current lab members
Ledeebari D. Banuna
Ledeebari D. Banuna is a PhD student in Geography at Penn State. She is the recipient of a 2023 Distinguished Graduate Fellowship. She has experience in leadership roles working with students and key partners via student organizations as well as experience organizing with youth internationally on food systems, climate change, extraction, and Indigenous rights topics. Some of her experiences include being a youth delegate at the 2023 World Food Forum (WFF) Youth Action Assembly and volunteering at the 23rd Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. She participated in the 2023 UN Global Indigenous Youth Forum (UNGIYF) and helped draft the 2023 Rome Declaration of Indigenous Youth as part of the African regional group. She was invited to speak at a side event at the UN World Food Forum 2023 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Land and Water division on the importance of water to her family’s farm in Ogoniland, Nigeria, where she highlighted the effects that oil pollution and environmental degradation are having on Ogoni Indigenous food systems and ways of life.
In Fall 2023, she joined the Penn State Global Youth Storytelling and Research Lab (GYSRL) as a lab member.
Danielle Dedeaux
Danielle Dedeaux is in her first year of the combined MS + Ph.D. program in the Department of Geography at Penn State. Before this, Danielle was an undergraduate in the department and received a B.S. in Geography with minors in Climatology and Sociology. Danielle's research examines environmental displacement, sense of place, and hazards in the U.S. Gulf South using methods including storytelling, participatory mapping, and interviews.
Abigail Franks
Abigail Franks is a 7th generation Appalachian and lover of people and planet. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) with a B.A in Political Science and Peace, Justice, and Ecology; she was a 2019 Rhodes Scholarship Finalist for the University of Oxford in the UK. She is currently pursuing her Master of Public Administration and teaching Environmental Politics at her alma mater. She is especially passionate about transforming the South into a sustainable and resilient region through advocating for and crafting climate adaptive and environmental policies. Abigail is leading our Lab's Birmingham, Alabama pilot research project on community environmental memory. Her interests include southern US history, environmental policy, environmental justice, community-based leadership, disaster resilience, clean energy, and grassroots climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. She is the co-host of the Southeast Climate and Energy Network’s Climate Justice Y’all Podcast.
McKenna Murphy
McKenna is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Penn State majoring in Agricultural Sciences and minoring in International Agricultural, Political Science, and Food Systems. She is currently completing her honors thesis focusing on the urban food justice movement in the U.S. and examining how city governments and grassroots food organizations are working to bridge the food access gap. McKenna has a passion for storytelling and journalism. She works as a writing intern for the Schreyer Honors College and a writer for the student-run blog, Onward State.
McKenna’s academic interests lie in the intersection of identity, race, culture, and modern food access, as well as the role of urban agriculture in creating communities of self-determination. As an international agriculture minor, McKenna is also fascinated with how international growing methods and the global food systems can be improved in the face of climate change. She plans to continue exploring her food-related and geographic academic interests in graduate school in pursuit of a PhD.
Mark Ortiz, PhD
Mark Ortiz is Assistant Professor of Geography at Penn State University and co-funded faculty within the Social Science Research Institute and Institute of Energy and the Environment. He is the Founder and Director of STAGES Lab and holds an appointment as an Affiliate Faculty Member with the Institute for Human Rights at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
His research concerning youth activism, climate movements, and environmental justice has been published in GeoHumanities, Climate and Development, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, and Environmental Education Research among other scholarly and public-facing outlets. For more information, his professional website can be found at markbortiz.com
Lucy Thompson
Lucy Thompson is a dual- title Geography and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies PhD student at Penn State University (PSU). They also earned a degree in Geography (MS) from PSU, and degrees in Geography (BA) and Environmental Studies (BA) from Ohio University.
Originally from West Virginia, Lucy’s research focuses on environmental (in)justice, embodiment, more-than-human community, and the expansion of natural gas infrastructure in central Appalachia. Lucy’s Master's project examines the construction and embodiment of lively more-than-human communities by activists in central Appalachia as they resist a pipeline project. Lucy hopes to continue to expand this work through their dissertation. Methodologically, she is interested in public-facing communication which prioritizes both beauty and accessibility through methods such as storytelling and zines.
Previous lab members
Timothy Benally
Timothy Benally completed his master’s studies at Penn State, where he studied Recreation Parks and Tourism Management and completed a dual degree in TREES (Transdisciplinary Research in the Environment and Society). Also a Penn State alumnus and McNair Scholar, he graduated with a B.S. in Psychology in 2021 while at his home on the Navajo Nation during the Covid-19 pandemic. His research took place in close collaboration with the Navajo Nation courtesy of a research fellowship bestowed upon him by the LandscapeU National Research Traineeship (National Science Foundation).
Driven by an unyielding commitment to Indigenous rights and education, Timothy was fundamental in the creation of IPSA (Indigenous Peoples Student Association), a group that not only initiated Penn State’s inaugural Acknowledgement of Land but also actively advocates for substantial resources including in-state tuition for all Indigenous Students and a student center on campus. He dreams of and works toward a future where Navajo students, armed with education and a nurturing environment, explore the world fearlessly and contribute proactively to their communities.