Cohort 1

Entered the LEAP Program in August, 2006

Kelly Granberg

Kelly joined the LEAP program in Spring 07 as a doctoral student in Civil and Materials Engineering. Kelly received a BS degree from the University of Madison Wisconsin, majoring in Biological Systems Engineering with an emphasis in Natural Resources and Environment. Before coming to UIC, Kelly worked as a Senior Engineer for Lake County where she was responsible for site development permitting and compliance with natural resource protection, restoration and mitigation regulations. She will bring her extensive environmental engineering skills and knowledge of land development issues to LEAP research that strives for better integration of human activities with ecological systems.

E-mail: kgranb3(at)uic.edu

Paul Gulezian

Paul graduated Magna Cum Laude from Dartmouth College where he majored in biology with high honors. His undergraduate research was part of a NSF REU grant that studied songbirds in New Hampshire's Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. His senior thesis evaluated a behavioral method for measuring avian reproductive success. Paul began the UIC doctoral program in Ecology and Evolution in 2005. He has broad interests in urban ecology and the integrated human and natural systems of human-dominated landscapes. He plans to focus his research on invasive plant species within the context of human land use practices and human behavior. In particular, Paul is interested in how soil microbial communities of disturbed habitats may influence the invasiveness of alien plant species such as garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), a ubiquitous Chicago area invasive. Paul also plays trumpet in various jazz groups and theatre productions throughout Chicago.

Web Page: www2.uic.edu/~pgulez2

E-mail: pgulez2(at)uic.edu

Jennifer Ison

Jennifer is in her second year in the Ecology and Evolution graduate program at UIC. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from St. Olaf College where she received a B.A. in Biology with a concentration in Environmental Studies. During her time at St. Olaf she conducted research in a wide range of anthropogenic influenced landscapes.  She studied transplantation techniques as related to restoration of a popular rock climbing destination at Tettegouche State Park located on the north shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota.  She also did two independent ecological research projects in India as part of a study abroad program.  After graduation she spent two years at the Chicago Botanic Garden, where she worked on a long term prairie fragmentation study and vPlants, an on-line herbarium of plants in the Chicago region. Her graduate research will extend her interest in prairie plants, and she plans to study the temporal and spatial genetic structure of prairie plants across a fragmented landscape with implications for ex situ conservation and restoration.

Web Page: http://www2.uic.edu/~ison

E-mail: ison(at)uic.edu

Sara Emerson

Sara obtained her first undergraduate degree from Humboldt State University in Clinical Psychology before entering the Peace Corps to work in Montasoa Madagascar. While in Madagascar she had the opportunity to observe the conservation challenges that arise while balancing human development and the preservation of biodiversity. This experience, however, set her on a path to become an ecologist. Sara chose to complete a second bachelor's degree in Biology here at UIC, graduating with college honors and departmental distinction. After completing her degree in biology, she volunteered to research the foraging ecology of gray squirrels with Dr. Joel Brown, investigating how squirrels balance conflicting demands for food and safety. Sara was accepted into the Department of Biological Sciences' graduate program and will pursue a specialization in Ecology and Evolution. Sara is interested in working on predator-prey interactions and how these interactions affect foraging behavior.

Web page: https://www2.uic.edu/~semers1/

E-mail: semers1 (at) uic.edu

Charles Flower

Charles plans to complete his doctorate in the Biological Sciences program. He brings with him a wide array of experiences that prepare him for this task and a long standing interest in conservation and restoration of human altered landscapes. As an undergraduate at Lake Forest College , Charles worked with the Chicago Botanic Gardens to determine the feasibility of using ex situ plant collections to augment the genetic diversity of the Hawaiian Brighamia insignis and assisted with field studies in Nevada , Utah and Oregon. At Ohio State University , he studied patterns of carbohydrate sequestration in a northern hardwood forest. His thesis focused on investigating the temporal offset between canopy photosynthetic CO 2 uptake and tree growth. Additionally, he was a botany intern with the Bureau of Land Management where he recognized the need to meld policy, sound science and management.

In 2007 Charles completed his master's in degree at Ohio State University in Evolution, Ecology & Organismal Biology with a graduate minor in Environment and Natural Resources: Forestry.

Web page: http://icarus.uic.edu/~cflowe3/webpage/home.html

E-mail: cflowe3(at)uic.edu

Elaine Grehl

Elaine completed her bachelor's degree in landscape horticulture at Michigan State University. Before entering the University of Delaware to complete a master's degree in public horticulture administration, Elaine obtained a certificate in museum studies at the University of Delaware. Her master's thesis topic focused on the principles, design and construction of a “rain garden” on campus. She obtained grants to support her endeavor and subsequently became a speaker on this topic. Elaine was a volunteer at the Delaware Nature Society and was awarded a scholarship to attend an Environmental Institute Management class. Elaine's plan for the future is to motivate the public toward sustainable environmental stewardship in a nonprofit organization or university cooperative extension. She will pursue her PhD in the Public Administration program.

