Caryl Waggett
Professor of Global Health Caryl Waggett, a team from the Planetary Health Alliance, and the University of Richmond evaluated curricular programs in AY2023-24 to identify unifying trends and common approaches to teaching about planetary health.
Findings from this study revealed that planetary health is a growing field, and four common models, including:
- ‘One Health’ model, common at veterinary schools and undergraduate programs located adjacent to these programs
- Climate medicine or climate change and health model, common at medical schools
- Global environmental public health model, common at graduate schools of public health
- Sustainability and health, common in undergraduate and master’s programs
Their findings were released in the International Journal of Environmental Health Research on September 4, titled, “Planetary health education in the United States: Four curricular models, one goal.”
Wei En Chan
Wei En Chan, instructor of music, debuted as a soloist in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium with the historic Cecilia Chorus of New York.
Libby Babcock ’26 and Lorenzo Tovanche ’26
Casey Bradshaw-Wilson and Kelly Pearce, co-directors of the Watershed Conservation Research Center (WCRC), along with research scientist Mark Kirk and eight students, showcased their research at the Regional Science Consortium Symposium in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Bradshaw-Wilson presented her study, “Use of eDNA as a Detection Tool for Prioritizing Invasive Round Goby Surveys in the French Creek Watershed,” while Pearce shared updates on “Instream Habitat Improvement and Monitoring in the Woodcock Creek Watershed.”
The WCRC also supported the eight student researchers in presenting their findings:
Thia Ferderbar ’26, Josephine Reiter ’26, and Lorenzo Tovanche ’26
- Libby Babcock ’26 and Lorenzo Tovanche ’26 delivered an oral presentation on “Characterization of River Otter Gut Microbiomes,” a collaboration with Jenn Houtz from the Department of Biology.
- Pallas-Athena Cain ’25 presented “AquaGator: Autonomous Underwater Robot for Water Quality Measurement of Northwest Pennsylvania Lakes,” developed in collaboration with Josephine Reiter ’26, Benedek Kaibas ’26, and Janyl Jumadinova from the Department of Computer Science.
Pallas-Athena Cain ’25
- Thia Ferderbar ’26, Josephine Reiter ’26, and Lorenzo Tovanche ’26 presented a poster titled “An Evaluation of Trout Habitat in French Creek and Surrounding Watersheds,” in partnership with Kirk.
- Lauren Dougherty ’25 and Julia DeSanto ’25 also presented a poster on their collaborative project with Chris Shaffer, “A Mosaic of Environmental GIS Research in the French Creek Watershed.”
Summer research for students listed for this project were supported through the Watershed Conservation Research Mini-Grant Program and the Richard King Mellon Watershed Conservation Research Center Grant.
The Ohio River Basin Alliance hosted their annual summit: “Healthy Waters, Healthy Communities: From Headwaters to Mainstem,” in Pittsburgh, PA, from October 30 to November 1. The event brought together stakeholders to collaborate on water resource priorities for the Ohio River Basin, including the headwaters region of French Creek.
Wendy Kedzierski, Director of Creek Connections, and Laura Branby, Pittsburgh Area Educator, led an interactive tabling session titled, “Citizen Science and Environmental Education Across the Ohio River Basin.”
Additionally, Casey Bradshaw-Wilson and Kelly Pearce, co-directors of the Watershed Conservation Research Center, along with Claire Griffin, assistant professor of environmental science, attended the conference.
The Ohio River Basin Alliance includes members from over 200 organizations, including local, state, and federal agencies, as well as commissions, industry, academia, and non-profit organizations.
Guo Wu, associate professor of history, was invited by the prominent Chinese-language journal Twenty-First Century Bi-Monthly from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, known for its scholarly research and cultural critique, to provide a 12,000-character analysis of the U.S. presidential election and its sociopolitical implications.
The article, titled “Internal Divisions in the United States and the ‘Super-Stability’ of Its Democratic System,” will appear in the journal’s December 2024 issue (No. 206). The PDF of the article (note: not in English) can be accessed here.
Creek Connections staff and students attended the 2024 North American Association for Environmental Education Conference in Pittsburgh on November 6–9.
Wendy Kedzierski, director, and Laura Branby, educator, presented a Bright Spot titled “Salt Watch and Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences for Youth.”
There were at least 10 Allegheny College alumni at the conference and two current students, Laura Obergefell ’26 and Rachel Ditzenberger ’25.
Obergefell’s conference attendance was supported through the Carol Darnell Freund, Class of 1954, Dean’s Discretionary Fund.
Brian M. Harward, professor of political science, and two co-authors have published “Public Response to Trump’s Unilateral Policymaking: The Case of DACA.” The article will appear in the journal Congress and the Presidency.
Harward and his co-authors also presented a paper, “Behavioral Justifications for ‘Structure’ Induced Equilibria,” at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in Philadelphia, PA last fall.
Amelia Finaret, associate professor of global health and affiliated faculty in business and economics, was recently a panelist for the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) series on Listening to Diverse Voices of the AAEA.
The recording from the panel will be found here. The AAEA is a not-for-profit association serving the professional interests of members working in agricultural and broadly related fields of applied economics.
The Public Relations Society of America NWPA Chapter honored Allegheny magazine with a Niagara Award on November 21 during an event in Erie.
Congratulations to editor Heather Grubbs, lead designer Brian Martone, and contributors Penny Drexel, Phil Foxman, Travis Larner, Derek Li, Melissa Mencotti, Jennifer Rignani, and Sara Pineo for their outstanding work.
Lisa Dixon, director of donor relations, facilitated three sessions of “Donor Relations Coffee Talk.” The sessions were branded and launched by Dixon and held in North East and Pittsburgh, PA, and Kent, OH.
