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The Environmental Humanities Graduate program at the University of Utah trains the next generation of environmental leaders and thinkers, positioning them to study climate change, resilience, advocacy and environmental justice in preparation for changing the world. In recognition of the program’s environmental impact, the Mellon Foundation has awarded them with a three-year grant renewal, providing $791,000 to fund graduate fellowships, create leadership pathways for students from underrepresented groups, collaborate with communities directly affected by climate change and environmental racism and work closely with grassroots leaders.

Maggie Scholle is a rising second year student. She was a GCSC Fellow and also was part of the Spring '23 STEM Ambassador Program (STEMAP) at the U of U, learning tools for public engagement in the sciences. Even though Maggie's undergraduate background was in the natural sciences, she brought a unique perspective to the cohort as the only humanities graduate student. For her public engagement project, she created two activities with the Magna Library for children around place attachment. She also led two workshops with the STEM Community Alliance Program (STEMCAP) for youth-in-custody.

Alisha Anderson graduated from the Environmental Humanities Program in 2015. During her time in the program, she made art about the Oquirrh Mountains. Since then, she has created with Great Salt Lake, been a Spiritual Ecology Fellow with the Kalliopeia Foundation, and lived at the edge of Bears Ears as an Artist in Residence with Utah Diné Bikéyah. She just defended (and passed!) her thesis to receive her MFA from the Art & Ecology Program at the University of New Mexico. Her project focused on the energy transition in Carbon Country, Utah. Overall, her work focuses on the confluence of identity and Earth, in an attempt to question (and reposition) how humans fit in this world.

Natalie Slater is a second year student and Mellon Community Engagement Fellow. In partnership with the nonprofit Art Access, Natalie created and is facilitating an artist collaborative called Embodied Ecologies that looks at environmental health issues in Salt Lake from the lenses of environmental justice and disability justice.

We are so excited to welcome Alastair Lee Bitsóí as our Spring ‘22 Practitioner-in-Residence! Alastair is from the Navajo Nation community of Naschitti, below the Chooshgai Mountains on the New Mexico–Arizona state line. He is currently the Southern Utah reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune. He has been an award-winning news reporter for the Navajo Times and communications director for the Indigenous-led land conservation nonprofit Utah Diné Bikéyah. His consulting business, Near the Water Communications and Media Group, trains media, nonprofits, businesses, and governments in cultural sensitivity.