We are thrilled to announce that Undergraduate Chair and Professor Peter Newton has been selected for the 2025 Research and Innovation Office (RIO) Fellows Research Leadership cohort! This prestigious program recognizes exceptional faculty members who are eager to expand their leadership skills, foster professional growth, and make an impactful contribution to the university community. Being accepted into this program is a testament to his dedication to both his own academic pursuits and the broader goals of our campus community.

The 2025 RIO Fellows Research Leadership cohort offers an exciting opportunity for faculty to engage in three multiday retreats, where they will receive training in leadership development, research strategies, and collaborative skills. Fellows also gain access to individualized coaching, helping them achieve personal and professional milestones. These retreats are designed to support long-term career goals while strengthening the cohesion of the faculty network.

Professor Newton shared his excitement about the program: “I'm honored to be selected for the 2025 cohort of RIO Faculty Fellows. I am looking forward to building my leadership skills through this professional development opportunity, and to building meaningful connections with other faculty across campus.”

We couldn’t be more excited for Professor Newton to join this dynamic group of colleagues. His participation in the 2025 cohort will undoubtedly strengthen both his leadership potential and the impact he can have across our department and across campus. Congratulations again, Professor Newton—we look forward to seeing all the amazing ways you will grow through this opportunity!

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The University of Colorado Boulder’s Department of Environmental Studies is thrilled to congratulate Dr. Vasco Chavez-Molina after successfully defending his dissertation this week! 

Dr. Chavez-Molina’s upbringing in Perú deeply influenced his academic and professional path. Born and raised in one of the world’s most vibrant ecosystems, Dr. Chavez-Molina understood the importance of conservation and sought to have experiences in higher education that would allow him to be a leader in that space. Dr. Chavez-Molina earned a bachelor's degree in environmental science at the College of Holy Cross before making his way to Boulder. Dr. Chavez-Molina first joined us here at the University of Colorado as a student in our Masters of the Environment (MENV) Graduate Program. During his time in MENV, Dr. Chavez-Molina worked with the Governor’s Climate and Forest Task Force where he developed investment strategies aimed at fostering sustainable agricultural supply chains in the Amazon rainforest. As a student in MENV, he also met Dr. Cassandra Brooks. After completing his master’s degree, he joined the as a full-time researcher, focusing on policy analysis and fisheries management in the Southern Ocean. This role eventually opened the door to his PhD studies, where Dr. Chavez-Molina studied the intricate governance challenges involved in managing marine resources across local, regional, and international levels.

On Wednesday, Dr. Chavez-Molina defended his dissertation in a presentation titled “In search of solutions for international conservation: Analyzing the governance complexities of managing marine resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction”. The guiding questions: “How can we legally protect marine ecosystems in the areas beyond national jurisdiction? How can we manage natural resources across the fragmented frameworks that make up the high seas? And how can we better govern marine resources within this critical region?” were addressed in Dr. Chavez-Molina's work. Throughout the four-part presentation, Dr. Chavez-Molina shared information about the nuances of agency oversight at the international, regional, and national level; the actors and institutions at play in this area of natural resources conservation and management; and the ways in which global politics and policy play a crucial role in accomplishing this important work and recommendations for the future.

If you are interested in reading more from Dr. Chavez-Molina's portfolio of published works, click the links below: 

1. Chavez-Molina, V., Wagner, D., Nocito, E. S., Benedum, M., Gaymer, C. F., Currie, D., Beam, E. G., & Brooks, C. M. (2023b). . Marine Policy, 152(March), 105594.

2. Chavez-Molina, V., Becker, S. L., Carr, E., Cavanagh, R. D., Dorman, D., Nocito, E., Sylvester, Z., Wallace, B., White, C., & Brooks, C. M. (2023a). . Ocean and Coastal Management, 239 (March), 106580.

3. Brooks, C.M., D.G. Ainley, J. Jacquet, S.L. Chown, L.R. Pertierra, E. Francis, A. Rogers, Chavez-Molina, V., L. Teh, U.R. Sumaila. (2022). . Science, 378: 477-479.

4. Kiffner, C., Baylis, J., Beckwith, C., Brunner, C., Burns, C., Chavez-Molina, V., Cotton, S., Glazik L., Loftis, E., Morgan, M., O’Neill, C., Theisinger, O., Kioko, J. & Kissui B. (2020) . Ecology and Evolution 10: 10000-10016,

We are thrilled to congratulate Dr. Chavez-Molina on his great work and successful defense! Way to go!  

