Student and Alumni Profiles
Let Us Link You To The World's Future Environmental Leaders...
Work with us to recruit from our talented pool of students and alumni. Read about recent graduates' first jobs in advanced technical and leadership roles.
“Enforcing the Clean Air Act as an environmental scientist for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, I became acutely aware of the power of the private sector. I came to F&ES and the School of Management because I wanted to study how to harness this power for environmental change.”
— Kathryn Siegel, MEM/MBA '12, Consultant, Shaw Environmental Consulting
Evan: Investing in Forest and Ecosystem Conservation
The forestry program at Yale stresses the importance of sustainable resource management on both spatial and temporal scales. At SRF I employ this mindset as I evaluate specific resource managers and determine whether or not an investment in their activities might achieve our financial goals while meeting our ecological expectations. - Evan Ray
Evan Ray, MF '13. There’s a growing world of market-based forest conservation and stewardship developing and Evan Ray is right in the middle of it. Often overlooked or taken for granted, ecosystem services such as wildlife habitat, water and nutrient cycling, scenic landscapes and other natural assets are, according the USDA Forest Service, “traditionally absent from society’s balance sheet.”
With expertise in the management of forest resources, Evan is working with Sustainable Resource Fund, LLLP (SRF), a global private equity fund of funds, to conduct an analysis of investable opportunities in timberland and ecosystem service markets—including endangered species mitigation banking, wetland restoration and other areas.
“The MF program bridges ecology and management, preparing professionals to work across sectors on policy and management in the world's forests. Evan's work exemplifies the range of our graduates' interests--exploring forest conservation through developing markets.”
— F&ES Professor Mark Ashton
My work with Yale Center for Business and the Environment and CEFIA is allowing me to contribute to an active, market-based renewable energy project. This is an incredible opportunity to learn about industry and develop quantitative skills to bring to my career in environmental consulting.
Kathryn Wright, MEM '13. In order to help the multi-stakeholder group from the solar industry, 12 Connecticut municipalities and towns, academic institutions, and public-private entitiesworking under a U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative grant, Kathryn is doing the research and analysis needed to understand the current statewide rooftop solar zoning and permitting processes.
The goal of the project, overseen by Yale Center for Business and the Environment and the Connecticut Clean Energy Finance Investment Authority (CEFIA), is to reduce non-hardware costs to rooftop solar projects in Connecticut. With Kathryn's help, the team will identify and encourage best practices in solar permitting, zoning and financing, and create a publicly available website with solar cost indexes, processes and online permitting applications.
Kathryn: Harnessing The Sun in Connecticut
“Kathryn has all of the professional skills needed to move the Rooftop Solar Challenge project forward—project management, data analysis and communication. Most importantly, she is a creative thinker who brings a solid understanding of how markets, environmental policy and local governance interact.”
— Stuart DeCew, Program Director, Yale Center for Business and the Environment
Duncan Cheung, MEM ’08, is a Senior Analyst at GreenOrder, where he advises companies on improving their environmental and energy performance and develops strategies to capture emerging market opportunities related to sustainability. Clients include industry leaders in chemicals and engineered plastics, agribusiness, consumer product manufacturing, equipment rental, and heavy manufacturing. Duncan’s specialty includes market assessment and projection, custom sustainable product certification systems, and corporate sustainability measurement and tracking tools.
Michael Coren, MESc ’09, is a Land-Use and Carbon Markets Specialist at Climate Focus, where he is leading the advisory practice in the agricultural sector. He specializes in climate mitigation strategies and carbon markets in the agriculture and forestry sector, with experience designing emission reduction projects, as well as financial and carbon modeling in tropical forests. At F&ES, Michael studied economics and forestry focusing on economic factors affecting global distribution of forest carbon investments, and completed an internship working for the Indonesian government on reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) with the World Bank in Jakarta. Michael has a journalism background specializing in science and the environment, including writing and reporting for Newsweek, Globe and Mail and the Christian Science Monitor and serving as managing editor of the Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia and the science and technology producer for CNN.com in Atlanta.
Audrey Davenport, MEM/MBA ’09, is a Project Manager at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) where she is helping lead EDF’s Green Returns Program and partnership with private equity firm, Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts, LLC. Audrey is working to develop and roll out analytic tools and strategies to a wide range of KKR’s portfolio companies, helping them to realize new, environmentally driven business value (www.edf.org/greenreturns). She is also a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University where she teaches Strategic Management for Sustainability, a course she helped design while at Yale. Audrey earned a joint MEM/MBA degree through F&ES and Yale School of Management, completing an internship with Google’s Green Business Team and Redstone Strategy Group. Prior to Yale, she worked for The Nature Conservancy, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia. Audrey holds a BA with Honors from Stanford University.
Kori Recalde, MEM ’08, is an Environment, Health and Safety Professional at United Technologies Corporation (UTC). She is currently the project manager for the LEED certification of two UTC manufacturing facilities. Additionally, she collaborated on the expansion of UTC’s sustainability goals, focusing on greenhouse gas reduction. Before coming to F&ES, Kori was a senior consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. She has 9 years of experience in the environmental field, with a particular interest in business and the environment. At Yale F&ES, Kori concentrated on industrial ecology, corporate social responsibility, and environmental policy. She has an undergraduate degree in Economics, and Environmental Policy and Analysis from Boston University.
Julie Witherspoon, MEM ’08, is a Sustainability Coordinator at Bio-Logical Capital, where she brings knowledge of ecosystem services and markets to Bio-Logical’s strategic decisions and investment analysis. Julie has been studying successful land management schemes and their integration with social and economic systems for the last five years. Before joining Bio-Logical Capital, she helped coordinate the predevelopment of a new community development project based on the highest current standards of green planning and development for Urban Villages, Inc. At F&ES, Julie concentrated on land use policy, economics, and law, with a particular interest in sustainable development. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Washington University in St. Louis.