The UVM Food Systems Research Center (FSRC) is pleased to announce the 2025 class of FSRC PhD Fellows. These talented PhD students will begin or will continue their impactful research into different and diverse elements of Vermont and regional food systems this fall. The FSRC is proud to fund graduate students at UVM across multiple colleges and departments, all working to answer pressing issues in food systems.
Saadatu Abdul-Rahaman
Saada is a PhD student in the Food Systems Graduate Program at the University of Vermont (UVM and a Graduate Fellow of the Gund Institute for Environement. Saada is interested in inequalities in the food system. Her PhD explores intersectionality in rural food access and plant-based diet adoption and consumption. Through this work, she hopes to amplify the need for an intersectional lens in food systems research and policy framing. Prior to UVM, Saada worked on several development projects in Ghana and Nigeria, improving nutritional outcomes, food security, market systems and sustainable livelihoods for the vulnerable. Outside of UVM, she enjoys talking long walks, hikes, and trying new recipes.
Krizzia Belèn-Trineo
Krizzia Belèn-Trineo is a PhD candidate in Food Systems and Fellow at the Gund Institute for Environment. She is also a Community Fellow at the Vermont Folklife Center. Her overarching interest lie in the ways rural and oppressed people create and exist within "alternative" food systems. Krizzia is passionate about planetary health, environmental justice, and systems approaches. Her dissertation research focuses on the roles of hunting and trapping in New England's food future under climate change. Before switching her career focus to food systems, Krizzia got a double B.A in Anthropology & Archaeology and Foreign Languages from the University of Puerto Rico. She calls both Puerto Rico and Vermont home. Outside of work, you can find Krizzia reading folklore and history at a local coffee shop or providing maternal-fetal care as a volunteer hospital doula.
Mona Davoudimehr
Mona Davoudimehr is a third year PhD candidate in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department. She is originally from Iran. Her research focuses on the production of propane from agricultural waste. This project addresses critical challenges in waste management and promotes sustainable food systems and a circular economy by converting agricultural waste into valuable products through biorefining. This work also fills a crucial need of providing a renewable source of propane to rural communities. Her research has required a multidisciplinary and versatile approach, integrating experimental design, construction, and operation of several types of bench-scale reactors, and advanced data analysis techniques related to analyzing microbial community data and performing the environmental LCA. She is passionate about microbiology, anaerobic digestion, environmental biotechnology and data visualization. Outside of research, she enjoys reading, and spending time in nature.
Elizabeth Espinosa Uquillas
Elizabeth Espinosa is a Ph.D. candidate in Complex Systems and Data Science at UVM. She holds a B.A. in Economics from the Catholic University of Ecuador, an M.A. in Development Economics from FLACSO Ecuador, and an M.S. in Complex Systems and Data Science from UVM. She worked as a policy analyst, advisor, and researcher concerning welfare programs, women's economic participation, and children's wellbeing at Ecuadorian public institutions, academia, and international organizations, and recently as a research assistant of the Barracuda Project (Biodiversity and Rural Response to Climate Change Using Data Analysis). Elizabeth is particularly interested in understanding the effect of non-conservation government programs on farmers' diverse climate change adaptation decisions by applying complex systems approaches.
Janet Gamble
Janet is a PhD candidate in Food Systems that hails from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. She now calls Vermont home along with her husband and all of their outdoor gear! Janet’s background centers on nutrition and dietetics and her dissertation focuses on nutrition pedagogy; namely shifting the narrative around how we educate our young people about food, bodies, and health. Janet loves food, cooking, being outside, and cozying up with a good mystery book.
Alexander Steiner
Alex is a PhD student in the Crop Genetic Heritage lab, advised by Eric von Wettberg. His dissertation research focuses on investigating sustainable pasture management throughout Vermont. Alex is broadly interested in sustainable agriculture and increasing the perennial soil cover in agricultural systems.
About the FSRC:
The UVM Food Systems Research Center (FSRC) is the first USDA-funded research center to study the interconnectedness of all parts of a regional food system, from farm practices to food access. They work to uncover solutions to pressing issues through the lens of food and farming. As pioneers in USDA-funded research, the FSRC is at the forefront of discovering how what’s on our plate affects our society and the planet.
