2025 Switzer Fellows Advance Conservation and Sustainability Through Fashion, Agroforestry, and Community-Driven Policy

Yale School of Environment students addressing slow fashion, agroforestry adoption, and climate justice were selected as 2025 Switzer Fellows.

Maya Caine ’26 MEM, doctoral student Karam Sheban ’20 MF, and Sena Wazer ’26 MEM will each receive a $17,000 award for academic study and leadership training through the program and join a network of more than 700 fellows worldwide. The environmental fellowship program is a core program of the Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation, a non-profit organization that invests in individuals and organizations that drive positive environmental change across various disciplines.

With a corporate strategy and systems thinking background, Caine has spent the past seven years building slow and circular fashion solutions that challenge the industry’s dependence on overproduction and waste. Caine, who-co-founded Mive, a made-to-measure slow fashion marketplace that later evolved into circular design consultancy Mive Labs, previously worked at Nike.  There, she advanced circularity initiatives and textile waste reduction. Her focus at YSE is  on utilizing industrial ecology and green chemistry to advance the circular economy. She is currently developing Helix, a city-first fashion marketplace that preserves the human stories woven into pre-owned garments, with the goal of extending the life and value of clothing. She also  co-leads Moving the Needle, Yale’s sustainable fashion initiative, which supports student engagement and collaboration at the intersection of fashion, justice, and climate.

“I’m deeply grateful to join a community of changemakers who bring care, intellect, and purpose to their work. In a field that can often feel heavy, this fellowship offers a sense of belonging and strength that will support me academically, professionally, and emotionally,” Caine said.

After earning his bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University in 2014, Sheban, originally from the West Bank and raised in Ohio, served for three years as an AmeriCorps volunteer at Rural Action in Appalachian Ohio,  where he supported community-driven agroforestry projects. He earned a master’s in forestry from YSE in 2020, and co-founded the Northeast Forest Farmers Coalition, which provides training, funding, and resources to a diverse network of agroforestry practitioners across the Northeastern U.S.

Now a fourth-year doctoral candidate at YSE, Sheban, studies the ecological and policy dimensions of agroforestry systems. His research integrates forest and ecosystem ecology, horticulture, silviculture, and ethnobotany to explore how agroforestry can serve as a tool for environmental restoration and economic opportunity.

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“All environmental change starts with collaboration, and joining the Switzer network opens up a world of new partnerships and opportunities,” Sheban said. “I have a responsibility to use the resources available through the foundation to build on the agroforestry work I’ve been contributing to for a decade.”

Over the past five years, Wazer has worked for Sierra Club Connecticut, The Climate Reality Project, and Sunrise Movement Connecticut, where she gained valuable experience working on anti-pipeline and legislative advocacy campaigns. At YSE, Wazer concentrates on people, equity and the environment and climate science and solutions. Moving forward, she plans to continue focusing on community organizing as a mechanism for creating policy change, specifically at the state level.

“Particularly in this moment, where we are seeing such rapid and widespread rollbacks of environmental protections and climate action nationally, the opportunity to learn from others who are approaching environmental challenges from various angles is really exciting,” Wazer said.