The Center for Environmental Futures has been facilitated by numerous talented Graduate Employees and Research Assistants over the years, each with varying degrees of skill sets and passions. The opportunity to work for CEF has additionally acted as a catalyst for numerous employment opportunities for these growing careers. Below is a short list of our publicity managers and research assistants over the years.
Jesse Noone (CEF Publicity and Publications Manager, 2021-22) naturally brings a humanistic approach to the CEF and JFI. Jesse’s work as Media GE for the CEF complements his work as a PPPM graduate student in Community and Regional Planning as well as a student in the Conflict and Dispute Resolution (CRES) Program (Environmental Conflict: Climate Change Specialization). Apart from managing technology for signature CEF events such as Interdisciplinarity 101, his interest in environmental sustainability is informed by growing up in Oregon and Hawai’i, and his own work in winemaking and photography.
Nadya Barba Ramirez (JFI Coordinating Assistant, 2021-22) is a Master of Public Administration student within the school of Planning, Public Policy, and Management at the University of Oregon. She is a Coordination Graduate Employee (GE) for the PNW Just Futures Institute for Racial and Climate Justice. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Studies, with a minor in Economics from the University of Utah. Her previous work includes local, state, and federal government offices, as well as community outreach within the private sector. She has additionally worked with various non-profit and community organizations focused on immigration, voter registration, education, and underserved populations.
Maya Revell (she/her) (JFI Coordinating Assistant, 2021-22) is a doctoral student in Environmental Studies and Critical and Sociocultural Studies in Education. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Master of Arts in Sustainability from Wake Forest University. Her past research has focused on diversity in environmental nonprofits, food justice and access, and race in environmental education. She has previously worked in environmental education and philanthropy. Her current research focuses on the connections between Black studies, Black ecologies, and transformative climate education.
Zac Provant (CEF Publicity and Publications Manager, 2020-21) is a PhD candidate in Environmental Studies. Focusing on the human experiences of increasingly frequent and severe rain-on-snow floods and avalanches in British Columbia and Alaska, his dissertation research addresses the impacts of changing snow on PNW mountain communities. Through this project, Zac centers environmental justice in an effort to expand typical approaches to disaster risk and climate change vulnerability. Whether through research or recreation, Zac finds himself constantly drawn to the mountains.
Rachael Lee (JFI Coordinating Assistant, 2021) is a Ph.D. student in English at the University of Oregon. She is the Digital Humanities Research Assistant for the Healers project, a digital ethnobotanical guide that highlights the traditional ecological knowledge of Caribbean women healers. Her research focuses on urban wastelandic natures as key sites for examining neoliberal forms of environmental racism as well as imagining alternative futures. She is also currently exploring how experimental creative forms, such as interactive maps and animation, can represent and disrupt such uneven geographies. She grew up in Koreatown, Los Angeles, which has informed her affinity for urban natures and commitment to spatial justice.
Nate Otjen (he/they) (CEF Research Assistant, 2020-21) completed his PhD in Environmental Sciences, Studies, and Policy at the University of Oregon in 2022. Beginning in September 2022, he will be a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University. He specializes in environmental justice studies, multispecies ethnography, autobiography studies, and contemporary life-writing literature.
Hayley Brazier (CEF Research Assistant, 2019-20) is a PhD candidate in History. Her dissertation focuses on marine environmental history, with a particular emphasis on the influence of the Pacific seafloor in North American society. Hayley has taught courses on race and ethnicity in US environmental history, the national parks, and most recently, a course on oceanic history at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. In addition to her research interests, she has a background in the digital humanities and public history.
Aimee Okotie-Oyekan (CEF Publicity and Publications Manager, 2019-20) is an MA student pursuing dual degrees in Environmental Studies and in Community and Regional Planning. Her Master’s research investigates greenspace development as a catalyst of gentrification in underserved communities in Northwest Atlanta, Georgia.
Lucas Burke (Research Assistant, 2018-2019), is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History. He is the co-author, with Judson Jeffries, of The Portland Black Panthers: Empowering Albina and Remaking a City, which was based on his M.A. thesis.
Colin Rosemont (Publicity and Publications Manager, 2018-2019) is a writer and documentary filmmaker who earned his M.S. in the Environmental Studies Program. His thesis project was a film about archaeological field workers. He co-produced the films Tejon Pow Wow and Bound.