E-mail: egrehl2 (at) uic.edu

Basil Iannone

Basil completed a master's degree in Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota in June, 2007. His research focused on identifying strategies to prevent reinvasion during the transition between invasive species removal

(Phalaris arundinacea; reed canarygrass) and the reestablishment of a native plant community in restored wetlands. In preparation for these studies, Basil attended Front Range Community College and Colorado State University where he studied Fisheries and Wildlife Biology. Accepted into the Department of Biological Sciences doctoral program, Basil's interests lie in restoring natural variability and resiliency to damaged ecosystems, as well as understanding and utilizing mechanisms that affect these ecosystem qualities, to enhance future restoration efforts.

Web page: http://www2.uic.edu/~bianno2

E-mail: bianno2(at)uic.edu

Michael Iversen

Michael obtained both a BA and professional degree in architecture from Iowa State University. Over the last 20 years, he has been actively engaged in designing and consulting, teaching, and research. His experiences have enabled him to develop a “design ecology” approach which is based on identification, inventory, and assessment of energy flows and material cycles. Michael has taught courses in the area of sustainable design and urban ecology, is an affiliate member of the City Design Center at UIC and is an instructor for the Chicago Department of Environment's Green Tech Certificate Program. He is a frequent guest lecturer and panelist at conferences and workshops. He has been involved in research projects involving energy efficiency applications. Michael is a current member of the U.S. Green Building Council, and the Society of Building Science Educators and International Building Performance Simulation Association, serves on the steering committee for the UIC Institute of Environmental Science and Policy, is a LEED accredited professional.

E-mail: miversen (at) uic.edu

Cohort 3

Entered the LEAP Program in August, 2008

Jennifer completed a bachelor's degree in Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign . She then entered the Post Baccalaureate Education Program at the University of Chicago where she conducted research on emperor tamarins that involved behavioral and hormonal analysis. In 2006, she was admitted into the doctoral program in Ecology and Evolution at UIC began working under the supervision of Dr. Joel Brown. Her dissertation research is conducted at the Lincoln Park Zoo, where she is working with the three-banded armadillo, a species that is threatened in its native range in Argentina , and has high infant mortality and limited breeding success in captivity. She incorporates endocrinology, foraging ecology, stress ecology and conservation in her research. Jennifer hopes that a better understanding of the ecological and anthropogenic processes occurring in landscapes that are home to threatened and endangered species can aid in their preservation and management.

E-mail: howell1 (at) uic.edu

Caroline Gottschalk-Druschke

Caroline received a master's degree from the UIC in Rhetoric/Gender and Women's Studies and is completing a PhD in the Department of English. Caroline is involved in community work and advocacy in Chicago and in Iowa regions where she is conducting her dissertation research. Her dissertation will be focused on the arguments for, as well as the practices and policies of, sustainable agriculture in the Midwest . Caroline heads up a UIC graduate student group, Horis Topos, that organizes events for students interested in rhetoric. She was elected as a graduate student representative to the Executive Board of the Rhetoric Society of America, the national governing organization for rhetorical studies. Caroline also developed UIC's Women's Rights Model Conference for underprivileged public high school students. She volunteers with the Local Foods Connection in Iowa , a non-profit organization which purchases fresh organic food from small family farmers to donate to low-income individuals, families and communities, and with City Farm, a food producing garden at the edge of Cabrini Green in Chicago .

E-mail: gottsch.dru (at) gmail.com

Emi Kuroiwa

Emi identifies herself as a student of wildlife biology who wishes to be part of the global effort to conserve biodiversity. As an undergraduate at UIC, she worked on a project involving C.elegans and gene expression but found herself drawn to population and organismal-based research. She therefore conducted a senior research project in Mary Ashley's lab involving the conservation genetics of two species of threatened native fish. After completing her bachelor's degree in Biology, Emi was admitted as a graduate student in the Ecology and Evolution group of the Department of Biological Sciences. She is still choosing a dissertation project, but would like to study phylogeography and population genetics of a group of animals that will help in identifying population structure, and evolutionary units for management and conservation.

E-mail: ekuroi2 (at) uic.edu

Carrie Seltzer

While an undergraduate Biology major at Earlham College , Carrie took advantage of many opportunities to be involved in research, spending a 3 weeks in the Galapagos Islands and a semester in Kenya . During the summers Carrie was an intern at the Field Museum and an REU participant at the University of Kansas . After graduating from Earlham, she participated in an exchange program between the U.S. and Russia with the Tahoe-Baikal Institute (TBI) that focused on issues related to watershed management at Lake Tahoe (California/Nevada) and Lake Baikal in Russia . She then accepted a position at the University of Virginia's Blandy Experimental Farm in the Shenandoah Valley where she taught and developed science and environmental education programs for K-12th students and teachers. Prior to entering graduate school, Carrie traveled to New Zealand to work as a field assistant on a study of long-tailed bats ( Chalinolobus tuberculatus ). As a graduate student in Ecology and Evolution, Carrie continues her work with bats and her dissertation will be focused on bat-dispersed plants in the fragmented tropical forests of Tanzania . Carrie is also interested in how people in developing countries such as Tanzania benefit from forest conservation, how they use forest resources on a daily basis and how they conceptualize and value those resources.

