Data-Driven Urban Forestry

Manja Kargbo leads the Mayor’s Delivery Unit, a team established specifically to drive innovation at Freetown City Council through the Transform Freetown Plan. As Team Lead, she provides strategic oversight to the team in the development, implementation, and delivery of over 30 projects. She led the team that developed #FreetownTheTreeTown which seeks to tackle the devastating rates of deforestation in the city by utilizing the community to plant, grow and digitally track trees. The project went on to win the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge in 2022 and was an Earthshot Prize finalist in 2023. She is currently an Earthshot Prize Fellow.

Manja works closely with the Mayor of Freetown and other city leaders to drive strategy and set the climate agenda through implementing the first Freetown Climate Action Strategy for the bustling city of 1.2million residents, with a focus on building equitable and sustainable pathways to climate adaptation with mitigation co-benefits for communities across the city.

Manja has a knack for building teams and programs from the ground up, even when the odds are against her. She has previously played a part in the establishment of a thriving private sector bank in Sierra Leone, led a high impact non-profit focused on business development services, and led a campaign to get a then-political underdog into office. 

Dr. Paige Brochu is the director of the University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Lab and research assistant professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. She is a UVM undergraduate alum and went on to gain both her Masters and PhD from Boston University School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the intersection of human health and the environment using geospatial analyses to better understand exposures and the impact to communities. Paige's work within the lab is centered around GIS applications and translating robust science into actionable data for community resilience. 

Mike Alonzo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at American University. He uses geospatial analyses of airborne and satellite imagery to study how terrestrial ecosystems respond to global change, with a focus on the relationship between trees and urban heat. His research explores how urban forests mitigate heat, identifying where tree planting and maintenance are most effective and equitable. Alonzo’s team also uses drone-based thermal imagery and satellite-derived phenology data to study urban tree response to heat. His work has influenced urban tree canopy legislation and mitigation strategies in cities like Washington, DC. Alonzo teaches courses in remote sensing, GIS, and urban ecology.

Dr. Matthew Browning (MESc, 2012), Founder and Co-Director of the Virtual Reality & Nature Lab and Associate Professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at Clemson University, is a globally recognized scholar investigating the impact of nature on human health. His research aims to optimize nature-based solutions, measure nature exposure, and promote sustainability and nature-human interactions through technology. He has authored over 130  peer-reviewed publications and is ranked among the most productive and cited researchers in the fields of parks, recreation, and health based on recent PubMed metrics. He also acts as the Scientific Advisor for NatureQuant, developer of the personalized nature prescription app, NatureDoseTM.  Examples of his recent work include the role of virtual reality in hospice care and disaster readiness; the environmental determinants of fatal police shootings, suicides, healthcare expenditures, and other pressing issues; and the categorization of natural landscapes that promote health. He increasingly focuses on engaging vulnerable populations in scalable urban greening initiatives for heat reduction and climate resilience. Dr. Browning has a BA in Biology from Oberlin College, MESc from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and PhD in Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation from Virginia Tech.

Dexter focuses on actionable, transdisciplinary, team science and working with urban natural resource managers his passion. He has degrees in Natural Resources Planning (University of Vermont), Environmental Science (Yale School of Environment), and Geography (Clark University). His research focuses on the world’s fastest changing ecosystems, where the dominant species is Homo sapiens: urban ecosystems. He has growing interests in synthesis, meta-science, open data, reproducibility, and replication. When not studying urban forests or programming in R and Python, he can be found hiking, biking, or volunteering with urban forestry groups in Maryland where he lives.

Nancy Sonti is a Research Ecologist with the US Forest Service Northern Research Station. She is based at the Baltimore Field Station, where she works to build collaboration between academics, community groups, and government agencies through the Baltimore Urban Waters Federal Partnership, the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, the Chesapeake Bay Forestry Workgroup, Forests in Cities, and other networks from local to national scales. Her research interests include urban tree physiology across different site types from forested natural areas to street tree pits; processes of forest restoration and regeneration in urban areas; historical trajectories of urban forests; urban forest inventory and analysis (Urban FIA); and motivations for community engagement with urban green spaces.

Max Piana is a research ecologist and the Visiting Lecturer in Plant Science and Forest Ecology at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Max's research focuses on applied ecology in urban ecosystems and emphasizes multi-disciplinary collaborations with designers, planners, natural resource managers, and community groups. Presently, he leads projects that test and develop novel approaches for urban forest mapping and inventory, urban greening and management strategies, and community engagement through education, participatory science, and workforce training. Max is a co-creator and co-lead of the Urban Silviculture Network, a group of scientists and practitioners collaborating to develop best practices in the inventory and management of natural lands in cities. He is also the Urban Forest Team Lead for the Updated Silvics of North America Project (USNAP), a collaborative effort by the US Forest Service, Canadian Forest Service, and the National Forestry Commission of Mexico to produce a comprehensive reference for tree species of the continent. Prior to the GSD, Max was a scientist in USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station. Max is an alum of Yale (MEM, ‘11) and URI and received his PhD in Ecology & Evolution from Rutgers University, where he was forest steward at the Hutcheson Memorial Forest Center.

Colleen Murphy-Dunning is Director of both the Hixon Center for Urban Sustainability and the Urban Resources Initiative (URI) at the Yale School of Environment (YSE). URI carries out community-driven urban forestry to improve both the social and physical environment of the City of New Haven.  Colleen manages the Hixon Center Fellowship program to support graduate students conducting a wide range of research projects in cities across the globe. She also co-leads a field-based urban ecology training module for all incoming YSE graduate students. Colleen received her B.S. in Public and Environmental Affairs from Indiana University, and M.S. in Forestry from Humboldt State University.

Clara Pregitzer is the Deputy Director of Conservation Science at the Natural Areas Conservancy. In this capacity, she leads the organization’s research and conservation efforts in natural areas in NYC as well as other U.S. cities. She led the Forest Assessment component of the Natural Areas Conservancy Ecological Assessment for NYC parkland and the development of the Forest Management Framework. She previously worked with NYC Park’s Natural Resources Group, conducting ecological assessments in over 1500 acres of New York City Parks.

She holds a B.S. in Forestry from Northern Arizona University, a M.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Tennessee and a PhD from Yale School of the Environment.

For nearly 30 years, Jennifer has been committed to the care of New York City Parks’ nature—5.7 million trees and 12,000 acres of forests and wetlands—as well as seeking ways of connecting New Yorkers to this precious resource. In her role as Deputy Commissioner of Environment and Planning, Jennifer brings Parks’ nature portfolio to plan the future of the City's park system, so NYC Parks are ready for climate change, social change, and whatever else the future brings. 

Jennifer received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master in Forest Science from the Yale School of the Environment.