and investor communities. Worthwhile and exciting stuff. We work with investors in Europe, U.S., and elsewhere — don’t hesitate to contact me. On the fun front, in the last few years I’ve dived into regular singing lessons and discovered how much I enjoy it, even performing casually here and there (lyrical Italian opera, crooner jazz, other ... ). I am not quitting my day job just yet but am having a ball.”

Jane Whitehill writes: “I’m continuing satisfying work in drug development and satisfying troublemaking in politics. Lyman visits here in New York and I visit him in Chicago. And I’ll be in Madrid in the spring; a friend is giving a talk at a meeting.”

Dwight Barry writes: “Hi from Seattle! I’m still a data scientist at Seattle Children’s Hospital, been there almost a decade now and still loving the work.”

Nina Rooks Cast writes: “Best thing about being a science teacher is the ability to travel over the summer! I teach both physics and chemistry now and spent four amazing weeks this past summer with my nephew and five incredible weeks on a teacher program in India the summer before. I teach in Providence, so challenging on multiple levels, but after 22 years I’m still never bored, so success by personal definition. I still live in the woods in southern Rhode Island, in a house that I designed and my husband built, with our current dog, Bella. I plan on attending the Class of ’94 Reunion, so any ’95 folk who want to get together, let me know!” 

Kerry Kaneda Meyer writes: “My journey in clay began five years ago and this past March/April (2024) I was privileged to be an artist-in-residence at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado. My work ranges from a meditation on botanical forms and symmetries in nature to the tension between the organic and man-made. What can I produce that either highlights a concern or prompts a conversation about current issues affecting the environment and ecosystems? NB: A tangential leap from environmental and natural resource economics ;). To view my work please visit my website: www.kerrykanedameyerceramics.com and/or follow me @kerrykm_ceramics.” 

David Casagrande writes: “I live on a homestead in rural Pennsylvania and teach at Lehigh University, where I'm studying climate adaptation, including managed retreat as public policy. I spent the last two fall semesters running an environmental studies program for first-semester Lehigh students. Ecuador is an amazing place to experience biodiversity and culture.” 

Andi Eicher writes: “Hi Friends! My wife, Dr. Sheba, and I just completed four years working with Asha Kiran Society (www.AshaKiranSociety.org) in a remote and beautifully hilly part of Odisha state, India. Sheba is involved in community health, especially with people caring for family members with long-term illness, disability, or receiving palliative care. I support our community health work teams, our mother tongue primary education work, and our Flourishing Farmer movement, where we are seeking to scale up an organic-input agroforestry model and link it with community watershed management. We are thrilled to have our daughter, Asha, with us this year teaching English and have built and moved into a beautiful house. Our son, Enoch, is in his third year of journalism school at Taylor University, and our foster son, Yohan, is with us helping on our artisanal bamboo toy-making team. We haven't had any Yale School of Environment friends stop by so far — please do come!”

Ali Jalili writes: “I continue to love doing not much as the retiree trailing spouse to my wife, Courtney Chubb, who is the USAID mission director in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We have really enjoyed our time in Sarajevo, and for the last 27 years or so, in the Foreign Service. We lived and traveled all over, but I'm super psyched for us to ‘settle down’ finally, which we will do when Courtney retires at the end of the year. We will split time between Burlington, Vermont (warmer months), and St. Petersburg, Florida (colder months), both recommended cool cities. Our older son graduated from UVM last May and is living and working in Vermont. Our younger son is a junior math major at Carleton College in Minnesota. I look forward to (re)connecting with friends wherever we may run into each other. Get in touch if you’re in Vermont or the Tampa Bay area!” 

Alison Ormsby writes: “Alison Ormsby is now the forest specialist with Adventure Scientists, a non-profit organization doing community science projects around the world. Alison is designing several projects, ranging from biodiversity monitoring to timber tracking. Volunteers always welcomed.”

José Juan Terrasa-Soler writes: “I traveled a bit last summer with my daughter, Sara Lauren, before sending her off to college. This past academic year, I was busy hosting architecture and landscape architecture design studios in Puerto Rico (Yale, Harvard, Rutgers, and City College of New York) and offering lectures on the landscapes of the island. I was also appointed to serve in the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) National Climate Action Committee. This year’s agenda for the Committee includes climate justice and equity topics.”

Bruce Slater writes: “Well, it’s been a wild ride since graduating. After over a decade in horticultural supplies and distribution, I transitioned to environmental law, eventually broadening into general practice. From there I was selected to the position of magistrate for the state of Virginia. I retired from the law and went full speed into the arts. I’ve authored a poetry book, ‘Of Life and Magic,’ focused on environmental themes, and written three plays, two of which, ‘Dilemma of Escape’ and ‘Chaos of Spirit,’ were commercially produced. Another play, ‘The Ecstasy of Desperation,’ is slated for production later this year. Additionally, I've designed environmentally themed apparel and artwork available online (Humanitycollection.org) and opened an online art gallery (Slaterfineart.com). Currently, I am writing a large table book, ‘The Color of Life,’ which I hope to finish before the next ice age. I have one wife, three daughters, two sons-in-law, and six grandchildren … I think.”

Sylvia (Stone) Busby writes: “Last year, Maureen Cunningham and her family came to California during spring break and we got to spend a few days with them enjoying tacos and ramen and bibimbap here in San Diego!”

Christie Pollet-Young writes: “I am excited to lead a new division at SCS Global Services as vice president of climate, where I will continue the team’s work as verifiers of carbon offset projects and programs ranging from REDD and improved forest management to regenerative ag, plastics, EVs, and various industrial and manufacturing processes. Other programs will be focused on the verification of voluntary and mandatory carbon footprints, environmental and social safeguards, and other sustainability metrics. I remain based in the Bay Area and have developed a passion for rock climbing (sometimes with the kids!). In 2022, I visited April Reese in her new home in Portugal and was delightfully joined by Laura (Dunleavy) Nelms where a highlight was a 120km stint on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela!”