Freshwater Future is proud to host two graduate students, Anna Bunting and Carla López Lloreda, from the Environmental Fellows Program this summer. The Environmental Fellows Program operates out of the Yale School of the Environment, and provides opportunities for historically underrepresented students in the environmental workforce to gain work experience in environmental philanthropies, the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, and government agencies. The twelve-week summer internships help program participants to gain work experience, knowledge and build the skills and networks needed to nurture their careers. In seven years, 131 graduate students have participated in the program.
This summer Anna will be working on rolling out Freshwater Future’s stormwater app in Detroit communities and supporting local partner organizations to track and address flooding. She is also contributing to Freshwater Future’s water affordability work to increase access to the new Low Income Household Water Assistance Program with public water supplies.
Carla will be working on supporting efforts to analyze lead data from drinking water in Michigan communities as well as helping identify priority disadvantaged communities for support. She will also help support outreach and education efforts to marginalized Hispanic and Latino communities. Both Anna and Carla will also be creating communications materials for outreach around lead in water systems as well as other Freshwater Future advocacy efforts.
Learn more about Anna and Carla below.
Anna Bunting is from southeast Michigan and is passionate about environmental justice, sustainable food systems, and Indigenous rights. Anna is currently a master’s student at University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability specializing in environmental justice and sustainability & development. In 2020, Anna earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental biology and zoology from Michigan State University. At MSU, they worked as a representative for sustainability and intercultural initiatives on campus and volunteered with urban farms in Lansing and Detroit. Since graduating, she has worked with EGLE’s Office of the Environmental Justice Public Advocate and the National Wildlife Federation on environmental justice focused projects and research.
Carla López Lloreda (she/her) is a Puerto Rican Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech studying water quality and carbon cycling in streams and wetlands. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico and later worked as a research technician where she contributed to projects understanding hurricane impacts in tropical forests. More broadly, she is interested in improving our understanding of water resources to better manage these and improve communities’ resilience to natural disasters. She hopes to return to her island and work in water resource management through environmental nonprofits.
