August 5, 2013 – BELFAST, Maine, August 5, 2013 – Anne Clark Baker (MS candidate, GSIDE, Class of 2014) and Lisa Stoddard (PhD candidate, Geography) have achieved the high honor of being selected as Switzer Environmental Fellows by the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation.

This year, the Switzer Foundation awarded 22 Fellowships for emerging environmental leaders who are pursuing graduate degrees and are dedicated to positive environmental change in their careers. Brief descriptions of Anne’s and Lisa’s work are as follows:

Anne Clark Baker envisions her future work as that of creating opportunities through which scientists and designers can collaborate in a project-based way to investigate processes of environmental change, and to design and communicate future human-environment relationships. She sees institutions and agencies engaged in geospatial analysis as a viable platform for this work. She developed a commitment to public service early in her career as an AmeriCorps volunteer and has worked alongside both designers and scientists throughout her academic and professional life. Through her current studies at Clark University, participation in the NASA DEVELOP program, and recent work with scientists and fishermen invested in understanding and responding to the changing dynamics of fisheries in coastal Maine, her current research focuses on how the visualization of complex human-environment relationships can expand the impact of participatory and adaptive planning projects. She understands geographic information science as a common language embedded in the creative and exploratory work of both scientists and designers, and as such, an opportunity for enabling new modes of discovery and creation.