2024-2025 PRAx Student Fellows

FILM + SCIENCE

Christopher Cousins researches the Cascade Torrent Salamander, a native Oregon species vulnerable to human activities that affect the cold, clear headstream waters they depend on. His short film explores the unique evolutionary history of torrent salamanders and highlights their important ecological role in this critical moment while they are under consideration for protection by the Endangered Species Act.

Field: PhD student—Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences; College of Agricultural Sciences

Mentors: Dr. Tiffany Garcia, Jeremy Monroe, David Baker

HUMANITIES + SCIENCE

Sarah Caballero studies how agriculture, climate, and human experience interconnect. Her creative nonfiction project draws on personal experience and current research in viticulture to explore emotional and practical connections to novel agricultural challenges emerging in the new age of wildfire.

Field: PhD student—Food Science & Technology; College of Agricultural Sciences

Mentors: Dr. Alexander Levin, Elena Passarello

Natalie Van Gelder is a writer and educator whose work engages with narrative medicine as it applies to neurodiversity, child development, and trauma studies. Her project involves a series of writing clinics, written work, and tools that empower neurodivergent adults to learn more about themselves and to communicate their experiences with others.

Field: MFA student—Writing, Literature, and Film; College of Liberal Arts

Mentors: Dr. Bridget Klest, Jen Richter

ART + ENGINEERING

Jackson Myers is pursuing studies in machine learning and biodata. Motivated by the pervasive challenge of noise pollution, he seeks to increase engagement with the auditory impacts of environmental changes. His project app curates a collaborative, geo-tagged library and map where users can record and upload local soundscapes. A complementary series of sound-collection walks will empower people to become more aware of their sonic environments and change their acoustic relationships with the world.

Field: Undergraduate—Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; College of Engineering

Mentors: Dr. Houssam Abbas, Dr. Dana Reason, Manuel Cherep (MIT) and Peter Valsamis

Savannah Tanner is a musician and engineer interested in helping create ways to make music experiences more accessible for deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. Her project involves developing multisensory technologies that translate musical qualities like bass, percussion and melody into light patterns and vibrational signals for wearable technology.  

Field: MS student—Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; College of Engineering

Mentors: Dr. Chet Udell, Michael Boonstra

Liam Warner is an engineer and musician exploring human-robot interactivity through music production and musical robot interaction. His intelligent robot musician (a.k.a. OctoDrum) uses a steel tongue drum, solenoids, and programming to offer different modes of interactivity, composition, and performance. 

Field: Undergraduate—Electrical Engineering | Music; College of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts | Honors College

Mentors: Dr. Chet Udell, Dr. Bob Brudvig

ART + SCIENCE

Ainsley Beck is a nutrition major invested in improving the accessibility of knowledge about healthy foods. Her project involves a series of interactive, social-based art practices that empower young people and new mothers in underserved communities to learn about nutrition in fun, meaningful ways.

Field: Undergraduate—Nutrition and Public Health; College of Health | Honors College

Mentors: Dr. Sieu Sun Wong, Leah Wilson

Jalyn Devereaux studies the ecophysiology of the Red Crossbill, a nomadic, conifer-dependent songbird that wanders widely in search of abundant cone crops. Her project creatively interprets the crossbill’s unique anatomical features and the endocrine pathways involved in the bird’s hormonal and behavioral responses to challenging environmental conditions. 

Field: PhD student—Integrative Biology; College of Science

Mentors: Dr. Jamie Cornelius, Dr. Tara Kate Robinson

Jonas Donnenfield is an artist and geoscientist whose research in paleoceanography uses marine sediment cores to reconstruct periods of abrupt warming. His project fuses paleoclimate data with the emotive features of landscape art to create compelling visual narratives about deep-time climates and their relation to current and expected future changes.

Field: PhD student—Marine Geology and Geophysics; College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences

Mentors: Dr. Jennifer Fehrenbacher, Jill Pelto

Annabella Eisner is a musician and performer interested in the intersection of soundscapes, the natural environment and wellness. Using original music and field recordings combined with sonic and psychological research, her project explores connections between intentional natural experiences and the potential power of sound healing.

Field: Undergraduate—Visual, Performing, and Design Arts; College of Liberal Arts | Honors College

Mentors: Dr. Sabine Huemer, Dr. Dana Reason

Brook Ferris is a multidisciplinary artist whose previous work has showcased complex plant–human relationships. Her project combines photography and watercolor techniques to explore and map post-wildfire plant recovery and regeneration in riparian ecosystems.

