Gund Institute at UVM

09/15/2026

Tomorrow: a conversation about finding connection and direction in uncertain times.

How can we remain resourced, connected, and purposeful amid ecological loss and political uncertainty? Join Jess Serrante and Stephen Posner, for an engaging event exploring how we experience this moment—and how attention, story, and community can sustain meaningful and creative action. Through discussion, collective sense-making and a guided community practice inspired by the work of Joanna Macy, participants will explore how to turn our attention toward the outcomes we want, without negating the dangers we face or bypassing into a naive kind of hope.

Jess Serrante is a ritualist, cultural regeneration facilitator, and leadership coach working at the intersection of grief, imagination, and how we come together to meet the challenges and the extraordinary regenerative potential of these times.

Stephen Posner, PhD, is a senior fellow for planetary health at the Garrison Institute, where his work aims to transform how we understand, value, and care for nature.

Wednesday, September 16 2026
12:30-2:00pm ET
Sugar Maple Ballroom
Davis Center, UVM

Register here: https://go.uvm.edu/power-up-seminar

Co-presented by the UVM Institute for Agroecology, Leadership for the Ecozoic, Gund Institute at UVM, Osher Center for Integrative Health, Office of Sustainability, and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.

09/09/2026

How can we remain resourced, connected, and purposeful amid ecological loss and political uncertainty? Join Jess Serrante and Stephen Posner, for an engaging event exploring how we experience this moment—and how attention, story, and community can sustain meaningful and creative action. Through discussion, collective sense-making and a guided community practice inspired by the work of Joanna Macy, participants will explore how to turn our attention toward the outcomes we want, without negating the dangers we face or bypassing into a naive kind of hope.

Jess Serrante is a ritualist, cultural regeneration facilitator, and leadership coach working at the intersection of grief, imagination, and how we come together to meet the challenges and the extraordinary regenerative potential of these times.

Stephen Posner, PhD, is a senior fellow for planetary health at the Garrison Institute, where his work aims to transform how we understand, value, and care for nature.

Wednesday, September 16 2026
12:30-2:00pm ET
Sugar Maple Ballroom
Davis Center, UVM

Register here: https://go.uvm.edu/power-up-seminar

Co-presented by the UVM Institute for Agroecology, Leadership for the Ecozoic, Gund Institute at UVM, Osher Center for Integrative Health, Office of Sustainability, and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.

08/31/2026

As Fall 2026 classes get underway at University of Vermont, we’re proud to welcome our newest Gund community members. We know their new ideas and innovative research will fuel needed solutions to urgent environmental problems, for people and nature.

Meet our newest Gund colleagues here:

| The University of Vermont

08/17/2026

Meet UVM Rubenstein School associate professor and Gund Affiliate Kim Coleman. A broadly trained social scientist, Coleman studies the human dimensions of natural resources. Things like how the Covid outdoor recreation boom has affected communities in Vermont.

Check out Coleman's work in the latest 90-Second Scientist.

07/21/2026

We're back with another 90-Second Scientist!

Climate change is bringing more extreme weather to communities across the globe, including Vermont. Flooding churns up pollutants that can affect drinking water, but traditional water quality monitoring is expensive and data is limited.

Appala Raju Badireddy, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Vermont and a Gund Faculty Fellow, wants to change that.

Enter: affordable microsensors that can provide real-time water quality data.

What started with seed funding from a Catalyst Award has turned into a $6 million project with collaborators in South Dakota and New Mexico.

Get an inside peek at Badireddy's lab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjKv6o6Axyw

UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences
University of Vermont

Raju Badireddy's research group, ALCHEMIST, is advancing the health...

07/17/2026

Remote sensing data, like LIDAR and satellite imagery, can provide scientists with a large-scale look at a study site. But the details matter, and sometimes, nuanced facts can only be found by getting out into the field in person, observing the ecosystem, and learning from the local community.

In this guest blog post for the British Ecological Society's Forest Ecology Group, Gund Grad Fellow and UVM Rubenstein School PhD student Onome Ofoman shares an example of a disconnect between what was on a map and what was on the ground, and why it matters for research:

Written by Onome Ofoman (Guest Writer)Maps give us direction and a sense of understanding of a location before our feet even touch the ground. As ecologists, we often begin our work scrolling through satellite imagery, identifying landscape patterns to guide our research [1]. This was exactly how I....

06/18/2026

What policies are needed — or need to change — to help rural economies thrive? Gund fellows were among the 30+ policy experts and Vermont practitioners, who this week helped shape that conversation as part of the SEEC Institute’s Thriving Economy Project. Thank you to the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) Institute for including Vermont in this important conversation and to UVM Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships for taking the lead on organizing. And a big thanks to Rep. Becca Balint and her team for participating in this work! Keep a lookout for SEEC's final report out this September, which will feature recommendations in nine key issue areas and be shared with the SEEC Caucus.

As increasingly severe and frequent climate threats are bringing new and continued challenges to rural economies, what opportunities and challenges do you see for rural economies? Let us know in the comments.

06/12/2026

Gund grad fellow Anna Maassel discusses her research into the effects of summer wildfire smoke on children with asthma. Watch below:

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

05/27/2026

Congratulations to Gund Fellow Teresa Mares, winner of a 2025-26 University of Vermont Humanities Center Public Humanities Fellowship!

Working with Vermont Humanities and Vermont Weavers' Guild, Professor Mares will interview Vermont fiber artists and document their practice. We're excited to see the results!

05/08/2026

Did you catch Gund director and UVM Rubenstein School professor Taylor Ricketts on NPR this week?

Taylor shared his insights on a new study in Nature that estimates in Nepal's rural communities pollinators are responsible for more than 20% of people's intake of key vitamins, and more than 40% of their income. When applied to communities worldwide, millions of people could be affected.

Missed it? Check it out: https://www.npr.org/2026/05/06/nx-s1-5807663/preserving-pollinators-is-good-for-health-and-income

Thanks Jonathan Lambert for the great story.

🐝