People, Equity, and the Environment

Switzer Fellow Wes Gobar '24 MEM aims to focus on state-level climate justice issues.

From a young age, Kroon Cup winner Jess Jones realized that sustainable land stewardship could help heal what ails the environment and humanity. 

Hosted by YSE's Justice, Equity, Diversity and Sustainability Initiative (JEDSI), the conference drew 320 in-person registrations and 166 virtual registrations from across the U.S. and the world.

After 25 years leading the novel initiative they co-founded, the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology’s Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim will be retiring from teaching this spring, but the field of study they created continues to grow worldwide.

YSE Class of ’23: With a background in ecology, Neeti Jain seeks to expand the voices in conservation through more inclusive storytelling.

Gabriel Gadsden’s doctoral research on “social-ecological landscapes of fear” wins the 2023 F. Herbert Bormann Prize. The study published in BioScience examines how negative human histories can limit scientific lines of inquiry and challenges environmental scholars to reckon with biases.

Michel Gelobter’s career has included positions in government, academia, business, and advocacy, even a stint as de facto ‘policy wonk.’ Now, he is bringing his broad-based expertise to the Yale Center for Environmental Justice as its inaugural executive director.

A new study by the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Sustainability Initiative (JEDSI) at the Yale School of the Environment examined nearly $5 billion in grants awarded by 220 foundations in 35  states and found that several of the largest mainstream environmental organizations received more funding individually than all the environmental justice organizations combined.

In an address held at YSE on Monday, January 23, Nyeema C. Harris, Knobloch Family Associate Professor of Wildlife and Land Conservation, paid tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of impactful systems change using the principals of ecology as an analogy.

How to balance shared stewardship, co-management, and tribal sovereignty to protect and sustain more than 100 million acres of Indigenous lands in the U.S.  is a fundamental question in conservation. Pat Gonzales-Rogers, a former director and current consultant for the Bears Ears Coalition, has brought his deep experience on these issues to the Yale School of the Environment this year. 

Highlighted by a keynote address by Georgetown Professor Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò on climate reparations, the annual Global Environmental Justice Conference explored difficult environmental justice issues including the growing scale of climate refugees, the burden food insecurity places on women, and implementing cultural preservation measures in climate action.

Gabriela Rodriguez ’23 MEM has been named a recipient of the Switzer Environmental Fellowship, a prestigious program that supports future environmental leaders.

YSE Associate Dean for International Engagement Gordon Geballe is retiring after a nearly 50-year affiliation with the School and Yale. He is known for always keeping students at the center, his ability to build community and befriend everyone in the room, and his dedication to New Haven.

Returning to her native Brooklyn, Lovinia Reynolds is graduating from YSE with an eye on climate justice in the largest city in the U.S.

A childhood appreciation of South Florida’s dunes and mangroves led Kristina Rodriguez to become deeply invested in conserving the state’s coastal ecosystems for future generations.