2025 New Futures Fellowship

Planet Reimagined is a global nonprofit organization on a mission to deliver fair solutions for people and the planet. We bring together researchers and advocates from around the world to collaborate on initiatives that touch all aspects of the climate crisis. Our Action Research method trains and engages the climate leaders of the future while using media and entertainment platforms to reinforce strategic advocacy to mobilize climate action.

The New Futures Fellowship program is a full-time three month paid opportunity for current and recent undergraduate and graduate students to practice action research in a virtual global team. Fellows receive professional supervision and training.

The themes for 2025 are River Delta Communities, Clean Energy, and Building a Fan-based Climate Movement

Fellows of different disciplinary backgrounds work in thematic groups to address a specific problem, learn how community and national organizations are addressing it, and develop advocacy strategies and messaging. During the fellowship, they acquire skills in effective public communications as well as power analysis and advocacy tools to develop and advance solutions. They receive hands-on coaching in creative skills such as storytelling, digital media, graphic design, and video production. They participate in conversations with guest speakers, from academia, activism, policymaking, and the private sector, and advocates such as environmental justice leaders in India, the Philippines and South Africa.

Workforce Development: Strategies to Create Clean Energy Jobs

The 2025 energy fellowship contributions will focus on producing action research in support of the Common Grounds mission in the United States and internationally.

Mobilizing Sports Fans for
Climate Action

As part of the 2025 New Futures Fellowship cohort, fellows will produce action research, including communications materials, in support of Amplify’s mission by exploring how to perform effective climate advocacy in professional sports. Fellows will research and propose relevant recommendations based on recent past examples and current practices to understand how professional athletes and sports teams engage in social change issues in the United States. This research may include the unique dynamics between individual athletes, teams, and management; and the possible positive and negative impacts of climate advocacy in a variety of sports contexts. Action may focus on promoting the unique ways that athletes can synergize their advocacy across games, interviews, social channels, brand partnerships, and other unique mediums.

River Delta Communities

The 2025 fellowship project contributes to Planet Reimagined’s ongoing impact program on River Delta Communities. The 2025 fellowship contribution will focus 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).
The Fellows will highlight key challenges facing youth (18-30 years old) in their designated river delta and work to propel change through action research, including advocacy and persuasive storytelling, and work together for solutions across all three case studies.

Global Common Grounds: Co-Locating Clean Energy on Fossil Fuel Lands in The Middle East and South America

The 2025 energy fellowship contributions will focus on producing action research in support of the Common Grounds mission in the United States and internationally.

Meet the Fellows

Claire Kemick

River Delta Communities
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.
Tran Kim Bao

River Delta Communities
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

River Delta Communities
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.
Zach Goldberg

Clean Energy (Workforce Development: Strategies to Create Clean Energy Jobs)
Zach studies environmental politics with a focus on energy and agricultural systems. His doctoral research focused on grid-scale solar energy development on farmland in the eastern United States, examining issues related to land use, governance, and justice.
Zach has also become passionate about organizing around energy justice in Philadelphia, where he lives with his partner Margaret. He holds a B.S. in Agricultural and Environmental Science from McGill University.
Cameron Salo

Clean Energy (Workforce Development: Strategies to Create Clean Energy Jobs)
Cameron spent his career working across policy and advocacy spaces to support community led solutions. He’s passionate about connecting research with real world change.
In his free time, he loves hiking, playing chess, and making music, whether on guitar, piano, or just singing for fun!
He’s excited to join the fellowship, inspired by its creative and community-first approach to combating climate change. It's a chance to learn, collaborate, and be part of something meaningful.
Daniela Laforce

Clean Energy (Global Common Grounds: Co-Locating Clean Energy on Fossil Fuel Lands in The Middle East and South America)
Dani is a Brazilian Islands and Sustainability Master's Student at the Universities of Groningen and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where she is learning advanced spatial analysis tools and sustainable land use planning on islands. Her purpose as a researcher is to protect tropical forests. She believes effective land use planning, especially regarding energy transition, is one of the best ways to get there.
She is fierce in her understanding that the energy transition in the Global South is a pathway to these countries' energy sovereignty.
Manling Hu

Clean Energy (Global Common Grounds: Co-Locating Clean Energy on Fossil Fuel Lands in The Middle East and South America)
Manling studies Environmental Studies and is pursuing a graduate certificate in Energy Management and Policy, focusing on advancing energy justice for communities disproportionately burdened by climate change and energy insecurity.
Her work looks at how losing electricity affects low-income families in the US, and how fossil fuel sites can transition to renewable energy sources globally.
Inspired by Planet Reimagined’s mission to bridge research and advocacy, she's excited to join collaborative projects that help build a fairer energy future for everyone!
Asher Savel

Mobilizing Sports Fans for Climate Action
Asher is associate majoring in Environmental Studies and Government/Legal Studies with a minor in Urban Studies. He is fascinated with trying to create a more sustainable, equitable world through community organizing, storytelling, and public policy.
Asher loves watching the San Antonio Spurs, hosting his radio show on WBOR, reading the best fiction our world has to offer, and obsessing over food at the farmer’s market.
He’s excited to join Planet Reimagined, where he'll combine his passions in sports and sustainability to help create bold solutions for a green future.
Julia Hyman

Mobilizing Sports Fans for Climate Action
Julia studied Urban Studies and Human Rights at Barnard College, where she first became passionate about sustainability and climate justice.
She’s worked with climate-focused groups like Climate Words and Project Pressure, helping more people understand and engage with climate issues.
In her free time, you’ll find Julia outdoors hiking mountains, diving into the ocean, or playing basketball. She's excited to join the New Futures Fellowship, combining her love for sports and the environment to inspire more people to take climate action!