EMI Fellows

EMI Fellows provide research and logistical support for a wide range of the Initiative's ongoing projects. At present, Fellows are involved with case study research, the design of the case study database, coordinating midcareer training courses, and website design and maintenance. Other projects include coordination of a speaker series and development of a series of case-studies for training workshops and mid-career educational programs. EMI Fellows are current graduate students in SNRE with academic and/or professional experience in ecosystem management.

Amanda Barker

Amanda is a first-year M.S. student at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment (SNRE), specializing in Environmental Policy and Planning.  She received her B.A. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis in 2004.  After, she was a Grants Coordinator for the Biology Department at Georgia State University.  From 2005-2008, Amanda served in Peace Corps Madagascar as a Parks and Agriculture Volunteer.  She worked extensively with a community park to promote transparent management practices, as well as develop community projects with a local farmers association, including permaculture and SRI (Système de Riz Intensification).  She also worked with the Andrew Lees Trust in Fianarantsoa, Madagascar, producing educational radio programming throughout Southern Madagascar with solar powered radios and listening groups.  Amanda’s interest in sustainable public and community land management brought her to work with the Ecosystems Management Initiative.

Ria Berns

Ria Berns is a first-year dual degreestudent pursuingan M.S. in Environmental Policy and Planning at the School of Natural Resources and Environment and an M.P.P. at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.  Before arriving in Michigan, Ria worked as anenvironmental policy consultant in Seattle where she advised state and federal environmental agencies on a range of issues including, lean and green manufacturing, clean diesel initiatives, Great Lakes water quality, and climate change strategy.  Growing up in Washington (State) and Alaska imparted upon Ria a love of wilderness and salt water.  Her primary policy interests center around these issues, specifically ocean and water policy, and climate change adaptation.  Ria received a B.A. in Political Science from Williams College in 2004.

 

Clayton Elliott

Clayton, a fourth generation Wyomingite, grew up on the eastern slope of the Greater YellowstoneEcosystem and spent his youth exploring, riding, and fishing some of the last wild placesinourcountry.  He attended his state’s only university, the University of Wyoming, receiving degrees inEconomics and Environment and Natural Resources in 2008.  While at the University of Michigan,Clayton is focusing his study on public land policy and natural resource conflict in the Intermountain West.  His master’s thesis explores the integration of mule deer management into the federal agency planning processes with regard to oil and gas leasing on the West’s public lands.  Over the past summer Clayton interned with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership working on these issues.  After graduation, Clayton looks forward to returning to the open spaces and rural communities of Wyoming.  He anticipates working for anadvocacy organization,mobilizing communities and hunting and fishing interests in protecting Wyoming’s wild landscapes and unique cultural heritage with contemporary pressures of development.

Michael Fainter

Michael Fainter is a Ph.D. student in the School of Natural Resources and Environment. He earned a Master’s in Environmental Planning at UC Berkeley and a Master’s in English at Virginia Tech. For several years, he worked as an environmental scientist for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program—a large, interdisciplinary, multi-agency, stakeholder-intensive process designed to restore the San Francisco Bay-Delta watershed while enhancing Bay-Delta water supplies. After leaving federal service, he joined a private science firm as a restoration planner, where he developed and implemented scientific studies and restoration plans for several California rivers and streams. He is experienced in designing restoration and research projects at several spatial scales, while incorporating ecosystem-based management and adaptive management into the project design. Michael’s research focuses on ecosystem-based management of fisheries and water resources.

Jason Good

Jason Good graduated from Longwood University with a B.S. in biology. After college, Jason worked in a variety of positions, from engineer to lab assistant to legal assistant. However, it was his most recent position, working as a fisheries observer in the groundfish fisheries off the coast of Oregon , Washington and in Alaska 's Bering Sea , that instilled in Jason the importance of environmental conflict management and collaboration. After three years of counting fish and managing environmental conflict one boat at a time, Jason began a master's degree program at the School of Natural Resources and Environment with a concentration in resource policy and behavior. Jason is interested in how the process of collaboration can be used to overcome environmental conflict and to further innovative approaches to conservation. Jason's thesis examines the influence of the Federal Advisory Committee Act on collaboration, with a focus on the Bureau of Land Management.

