Heather Moline completed her Master of Public Policy at OSU in 2019. Her essay explored the perspectives of 4th and 5th graders in Fremont, California, and Corvallis, Oregon, on their household energy use as part of the Smart and Connected Kids for Sustainable Energy Communities Project. She went on to a position as an energy and environmental justice policy associate at the Northwest Energy Coalition.
Hannah is a master’s student in the Marine Resource Management Program at Oregon State University. She served in the United States Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer for almost nine years, deploying on two ships and earning the title of Nuclear Engineering Officer. She graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry from Loyola University of Chicago and has always held an appreciation for the scientific world. Her research focuses on Department of Defense and Coast Guard involvement in Offshore Wind and Marine Energy siting and policy, specifically offshore wind energy that was proposed off the coasts of Oregon and Virginia. She is passionate about clean energy as a solution to climate challenges and hopes to continue advocating for alternative energy sources well into the future.
Anna Kelly is Director of Strategy and Innovation at SBW Consulting. She previously worked at Power TakeOff, Colorado Energy Office and The Cadmus Group. While a graduate student at OSU, Anna studied opposition to large scale renewable energy developments and hybrid energy systems.
Stephen Gunther completed his Masters of Public Policy at OSU in 2018. He received his Bachelor’s degree in political science from James Madison University. Prior to coming to OSU, he worked at a consulting firm in Washington, D.C., supporting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for nearly five years. He went on to work at the Center of Sustainable Energy in San Diego on issues related to distributed energy resources.
Jos Grandolfo enrolled in the Master of Public Policy program at OSU shortly after completing his BA in Sociology at SUNY New Paltz in 2012. At OSU, he participated in the International Comparative Rural Policy Studies summer institute in Bologna, Italy, and interned with a number of local agencies, including the City of Corvallis, League of Women Voters, and the Corvallis Environmental Center. His research assistantship on the USDA-funded project exploring renewable energy siting in the Western United States proved especially influential. This experience led to his essay on community response to wind farm siting proposals in Klickitat County, Washington, which he successfully defended in June 2015. His research interests include renewable energy policy, agricultural policy, and sustainable development, particularly in a rural context. Outside of the university, he enjoys gardening, cooking, and road trips.
Brittany Gaustad graduated from OSU with a Master of Public Policy in 2015. She went on to become 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 “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.
Trang Tran graduated from OSU with a Master of Public Policy in 2015. While at OSU, Trang worked closely with Hilary on an Oregon Sea Grant-funded project examining public participation and community mobilization surrounding the siting of liquefied natural gas facilities in Astoria and Coos Bay, Oregon. She also coordinated community-based research projects at OSU’s Policy Analysis Laboratory. After OSU, she spent several years working at the Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage. She then began a PhD at UC Boulder. In her spare time, Trang loves traveling, hiking, reading and spending time in her kitchen. She completed her bachelor’s degree in International Studies at the University of Da Nang, Vietnam.
Courtney Flathers completed her Master of Public Policy at OSU in 2017. Her academic interests include rural policy, natural resources policy and marine policy. A native Oregonian, Courtney earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Sociology from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. After completing her undergraduate education she completed a year of AmeriCorps service working as a literacy tutor in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Before pursuing graduate school she also worked in the Oregon State Legislature for three years. At OSU, she conducted research with the support of NOAA and Oregon Sea Grant on demographic changes in the commercial fishing industry and impacts on community resilience. She worked with Hilary on the community reactions to extreme weather project. She went on to work as a field representative for Senator Merkley.
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.
