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The Carolyn Harper Fund and Fellowship

The Carolyn Harper Fund and Fellowship is an active scholarly awards program, administered by the Chair of the Department of Resource Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It was established in 1993 following the death of Professor Carolyn Harper, who as a student and teacher had been affiliated with the department for more than a decade.

Each year the Department of Resource Economics has honored one or two graduate students who best exemplify the qualities that Carolyn Harper had in such abundance: scholarly achievement, concern for social and environmental issues, and racial and gender justice. This is done in the Department's conference room, under the watchful eye of Carolyn's photograph that hangs there, and attended by all faculty and graduate students. It is a special time for us to remember Carolyn collectively, as we do throughout the year individually.

 

Give to the Carolyn Harper Memorial Fellowship

To make a contribution, call the Development Office at 866-450-UMASS or visit www.umass.edu/give. Be sure to designate that your gift be allocated to the Carolyn Harper Memorial Fellowship in the Resource Economics Department.

(If giving on line click "other, enter below" in the drop down menu for Allocation 1 and then enter "Carolyn Harper Memorial Fellowship--Resource Economics"). Thank you!

Carolyn Harper Memorial Fellowship Donors During 2007:

Zahiruddin M. Alim
Tammy L. Barlow Murphy
John M. Halstead
David Nussbaum
Jonathan Robbins

Harper Fellowship Recipients

• 1993/1994
  • Juan-Camilo Cardenas. Juan-Camilo was working on his master’s thesis at the time, and Carolyn was his advisor. He returned here for a Ph.D., which he received in 2000, and is now Professor, Department of Economics, University of the Andes, Bogota, Columbia.
• 1994/1995
  • Tracy Brocks. Tracy gained her MS degree in 1996, and now works in the electric utility sector in New Hampshire.
  • Michelle Gerry. After gaining her MS degree in 1995, Michelle went to work in the energy sector. She just recently became Analyst, Financial and Compliance Group, with the New York electricity pool operator in Albany, New York.
• 1995/1996
  • Michelle McGregor. Michelle began her Master's degree in 1994 and completed her thesis, titled "Measuring Profitability and Environmental Impact among Integrated Pest Management Strategies in Massachusetts Apple Production" in 1997. She went on to the Ph.D. program at the University of California, Berkeley.
• 1996/1997
  • Jennifer (Lewis) Gruber. Jennifer gained her MS in 1997 in the area of Food Marketing and has been a Category Analyst at Advantage Sales and Marketing with Petzrow in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
  • Billy Manoka. Billy gained his Ph.D. in 2000 then returned to resume his position on the faculty of the Department of Economics, University of Papua, New Guinea. He has been Head of the Department since 2001.
• 1997/1998
  • Tammy Barlow. After completing her Ph.D. in 2001, Tammy took a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
  • Carlos Chavez-Rebolledo. Carlos received his Ph.D. in 2000, He then returned to Chile where he is a professor the Department of Economics at the University of Concepcion.
• 1998/1999
  • Ina Porras. Ina worked as a team member on sustainable development projects in her native Costa Rica. She received a Master’s degree in 1999, and now combines work with the International Institute for Environment and Development in London with a Ph.D. degree at the University of Newcastle, England.
• 1999/2000
  • Marcelo Caffera. Marcelo completed his Ph.D. in 2004. He returned to his native Uruguay where he is on the faculty at the University of Montevideo.
  • Corinna Noelke. Corinna obtained her Ph.D. degree in 2000. She then worked in New York for Random House publishers as a financial analyst. She now lives and works in Middlebury, Vermont.
• 2000/2001
  • T. Robert Fetter. Rob received an MS degree in 2002. Among his other activities he joined a group who bicycled across country in the summer of 1999, stopping at communities along the way to take part in local volunteer service projects and to raise funds for organizations involved in social justice. He now works in Colorado as an Environmental Economist at Science Applications International Corporation, a major consulting company.
• 2001/2002
  • Colin Cushman. A former Commonwealth Scholar, Colin wrote a research proposal, subsequently funded by a federal agency to study environmental issues in the offshore islands of Thailand, which are experiencing massive growth in tourism. At the time of his award he was doing fieldwork in Thailand and used the money to supplement his research grant.
• 2002/2003
  • Ning Ding. Ning was born and educated in Yunnan province, People’s Republic of China, the province with the greatest biodiversity in all of China. She worked there on two international technical assistance projects aimed at simultaneously reducing poverty and managing the environment. She completed her M.S. degree in September 2003 and currently lives in Ohio.
  • Maria Alejandra Velez. Maria grew up in Bogota, Columbia, where she studied economics at the University of the Andes. She then worked for the National Federation of Coffee Growers on a survey of organic coffee production, followed by a stint in the Biotrade Program at the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute. She completed her Ph.D. in 2006. Working with Juan Camilo Cardenas, John Stranlund and Jim Murphy on a collaborative project funded by the U.S. Department of State, she investigated how communities can be encouraged to make environmentally sound decisions.
• 2003/2004
  • Sirisha Naidu. Sirisha grew up and was educated in Madras, India. She completed her Ph.D. in 2007. Sirisha is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Wright State University in Ohio.
• 2006/2007
  • David McEvoy. Dave joined the Ph.D. Program in 2003 following completion of his undergraduate degree at the University of New Hampshire and after earning an M.S. in Environmental and Resource Economics from the University College London. His dissertation research used experimental economics to look at design of public policies. Dave is now an Assistant Professor of Economics at Appalachian State University in North Carolina.
  • Bernardo Urdaneta. Bernardo joined the M.S. Program in 2004 following completion of his undergraduate degree at Lycoming College. In 2006, Bernardo completed his Master’s degree titled "Evaluating Alternative Funding Mechanisms for Acadia National Park Using Stated Preference Methods."
• 2007/2008
  • Nikolaos Zirogiannis. Nikolaos became interested in economics after taking an elective course in resource economics at the Athens University of Business and Economics. He then transferred to the Environmental Sustainability program at the University of Edinburgh. He joined the Resource Economics Master's program during fall 2006 to pursue his interest further. He has developed an interest in the economics of pesticide use and human health similar to a major thrust of Carolyn Harper's research.