Dr. Callie Babbitt is an Associate Professor in the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology, where she conducts research to proactively quantify and minimize environmental impacts of emerging technologies. Callie’s research group uses methods from circular economy, eco-design, and life cycle assessment to study sustainability challenges and create solutions for consumer electronics, plastics waste, lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, nanomaterials, and food waste management. Callie has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from University of Florida. Callie is a Fulbright… Read More

Brie is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maine. Her research focuses on the social and cultural dimensions of consumption and waste. In addition to her work on circular economies, Brie has conducted research on food waste and Maine’s vibrant culture of reuse. She has an M.S. in Urban Affairs from CUNY Hunter College and a B.A. in Anthropology from the George Washington University.  Brie loves learning languages when she lives in new places. She can get herself into trouble in Songhai and French from her… Read More

Dr. Melissa Bilec is an associate professor in the Swanson School of Engineering’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; she is the Deputy Director of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation.  She is also the Roberta A. Luxbacher Faculty Fellow, and she serves as the Pitt STRIVE Director of Faculty Community Building and Engagement for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.  Dr. Bilec’s research is motivated by her strong commitment to develop positive, quantitative, and sustainable solutions for the built environment.  Most recently, she is working to solve the global waste challenge through the… Read More

Sujan is a first year PhD student in Ecology and Environmental Sciences at the University of Maine. His background includes a Business Administration degree, with Marketing as a major, from the University of Chittagong in Bangladesh, and an MS in Economics from the University of Maine. Currently, his research work entails inspecting the social dimensions of Circular Economy. Previously, he worked briefly on cooperation science and how the teachings of the discipline can mitigate the problems of freeriding and hence inform policy decisions.  Sujan dreams to visit the West Indies one day:… Read More

Sam Copeland is a junior undergraduate civil engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh. His main research is enabling reuse in the built environment. Other research interests include environmental justice and the culture of reuse. While Sam enjoys getting around in the Pittsburgh community for social activism and photography, he absolutely loves to bowl. While in high school, he placed 4th in singles at the Pennsylvania State Championship.

Fernanda is a postdoctoral associate in the Swanson School of Engineering’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (University of Pittsburgh). Architect by background, she received her PhD in Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University in 2018. Her main research focus is Circular Economy in the Built Environment. Other research interests are life cycle assessment; building design and its influence in occupants’ health, happiness, and productivity; and equity and diversity in nontraditional industries and higher education. Fernanda’s from a magical place called Salvador, Brazil. Her hometown hosts the largest crowd… Read More

Don Fullerton is Gutgsell Professor in the Finance Department at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He recently stepped down as Editor of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (JAERE). His research analyzes the circular economy, as well as other distributional and efficiency effects of tax and environmental policies. He received a BA from Cornell, and a PhD in Economics from U.C. Berkeley. He taught at Princeton, the U. of Virginia, Carnegie Mellon U., and the U. of Texas, before joining the U. of Illinois in 2008. From… Read More

Rob is a PhD candidate in the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering department at the University of Pittsburgh. His research focuses on recyclable composites, as well as the life cycle assessment of epoxies. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from Clarion University of Pennsylvania. Rob is an Eagle Scout who loves camping and canoeing. He has also been a certified SCUBA diver since he was 10 years old.

Shan He is a PhD candidate in the Department of Economics at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. She received her M.S. in economics from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and her  B.A. in Economics from the South China University of Technology. Her research uses detailed data and different economics modelings to address policy related issues in the circular economy. She is primarily interested in understanding consumers’ and firms’ responses to changes in government policies in the circular economy as well as in other contexts.  Shan enjoys watching baking competition shows… Read More

Cindy Isenhour is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Climate Change at the University of Maine.  Her research interests focus on environmental governance, particularly practices and policies intended to reduce the climate, environmental and social impacts of linear production-consumption-disposal systems.  Isenhour examines these issues through the lens of global environmental justice and ecologically unequal exchange.  She is the author of more than 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and has co-edited three books focused at the intersection of environmental policy and global economic systems.   Leaving behind her early aspirations to be a back-up singer,… Read More