Alumni Highlight

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Experience necessary: U.S. Marine Corps vet, XMNR alum lands environmental dream job , article
USMC veteran and XMNR alum Spencer Stater shares his story about how a pursuit of a meaningful career in the environment field and frustration with lack of necessary experience led him to Virginia Tech's Executive Master of Natural Resources in Global Sustainability, a year-long interdisciplinary program designed for working professionals that gave him the credentials and confidence he needed to land a dream job in his post-military career.
Date: Apr 10, 2020
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Global Study, Part 3: How Egypt Changed My Sustainability Perspective , article
In November 2019, Executive Master of Natural Resources Jerry Headley traveled to Egypt with his XMNR cohort to take an in-depth look at environmental sustainability issues in the Cairo and greater Nile River Valley regions. Egypt is an especially relevant country to study as it faces many sustainability challenges, including: overpopulation of urban areas, water scarcity, pollution, and an underdeveloped infrastructure, just to name a few. Students have been studying sustainability issues for months in their classrooms in Arlington, VA. Like the rest of his classmates, Jerry was excited to be in the country and attempt to couple a sense of experience with his newfound knowledge. Little did he know just how important this would prove to be.
Date: Feb 19, 2020
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Global Study, Egypt, Part 2: Traveling More Sustainably, a Beginner’s Guide , article
XMNR alum Jessi Savioli reflects on sustainability of travel and offers tips and ideas for the conscientious traveler. "There is nothing I enjoy more in this world than travel," she says. "Whether it is exploring the far-reaching wild spaces in my own country or getting lost in a foreign culture on another continent, I feel positively alive. But how do we, as sustainability professionals, do this in a way that doesn’t effectively 'cancel out' all of our efforts and hard work? How can we travel in a way that is as ethical and responsible? And how can we consider ourselves to be 'global citizens' when travel can cause so much damage?"
Date: Feb 12, 2020
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Global Study, Egypt, Part 1: Climate Change, Water, and Agriculture , article
Nguyen Le works for the Chesapeake Bay Trust, a nonprofit grant-making organization focusing on the protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In the fall of 2019, she visited Egypt as part of her XMNR cohort's Global Study, a standard module in all our graduate programs where students have an opportunity to apply academic knowledge to real-world global sustainability challenges. In this post, Nguyen reflects on her experiences in Egypt and the leadership capabilities and confidence she gained in the XMNR program.
Date: Feb 04, 2020
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How to Hold Corporations Accountable for Global Sustainability? , article
Corporations are active participants in producing global waste and carbon dioxide emissions, which means that they are accountable for their distribution of pollution and their part in protecting the health of our planet. XMNR alum Danielle Staggers explores strategies that communities can pursue to engage corporations in environmental sustainability.
Date: Jan 15, 2020
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Blazing Trails to Local and Global Sustainability Change , article
When it comes to leadership, Executive Master of Natural Resources (XMNR) alum T. Adil Chowdhury stands as a trailblazer in the sphere of global sustainability. His deep understanding of stakeholder engagement and cross-disciplinary teamwork has helped him achieve a number of successes in both sustainable development and policy making. In his current role as a Climate Advisor for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Adil strives to make the city of San Antonio, Texas, run fully on renewable energy.
Date: Jan 03, 2020
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Our Students Share Grad School Tips with Environmental Leadership Community , article
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.
Date: Oct 15, 2019
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Global Study Series, India, Part 2: Sustaining, developing, or just surviving? , article
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.
Date: Sep 11, 2019
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Global Study Series, India, Part 1: Preserving East Kolkata Wetlands , article
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.
Date: Aug 13, 2019
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XMNR Alum Karlee Siepierski tackles sustainability management at Swire Coca-Cola , article
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…
Date: Jul 16, 2019