2025 New Futures Fellowship

River Delta Communities

The 2025 fellowship project contributed to Planet Reimagined’s impact program on River Delta Communities. The 2025 fellowship contribution focused on the impact of river delta deterioration on young people and their futures, with case studies on three globally important Deltas: the Mississippi, Danube (Romania), and Mekong (Vietnam).

River deltas produce a disproportionate share of our food and are home to over 500 million people. In this second year of the Delta Connective Project, fellows continued to document the experiences of communities in three distinct river deltas: the Mississippi, the Danube and the Mekong. With backgrounds in engineering, landscape architecture and policy analysis, the fellows met with local organizations to document existing efforts to protect the deltas and highlight area-based conservation measures. 

The Journey of Fields and Wings

New Futures Fellowship Compilation

Meet the Fellows

  • Tran Kim Bao


    Bao studied ecotourism and its benefits for local communities at Can Tho University, then founded two youth-led projects: MekongVoice and Saving Energy Houses & Gardens, to promote education and climate action.

    He is excited to join Planet Reimagined, where he’ll share powerful stories of how Mekong Delta communities experience and adapt to climate change with audiences around the world!

  • Ciprian Piraianu


    Ciprian grew up in Romania.

    He cares deeply about making sure environmental policies include everyone's voice. During his Master's in International Development, he looked at who benefits, and who doesn’t, from changes in our environment.

    As a 2025 New Futures Fellow, Ciprian is excited to keep exploring these issues, working closely with communities to create fair and inclusive climate solutions.

  • Claire Kemick


    Claire studied environmental science and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. She's now doing her PhD at Tulane University, researching how communities in the Mississippi River Delta can better cope with climate change.

    Claire is excited to join Planet Reimagined to become a better science storyteller. She believes communities should have a voice in shaping solutions, and she looks forward to learning and collaborating with fellows from the Mekong and Danube Deltas.

Fellowship Advisor

Jeff Opperman

Jeff is WWF’s global lead freshwater scientist  and works across the WWF network and with external partners to direct research that can strengthen conservation strategies and to integrate science into freshwater programs and projects. Jeff’s scientific and policy research has been published in journals such as Science and Nature and he is the lead author of the book Floodplains, published in 2017. Jeff strives to communicate the challenges and opportunities for nature conservation to broad audiences through op-eds, articles and blog posts in outlets including the New York Times, Foreign Policy, and Outside. Recently, Jeff has been exploring the overlap between music and conservation. He holds a PhD in ecosystem science from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. in biology from Duke University.

Interested in our Fellowships?

We're not currently recruiting for any fellowships, but we'd love to keep you informed!