The Fulbright-National Geographic Award Program

Artis Henderson; Conservation Journalist; Australia

As a conservation journalist studying the effects of climate change and sea level rise on the world’s oldest living microorganisms, Henderson will research the marine stromatolites of Shark Bay in Western Australia. Henderson's project will include the voices of the Malgana people — traditional custodians of Gatharragudu, the Malgana name for Shark Bay — who provide perspectives on marine stromatolites that are essential to our understanding of both early conditions on Earth and the potential for life on Mars. Yet research warns that they are in danger of disappearing within the next 30 years due to climate change and sea level rise.

 

Chelsea McMaster; Ceramic Artist; Antigua and Barbuda

As a ceramic artist, McMaster will work alongside the island's last remaining traditional potters to learn and preserve their techniques and oral histories. McMaster produces work primarily using coil building and sculpting techniques with low-fire clay and traditional finishes. While conducting research in Seaview Farm, a village with a 200-year-old history of ceramic arts, her project will conclude with a series of workshops to teach interested students and teachers about the craft in efforts to mitigate its decline.

 

Jamil Wilson; Marine Biology Educator and Researcher; Papua New Guinea

As a marine biology educator and researcher, Wilson will evaluate how a Marine Environmental Education Program in Papua New Guinea (PNG) effectively encourages diverse groups of students to participate in ocean advocacy through educational, cultural, technological and personal experiences. His research aims to increase the diversity of students involved in ocean advocacy and science, influence better educational design and execution in marine programs, and foster international connections with local PNG students and communities.

 

Konstantine Vlasis; Environmental Composer and Audio Storyteller; Iceland

As an environmental composer and audio storyteller, Vlasis will produce an immersive audio story called “When Glaciers Sing," which traces the human ecology of glaciers in Iceland through natural sounds, cultural songs, and local voices. As he learns more about Icelandic peoples’ relationship to glaciers, Vlasis aims to uncover untold stories related to the history of these icy landscapes, and the ways that music remains a crucial source for environmental knowledge. His contemporary audio series will resonate a timely story about the meaning of sound, the power of song, and the urgency of listening to glaciers today.

 

Sateesh Venkatesh; Conservation Behaviorist; Sri Lanka

As a conservation biologist who studies human-wildlife conflict, Venkatesh’s work aims to understand the complex relationship between elephants and farmers in Sri Lanka. Through camera traps, audio recordings and drone mapping, he will demonstrate how a greater understanding of both human and wildlife experiences is essential to developing mutually beneficial sustainable solutions. As populations expand and human and wild spaces mix, Venkatesh believes it is essential we focus on de-escalation and coexistence instead of separation.

Leonardo Calzada, a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen, biologist, and geographer. Caldaza is a Ph.D. student in the Geography Department of Rutgers University. He will undertake research in the Mayan Forest in Mexico where two ongoing projects — a reforestation program called “Sembrando Vida” (Sowing Life) and the construction of tourist train that will connect archeological sites throughout the forest — are concurrently being carried out. Calzada will use satellite imagery and engagement with farmers to study the long-term environmental and social impact of these plans

 

Jenny Dorsey, a professional chef and social justice advocate in the food industry. Dorsey graduated from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education with a master’s in public policy. Her Fulbright-National Geographic project will study the impact of the Singaporean government’s policies towards open-air centers and wet markets and how they have influenced business outcomes for vendors and food security for residents. Dorsey will use photo essays, interviews, and videos to create a multimedia project that will expand awareness of the changing dynamics of Singaporean food, people, tradition, and governmental policy. Her work will be included in the National University of Singapore’s permanent digital archives. 

 

Rachel Herring, a member of the Choctaw Nation, researcher for the U.S. Department of Energy, and interdisciplinary creator. Herring received her master’s degree in international environmental policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. She will research the genkai shūraku (marginalized rural communities) in Japan. Her research aims to contribute to clean energy policies that protect and integrate both traditional culture and Indigenous knowledge. Her investigation and storytelling aim to narrate what a just energy transition looks like for Japan’s aging population and the genkai shūraku – one that builds social resilience, lowers emissions, and preserves traditional culture.

