Current ICS Ph.D. Students

2025 Cohort

Student Information:

• • Kristen Bigelow
    • bigelowk25@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- utilizing GIS to monitor coastal habitat integrity, assess human impacts on coastal-dwelling mammals, and explore the intersection of tourism and environmental justice
  • Graeme Clark

    • clarkg25@students.ecu.edu

    • Research Interests- using machine learning models and geospatial analysis to predict the effects of climate change on marine zooplankton biology, ecology, physiology, and trophic interactions

  • Emmanuel Maldonado
    • maldonadogonzalee25@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- intersections of environmental justice, coastal displacement, small-scale fisheries, and food systems in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, with a focus on how community knowledge, governance, and socio-ecological change shape access to marine resources and the resilience of coastal communities
  • Bairon Mugeni
    • mugenib25@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- understanding and modeling the impact of land use activities on aquatic ecosystem health and water quality, with a goal of supporting sustainable aquaculture, conservation, and environmental policy in the African Great Lakes region
  • Ayodeji “Ayo” Odunaike
    • odunaikea23@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- understanding how deprivation and vulnerability shape community responses to coastal hazards, informing resilience-building and community well-being
  • Charles Veith
    • veithc23@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- using field, lab, and modeling studies to determine the impact anthropogenic climate change has on sport fish biology, ecology, and fisheries
  • Lindsay Wentzel

    • wentzell23@ecu.edu

    • Research Interests- Integrating Gulf Stream and shelf-slope dynamics, shipwreck monitoring in the Cape Hatteras region, and the development of oceanographic and marine renewable energy technologies. I’m primarily interested in how physical processes influence submerged cultural heritage.

2024 Cohort

Student Information:

• • Kachapond Chettanawanit
    • chettanawanitk24@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Coastal dynamic, interaction between physical and biogeochemical processes, and water quality using modeling and data analysis
  • Abdulahi Opejin
    • opejina22@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Using Geospatial Analytics and ML models to understand surface water dynamics, water quality, air quality, environmental justice, environmental health, and environmental (air & water) quality sensors.
  • Sarah Titta
    • tittas24@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Utilizing GIS to monitor marine habitat quality, analyzing social aspects of environmental protection, identifying potential environmental risks associated with coastal and maritime environments

2023 Cohort

Student Information:

• • Nelson Adeniji
    • adenijin21@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Hazard and Disaster Risk Reduction, Community-based research, Geospatial Sciences
  • Daystar Babanawo
    • babanawod23@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Coastal hazards, resilience, and engineering
  • Daniel Reed
    • reedda21@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Chemistry, PFA contamination, education
  • Madeline Roth
    • rothm16@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Maritime heritage, cultural resource management
  • Sarah Radel
    • radels23@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Data Science, Geospatial Science, Climate Change: Adaption, Mitigation, and Resiliency
  • Rebecca Reibel
    • reibelr23@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Geology, coastal morphology, sea level rise and urbanization
  • Zackary Shepard
    • shepardz20@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Conservation Psychology & Environmental Anthropology. More specifically what factors influence decision-making among fishers and in coastal and marine spaces
  • Alexandra Stevenson
    • stevensona17@students.ecu.edu
    • Environmental Anthropology; Climate Change; Nature-based Solutions 

2022 Cohort

Student Information:

• • Jillian Eller
    • ellerj22@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Marine renewable energy, marine spatial planning, and local knowledge that can influence the implementation of marine energy technologies. 
  • Mary-Margaret McKinney
    • mckinneymar22@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Salt marsh restoration, ecology, engineering
  • Mariela Victoria Garcia Vega
    • garciavegam22@students.ecu.edu
    • Dissertation- Influence of institutional arrangements and their implementation on the effects of coastal squeeze on mangroves
  • Kelly White-Singleton
    • whitesingletonk03@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Sustainable tourism and recreation, environmental planning, conservation, rural economic development, community engagement/community-based research
  • Kimiya Yousefi
    • yousefik22@students.ecu.edu

2021 Cohort

Student Information:

• • Kinsey Blumenthal
    • blumenthalk21@students.ecu.edu
    • Dissertation- Mosquito biodiversity and dynamics of mangrove restoration: implications for human and wildlife infectious disease
  • Jacquelyn Moore Flanagan
    • moorejac14@students.ecu.edu
    • Dissertation- Comprehensive Assessment of Wave Energy Potential along the Northern Outer Banks, NC: Integrating ICESat- 2 Satellite Data and CDIP Buoys for Cost-Benefit Analysis 
  • Megan Elizabeth Geesin
    • geesinm21@students.ecu.edu
    • Dissertation- Assessing the ecological and societal benefits and tradeoffs of oyster breakwaters
  • Allyson Genevieve Ropp
    • roppal14@students.ecu.edu
    • Dissertation- An Interdisciplinary Assessment of Wooden Shipwreck Stability in a Shallow-Water Tidal-Fresh Ecosystem
  • Georgette Louise Tso
    • tsog21@students.ecu.edu
    • Dissertation- Wave transformations over intertidal reefs
  • Rachel Marie Wheatley
    • wheatleyr18@students.ecu.edu
    • Research Interests- Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction; climate effects from asteroid impact, scientific method

2020 Cohort

Student Information:

• • Jaclyn Best
    • bestj20@students.ecu.edu
  • Maria Gomez
    • gomezsaldarriagam14@students.ecu.edu
    • Dissertation- From Ecosystem Services to Public Health: A Comprehensive Analysis of Mapping, Tracking, and Quantifying Health-Related Services
  • Shalimar Moreno
    • morenosh20@students.ecu.edu
    • Dissertation- Improving the Coastal Carbon Cycle with Space-Based Observations of Reef Complexity
  • Yicheng Xu
    • xuy20@students.ecu.edu
    • Dissertation- Exploring the influence of environmental, socioeconomic and demographic factors on high tide flood risks to coastal communities and the development of associated risk management strategies

2019 Cohort

Student Information:

• • Genevieve Guerry
    • guerryg19@students.ecu.edu
    • Dissertation- Human Response To Environmental Degradation: Case Study Of Chemical Contamination In Wilmington, NC
  • Kyra Hagge
    • haggek19@students.ecu.edu
    • Dissertation- The future of wastewater treatment in Coastal Areas: Linking socio-economic and natural systems using social capital and Agent-based modeling
  • Elnaz Pezeshski
    • pezeshkie19@students.ecu.edu
    • Dissertation- Coastal watershed climate adaptation: increasing coastal watershed resilience to storm-induced soil salinization using a novel concept for capillary valves