Professor of English Christopher Bakken’s fourth book of poetry, “Driving the Beast,” is forthcoming in 2025 from Louisiana State University Press.
His poem “For the Dead Union,” which involves the history of Meadville, appeared in Plume Poetry at the beginning of November, and he also published a new poem in The Sewanee Review last month.
Bakken’s work was also included in two recent anthologies, Braving the Body and Unnatural Disasters: Tales of enchantment, danger, and survival from Orion magazine.
Clare Kambhu (far right)
Clare Kambhu, visiting assistant professor of art, was honored alongside 50 artists at a gala hosted by the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture, celebrating its 50th anniversary.
On November 13, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and Director Melissa Chiu hosted its largest gala to date at the iconic Shed in New York City. The evening was a special and star-studded occasion where many of the art world’s best and brightest came together to celebrate one another and their contributions to American art and culture.
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden officially opened on October 4, 1974, a few years after financier Joseph Hirshhorn donated almost 6,000 pieces of modern art and sculptures to the federal government. Today, it is the national museum of modern and contemporary art and a leading voice for 21st-century art and culture, presenting trailblazing, contemporary artists while honoring its rich legacy.
Amelia Finaret, Associate Professor of Global Health and affiliated faculty in Business and Economics, was a guest on Andrew Revkin’s Sustain What? podcast episode, “A Big-Picture Question: Can Humanity Feed Itself Without Trashing the Planet?” to discuss a new book by photographer George Steinmetz about the global food system and how what we learn from photos and stories can help complement what we know from data and economic thinking about the food system.
The recording is available on several platforms, including YouTube here.
An essay by Emeritus Professor of English Ben Slote, “We Contain Multitudes: What Living Them Looks Like,” will appear in the spring 2025 issue of The American Scholar. The essay explores and champions multitalentedness as an innate human trait and features John Mangine, who is a photographer, painter, and Allegheny’s Associate Dean for Academic Support.
Additionally, Slote’s play, “Goldengrove,” directed by Professor of Theatre Emerita Beth Watkins, will be performed February 28, March 1, and March 2 in the Meadville Community Theater in the Odd Fellows building. A satiric drama of longing and surprise, “Goldengrove” considers the power and limits of love and language in the time of climate change.
Chris Anderson, archives and special collections librarian, co-edited a new publication titled The Historical Dictionary of Methodism (4th edition).
Lauren French, Associate Professor of Biology and Neuroscience, published a paper over her sabbatical with Madeleine Stauffer ’20 and Maria Salazar ’20 entitled, “Sherlock Holmes and the Neurophysiologists: Unraveling the ‘Mystery’ of Active Learning Success” in the Journal for Undergraduate Neuroscience Education.
The manuscript was the result of a poster on the Sherlock Holmes Project presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago, Illinois in October 2019. The paper, published in the Spring 2024 edition, was also recently awarded the Best Paper of the Year by the Journal for Undergraduate Neuroscience Education.
Shannan Mattiace, Professor of Political Science, was named as one of two Reviewers of the Year by the Revista de Ciencia Política, a top-ranked political science journal in Latin America, housed at the Catholic University of Chile, where Mattiace was a Fulbright scholar in 2019.
Students working with Erie National Wildlife Refuge biological technician to measure invasive plants. Photo credit to Rich Bowden.
Professor of Environmental Science and Sustainability Richard Bowden delivered an invited seminar at Mercyhurst University and at the Eagle Hill Institute (ME).
The presentation, “Too Much of a Good thing: Nitrogen Addition Decreases Organic Matter Decomposition and Increases Soil Carbon in a Temperate Deciduous Forest,” described a long-term study of acid rain inputs at the Bousson Environmental Research Reserve. The study shows that acid rain inputs alter soil nutrient content that controls forest growth.
Bowden and a number of students presented research at the 20th Annual Research Science Consortium Symposium at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center in Erie, PA.
Goats Don’t Work: Prescribed Browsing by Goats Fails to Control Multiflora Rose in a Temperate Deciduous Forest at the Erie National Wildlife Refuge in Northwestern PA was presented by students:
- Alexander Clifford ’25
- Mitchell Curtis ’26
- Grant Dowden ’26
- Alejandra Fernandez ’26
- Declan Graham ’25
- Katherine Hoehl ’25
- Joshua Huang ’25
- Tommy Johnson ’26
- Mary Karstens ’27
- Kate Leach ’26
- Zane Molgaard ’26
- Jessica Morgan ’25
- Laura Obergefell ’26
- Audrey Ritley ’25
- Lorenzo Tovanche ’26
- Alexis Vanderhoof ’26
- Yianni Laskaris of the Erie National Wildlife Refuge
- Richard D. Bowden, Professor of Environmental Science and Sustainability
Evidence of Growth Decline in a Black Cherry-Sugar Maple Forest was presented by students:
- Leah Frase ’25
- Jackie DiGiacomo ’26
- Nathalie Paz Saucedo ’25
- Aiden Beinhauer ’27
- Richard D. Bowden, Professor of Environmental Science and Sustainability
The late Carl Olson, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, submitted his latest publications to People & Places recently:
- The Nostalgic for Orines: Religion, Evolution, Cognition and Memory (Ahem Press, 2024)
- Playing in Emptiness: An Introduction to Zen Buddhist Discourse (Wipf and Stock, 2024)
- The Stain of Error on the Self (Brill, 2024)
- A Painting You Can Eat: A Dialogue between Dogan and Postmodern Thinkers on Nature and Ecology (Aasan Philosophy, 2024)