 

Daun Lee, a sustainability consultant based in Boston, Massachusetts who received her B.A. in Anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis. Lee works toward equitable, holistic climate mitigation strategies. Lee will research the social impact of converting agricultural lands to solar farms on Jeju Island, South Korea, uncovering the cultural and heritage value disruptions which citrus farmers are facing due to the nation's greenhouse gas reduction goals. This research will provide insight into how to navigate future projects to ensure the longevity of important cultural values while progressing toward greenhouse gas reduction. Daun will share her findings through a journal article and short-form documentary film.

 

Jacob Ligorria, an ecologist studying seabirds, was selected by the Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission to carry out research as part of an international team of scientists at the Polish Research Station in Hornsund fjord in Norway. Ligorria received a B.A. in Biology from Pomona College. He will investigate what adult seabirds called dovekies, or “little auks,” in the Arctic are feeding their chicks. By tracing where dovekies forage, his research will help clarify how climate change is influencing the entire Arctic food web. Ligorria will archive and analyze collected data, write a manuscript for a scientific paper, and publish weekly blog posts to communicate his research in the Arctic to inform research-based conservation programs and the public.

 

Alexandra Lenore Ashworth: Philippines 
Remembering Resilience: Indigenous Identity and Cultural Preservation

Alexandra Ashworth (she/they) is a Jewish, Filipinx-American filmmaker and writer who was adopted and who explores community, belonging, and identity. They often collaborate with artists and activists, approaching personal topics such as queerness, diaspora, and family from a communal lens. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, Alexandra will work alongside local researchers and community leaders in Cagayan Valley (Philippines) to preserve Ibanag and Itawit cultures. They will develop a collection of short documentary films as a record for future generations and an antithesis to monolithic perceptions of Filipino-ness and Asian-ness. Alexandra studied Spanish, magical realism, and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She has worked with HuffPost, the MET, MOMA, and Brooklyn Museum, and associate produced forthcoming films FIRE THROUGH DRY GRASS and WHAT THE PIER GAVE US.

 

DeAnna Boyer: Ireland 
The Art of Reconnecting to our Irish Roots

DeAnna Boyer is a visual development artist studying Ireland’s changing social, historical, and ecological cultures through story-driven illustrations. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow she will travel to Ireland where she will explore interdisciplinary methods of land preservation and learn how the history of Ireland's culture is currently affecting the ecological biodiversity of its unique landscapes. While also pursuing a master’s in Art and Ecology at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, she will share her research through illustrations, paintings, writings, and videos to document the relationships between Irish culture and its changing environment. DeAnna studied Visual Development at Ringling College of Art and Design and recently completed her bachelor's degree in Illustration with a minor in Art History.

 

Sophie Dia Pegrum: Kyrgyzstan
Aiming High: The Kyrgyz Space Program’s reach for empowerment through ingenuity

Sophie Dia Pegrum is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and visual anthropologist. Her work includes films on ephemeral art/science collaborations, mountain and interspecies cultures, and semi-nomadic life-ways.  She has also made several documentaries with a focus on the amplification of diverse voices and stories.  Aiming High is a cine-ethnographic project chronicling and poetically contextualizing the experiences of a group of young women scientists aiming to launch Kyrgyzstan’s  first satellite.  Exploring a creative register to evocatively document their hard-won ingenuity, the final film aims to ignite questions around the valorization of the androcentric body in technology, while underscoring the inspiring deeds of this diverse group forging toward a unique moment of their own accomplishment.

 

Sierra Garcia: Honduras
Evaluating How Involvement in Coral Restoration Affects Perceptions of Climate Change

Sierra Garcia is an environmental writer, science educator, and interdisciplinary social-marine scientist from Monterey, California. Her Fulbright will take her to Roatán, a Caribbean island off the coast of Honduras, where she’ll write in-depth journalistic articles about coral reef restoration efforts there and the motivations and strategies of the diverse groups of people who devote themselves to it. Both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees are from Stanford University’s Earth Systems program, where she concentrated on oceans and climate as an undergraduate and on environmental communication as a master’s student. Prior to Fulbright, she lived and worked in San Francisco as a freelance environmental journalist and editor for a range of regional and national outlets, including Grist, JSTOR Daily, and the KneeDeep Times, which publishes reporting on climate resilience and adaptation.

