Emily McInerney is a joint-degree student with the Jackson Institute and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Connecticut in 2015 with a degree in natural resources. As an undergraduate student, she worked for the UConn Office of Environmental Policy (OEP) where she was a member of UConn’s Environmental Policy Advisory Council, organized the school’s recycling program and coordinated environmental awareness events, including UConn’s participation in the 2014 NYC People’s Climate March. She was provided a grant by the university for her Honors thesis to collect greenhouse gas emissions from constructed wetlands. She later co-published her paper in the scientific journal Wetlands. She was awarded the “Environmental Leadership Undergraduate Student Award” for her work with the OEP and her initiative leading the campus’ largest environmental club, EcoHusky. Upon graduation she moved to Mexico to work as an Environmental Education Peace Corps volunteer. She spent three years working with youth to develop environmental awareness. Her primary project was biodiversity monitoring with camera traps to identify the flora and fauna in the region, for which she was awarded a Small Projects Assistance grant from Peace Corps and USAID. At Yale, Emily will pursue her studies in the intersection of environmental justice and human rights in Latin America.