Matt Griffis

Matt is interested in public land planning and management, specifically in regards to protected areas. His research is focused on the siting of solar energy facilities in the California desert. He also completed an internship with the National Park Service at Golden Gate National Recreation Area, where he developed the park's ocean stewardship plan. Before graduate school, Matt was an outdoor skills instructor for the East Bay Regional Park District in Oakland, California. He has also worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and as a trail crew foreman and backpacking guide in northern New Mexico. Matt holds a BS in environmental sciences from the University of California, Berkeley.

Colin Hume

Originally from Seattle, Washington, Colin grew up hiking in the mountains and forests of the western U.S., developing a love for wild places. After earning a B.S. in Biology from Western Washington University, he spent several years working on wildlife surveys for the USDA Forest Service in Montana and California, and working for a NGO in Afghanistan. Additionally, Colin served as the Assistant Director for Snowboarding at Big Sky Resort, in Big Sky, Montana. Colin continues to focus on the conservation potential of both public and private lands, through development of best use and management practices in his Masters studies. Colin is part of a team of graduate researchers investigating marine ecosystem-based management initiatives throughout the world.  During the summer of 2009 he worked for the Huron River Watershed Council as a coordinator of their Bioreserve program, leading teams of volunteers on environmental assessments of natural areas throughout the watershed.

Jennifer Lee Johnson

Jennifer is a Ph.D student in the School of Natural Resources and Environment.  She employs interdisciplinary theory and methodology from anthropology, political ecology, history and fisheries science to analyze the interconnections between ecological and socio-economic, political and cultural change in the Lake Victoria Basin in East Africa.  Jennifer also conducts case study research on marine ecosystem-based management in the Wadden Sea in Northern Europe, the West Coast of the United States, the North American Great Lakes and on the East Coast of Africa.  Prior to beginning her graduate studies, Jennifer studied International Political Economy at the Colorado College and worked for the Marine Fish Conservation Network in Washington, DC.  While obtaining her M.S., Jennifer worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab and the Blue Ocean Institute.  Jennifer is the founder and co-host of “It’s Hot in Here” on 88.3 WCBN-FM-Ann Arbor, plays rock’n’roll cello with the Collective Moans, and tries to enjoy Michigan’s four seasons to the fullest.

Amy Samples

Amy is studying landscape management with attention to water resources at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Natural Resources with a concentration in Economic Policy from Clemson University in 2004. She has worked at Shenandoah National Park, in support of Bandhavgarh National Park in India, and as an Outdoor Educator in New England. While working for The Nature Conservancy’s   Chesapeake Bay Initiative she became familiar with the logistics of large scale conservation and project coordination. Based on her interest in watershed functionality, Amy’s master’s research focuses on the interface between terrestrial ecosystem management decisions and freshwater ecological response. Other research experiences include the development of conservation measures for the Green River project in Kentucky, marine ecosystem based management, and regulatory response to the impact of wet weather events on water quality.

Sarah Tomsky

Sarah has an unusual background, having received her B.F.A. in Photography and Art History from Washington University in St. Louis in 1998.  After several years working in the art world, she transitioned to the travel industry.  Her professional experience afforded opportunities to travel to some of the world’s most remote and beautiful places, including the Peruvian Amazon and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica.  Travel inspired her to make a change in profession, and she returned to grad school to pursue a career in natural resources.  Sarah is pursuing a Masters of Science at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment, focusing on Environmental Policy and Planning, and Conservation Biology.  She is particularly interested in public lands policy and conservation planning.  Her master’s research focuses on the potential ecological impacts of siting utility-scale solar facilities on public land in the California Desert.  Additional experience includes marine ecosystem based management and renewable energy policy. 

 

 

Click HERE to read about past EMI Fellows