Center for Environment, Community, & Equity (CECE)

CECE Faculty Research Incubator Program

CECE Faculty Research Incubator Program

Project Summary

The Center for Environment, Community, & Equity Faculty Research Incubator Program is a competitive program that funds environmentally-focused interdisciplinary research teams across American University. Research teams compete for funding that will support summer salary or a course buyout for the lead Principal Investigator of the project. In addition to financial support, each team receives input on their project development and proposal writing, as well as submission support from the CECE team.

The first cohort of incubator projects were awarded in fall 2023:

1) The Climate Story Gaps Project: Locating Untold Climate Intersections in Washington, D.C. 
Team: Dr. Rosalind Donald, Dr. Malini Ranganathan, and Dr. Aarushi Sahejpal

Left to right: Malini Ranganathan, Rosalind Donald, and Aarushi Sahejpal

2) Remote Sensing and Knowledge Co-Production in Northern Haiti.
Team: Dr. Michael Alonzo and Dr. Scott Freeman

This project was granted funding by NSF in September 2025. You can follow the project here. 

Left to right: Mike Alonzo and Scott Freeman

The second round of the project was awarded in fall 2024:

Systems Lens to Increase Sustainable Procurement Success:  Co-creating Insights to Bolster Employee Engagement. Team: Dr. Garima Sharma, Dr. Sarah Iverson, and Dr. Nicole Darnall

The third round of the project was awarded in fall 2025:

Primary Award: Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) and Multidimensional Inequalities in Refugee and Host Communities.
Team: Abeer Al-Eryani, Dr. Claire Brunel, and Dr. Michael Alonzo

Left to right: Mike Alonzo, Abeer Al-Eryani, and Claire Brunel

Secondary Award: What are the Socioeconomic Impacts of Hurricane Exposure in the US?
Team: Dr. Andrew Martinez, Dr. Gabriella Meltzer, Dr. Claudia Perisco, and Dr. Claire Brunel

Publications

Project Team

Abeer Y Al-Eryani

Energy Transition Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Environment, Community, & Equity

Michael Alonzo

Associate Professor, Environmental Science

Nicole Darnall

Arlene R. and Robert P. Kogod Eminent Scholar Chair in Sustainability

Rosalind Donald

Assistant Professor, Public Communication

Dana R. Fisher

Director, Center for Environment, Community, & Equity

Scott Freeman

Senior Lecturer, Department of Environment, Development, and Health

Sarah Iverson

Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Malini Ranganathan

Malini Ranganathan

Associate Professor, Department of Environment, Development, and Health

Garima Sharma

Assistant Professor, Department of Management

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