YSE Alumni Association Award Winners
Meet the accomplished alumni who were recognized at YSE Reunion 2025 for their outstanding environmental work — including enacting federal policy to decarbonize the economy, advancing ecological research, and shaping international climate frameworks.
Steering Historic Climate Legislation
As chief of staff for the Office of Domestic Climate Policy in the Biden Administration and special assistant to the president for climate, Maggie Thomas ’15 MEM was charged with overseeing the enactment of the $550 billion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided more than $370 billion to advance the clean energy transition.
Thomas, who received the Prospect Street Award from YSE, says many people cautioned her that implementing the legislation in a relatively short time frame simply could not be done, but she worked to overcome each challenge to move the initiatives into action, helping to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in energy systems, electric vehicles, and construction of roads, bridges, and ports.
The lessons she learned in the White House have proven to be helpful in her work now as a consultant on environmental issues amid a changing federal landscape. She says there are many paths to decarbonizing the economy — such as state and local action — that can break through barriers.
“There are a lot of different ways to wield power. The climate is built on fluid systems, and we shouldn’t just take the same approaches as in the past. We need to be as creative as possible. We need to constantly be thinking outside the box,” she says.
Driving Global Forest Solutions
When the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami devastated communities across Indonesia, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka and damaged tens of thousands of hectares of coastal forests, Susan Braatz ’80 MFS coordinated the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) regional forestry program for early rehabilitation.
It is just one example of the breadth and impact of Braatz’s 35-year career. From disaster recovery to shaping international climate frameworks, she has dedicated her career to linking science, policy, and community action to build resilient forests worldwide. Over the years, Braatz, who received the Distinguished Alumni Award from YSE, has focused on bridging the gap between high-level international forest policy and on-the-ground realities.
“A driving force in my professional career was always to approach issues from a wide perspective. Sometimes change is driven from the bottom up and sometimes from the top down. But you need both working together,” she says.
Beyond her professional roles, Braatz remains engaged in environmental conservation at the local level as a member of the board of directors of the N.Y-based New Suffolk Waterfront Fund.
She advises the next generation of climate leaders to gain broad exposure and practical experience.
“Expose yourself to as many factors of environmental management as possible. You have to get things technically right, but you absolutely need policy buy-in,” she says.
Connecting Nature and People
As a nationally acclaimed plant ecologist with a particular gift for systems thinking, Jim Coleman ’85, ’85 MPhil, ’87 PhD has focused on the links between science and humanity — making connections where others may not see any.
He was one of the first scientists to connect plant ecology with molecular biology, earning him a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award. He has published more than 80 research papers that have been cited more than 10,000 times, and he has overseen $260 million in research as principal investigator. His decades of work on the ecological effects of environmental change have contributed foundational research in the field. For his work, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from YSE.
Coleman’s career has included many administrative positions around the country serving as dean and provost, including at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He says his academic roles, including teaching, have been his most fulfilling work. He is particularly proud of developing infrastructure to support the retention of undergraduates.
At age 59, Coleman learned that he is autistic. His characteristics have helped him connect with his students. “I don’t know how to be anything but genuine, and one of the benefits of this is that people can see the good in you,” Coleman says.
