Brittany Gaustad

Brittany Gaustad graduated from OSU with a Master of Public Policy in 2015. She is currently a research assistant at the Institute for Transportation Research and Education at North Caroline State University. Her research interests include environmental and energy policy, conserving energy through everyday behavior, social movements and the impacts of globalized commodities on environmental quality. While at OSU, she conducted research on perceptions of public participation processes in the siting of liquefied natural gas facilities in Astoria and Coos Bay, Oregon.

Elizabeth Emery

Elizabeth “Betsy” Emery completed her M.S. degree in the Forest Ecosystems and Society Program at Oregon State in 2020. Prior to joining the program, she helped establish the City of Flagstaff, Arizona’s Open Space Program, including working with stakeholder groups to acquire natural areas, develop management plans, establish natural resource policies, and implement infrastructure improvement projects. At OSU, Betsy’s research explored how people perceive risks and make decisions, with a specific focus on how people reason about the use of biotechnology to address forest health threats. When she isn’t organizing events for the College of Forestry’s Graduate Student Council or reading about cognitive psychology, you can find her hiking in the Cascade mountains or dancing at a concert in Portland.

Maham Furqan

Maham completed her master’s degree in economics from Government College University (Lahore, Pakistan) and has been working in academia and the private sector since 2013. As a PhD Fulbright scholar, she aspires to pursue her passion for international energy policy and renewable energy.

Nicolette Canzoneri

Nicolette completed her master’s in Environmental Education at OSU with a focus in free-choice learning. She holds her bachelor’s in Psychology and Applied Behavior Analysis and has worked in the zoo and aquarium field for the last 15 years. As a result of her experiences conducting wildlife education presentations for visitors and utilizing behavioral principles to train animals, she became interested in understanding the role zoos and aquariums play in pro-environmental behavior change and is currently in the process of establishing an environmental nonprofit that aims to do just that!

Viviana Oquendo

Viviana Oquendo is a Colombian Fulbright grantee pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Policy at Oregon State University. She worked as an MSc in Economic Sciences, supporting several areas of public policy, until her personal life unveiled her passion for peacebuilding and rural welfare. As a Ph.D. candidate, she is researching how rural development can promote a culture of peace in countries that are overcoming civil war (such as her own home country). She acknowledges how public policy has influenced her life, so she wants to serve as a policy analyst for peacebuilding purposes.

Dylan Bugden

Dylan Bugden graduated from OSU with a Master of Public Policy in 2014. He completed his PhD student at Cornell University in the Department of Natural Resources in 2019 and is now a faculty member in Sociology at Washington State University. His research and teaching interests center on the social movements and the social dimensions of energy use and development.

Brianna Rybka

Brianna was born in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania but moved to the Pacific Northwest to complete her undergraduate degree. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from Oregon State University. After receiving her degree, Brianna relocated back to Pennsylvania and began working as a teacher and starting an organic vegetable farm. She returned to Oregon State University and earned a Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Natural Resources. Brianna is currently earning her Master of Public Policy degree, with a concentration in Sustainable Natural Resources. Her essay looks at the relationship between the many stakeholders and coalitions involved in Pennsylvania’s attempts to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

Lauren Anderson

Lauren Anderson graduated from OSU with a Master of Public Policy in 2015. Her area of study focused on energy and environmental policy. Her background is in the field of conservation biology and ecology. She is most interested in facilitating communication between scientists and policy makers, especially regarding environmental management. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, backpacking, and all other outdoorsy adventures. She now works for the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, DC.

Usman Siddiqi

Usman Siddiqi is a Fulbright Ph.D. Candidate at School of Public Policy, Oregon State University. After his Bachelors, Masters, and MPhil in political science with distinctions, he has taught the subject at GC University Lahore, Pakistan, for about 10 years. Apart from teaching, he has served in various capacities including editor of the Journal of Political Science, deputy director of Centre of Excellence China Studies, advisor of Parliamentary Students Society, and focal person of various international conferences. In his Ph.D., he is working on the regulatory politics of energy policy in the US. He is working with Hillary on research related to public adaptation and risk mitigation behaviors/policy support in the wake of extreme weather events.

Ika Widiyasari

Ika Widiyasari is a Master of Public Policy student at OSU. She received her Bachelor’s degree in economic statistics from the Institute of Statistics in Jakarta, Indonesia. Prior to coming to OSU, she worked in Indonesia’s Statistics Bureau for almost 7 years. This first-hand awareness of her home country’s impoverished social and economic conditions in remote areas prompted her to pursue a graduate degree in public policy with a focus on rural policy. She worked with Hilary on the community reactions to extreme weather project