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Graduate students at CU Boulder’s Environmental Studies department are leading research on critical global challenges like species conservation, ecological economics, and food security. Researchers like Christian Suarez, Waverly Eichhorst, and Margaret Hegwood are tackling today’s most pressing environmental issues, shaping the future of food policy and environmental conservation efforts worldwide. 

The Environmental Studies Colloquium Series plays an important role in this process, providing a platform for students to present their work, gain feedback, and collaborate with peers and experts. This exchange of ideas helps refine research and drives real-world impact, ensuring that CU Boulder’s graduate students remain at the forefront of sustainable policy development. 

Christian Suarez: Exploring the Economics of Conservation 

Christian Suarez, a second-year PhD student at CU Boulder, is focusing on the intersection of economics and environmental conservation. With a background in economics and political science, Christian’s academic journey into environmental studies began in 2020. 

Christian’s current research investigates the role of ecological economics in shaping conservation policies. He explores concepts like contingent valuation, willingness to pay, and the economic trade-offs in species reintroduction. One of his first jumping-off points is examining Colorado's grey wolf reintroduction, the first democratically elected species reintroduction in world history. 

As Christian refines his research going forward, one thing that remains vital is understanding how public perception drives conservation policy, and how economic reasoning helps incentivize policymakers to prioritize conservation efforts within a budget-constrained framework. 

Waverly Eichorst: Addressing Food Security through Singapore’s 30 by 30 Initiative 

Waverly, another talented graduate student at CU Boulder, is researching Singapore’s "30 by 30" initiative, which aims to locally produce 30% of the country’s food by 2030. Singapore imports over 90% of its food and has less than 1% of land available for agriculture, making this initiative a crucial case study for global food production/security policies. 

Supported by NIFA and USDA, Waverly is investigating the real-world impacts of Singapore's policies on agricultural productivity. Through on-site farm visits and interviews, she is assessing the technical, financial, and regulatory challenges that Singapore’s agricultural sector faces, such as high production costs and a lack of consumer demand for local produce. Her research aims to uncover strategies for Singapore to overcome these challenges through innovation, R&D, and diversified agricultural products. 

Waverly’s findings could have far-reaching implications, not only for Singapore but for global efforts to enhance food security. 

Margaret Hegwood: U.S. Food System Regulation 

Margaret Hegwood, a fifth-year PhD student in CU Boulder’s Environmental Studies department, is researching food system regulation in the United States. Supported by the USDA and CIRES’ Center for Social and Environmental Futures (C-SEF), part of Margaret’s dissertation is centered on the regulatory frameworks that shape the U.S. food system.  

Margaret delved into the intricacies of the U.S. regulatory system, discussing what regulations are, who enforces them, and the pros and cons of the current framework for food systems. Margaret’s research sheds light on differences in how regulations impact low-emission versus high-emission food industries, offering insights into the effectiveness of environmental policies. 

The insights gained from her work could have significant implications for the future of food system regulation and policy in the U.S.  

Leading the Charge in Environmental Policy 

These graduate students at CU Boulder demonstrate the department's commitment to addressing complex environmental challenges through interdisciplinary research. From the economics of species reintroduction to global food security and U.S. food system regulation, their work is laying the groundwork for sustainable, impactful environmental policies. Stay tuned for updates on their progress and learn how their research is driving change for a more sustainable future. 

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We are thrilled to announce that Emma Galofré García, a PhD student in ENVS, has been selected as a , along with her advisor, Dr. Karen Bailey! The Gilliam Fellows Program financially supports each student-adviser pair for up to three years of the student’s dissertation research. For Emma, the fellowship will support her ongoing research in ecology.

This year's cohort of 50 exceptional student-adviser pairs were selected from a field of over 700 applications, the most in the program’s history! Hailing from a record 43 institutions – ten of which are receiving a Gilliam Fellowship for the first time – these students and faculty reflect the incredible breadth of scientific talent that exists throughout our country.

Congratulations Emma and Karen!

