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Staff transition at the Switzer Foundation
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It is with the expected blend of mixed emotions that we announce the pending retirement of Don Brackett, our Administrative Director. Don has been with the Switzer Foundation for 14 years, seeing us through that many Fellowship cohorts, and many programmatic and organizational changes over the years! Don's good humor, kind demeanor, and oversight of all things administrative and financial has been a gift, and we will miss him greatly. Fellows who want to send their good wishes
can do so until the last week of June. (We know many of you will miss him, too!) Don and his wife, Jane, both avid birders, are packing up their camper and their birding gear and hitting the road. Though their exact itinerary will be evolving, it is likely they will take a cue from the birds and head south for the winter! We will miss him greatly, but we are happy for him that he can begin his well-deserved leisure time.
And, this is a great time to announce the newest addition to our Switzer Foundation team, Laine Kuehn! Laine is our new Administrative Coordinator and is officially starting on Thursday, June 7th. (Her email address is laine@switzernetwork.org.) Laine comes to us from the Maine Humanities Council, where she was a Program Officer. We are thrilled to have her join us, and she is happy to be shifting into work that focuses on environmental issues. We will have a profile of Laine to share on our website shortly, so stay tuned.
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2018 Fellows to be announced soon!
Twenty new Switzer Fellows were selected in May, and we are excited to welcome them and look forward to sharing their profiles with you! We continue to be fascinated and inspired by the breadth of issues and depth of talent of the graduate students we select as Fellows. New Fellow profiles will be announced very soon on our website and we'll let you know when they're up!
In the meantime, we encourage Fellows to consider attending a fall retreat to help us welcome them! We will be offering a new leadership training this year, led by our colleague,
Angela Park. The training will have a number of spots available for alumni, so stay tuned for details on that. Dates are as follows:
The Warren Conference Center and Inn, Ashland, MA
NatureBridge at the Marin Headlands, Sausalito, CA
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Network Innovation Grant Awarded
We are pleased to share the news that a $5,000 Switzer Network Innovation Grant was awarded in February for a project involving three Fellows, Brad Keitt, Jonathan Scheuer, and Jason Delborne. These Fellows, working with American Bird Conservancy, will be developing a community engagement strategy to engage Hawaiian citizens, agencies, and organizations in a proposed biotechnological solution to the alarming spread of avian malaria. The disease is having a rapid and profound impact on Hawaii's forest bird populations, some of which are at risk of extinction.
Read more
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David Gonzalez: Translating Research Into Public Policy
Fellow David Gonzalez reports on his experiences at the Switzer Spring Retreat Policy Communications Training and the UC Grad Research Advocacy Day.
Read more
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Consolidating Fellow listservs
In order to streamline our communications channels and reduce confusion caused by multiple listservs, we are retiring our affinity (topical) and geographic Google Groups.
This change does NOT affect the Switzer Fellows listserv (switzerfellows@switzernetwork.org) which sees most of the traffic and interest from Fellows. You can continue to post jobs, ask questions, share resources and plan gatherings. Please continue using it
as you always have.
Although the additional Google Groups will no longer exist, we will continue to send targeted emails to Fellows based on your interests and location, including regular updates on material of interest published on our website, local and regional events, and more.
Please contact
Lauren or
Erin with any questions about the listservs.
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Check out our spring newsletter!
In case you missed it, our spring newsletter, which goes to our colleagues and Fellows, is available for your reading pleasure! This spring's edition focused on Fellows working at the forefront of extreme weather, natural disasters and recovery. It is available here if you didn't see it in your inbox.
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Upcoming Events
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Switzer Fellows Networking Call: Energy Efficiency
Please visit the
Events section of our website for a complete list of upcoming events.
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Fellows in the News
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Rachel Morello-Frosch's research on segregation and pollution was featured in
The New York Times.
Michael Wironen discussed pollution and phosphorus runoff research on
Vermont television. After graduating with his PhD from University of Vermont in May, Michael will be starting a new position as Senior Scientist for Agriculture and Food Systems at The Nature Conservancy in Arlington, Virginia.
Bridie McGreavy edited a
new volume on ecological approaches to rhetoric and material life.
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A vibrant community of environmental leaders
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