 

Natachi Onwuamaegbu: Kenya
Liberation or Entrapment: the braiders of Kenyatta Market

Natachi Onwuamaegbu is a journalist interested in the intersection of Black womanhood and survival. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, she’ll travel to Nairobi’s Kenyatta market and interview hair braiders that make their living stylng the hair of tourists and locals. 

Kenyatta market is a place for Kenyan women to find economic liberation -- young women can start businesses and support their families – but it can also be a place of economic entrapment. Women are paid impossibly low wages under bosses with no legal responsibility and have no healthcare or job security. 

Natachi will create a series of articles profiling at least 20 of these women, publishing some on the National Geographic Field Notes blog, and will eventually collect these narratives into a website and book.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Award Recipients were unable to safely travel and conduct their research during the 2020-2021 academic year. They will join the 2021 recipients in pursuing their projects in 2021-2022.

Anakwa Dwamena: Ghana
In Search of the Ancestors’ Gardens: Indigenous Responses to Climate Change in Ghana

Anakwa Dwamena is a freelance journalist, researcher, and editor focusing on the African diaspora. Inspired by African traditional religions, his work centers on the discovery, analysis, and preservation of African indigenous knowledge systems, narratives, and ancient ways of seeing and understanding the world through culture and memory. For his Fulbright in Ghana, Anakwa will use photo essays to examine climate change in Africa – the continent that contributes the least to the warming of the planet, but is the most vulnerable to the consequences. His work will provide specific details about what is happening on the ground and share the perspectives of local scientists and elders as an investigation on the convergence of modern science and Indigenous knowledge.

 

Erin Kokdil: Guatemala
Weaving the Past into the Present: An Intimate Glimpse into the Life of a Backstrap Weaver

Erin Semine Kökdil is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and educator interested in building solidarity and inciting social change through film. Her work often deals with issues of migration, identity, and motherhood, and has screened at IDFA, Hot Docs, Camden International Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, and Palm Springs International ShortFest, among others. Her work has been supported by SFFILM and Points North Institute and featured on The New Yorker and KQED. Prior to becoming a filmmaker, she worked extensively with nonprofits, community-led initiatives, and weaving collectives in the U.S. and Guatemala. For her Fulbright in Guatemala, Erin will produce a documentary on backstrap weaving – a traditional artform that has been practiced by indigenous Mayan women in Guatemala for thousands of years and is disappearing as a result of globalization – to honor backstrap weaving as an art and an important cultural activity. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies and Spanish from Smith College and an MFA in Documentary Film and Video from Stanford University.

 

Isabelle Betancourt: Indonesia
Building an Entomology Collection to Assess Biodiversity & Inform Restoration Initiatives

Isabelle Betancourt is an entomologist, macro photographer, educator, and curatorial assistant of the 4 million-specimen insect collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. She studied entomology and plant science at Cornell University and communication at Drexel University and serves as Co-Communication Officer for the Entomological Collections Network. Isabelle is captivated by the incredible diversity of insects and enjoys exploring communication mediums that allow her to “freeze” and magnify insects to make them more accessible to audiences. She authored the book Backyard Bugs of Philadelphia, hosted a weekly insect-themed livestream, and created a center city Philadelphia insect collection that is housed at the Academy. Isabelle will be a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow in Indonesia. In collaboration with the Nasional University, she will study the largely unknown insect life at their long-term orangutan field site in Borneo to examine how fires and peat swamp forest restoration efforts are influencing the insect community.

 

Jordan Winters: Philippines
A Cultural Odyssey: Documenting Filipino Maritime Cultural Revival

Jordan Winters is a Filipino-American journalist exploring the revival of maritime traditions and its potential to deepen cultural ties to the ocean. For her Fulbright, Jordan will travel to the Philippines researching and filming the journey of Voyage of Balangay, an organization of explorers dedicated to rebuilding and sailing the balangay, a wooden sailing vessel used as early as 320 AD. Her documentary series will follow their expeditions across the Philippines and Asia as they perfect the art of sailing using this ancient technology. Winters grew up in San Francisco and earned a B.S. in journalism and political science from the University of Southern California. Prior to her Fulbright, she was an Associate Producer at NBC News covering the environment, the pandemic, racial justice, and other topics.

