Richard A. Herbert Memorial Educational Fund Scholarship 2019-2020 Scholarship Recipients MESSAGE
JESSICA BALERNA - PhD
FATIMA TAHA - PhD - Runner Up
University of South Florida PhD Student:
Oregon State University PhD Student, Geography
Integrative Biology; Ecology & Evolution Concentration
Jessica Balerna graduated magna cum laude from American University in 2017 with a B.S. in Environmental Science and minors in anthropology and statistics. She subsequently joined the Lewis Lab at the University of South Florida (USF) to pursue a PhD studying wetland ecohydrology. Jessica has always been interested in interdisciplinary research combining methods from the social and natural sciences to more holistically assess key issues in freshwater health and management. During her undergraduate career, she studied how land-use intensification influenced the hydrology and water quality of three tributaries of the Potomac River, the primary drinking water source for Washington DC. She presented this work at the 2017 Southeastern Ecology & Evolution Conference. For her dissertation, Jessica will be investigating ecohydrological change in depressional wetlands affected by groundwater abstraction in Tampa Bay and how resident perceptions and behaviors have influenced water management decisions in the past and present. This research is in collaboration with water management agencies in the region including the Southwest Florida Water Management District and Tampa Bay Water. In her spare time, Jessica volunteers with the non- profit, Taste of Science, to help scientists from a variety of disciplines share their research with a wider audience and is also President of the USF Biology Graduate Student Organization. Upon graduation, Jessica plans to work for a university or water management agency where she can continue conducting research that is both interdisciplinary and collaborative and targeted at developing practices to best protect freshwater resources for future generations ■
Fatima is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Sudan. She is a civil engineer by training and had been trained on international water negotiations at the Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science at the University of Dundee in Scotland. As a distinguished alumna, Fatima returned to her alma mater with recruiting and marketing the Joint Programme in Water Cooperation and Diplomacy between Oregon State University (OSU), IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands, and the University for Peace in Costa Rica. Fatima is currently pursuing a dual-degree program combining a PhD in Geography with an MBA in Innovation Management at Oregon State University (OSU). Her dissertation research focuses on developing a new online simulation software product that would help train people who can influence the water negotiation process in response to conflict. Fatima dreams of becoming an international water mediator, where she can conduct training workshops on negotiation and consensus-building to better inform decision makers. ■
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September 2019
VOLUME 21 - NUMBER 5 | 23
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