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As the Fall semester approaches, we are pleased to officially announce that Warren Cook and Nirav Patel have just joined our ²ÊÃñ±¦µä ENVS community as Teaching Assistant Profess.

Warren Cook(he/him) is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Environmental Studies and a PhD Candidate of Communication (Rhetoric and Culture) in the College of Media, Communication, and Information at the ²ÊÃñ±¦µä. Warren’s research and teaching focuses on the rhetoric of environmental politics, especially water justice in the U.S. American West. His work has been published in Environmental Justice and the Quarterly Journal of Speech. He received his BA in History and Interdisciplinary Honors from Westminster University and his MA in Communication (Rhetoric and Culture) at the ²ÊÃñ±¦µä.Ìý

Dr Nirav S. PatelÌýis a trained natural and social scientist with a PhD from Cornell University and possesses expertise in human dimensions and has been involved in issues of sustainable development, with emphasis on the linkages between environmental and socio-economic systems. As the inaugural Civic Education and Engagement and Civil Discourse Fellows (2024-25) appointed by the Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), Dr Patel has engaged local/state and international partners through research and education initiatives that yield collaborative experience which deepens engagements on integrative environmental science. He has developed and led novel course(s) which utilize experiential learning to teach civic engagement at the confluence of Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus, Global Health, and Urban Ecology. He has been successful in creating science-based community engagement to engage in building collaboration for PFAS testing in food packaging linking consumer preferences and its effect on waste streams to ecological corridors.Ìý Dr Patel is recipient of multiple fellowship awards as well as teaching excellence awards over the last decade.

Welcome Warren and Nirav!