Field: Undergraduate­—Visual, Performing and Design Arts; College of Liberal Arts

Mentors: Dr. Dana Warren, Leah Wilson

Amanda Fox has worked in agriculture since the age of 7. She currently raises registered Red Angus on her farm, teaches in the Calving School and researches the effects of vitamin supplementation on the reproductive performance of beef cows. Her creative writing project invites us to consider both the intelligence and perspectives of cattle as well as the experiences of those who choose to work with them. 

Field: MS student—Animal and Rangeland Sciences; College of Agricultural Sciences

Mentors: Dr. Cecily Bishop, Gilad Elbom

Emma Gleeman studies place attachment and risk perception with the Cascadia Coastlines & People Hazards Research Hub. Her project uses embroidery, collage, and natural materials to explore the emotional geographies of place that map memory and meaning.    

Field: MS student, Geography and Geospatial Sciences; College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences

Mentors: Dr. Jenna Tilt, Dr. Jerri Bartholomew

Michelle Kyle is a musician and artist devoted to community engagement and fascinated by our human connections with the botanical world. Her project brings Willamette Valley residents into closer relationship with local flora via artistic interpretations and opportunities for interactive exploration.   

Field: Undergraduate—Music | Ecological Engineering; College of Liberal Arts | College of Engineering

Mentors: Dr. Tom Kaye, Dr. Jerri Bartholomew

Ehi-Kowochio Ogwiji studies school-based agricultural education in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Her project leverages her lived experience growing up in Nigeria to create culturally responsive poetry inspired by African agrarian education and heritage. She envisions pairing this collection with accessible learning resources to share with those on the frontlines of the fight against hunger and food insecurity.

Field: MS student—Agricultural Education; College of Agricultural Sciences

Mentors: Dr. Haley Traini, Hiram Larew

Nicolette Ratz is a science communicator and field technician who’s worked with organizations from the USFS to Polar Field. She also writes poems that take inspiration from her experiences growing up in the boreal Northwoods and working in both Arctic and Antarctic polar regions. Her project is a poetic exploration of glacial research and fieldwork that integrates diverse forms to bring into focus the wonders of ice and our imperative to preserve it.

Field: MFA student—Writing, Literature, and Film; College of Liberal Arts

Mentors: Dr. Erin Pettit, Jen Richter

Rain Scarborough is interested in ways we learn about and take action to mitigate and adapt to environmental risks, especially threats to public health. Drawing on research that shows climate change will lead to the emergence of novel pathogens and the increased spread of infectious diseases, Scarborough’s multimedia project raises awareness by giving voice to people whose lives are already being affected.

Field: Undergraduate—Graphic Design | Sustainability; College of Liberal Arts | College of Agricultural Sciences

Mentors: Dr. Kimberly Townsend, Deann Garcia

Arden Smith researches exploratory and predatory behavior in ground beetles and is an experienced science illustrator and visual storyteller. She is currently collaborating on a graphic novel about the discovery of two new species. Her project expands on this work to creatively interpret physiological and behavioral variation of insects.

Field: MS student—Integrative Biology; College of Science

Mentors: Dr. David Maddison, Andrew Myers

Tor Strand is a writer and the recipient of a Fishtrap Fellowship, an Emerging Writer Award from Story Catcher, a writing residency at Boyden Wilderness Reserve, and a Spring Creek Project Graduate Student Writing Residency. His project listens to a single Western Red Cedar to explore place-based poetry as a means of opening us to new ways of connecting with the natural world. 

Field: MFA student—Writing, Literature, and Film; College of Liberal Arts

Mentors: Dr. Meg Krawchuk, Joe Wilkins

Harriet Williams is a songwriter, composer and student athlete originally from New Zealand. Drawing on personal experience, shared stories and contemporary research in mental health, her collection of original songs offers relatable connections with those who’ve struggled through hard times.

Field: Undergraduate—Public Health; College of Public Health

Mentors: Dr. Ada Massa, Dr. Dana Reason

Jasmine Williamson studies amphibian ecology in the context of forest community responses to large-scale disturbances like logging operations and wildfire. Her work is focused on salamanders in old growth habitat, and her project calls attention to the beauty and vulnerability of these systems through a series of reduction block prints.

Field: PhD student—Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences; College of Agricultural Sciences

Mentors: Dr. Julie Tucker, Julia Lont