Regenerating, Transforming, Thriving
The Voinovich School is committed to supporting the environment, enhancing quality of life, and promoting sustainability. To achieve these goals, we partner with communities, agencies and businesses to find science-based solutions to complex problems.
Our project work focuses on water quality, waste reduction, alternative energy sources, STEM education, abandoned mine land remediation, brownfield redevelopment, and addressing the impacts of climate change on health, prosperity, security, and community preparedness.
Our Programs at Work in the Community
Appalachian Watershed Resource Group
This interdisciplinary group of faculty, staff and students provides high-quality, applications-based watershed research for the benefit of the region. Projects are designed to provide students with innovative learning opportunities while also solving complex environmental problems. Core competencies of this group include water chemistry, fish and invertebrate assessment, biomonitoring, sediment studies, riparian restoration, and linking data to decision-making tools. The group also provides chemical and biological training for watershed officials, environmental businesses, and state and local government entities.
Team Lead: Jen Bowman
Raccoon Creek Watershed Group
For more than 25 years, the Voinovich School has been working with many partners to restore life to Raccoon Creek. Due to coal mining, its orange water was clogged with heavy metals and too acidic for fish to survive. With support from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Mineral Resources Management and others, 105 miles of this watershed now meet EPA habitat standards – as evidenced by the 94 species of fish that have returned.
Team Lead: Amy Mackey
Zero Waste
Since 2010, this partnership with Rural Action has received funding from the Sugar Bush Foundation to reduce local waste. This includes helping to grow resource recovery businesses, support local waste infrastructure, engage communities and Ohio University to become more active participants in waste reduction and diversion, and teach students about circular economy principles and sustainability. As a result of these efforts, Athens and Hocking County have measurably increased their waste diversion rates in recent years.
Team Lead: Nicole Kirchner
Ohio STEM Learning Network
The Ohio STEM Learning Network (OSLN) Southeast Hub sharing STEM resources and opportunities for developing partnerships with K-12 teachers, higher education students, communities, and businesses to connect and spread STEM efforts throughout the southeast region of the state.
Team Lead: Jen Bowman
PORTSfuture
Ohio University is leading a bipartisan, labor-aligned, functioning public-private partnership that is responsive to community preferences to inform cleanup and establish an all-of-the-above energy production and sustainable manufacturing complex at the US Department of Energy former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County, Ohio.
Team Lead: Stephanie Howe
Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
The Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) is a nonpartisan, non-advocacy forum based in Washington, D.C., that brings together researchers and policymakers around the issues of environment, climate, conflict, peacebuilding, and security. Voinovich School faculty member Geoff Dabelko has worked with this group since its creation in 1994, including serving as director for 15 years. He now serves as a senior advisor, working with others at Voinovich to inform discussions on green energy, backdraft dynamics, environmental peacebuilding, and protecting the rights of global environmental activists.
Team Lead: Geoff Dabelko
Grey Green Alliance
The Grey Green Alliance is a collaboration between aging and climate faculty, professional staff, and students at the Voinovich School and Ohio State University’s College of Social Work and Age-Friendly Innovation Center. These efforts include working directly with age-friendly communities, including Age-Friendly Athens County, Age-Friendly Columbus and Franklin County, and the 34 community members of the Coalition of Age-Friendly Communities of Ohio (CAFCO).
Team Lead: Geoff Dabelko
Waste to Fuel
Our faculty and students are exploring the potential of using natural processes to transform brewery waste into biogas, fuel, and fertilizer. As part of this research, we maintain the largest university in-vessel composting facility in the United States .
Team Lead: Sarah Davis
How We Can Help You
Discover the Services We Provide and Meet Our Team Members
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Water
We have more than 25 years of experience partnering with communities, government and nonprofits to monitor and assess water quality, map water access, and mitigate the impact of abandoned coal mining and other impairments on watersheds and aquatic life.
Team Leads: Natalie Kruse-Daniels and Jen Bowman
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Sustainability
We work with nonprofits, businesses and agencies to reduce waste and build a more sustainable economy through responsible sourcing, recycling and reuse.
Team Lead: Nicole Kirchner
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STEM Education
Our faculty, staff and students partner with teachers, schools, libraries and nonprofits to expand K-12 students' interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) via field trips, camps, online learning resources, and workshops.
Team Lead: Jen Bowman
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Security and Resilience
Our work helps communities, policymakers and researchers build resilience in the face of climate change with a focus on extreme weather events, sustainable development, healthy aging, environmental peacebuilding, and climate security.
Team Lead: Geoff Dabelko
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Climate, Land and Energy
We research opportunities for renewable energy and agriculture that allow natural ecosystems to thrive. Both technological developments for alternative energy and nature-based solutions for regenerative agriculture can remove carbon from the atmosphere (which mitigates greenhouse gases) and can retain nutrients in the soil (which improves soil and water quality).
Team Lead: Sarah Davis
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Brownfield Redevelopment
Since 2010, the Voinovich School PORTSfuture Program has partnered with public and private sector entities on a $15 million program to support the clean-up and reindustrialization of the former uranium enrichment facility in Pike County, Ohio. We work on master planning, community engagement and data analysis; site readiness and property transfer activities; industry discovery and attraction; and STEM outreach.
Team Lead: Stephanie Howe
Additional Research
Faculty and professional staff pursue a wide range of research related to the environment, energy, and sustainability. Current projects include:
- Utilizing historical data to create a model to estimate post-mining water level in underground mines;
- Assessing the benefits of large-scale solar projects in the context of rural energy reliability and resilience;
- Investigating the climate resilience of western river systems, local government climate change policies, and the emergence of local and regional green business programs;
- Studying the specialized metabolism of agricultural plants from semi-arid regions and advanced bioenergy grasses;
- Refining the use of anaerobic digestion in integrated systems design;
- Exploring the conflict and peacebuilding potential of international environmental governance and climate change responses.
Applied Learning
As part of our educational mission, the Voinovich School engages Environmental Studies graduate students, Voinovich Undergraduate Research Scholars and other undergraduate interns/employees to work closely with faculty and professional staff on projects. Experiences vary, but opportunities include hands-on activities with water quality testing and remediation project implementation; database development and GIS mapping; community outreach; and assistance with faculty research, including the potential for co-authored publication.
In the News
Environmental Studies Celebrates its 50th Anniversary
The nation's only environmental science program housed in a school dedicated to public service.
Reforestation in Action
Trees are among Athens’ greatest treasures—and the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service strives to ensure they’ll remain that way for centuries to come.
Professor Sarah Davis advances biofuels research
In the race to find alternatives to oil and gas, the adoption of biofuels has been more deliberate than other renewable energy sources.