 

Chris Lett: Ghana
Saviors of Our Seas: Inside Ghana’s Fight for Sustainable Fisheries

Chris Lett is a former CNN field producer and Emmy-nominated journalist. After reporting on and producing programs about breaking news in the United States, he freelanced as an international correspondent investigating environmental racism in Ghana and Ethiopia. As a Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism, he examined the impact of overfishing by industrial fleets in West African waters. His primary area of research focuses on the causes and effects of depleted fisheries. He will follow up this research to produce a documentary as a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow in Ghana. This feature-length documentary will convey the impact of fisheries policies and practices that endanger the health, sustainability, and resilience of African people globally.

 

Claire Sliney: France
Narrative & Modern Diaspora: Using Cinema to Reimagine French-Maghrebi Female Identity

Claire Sliney is a social impact filmmaker focused on intersectional feminist documentary filmmaking. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, she will travel to France to make a documentary on the experiences of French-Maghrebi immigrant women in Parisian society. Claire hopes to work in partnership with these women by constructing a platform allowing them to communicate their narratives in an honest and unobstructed way. Claire is a co-founder of The Pad Project, a nonprofit dedicated to eradicating period poverty. With The Pad Project, Sliney executive produced the Oscar-winning documentary short, Period. End of Sentence. She hopes to leverage her experience with Period. End of Sentence. as a global magnifier of impact during her Fulbright. Sliney graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where she received a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies.

 

Keerti Gopal: Taiwan
Motivations for Youth Climate Activism

Keerti Gopal is a multimedia storyteller studying the motivations and strategies of youth climate activists. On her Fulbright, she will travel to Taiwan to conduct narrative-based interviews with young people fighting climate change and use a combination of film, photography, and writing to highlight their stories. Originally from Yonkers, NY, Keerti received a BA in American Studies from Northwestern University, where she studied social movements and creative writing. She has conducted interview-based research on climate activism and participated in organizing as part of the national youth-led climate and economic justice collective, the Sunrise Movement. Keerti hopes to work at the intersection of organizing and storytelling, using written and visual media to uplift marginalized voices and provide platforms to those on the frontlines of the global climate crisis.

 

Robert A Boyd III: Barbados
Finding the Thread: Highlighting the World’s Smallest Serpent

Robert Boyd is a filmmaker specializing in small and microscopic life. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, he will travel to Barbados to find and film the Barbados Threadsnake, one of the world’s smallest and most elusive serpents. Once completed, his documentary will give viewers a closer look at this critically endangered reptile. Robert hopes his film will serve as a catalyst for renewed conservation efforts, as well as an educational tool for those who have never encountered this unique creature. Robert studied filmmaking at the College of William and Mary, then at American University's Center for Environmental Filmmaking, where he recently graduated with a MFA in Film.

Melanie Kirby: Spain
’Til Queendom Come: How the Bees as Seeds experience unfurls perfumed stories from the beehive mind to collective human consciousness

Melanie Kirby is a queen honey bee breeder studying bee mating behavior utilizing RFID (radio frequency identification).  As a Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellow she will travel across Spain to survey bee mating behavior from coastal to alpine topographies.  Melanie will also follow the intersection of clay and apiculture, from cave paintings to honey pots and seed saving. She will be chronicling her interactions through writing, photos, videos, and bilingual podcasts to share the stories of beekeepers’ adaptations to shifting climate.  Her quest to help build the bridge between the field and academia strives to amplify beekeepers' and farmers' voices.  Her study will culminate in a sensory exhibit.  Melanie is pursuing an MSc. in Entomology in the Sheppard Apis Molecular Lab at Washington State University. 

