Recent Alumni

Find out more about our most recently departed interns and staff.

Executive Director, Planet Forward

Daniel Reed is on a mission to move the Planet Forward through powerful, inspiring stories.

He is executive director of Planet Forward, leading the team and project since 2013 and has served the GW community for more...

Hannah Dale

Program Coordinator, Planet Forward

Hannah is the program coordinator at Planet Forward where she connects students and faculty to the resources they need to educate and share impactful environmental stories. Since joining the Planet Forward team in 2017, she is expanding...

Laura Whaling

Digital Media Producer, Planet Forward

Hi! I am currently a senior at The George Washington University. I am majoring in Journalism and Mass Communication and minoring in Political Science. I have been working with Planet Forward as a Digital Media and Marketing Intern to help share...

Grant Sobetski

Planet Forward Copy Editor | George Washington University

Grant is studying journalism at George Washington University's School of Media & Public Affairs. A lover of languages, he also studies Spanish and German.

Currently, he is working on a short documentary that gives...

Shandra Furtado

George Washington University

I have a background in writing, biology, and environmental studies, and I'm working with Planet Forward to help turn my knowledge of the environment into stories relatable to the public. I enjoy traveling, photography, and trying new food.

Ellen Wang

George Washington University

Ellen Wang is a graduate student at GWU studying Environmental Resource Policy. She uses her background in graphic design to tell visually compelling stories about complex environmental topics. Ellen hopes to work in science translation...

Dylan Trupiano

Planet Forward Digital Media Producer | George Washington University

Dylan is a senior at The George Washington University studying Journalism. Dylan produces video content for Planet Forward, showcasing innovative solutions for environmental issues. Growing up in The Great Lakes State, Dylan has long...

Emily Insana

Planet Forward Social Media Specialist | George Washington University

Emily Insana is a senior who studies journalism at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. Emily minors in fine art where she paints about environmental issues such as how plastic waste effects animals such as sea...

Taylor Cook

Outreach Coordinator, Planet Forward

Taylor is working with Planet Forward to develop engagement strategies and tools for the University Consortium. She hails from the South- born and raised in the Tennessee-Mississippi borderlands- where she attended the University of Mississippi...

Rachel Elyse Reh

Planet Forward Engagement & Outreach Specialist | George Washington University

Rachel Reh is a second-year graduate student at the George Washington University. She previously worked for Frank Sesno as a teaching assistant in the School of Media and Public Affairs. Upon graduation, Rachel hopes to work in higher...

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Astonishing Alaska | A surprising collective discovery in Alaska's vast wilds

Victoria Middleton

Digital Editor, Planet Forward

When our 2022 Storyfest winners, traveling with Lindblad Expeditions, explored Alaska's vast and remote terrain, they were surprised that instead of feeling separated, they felt more connected.

Essay | Enough broken promises. Will leaders at COP26 keep their word?

In a crowd of people in front of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., a sign reads: "Planet BEFORE Profit: change the politics, not the CLIMATE!"

Protesters at a 2019 climate march in Washington, D.C. (Victoria Middleton/Planet Forward)

Victoria Middleton

Digital Editor, Planet Forward

The Road to COP26 | You often hear conversations about how to convert climate change deniers into science believers. Yet I don’t see a cultural struggle for “hearts and minds,” but a material struggle for power.

Indigenous academics gather over restoration for ecosystems and from injustice

A tree on the edge of a forested bluff which looks over a green valley below.

The view from a bluff in the Ponca Wilderness in Compton, Arkansas. These lands, like much of what is now the state of Arkansas, are native to Indigenous peoples including the Osage, Sioux, Quapaw, and Caddo. (Image courtesy of Thomas Shahan/Flickr https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/).

Victoria Middleton

Digital Editor, Planet Forward

Indigenous professor Dr. Bethany Henry Rosenbaum asked a powerful question: How do we bridge the Indigenous understanding that removal of Native people is still impactful today with the Western understanding that it’s in the past?

What the Black Panther Party taught us about building a food movement

Poster advertising the 1972 Black Community Survival Conference, with a promotion by the Free Food Program. (Photo: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, 1972)

Eleanor Beckerman

Bates College

We should remember the critical work the Black Panther Party did in their communities to help right injustices, and help prevent hunger among children and communities as a whole.