Alumna Spotlight, Alyssa Wechsler

Program Manager, Growing Resilience
BS in Zoology/Physiology and Environment and Natural Resources, UW, 2007
MPhil in Geography and the Environment, Oxford University, 2010

After studying sustainability on a Marshall Scholarship to Oxford, Alyssa Wechsler, now manages a multifaceted, community-based, participatory research project assessing the health benefits of home gardens on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Growing Resilience is a five-year National Institute of Health-funded project. The research will quantify how gardens improve health, which could justify support for home gardens, giving tribal members better control over their food systems and health and helping them resurrect traditional practices.

“You usually don’t think of randomized control trials, which is a western idea, and tribal research going together,” Alyssa says. “I’m trying to navigate spaces between worlds. I did start thinking about that and honing those skills, as far as communication and how to work with diverse groups of people, through ENR.”