Center Names Five Public Policy & Community Research Fellows
For Immediate Release
Contact: Richard Watts, Director Center for Research on Vermont
rwatts@uvm.edu
802-373-1131
CENTER NAMES FIVE PUBLIC POLICY & COMMUNITY RESEARCH FELLOWS
Five Public Policy and Community Research Fellows were recently named by the Center for Research on Vermont.
The Fellows provide an essential link between the Vermont community and University of Vermont students, staff and faculty.
“I’m delighted to announce the selection of these five fellows and look forward to working with them to continue to grow and foster connections between UVM and applied research in energy, the environment, transportation and public policy,” William Falls, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences said.
“Growing our connections to the eco-system of Vermont, fostering and expanding those connections to this amazing place we live and work in is an essential mission of the Center for Research on Vermont” Falls said.
The Center for Research on Vermont is a 40-year old organization, housed in the College of Arts & Sciences at UVM with a mission to support, foster and draw attention to research in the Vermont “laboratory” — research that provides original knowledge to the world and research that adds to understanding of the state’s social, economic, cultural and physical environment.
The Fellows are (in alphabetical order);
Julie Campoli is an urban designer and author who writes about urban form and the changing landscape. She combines a planner’s perspective with a designer’s sensibility to illustrate the built environment and the processes that shape it. She is the author of Made for Walking: Density and Neighborhood Form, and co-author of Visualizing Density, and Above and Beyond: Visualizing Change in Small Towns and Rural Areas.
Arnie Gundersen is a former nuclear industry executive, and engineer with more than 44 years of nuclear industry experience. Gundersen has written dozens of expert reports for nongovernment organizations and the state of Vermont. He is a co-founder and manager of Fairewinds Energy Education — a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering public understanding of nuclear power and nuclear safety.
Darren Springer is a lawyer and public policy expert with experience as Chief-of-Staff to Governor Peter Shumlin, as Deputy-Commissioner in the Vermont Department of Public Service and as Chief Counsel in the U.S. Senate Office of Bernie Sanders. Darren has a law degree from Vermont Law School and starting in January will be the Manager of Strategy and Innovation at the Burlington Electric Department.
Kevin Thorton is a practicing cultural historian who recently completed a film titled: “Death in the Wilderness: A Love Story” – a story of a Vermont Civil War widow. Thorton has a Ph.D in History from the University of Michigan and is the author of a number of scholarly articles, including work on Andrew Harris, the first African American student at the University of Vermont.
Stephanie Yu is a policy analyst at the Public Assets Institute in Montpelier – a leading policy institute on Vermont tax, budget, and economic issues. As a former deputy budget director for the state of Michigan, Yu is a financial and economic analyst with expertise in state level budgeting, education funding and economic programs and policies. Stephanie holds a Masters’ degree in Public Administration.