Dear ESF alumni, friends and supporters,
As we welcome students back to campus, I couldn’t be more excited. After a year of COVID-related challenges, coming together again feels like exhaling after holding our collective breath for more than a year and a half.
Our students, faculty and staff rose to myriad challenges presented by COVID-19 and we now look forward to building on the lessons we learned to improve ESF for not only the College community but the Syracuse community we call home and the world we hope to improve.
This issue of ESF Magazine features stories on the work being done to build a better world.
Our Restoration Science Center is one way our researchers are working to reset the relationship between people and the environment. The cross-disciplinary center grew out of the Discovery Challenge, and its work will have an impact locally, nationally and internationally. Whether it’s the shores of Skaneateles Lake, the forests of the eastern United States or the Galapagos Islands, our scientists will be re-establishing balance to ecosystems and regaining lost ecological potential.
Our new partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) helps us continue to build a bridge between traditional ecological knowledge and Western science. The $800,000 grant from TNC to ESF’s Center for Native Peoples and the Environment will enable Dr. Robin Kimmerer ’75 and her team to delve into vital work in the areas including re-story-ation and land justice while funding a Ph.D. student. This partnership will have a far-reaching impact that I am excited to watch develop.
Alumni Ed Neuhauser ’73, ’78 and Peg Coleman ’79 show us how managing the land enables them to live sustainably and provides lessons we can all incorporate in some way into our lives.
I look forward to this academic year — my first with a fully opened campus — which will allow me to experience the enthusiasm, energy and excitement our students bring with them. They will reinvigorate the entire ESF community as they repopulate our close-knit campus. Please join me in welcoming our students back and renewing our promise to improve our world — together.
Sincerely,
Joanie Mahoney
President