Alumni Highlight

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      • Oct 15, 2019 Our Students Share Grad School Tips with Environmental Leadership Community

        Current and former students in the Executive Master of Natural Resources (XMNR) program—Valerie Winrow, Sara El Choufi, and Danielle Simms—shared reflections and tips for choosing a graduate school with an online community of women interested in careers in global sustainability, in a webinar facilitated by the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program Alumni Network, a program of the Environmental Leadership Program.

      • XMNR Alumni Connect at the National Geographic Society
      • Sep 25, 2019 XMNR Alumni Connect at the National Geographic Society

        Two Virginia Tech Executive Master of Natural Resources (XMNR) alumni, Arslan Ahmad and Mike Beckner, met for the first time in the elevator of their shared workplace, the National Geographic Society (NGS). Both men were wearing jackets with the Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability (CLiGS) logo, which was enough to spark a conversation. “We talked about the program,” Mike recalls, “and I remember thinking it was nice to see someone else from my area of study at Virginia Tech.”

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      • Sep 11, 2019 Global Study Series, India, Part 2: Sustaining, developing, or just surviving?

        During my final semester in Virginia Tech’s Online MNR program, I joined a group of students and faculty from the Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability on the Spring 2019 Global Study. Our transformative, eye-opening journey to the eastern Indian state of West Bengal began in Kolkata.The effects of planetary environmental crises are already being felt in India. Heat waves, such as the one currently impacting India, have only been increasing in frequency and intensity, leading to summer high temperatures that are growing unbearable.

      • Woman by a body of water
      • Aug 13, 2019 Global Study Series, India, Part 1: Preserving East Kolkata Wetlands

        As a student in the Online Master of Natural Resources program at the Virginia Tech Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability, Kasey Fioramonti has had a chance to witness the enormous environmental challenges affecting one of the most populous countries in the world—India. Kasey’s International Field Experience (IFE) to India in February 2019 offered her a rare opportunity to see how to recognize a community’s sustainability issues early on and address them at the grassroots level; how individuals and families are affected by pollution; and how difficult combating these issues through policy can be.

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      • Jul 16, 2019 XMNR Alum Karlee Siepierski tackles sustainability management at Swire Coca-Cola

        Since graduating from the Executive Master of Natural Resources (XMNR) program at Virginia Tech’s Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability in 2016, Karlee Siepierski has both shifted fields and advanced in her career to become the Corporate Sustainability Manager for Swire Coca-Cola, the producer and distributor of many beloved beverage brands in the U.S. While at first unfamiliar, the beverage industry has become a platform where Karlee demonstrates her attention to sustainable corporate…

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      • Jan 24, 2019 Green Building for a Better World

        Ten years ago, when the term “sustainable development” was just starting to gain traction in Korea, I was beginning my career as an international “green building” specialist. The timing was perfect. I was new to the field, and as part of my role with a major construction project, I had the opportunity to complete a professional certificate in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Little did I know that it was the first step in a much longer journey that would literally take me around the world, including to the United States and India.

      • Homer et al Morocco
      • Jan 10, 2019 Sustainable Urban Planning

        Online Master of Natural Resources (Online MNR) graduate, Allison Homer, is among the first employees at the brand new DC branch of EXP, an international firm which offers environmental planning, civil engineering, transportation, architecture, infrastructure, and sustainability services. Each day, Allison uses her experiences from the GMNR program courses, international field experiences, and her previous work to plan and implement sustainable transportation, environmental, and city planning solutions for the Mid Atlantic region.

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      • Oct 29, 2018 Park Ranger to MNR to PhD

        Online Master of Natural Resources (Online MNR) program alumnus Ernesto Acosta is now applying his sustainability education and experiences to his research efforts as a doctoral student in Virginia Tech’s Planning, Governance, and Globalization (PGG) program. As he works on his dissertation, he often reflects on why the MNR program was so integral to achieving his educational and research goals.

      • McAfees Knob
      • Sep 24, 2018 Developing Resilience

        Two recent alumni of the Executive Master of Natural Resources (XMNR) program are serving as skill-based volunteers in the nonprofit sector and are playing active leadership roles in Virginia’s environmental resilience. Ellen Graap Loth and Vestal Tutterow work in environmental consulting at Cardno and as program management at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, respectively, but have recently reconnected as board members in the organization, Resilient Virginia, a group dedicated to the vitality of Virginian communities.

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      • Sep 17, 2018 Confidence to Lead Sustainably

        In her former role at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Executive Master of Natural Resources (XMNR) alumna, Becky Long, discovered her passion for sustainability while working with international business leaders across different industries.

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