 

Emily Koch: Vietnam
With No Other Fish to Fry: Declining Fish Stocks and the Impacts for Fish-Dependent Communities in Vietnam

Emi Koch is a former professional surfer and founder of Beyond the Surface, a nonprofit working in partnership with fishing villages to build social-ecological resilience.  In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta and along the South Central Coast, Emi will facilitate participatory photography workshops for fish-dependent communities to share how fishery scarcity, in concert with environmental stresses such as growing populations, pollution, extreme weather events, and coastal development, critically undermine social-ecological well-being.  Emi will create an interactive map featuring both stakeholders’ multimedia stories and her own, and will analyze qualitative data on human insecurity in fisheries.  Emi studied Psychology with concentrations in Anthropology and Justice and Peace Studies at Georgetown University and recently earned a Masters in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. 

 

Alyea Pierce: Trinidad and Tobago 
The Revitalization of Oral Storytelling & Folktales

Alyea Pierce, Ed.M, is a West Indian-American writer, poet, and educator.  As a child of immigrants, Alyea greatly values the sound, power, and rhythm of language.  For her Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling project, she will examine the revitalization of oral storytelling and folktale traditions in Trinidad and Tobago through present-day spoken word and rhythm poetry.  While studying contemporary Afro-Trinidadian literature, Alyea will document the memory, history, and experiences of people.  She will explore the intricacies of oral storytelling and folktale traditions in Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival, which is greatly influenced by its legacy of slavery and colonialism.  Alyea will use performance and digital media, specifically photography and videography, to capture the sights and sounds of Trinidad and Tobago to create a manuscript of poetry and fictional short stories that will be performed on the island.  Alyea holds a B.A. and M.Ed. from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

 

Madison Wrobley: Nepal
Working for Water: Stories of Scarcity in Kathmandu

Madison Wrobley is an anthropologist and writer studying the social effects of unequal and unstable water access in Kathmandu, Nepal.  As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow she will learn about the lived realities of water scarcity and create mapped narratives to show how a lack of available water shapes ideas of belonging in the city, use patterns, and coping strategies.  Water scarcity is quickly becoming a problem every nation must address and, although Nepal is one of the most water-rich countries in the world, people across the capital city have limited access to potable water in their homes.  Madison’s stories will be available through the Fulbright-National Geographic blog and other media outlets.  Madison studied Anthropology and Art History at Washington University in St. Louis.

Jennifer Gil Acevedo: Panama
The invisible world of Microalgae 

Jennifer Gil is an environmental scientist working with the microalgae of South Florida at Florida International University. She has interned at the Smithsonian twice. She was also an AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellow 2015 who worked at CNN español. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, she will travel to three Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute facilities in Panama, collecting microalgae samples. She will be documenting it both in Spanish and English through blogging, microscopic pictures and videos. She will display an exhibit where visitors will use their five senses to discover the invisible world of microalgae. Jennifer studied Interdisciplinary Science at the University of Puerto Rico. She recently completed her Master’s in Environmental Science at Florida International University.

 

Jen Guyton: Mozambique
Rebirth: Photographing Wildlife Oases in an Ecosystem Recovering from Civil War

Jen Guyton is a photographer and ecologist with a passion for communicating conservation. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow she will travel to Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique to create a new way of visualizing ecosystems. Using SLR camera traps set at resource hotspots like watering holes, flowering trees, and carcasses, Jen will document the wildlife that visit a site over one day, one week, or one month. She will then stack individual frames from a site into a single image, creating visually beautiful and ecologically informative composites of the wildlife communities that rely on these hotspots. Jen studied Conservation and Resource Studies at UC Berkeley and will soon complete her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University.

 

Katie Thornton: United Kingdom / Singapore
Death in the Digital Age

Katie Thornton is a Minneapolis-based audio producer and cemetery historian. As a Fulbright National Geographic Storytelling Fellow she will travel to the United Kingdom and Singapore to produce “Death in the Digital Age,” a podcast exploring the relevance of cemeteries in an era when land is strained, communities are physically distant, and digital documentation is pervasive. She will also use writing, visuals and social media to share the stories of those working at the intersection of land use, public memory and technology. Katie holds a B.A. in History from Oberlin College, has supported public programs and history initiatives at multiple cemeteries, and has worked with media outlets including American Public Media and the Association of Minnesota Public and Educational Radio Stations.

