Fellow Story

Switzer Fellows Book List

December 18, 2024

Fellow(s): Noah Charney, Sara St. Antoine, Simone Pulver, Mehana Vaughan, Brad Timm, Kristen Puryear, Aram Calhoun, Nick Jensen, John J Berger, Morgan Grove, Sarah Reed, Christine Wilkinson, Nicole Heller, Simone Pulver, Rebecca Lave, Melissa Nelson, Thor Hanson, Stephen Wheeler, Zully Juarez, Eunice Blavascunas, Eric Dolin, Mark Elbroch, Ayana Johnson, Sarah Johnson, Kevin Kung, Noa Lincoln, Jonathan Scheuer, Don Weber, Elisabeth Stoddard

Topic(s): Architecture & Urban Planning, Climate Change, Coastal & Marine Conservation, Conservation Science, Energy Resources & Access, Environmental & Public Health, Environmental & Social Justice, Environmental Education, Natural Resource Management, Science Communications

Read up on the latest titles released by fellows in our Switzer Fellows Book List. This running list includes titles ranging from young adult fiction to socio-environmental research, and from the wildlife of the Northeast to the wildflowers of California.

Let us know if you have a book that should be added to the list!

2022-2024

Timm, Brad. Wildlife out your Window. Northeast Wildlife Team, 2024.
California Native Plant Society. Wildflowers of California. Timber Press, 2024.
- (Coauthored by Nick Jensen)
Raphael, Chad and Matsuoka, Martha (eds.) Ground Truths: Community-Engaged Research for Environmental Justice. California: University of California Press, 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.174
Lambert, Max and Schell, Christopher. Urban Biodiversity and Equity: Justice-Centered Conservation in Cities. Oxford University Press, 2023.
- (Contributions by J. Morgan Grove, Nicole Heller, Sarah Reed and Christine Wilkinson)
Berger, John J. Solving the Climate Crisis: Frontline Reports from the Race to Save the Earth. Seven Stories Press, 2023.
Calhoun, Aram, Hunter, Malcolm and Redford, Kent. Our Maine. Down East Books, 2023.
- (Chapter authored by Kristen Puryear)
Charney, Noah. These Trees Tell a Story: The Art of Reading Landscapes. Yale University Press, 2023.
St Antoine, Sara. Front Country. Chronicle Books, 2022.
Burnside, William R., Pulver, Simone., et al., editors. Foundations of Socio-Environmental Research: Legacy Readings with Commentaries. Cambridge University Press, 2023.

2021

Rebecca Lave published an analysis of stream mitigation banking and the challenges of implementing market-based approaches to environmental conservation.

Lave, Rebecca and Doyle, Martin. Streams of Revenue: The Restoration Economy and the Ecosystems It Creates. The MIT Press; 2021.

Melissa K Nelson contributed to and coedited a new collection of essays, interviews, and poetry by Indigenous and other voices demanding a return to the force of lineage—to spiritual, social, and ecological connections across time.

Hausdoerffer, John; Parry Hecht, Brooke; Nelson, Melissa K.; and Kassouf Cummings, Katherine. What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? The University of Chicago Press; 2021.

Thor Hanson authored a remarkable story of how plants and animals are responding to climate change: adjusting, evolving, and sometimes dying out.

Hanson, Thor. Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid: The Fraught and Fascinating Biology of Climate Change. Basic Books; 2021.

Stephen Wheeler co-authored a book arguing for structural change and creativity in institutions and socioeconomic systems and design in order to move toward urban sustainability.

Wheeler, Stephen M. and Rosan, Christina D. Reimagining Sustainable Cities: Strategies for Designing Greener, Healthier, More Equitable Communities. University of California Press; 2021.

Zully Juarez co-authored a book on urban planning in Mexico via the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs Latin American Cities Initiative. Her contribution focused on the City of Campeche.

Monkkonen, Echavarria, Cáñez, et. al. Urban Planning in Mexico: The Cases of Hermosillo, Leon, Morelia, Campeche. UCLA Ciudades; 2021.

2019-2020

Blavascunas, Eunice. Foresters, Borders and Bark Beetles: The Future of Europe's Last Primeval Forest. Indiana University Press; 2020.

Dolin, Eric Jay. A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes. Liveright; 2020.

Elbroch, Mark. The Cougar Conundrum: Sharing the World with a Successful Predator. Island Press; 2020.

Johnson, Ayana Elizabeth (editor), Wilkinson, Katharine K. (editor). All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. One World; 2020.

Johnson, Sarah S.. The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World. Crown; 2020.

Kung, Kevin. How to Drink from a Fire Hose: What MIT taught me about innovation, leadership and the pursuit of life. (available in simplified Chinese)

Lincoln, Noa. Kō: An Ethnobotanical Guide to Hawaiian Sugarcane Cultivars. University of Hawaii Press; 2020.

Scheuer, Jonathan L., Isaki, Bianca K. Water and Power in West Maui. (planned release in 2020)

Sorensen, W. Conner, Smith, Edward H. and Smith, Janet R., with Weber, Donald C. Charles Valentine Riley: Founder of Modern Entomology. The University of Alabama Press; 2019.

Wobbe, Kristin K., Stoddard, Elisabeth A. Project-Based Learning in the First Year: Beyond All Expecations. Stylus Publishing; 2019.

Vaughan, Mehana Blaich. Kaiāulu: Gathering Tides. Oregon State University Press, 2018.

Meet the Fellows in this Story

Noah Charney

2010 Fellow

Dr. Charney uses the tools of spatial ecology to guide conservation of sensitive species and ecosystems in the face of global change and expanding human populations. Recent projects include: modeling impacts of climate change on Galapagos...