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Dr. Joanna Lambert and current PhD Student, Alma "Rosie" Sanchez have been working for years on the Colorado wolf reintroduction initiative. Now, a film series tells the success story of this initiaitve, which is the first time a federally protected endangered species has been reintroduced via a democratic vote/ballot initiative. The first film of the series features both Dr. Lambert and Rosie! It premiered on July 18, and was followed by a speaker panel in which Dr. Lambert participated (as shown in image). 

See the film trailer below and learn more about this incredible iniative .

[video:https://vimeo.com/979366728] 

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“Migwetch,” the Potawatomi word for thank you, was uttered confidently and humbly by as he closed the inaugural Patricia Sheffels Visiting Scholar Keynote Speaker talk ‘Against Crisis Science: Research Futures for Climate and Energy Justice.’  This word not only queued the crowd of over 100 people to applaud, but is a distillation of the insightful themes considered. Professor Whyte, an enrolled member of the and Professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, discussed the crisis of climate change from his perspective as an indigenous person, “for me, the climate change crisis is better understood as a kinship crisis.” Professor Whyte reframed the climate crisis as a crisis of relationships, urging the audience to reconsider the roots of climate change.

A new addition to the Department of Environmental Studies (ENVS), the Patricia Sheffels Visiting Scholar Keynote Speaker series was made possible through the generosity of Patricia Sheffels and her family. A graduate of the Geography Department at University of Colorado Boulder (class of ’58), Patricia started the speaker series motivated by love of her family and the environment. The Patricia Sheffels Speaker series will bring top interdisciplinary environmental scholars to ENVS to discuss the world’s most pressing environmental challenges and how we may solve them. Professor Whyte’s expertise and personal perspective made him the perfect scholar to give the inaugural speech.

Mrs. Sheffels, who attended the lecture with her family, explained, “We all know that there is not one answer to solving climate change. I hoped for a visiting scholar who would not only show us some of the problems and solutions, but also to inspire the CU community to search for the answers. Kyle Whyte was available to students, the lecture attendees, and the community and he did an admirable job.  I couldn’t have been more pleased with the inaugural event and the speaker.”

The daughter of a former dean in the California university system, who became a teacher as her first career, Pat has a lifelong relationship with education. Her love of the environment also started at a young age, hiking and skiing as much as possible throughout her time at CU Boulder. After graduating from CU, Pat moved to Montana with her husband where they ranched and raised a family.

Pat moved to Seattle once her children were grown and put her CU Geography degree to work as a Bellevue City Planner. Now retired, she has made donating her time, expertise, and resources an integral part of her life, working with many organizations and causes near to her heart, including the working with the hearing impaired, her church and helping disadvantaged people in developing countries. The Department of Environmental Studies is grateful for her support, and is excited for the next Visiting Scholar Keynote in 2023!

If you want to learn more about how you can support students and programs in ENVS now and in the future, contact the Department of Environmental Studies Chair, Max Boykoff, or donate now.

(Pictured from left to right: Professor Kyle Powys Whyte, Patricia Sheffels, and Chair Max Boykoff)

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The Mehrabi lab is looking for two 12-month Postdoctoral Associates starting as soon as possible. You will join a team of scientists working together to build new data products and analyses for monitoring and assessment of social and environmental development outcomes linked to poverty, food security, employment, infrastructure, energy, biodiversity, and human health. Your work will be assisting in the design, testing, and deployment of data science solutions, provision of visualization, analyses, and insights for partner communications and publications, providing and delivering, and maintaining public code and data products. Housed in the Sustainability Innovation Laboratory at Colorado (SILC) you’ll also collaborate with the Mortensen Center in Global Engineering to develop tools, policies, and practice for improved human development outcomes.

SILC is an interdisciplinary and solution-focused center that supports diverse projects and educational programs linked by a common focus on issues in sustainability and the environment. SILC’s impact-focused research includes engineering, physical and natural sciences, social science, social justice, psychology, humanities, business, law, computer science, and other fields. Check out Our Work (/silc/research) to learn more about our current initiatives and collaborations. The Principle Investigator leading this search and the supervisor for these roles is Dr. Zia Mehrabi. You can find out more about his work here.

The position has been posted on the CU Boulder Jobs website. Use the Keyword Search to find this posting number: 37187. The CU Boulder Jobs site automatically sends all external postings to the following sites:

For questions and helpful FAQs regarding CU Boulder Jobs, .

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