Leadership for the Ecozoic (L4E)

Leadership for the Ecozoic (L4E) is a transdisciplinary initiative based at the University of Vermont (UVM) and McGill University that advances collaborative research, teaching, and leadership for a just and sustainable future.

Rooted in the disciplines of ecological economics at UVM and anthropology at McGill, L4E supports innovative scholarship that bridges academic and community-based knowledge. PhD Fellows earn their degrees through existing doctoral programs at each institution, engaging in a vibrant intellectual community of students, faculty, postdoctoral researchers, visiting scholars, activists, and Indigenous thinkers.

Inspired by Ecozoic inquiry - a vision of mutually enhancing relationships between human societies and the wider community of life - L4E at UVM fosters scholarship that explores economics through the lens of sustainable scale and just distribution over efficient allocation.

L4E works toward the Ecozoic era through four key areas:

  1. Facilitating transdisciplinary research that empowers emerging leaders;
  2. Building a research-to-action network that connects theory with practice;
  3. Engaging in advocacy and creative communications; and
  4. Reimagining teaching and learning across campuses and communities.

Fellows participate in a range of collaborative activities - both in person and online - including joint courses, research-to-action projects, retreats, collaboratories, workshops, creative media, and co-authored publications and presentations.

For more information about L4E, visit Leadership for the Ecozoic.

To apply for a Fellowship, go to the Fall 2026 Application

Faculty accepting L4E Fellows include: Matt Burke, Kate Mays, and Anaka Aiyar. Please find their research statements below.

Matt Burke: Current research opportunities broadly address technologies, governance, and livelihoods for genuinely sustainable and just societies, and underscore the importance of diverse communities and ways of living in view of current social-ecological trajectories of decline. Through the Ecozoic Alternatives Research Group, we investigate alternative ecological political economies using interviews, case-based and archival research, institutional analysis, and related approaches developed through community economies research. A focus on the region of Northeastern North America will yield understandings, examples, and analyses as related to social ecology, ecological economies and degrowth, cooperative economies, and bioregions, while providing training and experience in research-to-action. Additional research opportunities in collaboration with the Institute for Agroecology will examine social dimensions and practices of rural and urban agroforestry centering on identifying and demonstrating viable livelihoods and pathways.

Kate Mays: Kate conducts research on how digital technologies like artificial intelligence can be developed and deployed in a way that aligns with public values. To this end, her studies examine public opinions about AI and related tech, with a focus on normative attitudes about AI and use, AI trust/concerns, and perceptions of AI harms vs. benefits. Kate is open to a PhD student developing their own project under the broad umbrella of human-centered AI. Alternatively and/or in addition, some future studies she plans to undertake include an investigation of public attitudes about AI tradeoffs and what it means to conceptualize AI as a public good. 

Anaka Aiyar: coming soon

L4E focuses on ecological economics and degrowth.  The fields are both quite broad and cover many specific topics and we will consider applications that show an interest in any aspect of ecological economics or degrowth. Under this broad umbrella, current research focuses on monetary theory and policy, sustainable agricultural production, resource management, energy transitions, political ecology, market dynamics, climate change transitions, labor, commons, rural development, land use, food systems, and many more topics. If your specific research interest does not perfectly align with the topics indicated by the faculty above, feel free to apply more broadly to L4E and explain your focus. Applications benefit from contacting a prospective advisor, so we encourage you to reach out to an SDPEG faculty member whom you believe might be a good fit for your research. 

Questions can be directed to julie.starr@uvm.edu.

Meet Our Faculty Leads

Joe Ament

Assistant Professor • L4E Degrowth Lead

jament@uvm.edu

Matthew Burke

Research Assistant Professor • L4E Ecozoic Alternatives Lead

matthew.burke@uvm.edu

Joshua Farley

Professor • L4E Ecological Economics Lead

jfarley@uvm.edu

L4E Graduate Student Fellows

Chris McElroy

Gund Graduate Fellow, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Community Development and Applied Economics

Matías Vaccarezza Sevilla

Gund Graduate Fellow, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Department of Community Development and Applied Economics

Justin Dempsey

Ph.D. Student in Natural Resources • Affiliate, Gund Institute for Environment

Dakota Walker

Gund Graduate Fellow, Department of Community Development and Applied Economics

Lizah Makombore

IfA Affiliate • Gund Graduate Fellow

Lucio Costa Proenca

Ph.D. Student • L4E Fellow

Rubaina Anjum

Ph.D. Student • Affiliate, Gund Institute for Environment

Juliana Neira

Ph.D. Candidate, Community Development and Applied Economics

Toyib Aremu

Ph.D. Student • L4E Fellow

Shashank Poudel

Ph.D. Student • Gund Graduate Fellow • L4E Fellow

Danish Hasan Ansari

Affiliate, Gund Institute for Environment • Adjunct Lecturer

Nina L. Smolyar

Gund Graduate Fellow - Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources

Abraham Awolich

Gund Graduate Fellow, Community Development and Applied Economics

Emily "Em" R. O'Hara

Gund Graduate Fellow, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Department of Community Development and Applied Economics

Julie Davenson

Research Assistant