Alumni Spotlight: Leigh Bernacchi

Leigh Bernacchi was one of the first students admitted to the Environmental Humanities Program in 2005. After graduating in 2007, Leigh Bernacchi went on to earn a PhD in natural resources management from Texas A&M University. When this interview was conducted, Bernacchi was serving at the Director of Agricultural Innovation for Merced Community College District. Currently, she works as a Senior Manager for F3 Innovate, the innovation and commercialization engine of theF3 Initiative (Farms Food Future) focused on sustainable farming practices in California’s Central Valley.

What prompted you to pursue a master’s degree in the Environmental Humanities program?  

In the gap of five sequoias, a star cluster, I met Terry Tempest Williams and she said we’re starting a new program. I had been applying to graduate school after being a park ranger in my home Sierra Nevada. Terry invited me to apply after I ushered her at my alma mater’s speaking engagement. The idea that I could share my love of the wildness in the world and use words to help us understand things changed the way I was approaching the next steps of my career. I’m forever grateful for Terry’s introduction to Utah, Mark Bergstrom getting me going, and Steve Tatum’s guiding our first environmental humanities cohort. 

What did you learn during your time as a student in the Environmental Humanities program? What did you learn from your fellow students and professors?  

From Paul, a love of birds that has enriched my life beyond measure. From Patrick, a pursuit of accuracy. From Rob, Koshlan, Chris, Catherine, to pay attention because details matter. From Adele, how to read. From the English students, punctuation and vulnerability. From Terry, to decode a mystery of three feathers into a story. I can’t thank the developers of this program, the participants, the texts and trips, enough for the experience that has shaped my entire world. I only wish I could live up to the expectations, to keep writing about what matters.  

Did you work with any campus or community partner organizations during your time as student? If so, what was meaningful to you about these partnerships?  

Danielle Endres brought us to the Goshute lands and introduced the Dugway Proving Ground where they destroyed old weapons. Terry Tempest Williams encouraged us to lead a climate and water event, bringing waters from across Utah together to show our shared struggles. I worked with the Park Service and Steve Tatum on my thesis about the Tuolumne River watershed in Yosemite. I still visit the Family Waters annually.  

The field of environmental humanities values the specificity of place-based and embodied knowledges. How did being in Utah shape your experience in the Environmental Humanities program? What sights, smells, sounds, or textures do you associate with your time in the Environmental Humanities program?   

Rain in a cavernous wind-carved granitic ball, swapping stories of narrow escapes, scrapes, the musty smell of sage wafting in. The bend of the mighty Snake River upstream from Moose Wyoming’s central meadow. Camping in the KOA at the end of the Las Vegas strip, Denny’s sign blotting out the sun. The words of all my favorite authors, introduced one-by-one.  

As the Director of Ag Innovation, I’m often surprised that I’m here, focused on food, when before it was all mountains and wildlife and writing and photographs. But when we put in the first almond orchard in decades, it was my photographs, framed up and edited with the advice of Professor Craig Denton and our interviews and conversations in Moose Wyoming, that told the story. When I think of our food system, its through the lenses of climate change and shared resources and downstream impacts, I learned over 20 years ago. Because of the participatory approach of EH, I think about the actors in the system and read literature to try to understand perspectives of farmworkers and farmers and I try my best to research first before speaking.  

What do you consider the greatest strengths of the Environmental Humanities program?  

As the frontrunner in this space, EH has held onto its diverse and deep connections to community, place and Utah, but the participants have spread across the country. I think sending people out into different “ecologies of residency” has brought a unique perspective to our chosen causes.  

How has your Environmental Humanities education influenced your pursuits after graduation?  

I had the chance to return to Sequoia and Kings Canyon where I had my first park ranger job, where I learned the landscapes deeply, and sat with the granite, rivers, and sequoias in a way my shortened attention span and middle-aged life rarely allows me to do. I got to share with my Central Valley community some of the gems of experience in a travel guide. I was going through a hard time personally and our best environmental protections were imperiled, but focusing on what these trees and ecologies have survived over centuries and the beauty still there saved me and my daughter. Writing for Moon travel guides, a more inclusive publishing house, introduced me to other travel writers.  

What do you hope for the future of the Environmental Humanities program?  

Keep going. Keep in touch. Our networks across the nations like rhizomes are strong. The voices of trained eyes and ears are more important than ever. Stories matter.