Member Directory

Karam Sheban is a first-year Master of Environmental Management candidate at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. His interests include community development and resilience, alternative and regenerative forest economies, and environmental writing. Before coming to Yale, Karam worked in Appalachian Ohio with private landowners, using forest farming as a mode of economic development and as a strategy for private forestland conservation. Before that he spent two years as an assistant producer for an NPR public affairs show in Columbus, Ohio, where he grew up.

Nick is a Master of Environmental Science candidate at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies whose work is focused on the socio-environmental impacts of foreign direct investment from China in South and Southeast Asia. Nick has worked in community forestry and indigenous rights NGOs in Thailand and Burma, and his interests include the intersection of sustainable development and environmental justice in Asia.

Katie Siegner is a second-year Master of Environmental Management (MEM) student at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Her coursework focuses on clean energy development and she holds a work-study position with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Katie graduated from Middlebury College in 2012.

Tess McNamara is a designer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. She received Master's degrees from both the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Yale School of Architecture in 2018. Her areas of research include climate change adaptation, affordable housing, and urban land use.

David Crews (davidcrewspoetry.com) serves as editor for The Stillwater Review and director of the Silconas Poetry Center at Sussex County College. He is author of the poetry collection High Peaks (Ra Press, 2015), as well as a new book of lyric essays on the Adirondacks titled Wander-Thrush (Ra Press, 2018).

Brendan Wiltse is conservation and nature photographer based in Saranac Lake, NY. Brendan holds a Ph.D. in limnology from Queen's University and is the Science & Stewardship Director for the Ausable River Association. He also sits on the board of The Waterman Fund and is a co-founder of Adirondack Wilderness Advocates.

Emily Almendarez is a Latinx writer/organizer from Los Angeles and the proud daughter of immigrants from Guatemala and Honduras. A third-year Yale College student, Emily is Co-President of MEChA de Yale, a member of the Yale Refugee Project, and a section editor for DOWN Magazine.

Rachel Gulbraa is a 2018 graduate of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, where she focused on conservation and science communication. In addition to serving as an editor for SAGE Magazine, she was Director of Programming for the 2016 Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY). With experience as an archaeology technician, outdoor educator, and community forester, she is interested in the many motivations that drive different people to support environmental initiatives, and believes that lasting conservation success depends on having an informed and invested public.