 

Emily Toner: Ireland
Peatland Profiles: Stories from Ireland's carbon-rich bogs

Emily Toner is a geographer and journalist studying soil carbon in Ireland's carbon-rich boglands. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow she will travel around Ireland to understand how climate change-driven policies to preserve peat bogs are impacting people and the soil. Though covering only 3% of the world's landmass, peat soil holds as much carbon as all vegetation combined. Preserving peat bogs and keeping that carbon in place is seen as a low hanging fruit of climate change policy. However, in Ireland, bogs have a rich history of use and are tied to Ireland's energy economy. Emily's stories will be available through the Fulbright-National Geographic blog and other media outlets. Emily earned a geography M.S. and journalism M.A. at University of Wisconsin - Madison.

 

William Tyner: Romania

William Tyner is an anthropologist and filmmaker studying the role of civic technology in strengthening the relationship between civil society and government and redefining civic engagement. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, he will create a documentary exploring the emerging civic technology movement in Romania, telling its story from multiple perspectives — including Romanian organizers and advocacy groups, residents, policymakers and public officials, technologists, and funders. Tyner has worked as a user experience researcher for organizations including Code for America, Google, Facebook, and the San Francisco Mayor's Office of Civic Innovation. William studied Cultural Anthropology at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

Toby Cox
Kyrgyz Republic

Toby Cox is interested in the diversity in Islam and Muslim identity across cultures. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, she will explore the story of Islam in the Kyrgyz Republic by examining the development of its religious identity - its roots in Tengrism, its history with Islam, and its history as a post-Soviet country. Through interviews, she will learn more about how these collective experiences impact the religious identity of individuals and the multidimensional Kyrgyz identity. She will use writing, photos, and maps to offer insight into the religious landscape of the Kyrgyz Republic, simultaneously shedding light onto the diversity of Muslim identity. Ms. Cox studied Foreign Affairs and Middle Eastern Languages at the University of Virginia and is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Jordan and the Kyrgyz Republic. 

 

R. Isaí Madriz 
Chile

R. Isaí Madriz is an entomologist and zoologist studying aquatic insects of freshwater rivers and streams. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, he will tell the story of deglaciation of the Northern Patagonia Ice Field in Chile, focusing on its vanishing aquatic insect diversity through images and stories of exploration, science and human connections. He will combine hiking, bikepacking, and packrafting to transect unexplored areas and secluded fjords in search of some of the rarest insects on the planet. This low carbon approach will utilize renewable energy sources to capture never before seen footage of remote glacial outlets and hidden valleys of wild Patagonia. Mr. Madriz will document the largely unknown endemic aquatic insect fauna of this vital region before Aysén’s biodiversity is transformed forever.

 

Abby McBride
New Zeland

Sketch biologist Abby McBride once harbored aspirations of becoming a Victorian-era naturalist explorer. Adapting her career goals to the 21st century, she now travels globally to sketch wildlife and write multimedia stories about science and conservation. In New Zealand, home to the most diverse and endangered seabirds in the world, as a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, Ms. McBride will report on extraordinary efforts to reverse centuries of human-caused harm to penguins, prions, storm-petrels, shearwaters, shags, gulls, gannets, mollymawks, and more. Through art and digital media she aims to convey a visceral sense of the beauty, fascination, and importance of seabirds, which are quickly disappearing from seas and shores worldwide. Ms. McBride is based on the Maine coast and has degrees in biology and science writing from Williams College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Lillygol “Lilly” Sedghat
Taiwan

Lilly Sedaghat is a multimedia storyteller and artist studying waste management in Taiwan. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, she will travel the island to discover how the Taiwanese interact with their waste management system and document innovations in plastics and electronics recycling. Using blog posts, photo galleries and the Instagram campaign #MyWasteMyWay, Ms. Sedghat seeks to inspire people to think more about how their consumer choices affect the environment and spark a global discussion to reevaluate the way we perceive and dispose of waste. Ms. Sedghat received her B.A. in Political Economy at University of California, Berkeley and is an avid Taiwanese milk tea drinker and “b-girl” (breakdancer).

