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The Dow Sustainability Fellows Program, administered by the Graham Sustainability Institute, will award over $800,000 in tuition and project funding in 2022. The funds will support more than 40 outstanding graduate student from 12 University of Michigan (U-M) schools and colleges, including two large, international student projects funded by Dow Distinguished Awards.

Each Dow Sustainability Fellow will receive a $20,000 stipend, along with supplementary project funding, sustainability professional development opportunities, and practical experience working on a team with an external organizational partner. The two Distinguished Awards teams will receive $40,000 to implement schematic designs at a self-managed housing site in Brazil and $20,000 to help advance urban policy analysis in Columbia, respectively.

Since the Program’s inception, $11 million has been awarded in tuition support, with five schools receiving more than $1 million each. Now in its tenth cycle, the Fellows Program is designed to support the next generation of sustainability leaders in business, government, and nonprofits by promoting interdisciplinary and collaborative engagement. Fellows are selected through a competitive process from a pool of applicants nominated by their academic units. This cohort will participate in the program through December 2022.

“We are pleased to welcome a talented new cohort of Dow Sustainability Fellows into this productive, highly selective program,” said Jennifer Haverkamp, Graham Family Director. “The 2022 Fellows join a community of nearly 1,000 current students and alumni supported by the Dow Sustainability Program at U-M. Over the coming year, they will advance the sustainability goals of their external partners and deepen their own commitment to sustainability, preparing to promote a more sustainable future wherever life leads them after graduation.” 

The 2022 Dow Fellows and their nominating schools (in bold) are listed below. Among this cohort, 11 Fellows are dual majors, indicated in parentheses.

  • Architecture & Urban Planning: Kira Barsten (SEAS), Kathleen Cameron (SEAS), Tara Grebe, Walter Hunt, Annie Linden (SEAS), Rasha Mohamed (Public Policy)
  • Art & Design: Joie Zhang
  • Business: Mustafa Cagil Isik, Samantha Teng (SEAS), Zixu Zhao
  • Engineering: Julia Rifkin
  • Environment & Sustainability: Luke Allen, Katelyn Boisvert (Ross), Catherine Diggs, Claire Doyle, Francisco Daniel Renteria Macedo, Hana Tomozawa (Ross), Chantalle Vincent
  • Information: Christine Gregg
  • Law: Alexis Studler
  • LSA: Christina Pastoria (SEAS)
  • Medicine: Kiley Adams, Keoni Bailey, Colby Foster, Donovan Inniss, Christian Mackey
  • Public Health: Emily Alexander, Joshua Grindling, Sailing Tang
  • Public Policy: Phong Hong (Public Health), Caroline Leland, Moksha Menghaney (SEAS), Paolo Mutia (Information), Kielan Rathjen

Distinguished Award Funds Support Two Teams

In addition to funds awarded to the Dow Fellows cohort, two Distinguished Award student teams will receive funding totaling $60,000 through the Dow Distinguished Awards competition, designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and engaged learning at the graduate level. The 2022 winning teams will be working in South America on year-long projects with external project partners. Both teams are advised by Professor Ana Paula Pimentel Walker of Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning.

"The program has often taken students abroad, with past projects spanning Africa, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ethopia, Haiti, India, Liberia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Thailand, and Uganda," said Dow Fellows Program Director, Professor Margaret Wooldridge. "These teams proposed outstanding projects that are designed to improve the quality of life for communities in Brazil and Colombia."

  • Project team one, Greening Low-Income, Self-Managed Housing Projects in Brazil, will implement schematic designs at a designated self-managed housing site, known as MLK (Mutirões Dorothy Stang, Jerônimo Alves e Martin Luther King). Activities will include planting trees, protecting water springs and creeks, installing educational signage, pathways throughout areas of permanent protection (APP), and construction of communal spaces (pavilions) with pervious surfaces. These components are based on extensive research and collaboration with landscape architects and other experts.

Student team:

  • Architecture & Urban Planning: Roland Amarteifio (student leader)
  • Public Policy: Fanta Condé (student leader)
  • Public Health: Shanea Condon
  • Social Work: Bryant Hepp

Project partners:

  • Cristiane Oliveira Dantas, coordenadora de Movimentos dos Sem Terra da Zona Leste 1 de São Paulo (UMM-SP and UNMP, Brazil)
  • Evaniza Rodrigues, União Nacional Por Moradia Popular (UNMP), Nationwide Projects Coordinator (member of UMM-SP and MST-Leste1)
  • Project team two, Climate Action Planning with Biodiversity to Protect Vulnerable Human Settlements in Bucaramanga, Colombia, will help advance urban policy analysis in the Andean city of Bucaramanga, capital of Santander department. The goal of the project is to understand and assess how the municipality is incorporating national and sub-national policies and instruments to mitigate emissions and promote climate change adaptation.

Student team:

  • Architecture & Urban Planning: Sarai Zelada (student leader)
  • Public Health: Areli Balderrama (Urban Planning)
  • Public Policy: Darian Burns, Clare Knutson

Project partners:

  • Vivienne Caballero, Cities and Climate Change Expert, Global Solutions Division, Programme Development Branch (UN-Habitat, Nairobi, Kenya)
  • Patricia Lizarazo Vaca, Project coordinator, UN-Habitat, Andean Countries Hub
  • Gianluca Crispi, Legal Specialist, Policy, Legislation and Governance Section

For more information, visit graham.umich.edu/dow.