Portland State Magazine, Spring 2021

PRESERVING NATIONAL TREASURES CHINA Yangdong Pan, environmental science and management faculty, conducts research intended to safeguard China’s premier national reserve, the Jiuzhaigou Valley. The park attracts millions of visitors a year, and with them, pollutants like nitrogen and other fertilizers that threaten the INJUSTICE AND THE park’s water ecosystems. Pan recently led a team RISING TIDES of researchers developing cost-effective and easy-to-use tools that park managers can use to JAPAN monitor potentially harmful nutrients that could damage the pristine waterways that punctuate Jola Ajibade, geography the park’s natural beauty. faculty, studies the interrelationships between resilience planning, climate change adaptation and urban sustainability. Her research examines how cities such as Tokyo, Japan; Manila, Philippines; and Lagos, Nigeria, apply NEPAL plans to manage rising tides and sea levels as a In Nepal and Ethiopia, the coastal climate adaptation United Nations-backed REDD+ strategy. Her recent works (Reducing Emissions from demonstrate how these Deforestation and Forest programs can intersect with Degradation) program aims class, identity and gender to reduce deforestation while relations to perpetuate social supporting local communities WINE, WATER AND and environmental injustice. through poverty-reduction CLIMATE CHANGE efforts. With the World Bank’s support, Randy Bluffstone and AUSTRALIA Sahan Dissanayake, economics faculty, provide valuable insights For her dissertation, Erin Upton PhD ’20 explored the intersection into the program’s community- of decision-making around water resources and climate change managed forestry efforts by adaptation in global wine regions, including Australia and South surveying community members Africa. Upton’s approach included interviewing regional stakeholders. and reporting their findings Her work helps illuminate how relationships between social, on community preferences to institutional and ecological systems contribute to resilience in the program administrators. face of climate challenges. NEW ADVOCATE HELPS STUDENTS SUCCEED AS PORTLAND STATE’S frst Student Success Advocate, Joe Soto ’17 seeks to see the whole student and form a genuine connection. Soto is leading a one-year data-driven pilot program to help identify and support students experiencing challenges adapting to college life as part of PSU’s Students First initiative, a campus- wide commitment to helping students succeed.Te frst cohort of 400 was selected using the new Student Success tool, which combines data about 50 diferent factors, such as high school GPA, frst-generation status and housing insecurity. Students may also be fagged for support during the school year—for example, if they haven’t logged into their online courses or do poorly on exams. Soto connects students to resources with a focus on self-advocacy and community. Early outcomes are promising.Te percentage of students who re-enrolled for winter term was higher for Soto’s at-risk cohort than for PSU students in general. Depending on this year’s results, PSU may expand the number of advocates or explore diferent ways to apply what’s been learned. —SUMMER ALLEN SPRING 2021 // FACING DEFORESTATION NASHCO 9