Web page: http://icarus.uic.edu/%7Ecseltz2/Webpage/home.html

E-mail: carrieseltzer (at) gmail.com

Clifford Shierk

After receiving his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota , Cliff worked as an engineering consultant and environmental engineer. Through his employment experiences, Cliff recognizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to tackling environmental problems. In 2008, Cliff entered the Civil Engineering program at UIC and the laboratory of Dr. Karl Rockne to pursue his doctorate degree. His research interests lie in the field of environmental engineering, with specific interests in studying the fate and transport of contaminants, bioremediation and alternative energy sources. He wishes to address questions of environmentally conscience technologies, the role of public perception in the deployment of technologies and the unforeseen ecological effects of engineering applications.

E-mail: cshier2 (at) uic.edu

Cohort 4

Entered the LEAP Program in August, 2009

Amy Belaire

Amy received her bachelors degree from Rice University with a double major in Environmental Science/Engineering and Political Science.  After completing her undergraduate work, she worked in environmental consulting and participated in the research for and writing of habitat conservation plans for endangered species in central Texas, including a Regional Habitat Conservation Plan for Williamson County.  She continued her education at Duke University where she obtained a masters degree in Environmental Management.  She conducted research on the microhabitat affinities of a rare salamander in the mountains of western North Carolina. Amy also developed a project that used graph theory to identify habitat patches on private lands that might support conservation of the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler in Texas.  In 2007, Amy began working with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas at Austin.  She served as project coordinator and researcher for the Sustainable Sites Initiative, developing a set of performance benchmarks for sustainable landscapes.  Amy will complete her PhD as a student in the Department of Biological Sciences.  In addition to receiving a LEAP Fellowship, she was awarded a University Fellowship.  Her research interests lie in the study of feedback mechanisms between human and natural systems and in how stewardship can help protect and support ecosystem functions and services.

Andrew Dribin

Andrew will pursue a PhD in Art History with a specialization in Architecture, Design and Urbanism. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and completed his masters degree in architecture at UIC. While a student at UIC, Andrew studied in Shunde in the Pearl River District of China, which resulted in a proposal for utilizing existing fish farms to coordinate integrated ecological growth of Shundes New City.  In 2005, Andrew joined Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and worked on large-scale planning projects in Bahrain , Dubai , and Chicago , developing his skills as an urban designer.  As a PhD candidate, Andrew hopes to question the nature of architecture in relation to its ecology while focusing on the history of contemporary Urban Design practice and the cultural geography of cities.

Douglas Johnston

Douglas will complete his PhD as a student in the Department of Biological Sciences. He has a BFA in Sculpture, as well as a BS in Molecular Genetics from Ohio State University . An opportunity to study at the Stone Laboratory on Lake Erie solidified his interest in biological sciences. Doug has a diverse background, which includes working as a field technician for the US Geological Surveys at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota and, most recently, as a laboratory research assistant at Morton Arboretum in the urban soils laboratory. He is an active volunteer with Urban Habitat Chicago and Delta Institute, a newly developed building materials exchange program. He hopes to focus his research on urban ecology with an emphasis on urban soils and plant/animal biodiversity relationships by assessing green roofs across an urban gradient.

Douglas Lynch

Having obtained his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Ohio University , Douglas worked as an electrical engineer for both Lutron Industries and Motorola. However, an interest in ecology and a concern about environmental degradation caused him to change careers and return to school. Douglas has recently completed a master's degree in Plant Biology and Conservation from Northwestern University . His master's thesis includes a stable isotope study to better understand how plants adapt to changing environments. Doug's future research interests include forming a better understanding of the process of growth, decay and nutrient cycling that occur in natural ecosystems. Doug serves on the steering committee for Ginkgo Organic Gardens , a community garden in Chicago which donates all harvested food to local food banks.

Genevieve Nano

Genevieve was accepted to the PhD program in Civil and Materials Engineering in Fall, 2007. She has a bachelor's degree in Environmental Sciences and Chemistry, as well as a master's degree in Environmental Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. While at UIUC, Genevieve worked at the Waste Management and Research Center where she conducted metal adsorption studies as a Jonathan Baldwin Turner Undergraduate Research Scholar. She entered the PhD program at UIC with a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship.  Her research is focused on studying arsenic adsorption and de-sorption processes in aqueous environments. Genevieve is a graduate student in Professor Amid Khodadoust's laboratory.