 

Destry Maria Sibley
Mexico

Destry Maria Sibley is a freelance multimedia producer and educator based in New York City. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, Ms. Sibley will document the oral histories of Los Niños de Morelia, a group of child refugees, including her grandmother, who fled the Spanish Civil War and settled in Mexico. As she interviews this now-elderly population and their descendants, Ms. Sibley will develop a podcast series and website dedicated to their stories. Her hope is that by discovering their pasts, we might have something to learn about the futures of the millions of children who have been rendered refugees in our own time. Ms. Sibley studied at Amherst College and the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, most recently completing a Master’s in Data Visualization and Narrative Non-Fiction.

Christina Botic
Serbia and Croatia
Shifting Cultural Landscapes of Former Yugoslavia: Charting the Impact of Mass Migration

Christiana Botic is a Serbian-American documentary photographer and filmmaker who, while traveling to Serbia to document her own family history, learned that, like many families in the former Yugoslavia, it was influenced by migration and impacted by the creation of borders. She will travel to Serbia and Croatia to document the impact of mass migration of Syrians and other refugees/migrants on the cultural landscape of these two countries, divided by the EU border. Christiana plans to travel the Balkan Route and create an interactive map featuring stories of those who are moving through or residing along this path. Currently based in New Orleans, she received her BA in Screen Arts and Cultures from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

 

Lauren Ladov 
India
Seed Stories

Lauren Ladov is a local food systems advocate and educator based in Atlanta, who received her BA from Emory University with a dual focus on Film and Media Studies and Philosophy. Through partnerships with local farms and nonprofits, Lauren facilitates food education programming, manages community gardens, and develops training and multimedia resources for educators. In working with youth in urban gardens, she witnessed how growing food has the power to heal communities, both physically and spiritually. For her Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling project, she will share stories of the seeds sown in India by connecting with those striving to create sustainable, community-centered food systems. This project will produce educational media materials and platforms to engage and empower youth as advocates for future generations of seeds, farmers, and diverse ecosystems.

 

Tim McDonnell
Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda
How Climate Change Is Fueling a Food Crisis in Africa

Tim McDonnell is a digital multimedia journalist based in New York City. He will document how a changing climate is compounding longstanding problems with food insecurity and rural poverty in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda. These three countries are all exceptionally vulnerable to climate change, but host unique challenges and opportunities as a result of their distinct political and environmental climates. His reporting will address science, technology, economic development, public health, and other stories at the intersection of climate change and agriculture, using video, blogging, and other digital reporting tools. Tim has a BA in English and Ecology/Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona and is currently Associate Producer for Climate Desk, a collaboration of Mother Jones, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Slate, The Atlantic, Wired, Grist, Newsweek, and the Center for Investigative Reporting, which produces multimedia journalism on climate change.

 

Kevin McLean
Malaysia and Ecuador
Looking Up: An Expedition into the Rainforest Canopy

Kevin McLean is an ecologist studying wildlife in tropical forest canopies using motion-sensitive cameras (camera traps). As a Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellow he will travel to Malaysian Borneo and the Ecuadorian Amazon to survey canopy wildlife in two of the most biodiverse areas of the world. As he collects his scientific data, he will use writing, photos, and videos to provide a view of some of the least-known species in the forest. His research and stories will be made available to the public through a museum exhibit which will highlight canopy wildlife and the conservation threats they face. Kevin studied Earth Systems at Stanford University and recently completed his PhD in Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

 

Ishan Thakore
South Africa 
Taming Rivers

Ishan Thakore is a multimedia storyteller and global health researcher who uses film and writing to tell powerful stories. His project focuses on the tension between economic development and water resource management, and the trade-offs countries might make for economic growth. He will be documenting stories of people and industries impacted by South Africa’s Orange River Project, and he'll create a series of short films portraying a nuanced look at the individual benefits and costs of large-scale development. Before his Fulbright, Ishan worked as a researcher/fact checker for the television show Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. His research experience also includes work with USAID’s Digital Development Team, the Duke Reporters’ Lab, and Structured Stories NYC. Ishan has a BA in Public Policy from Duke University.