Sara St. Antoine

1992 Fellow

Sara St. Antoine is a children's book author and environmental writer with a longstanding interest in how stories shape--and are shaped by--our relationship to the natural world. Her newest novel, Front Country (Chronicle Books, 2022), is...

Simone Pulver

2001 Fellow

Dr. Pulver is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She received her doctorate in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and also holds an MA in Energy and Resources...

Mehana Vaughan

2009 Fellow

Mehana Blaich Vaughan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and U.H. Sea Grant. Mehana studies interactions between people and the environment...

Brad Timm

2008 Fellow

Brad Timm is a wildlife biologist, author, and wildlife educator passionate about providing education about the wildlife of the Northeastern U.S. to general public audiences. Brad recently published a book "Wildlife Out Your Window" and is the Founder and Executive Director of the Northeast Wildlife Team ("NEWT").

Kristen Puryear

2003 Fellow

Kristen Puryear graduated with her masters degree from UVM in 2004, and is currently working for Maine's Department of Conservation as a Community Ecologist. Her work within the Maine Natural Areas Program focuses on inventorying and...

Aram Calhoun

1991 Fellow

Aram completed her Dissertation in 1996 looking at the role of methanotrophic bacteria on various marsh plants in mitigating methane emission from freshwater marshes. She has worked professionally as an environmental educator and a wetland...

Nick Jensen

2016 Fellow

Nick currently serves as the Conservation Program Director for the California Native Plant Society (CNPS). In this position he oversees the conservation work of staff and volunteer advocates statewide. Nick’s work involves state and federal...

John J Berger

1988 Fellow

John J. Berger is an energy and environmental policy specialist and a senior research fellow at the Pacific Institute. His 11 books include Solving the Climate Crisis: Frontline Reports from the Race to Save the Earth and Climate Peril: The Intelligent Reader’s Guide to Understanding the Climate Crisis, which won the 2015 International Book Award for Science. His journalistic work has appeared in Scientific American, The Nation, The Progressive, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, and many other publications.

Morgan Grove

1993 Fellow

Morgan Grove is a social scientist and Team Leader for the USDA Forest Service's Baltimore Urban Field Station. Morgan has worked in Baltimore since 1989, with the Forest Service since 1996, and has been a Co-Principal Investigator in the...

Sarah Reed

2006 Fellow

Dr. Sarah Reed is Executive Director of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, a results-driven family foundation that invests in individuals and organizations to drive positive environmental change. Through fellowships and grants, the...

Christine Wilkinson

2019 Fellow

Christine Wilkinson is a conservation biologist, 2022 Schmidt Science Fellow, and a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research...

Nicole Heller

2004 Fellow

I am a conservation ecologist and science communication professional. My research explores the interactions of anthropogenic global change, ecological communities and human stewardship. I am most interested in critically evaluating...

Simone Pulver

2001 Fellow

Rebecca Lave

2003 Fellow

Rebecca Lave is an Associate Professor in Geography at Indiana University. Her research takes a critical physical geography approach, combining political economy, science and technology studies, and fluvial geomorphology to focus on the...

Melissa Nelson

1996 Fellow

Melissa graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 1991 with an honors BA in Integrated Ecology and graduated from UC Davis in 2000 with a Ph.D. in Ecology. For the 28 years, she served as the Executive Director and President of The Cultural...

Thor Hanson

1998 Fellow

Author and biologist Thor Hanson is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Switzer Environmental Fellow, and winner of the John Burroughs Medal. His books include Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid, Buzz, The Triumph of Seeds, Feathers, and The...

Stephen Wheeler

1994 Fellow

Stephen M. Wheeler, Ph.D., AICP is the author of Planning for Sustainability: Creating Livable, Equitable, and Ecological Communities (Routledge, 2004) and The Sustainable Urban Development Reader (co-edited with Tim Beatley; second edition...

Zully Juarez

2019 Fellow

Zully Juarez provides research and analysis of environmental justice policies to Just Solutions Collective. With the direction and input of BIPOC frontline policy practitioners, she works to identify, research, review, and analyze existing...

Eunice Blavascunas

2005 Fellow

Eunice is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. She completed her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at the University of California Santa Cruz and has taught at the...

Eric Dolin

1989 Fellow

I grew up near the coasts of New York and Connecticut, and since an early age I was fascinated by the natural world, especially the ocean. I spent many days wandering the beaches on the edge of Long Island Sound and the Atlantic, collecting...

Mark Elbroch

2011 Fellow

Mark Elbroch earned his PhD in Ecology while studying pumas in Chilean Patagonia at the University of California, Davis . Mark's conservation research focuses on four areas: 1) Re-establishing an appreciation for natural history training as...

Ayana Johnson

2009 Fellow

Sarah Johnson

2007 Fellow

Sarah Johnson is currently a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. From 2009-2011, Sarah worked on climate and sustainability issues in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; prior to that, she completed field...

Kevin Kung

2013 Fellow

Kevin Kung earned his Ph.D. from MIT, focusing on biofuels and renewable energy, and specializes in biomass and energy conversion systems, engineering design in resource-constrained settings, and waste industry innovation. In 2012, by...

Noa Lincoln

2012 Fellow

Noa Kekuewa Lincoln exhibits a passion for life that keeps him energetically engaged in a broad range of communities. Born and raised in Hawaii he connects strongly with the Hawaiian culture, which places environment at the core of human...

Jonathan Scheuer

1998 Fellow

Jonathan currently continues his career work on the resolution and management of conflict over natural resources as a private consultant, advising private and public clients on conservation and Native Hawaiian policy and strategy...

Don Weber

1990 Fellow

Don Weber grew up in northern Virginia with a knowledge of plants, insects and birds imparted by Burgundy Wildlife Camp and its staff. After obtaining his BA in Biology at Williams College, and an MS in Entomology at UC Berkeley with...

Elisabeth Stoddard