Meet our 2024-25 Climate Action Fellows

Brys Peralta-Grant is an Artist, dancer, rollerblader, and big fan of collaging from Brooklyn, New York. His passion for caring for the climate was truly awakened when he began composting with the non-profit BK ROT back in 2020. Since then, he has continued seeking out ways to care for the earth and his communities through collective labor, movement, and art making. As a member of the Hauses of Gabbana (kiki) and Donyale Luna (Mainstream) in the Ballroom scene, Brys is interested in the practices of Queer and Trans BIPOC to come together in community, pay homage to the lands that they call home, and their ancestors

Hi! My name is Dira Mahmud (she/her) and I am an Earth & Climate Sciences major with a minor in Food Studies. I’m broadly interested in agriculture, and natural hazards, but most of my work revolves around soil science! This past January, I got to do research on mangrove conservation in Lombok, Indonesia. It was a transformative experience in my climate action journey I’m so grateful and blessed to be continuing my work with CAF as I head into my senior year.

This summer, I am working remotely for GBCS Group as a Greenhouse Gas Research Intern, as well as at SkyTruth as a Geospatial Intern. I will also be at the University of Kansas for a USRowing U23 Development camp!

Outside of classes and CAF, I am a member of the Student Advisory Committee for ECSC, a coxswain on the Crew team, and a manager for Crossroads Cafe, our student-run cafe on campus! In my free time, I enjoy urban exploration, plein air painting, and anything to do with the water.

Lili is a mentor, facilitator, student, friend, community member, grandkid, and question-asker. They have been working on redistributing resources, advocating for climate policy, facilitating and teaching about mindfulness and communication, and co-designing curriculum since they were 14. She’s worked for and with many environmental and social organizations, including VPIRG Votes, VT Youth Lobby, Capstone’s VT Everyone Eats, USCRI VT, Rooted Organizing Community, Badass Girls, and Strategies for Classroom Dialogue. She enjoys taking long walks in the woods, singing with the Middlebury town’s community chorus, time with beloved friends, writing, dancing, and reading fantasy books.

Hi, my name is Maggie Bryan, and I am an Environmental Policy and French major graduating in May 2025. I am originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and my love for North Carolina’s mountains and beaches inspired my passion for environmentalism. Last summer, I interned with the Environmental Justice team at Southern Coalition for Southern Justice in Durham, North Carolina, researching landfill-based inequities. Most recently, I spent the semester in Paris where I interned with the French environmental organization Robin des Bois, researching the space waste crisis. This summer, I will be working with Climate Economy Action Center of Addison County to develop their Navigator Project. Using local and state policy research, the project will work with Addison County residents to implement emissions reduction strategies in their homes. During this work, I am interested in exploring the ways the climate action can be made more financially and intellectually inclusive. At Middlebury, I am also involved with The Middlebury Campus, where I will serve as Senior News Editor for the 2024-25 year. 

Hi! I’m Maya, and I’m from NYC. Some of my favorite activities are exploring nature (rock climbing, surfing, caving, etc), and I love spending time outdoors. Since I was little, my family raised me to be aware and respectful of the environment, which has led me to take leadership roles in climate change initiatives such as New York Youth Climate Leaders, New York Climate Coalition, and Fridays for Future. My life purpose is to combat the climate crisis, and I want to do that through conserving coral reefs and researching ways to prevent coral extinction. At Middlebury, you will find me at the climbing wall, ice skating, playing at WOMP, or hammocking outside. This summer, I’m getting my Divemaster and working on my thesis researching Tissue Loss Disease in Hawaiian Pocillopora corals. 

My name is Røskva Tórhalsdóttir and call the Faroe Islands my home. I am in my junior year at Middlebury and majoring in molecular biology and biochemistry. In my spare time, I play classical music on the bassoon and the piano, I enjoy all outdoor activities, I cook, read, knit, and value social time with friends and family. I am fascinated by the intersection of biology and chemistry, in particular how life works at the cellular and molecular levels, and in how this dictates how organisms interact with each other and their natural environments. I would like to pursue a career in research and possibly education, and feel passionate about creating positive change within these realms and beyond. This summer, I will be doing research at the Alfred-Wegener-Institut in Bremerhaven, Germany on phytoplankton toxicology related to harmful algal blooms.

I’m Tasha, grown in Brooklyn; ginkgos, pigeons, and the tree of heaven are comforts of childhood and home. I have a deep love for literature, specifically short fiction, and I’m always expanding my reading list (which seems to never end!). I’ve worked in both literature fields and environmental education, which is where my passions for climate action are deeply engrained. In my last year at Middlebury, I hope to continue growing my connections in Vermont - learning and teaching alongside my community. In college, I study English literature with minors in food studies and religion, which I’ve accepted to be the ultimate amalgamation of my upbringing (where my family loves food, being jewish, and reading together). Looking beyond Middlebury, I’m hoping to continue my role as an educator in environmental schools, either continuing teaching outdoor education to young kids or working as an English teacher – in a magical world I would teach literature out in the forest while building fairy homes. I believe this world can exist and am hoping to cultivate this into being! As a second year fellow, I look further to finding ways to do climate work both through nature education and literature, our words and actions weave our worlds and I believe literature has the power to bridge gaps and bring us together.  This summer I’ll be working part time and focusing on a Kellogg Grant I received to research my thesis on Irish Women’s Short Fiction – I’ll be exploring the political, social, and environmental nuances of stories by Mary Lavin and Edna O’Brien.