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Tessa has worked in the field of environmental education with organizations such as Summit Land Conservancy and Conserve Utah Valley to help spread awareness and appreciation for the natural world. Tessa’s research in the Environmental Humanities focuses on environmental education as a method of fostering resiliency and connection in the face of climate change. Tessa’s thesis work combines accessible, digital education and experiential learning methods to encourage emotional resiliency and place-based sensory connection as a way to understand and confront eco-anxiety and climate grief.

Doug Sam is a second-year EH student and a Mellon Community Fellow. The Mellon Community Fellowship in the EH Program is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Fellows form reciprocal partnerships with a community organization and develop a project that addresses local environmental justice issues. Doug has partnered with the Summit Land Conservancy for his fellowship, merging both his interests in environmental education and Indigenous history. Summit Land Conservancy is a nonprofit dedicated to saving open spaces of Park City and the Wasatch Back.

Sam Nelson is currently the Environmental Education Intern with Tree Utah. He is working with local schools to help students learn about plants in their community through creative writing and interdisciplinary, place-based curriculum. As an EH student, Sam seeks to fuse his interests in writing, education, and plant ecology to help children build stronger relationships to land in their communities. He is particularly interested in storytelling from plant perspectives.

Jack Stauss graduated from the Environmental Humanities Program in 2016. Since then, he has been working for the Glen Canyon Institute (GCI), which is a non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration of Glen Canyon and a free flowing Colorado River.

Alex Porpora graduated from the Environmental Humanities Program in 2011. She’s the Executive Director of USEE, the Utah Society for Environmental Education.