 

Ryan Bell is a writer and photographer who travels the world documenting “cowboy” cultures. He’s ridden with the horsemen of Argentina, Canada, Mongolia, and the American West. For his Fellowship project, “Comrade Cowboys,” Bell will explore rural Russia and Kazakhstan where pastoralists are working to rebuild cattle industries decimated by the fall of the Soviet Union.

 

 
Ari M Beser, a graduate of University of Colorado, Boulder will travel throughout Japan for nine months, from the span of the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki until the 5th Anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, and nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima. Ari’s blogumentary, “Hibakusha: The Nuclear Family,” will give voice to the hundreds of thousands of people directly affected by nuclear technology (called Hibakusha in Japanese).

 

Janice Cantieri, a journalist and recent graduate, will be spending nine months between the Pacific island nations of Kiribati and Fiji. She will use written stories and journals, images, and video footage to tell the stories of the Banaban Islanders, who were displaced to Fiji in 1945, and the stories of those currently facing displacement from Tarawa, Kiribati to Fiji as the sea level rise inundates parts of the islands.

 

Hiba Dlewati is a Syrian American writer most recently based in Istanbul. Hiba will be spending nine months moving throughout Jordan, Turkey and Sweden to document and narrate the stories of the Syrian diaspora using multimedia storytelling. By the end of the project, she hopes to produce a film that expresses the frustrations and triumphs of a people without a place, or perhaps, a people of many places.

 

A Tennessee native, Christina Leigh Geros is a designer, researcher, and educator currently in Jakarta, Indonesia using videographic, photographic, and written narrative to give voice to the Ciliwung River and communities through an interactive website, cartographically registering each story and exposing the relationships between urbanism, ecology, and politics.

Ann Chen is a multimedia artist and researcher from New York. In 2014-15, she traveled across Canada, documenting and collectively mapping the geographies and communities along the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Project through sound, photography and video. She was also a fellow in the English and Film Studies Department at the University of Alberta during her Fulbright year. From 2015-16, she will be a Collaborative Productions Fellow at UnionDocs, an experimental documentary arts center in Brooklyn, NY.

Filmmaker Daniel Koehler embedded himself in communities in Gaborone, New Xade, and Metsiamanong in Botswana to produce an intimate coming-of-age portrait of two young San men charting a course between tradition and modernity in the wake of relocation from their ancestral homeland. The final documentary, with the working title LOOKING FOR LIFE, will run the spring and fall film festival circuit in 2016. Daniel hopes to continue combining his passions for film and African studies to produce socially significant and compelling documentaries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Erin Moriarty Harrelson, a PhD candidate in anthropology at American University, traveled throughout Cambodia for ten months, exploring the emergence of a post-Khmer Rouge deaf culture. She herself is deaf and used video, text, photographs and drawings to document the lives of deaf Cambodians. During her time in Cambodia, Moriarty Harrelson worked closely with Deaf Development Programme (DDP) and Krousar Thmey to raise awareness about sign language and deaf people through mainstream and social media. In May 2015, Moriarty Harrelson curated a photo exhibition, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy Phnom Penh, with Karen Bortvedt, a colleague from DDP. Continuing her work in a different capacity, Moriarty Harrelson recently joined the board of Discovering Deaf Worlds, a non-profit organization based in Rochester, New York that works towards advancing the self-determination of signing Deaf communities by strengthening local capacity in developing countries. Moriarty Harrelson is now writing her dissertation and looks forward to completing it by May 2016.

Mimi Onuoha is a New York City-based researcher and artist who is in the United Kingdom visualizing information about groups of Londoners based on digital data collected from their phones. Her project, which consists of a website and artwork outputs, uses data to explore the stories of how our increasingly networked relationships unfold across on and offline spaces. After the Fulbright-National Geographic fellowship she will continue to examine data's effect on sociocultural systems as a fellow at the NYC-based Data & Society research institute and through initiatives with Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism. She also is a practicing artist whose work will be shown at various exhibitions over the summer.

Los Angeles native Michael Waldrep is a documentary filmmaker, multimedia artist and researcher focused on cities. He spent his 2014-15 grant period in Mexico City, documenting the suburbs of the most populous metropolitan area in North America through writing, photography, mapping and video. He’s currently working toward a physical exhibition of the project, and is building laciudadactual.com to host the research online.