On a beautiful sunny morning on June 10th after two years of online graduation ceremonies, the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS) was thrilled to celebrate the graduation of the Class of 2022 in person on the UW campus. The graduation was held in a lecture room in Kane Hall, which was filled with friends and family who arrived early for the morning celebration.

Students enjoyed coming together after years of trying to isolate to keep each other safe.

Following welcome remarks by Dr. Sergey Rabotyagov, SEFS Associate Director, Maya Tolstoy, Dean of The College of the Environment shared the College supported the Fresh Food Recovery for the UW Food Pantry project in honor of this year’s graduates.

Retired Chief of the USDA Forest Service Vicki Christiansen gave an  inspiring speech on the path of a girl building courage who returned as a Chief.

SEFS welcomed the opportunity to showcase a previous graduate who blazed a trail in land management that many of our new grads hope to follow. Vicki took a few minutes to celebrate the moment with two classmates of Professor Emeritus Gordon Bradley’s CFR Capstone class of 1983.

Student speakers were Christina Bjarvin, graduating with her MS degree, and Katherine Good, graduating with a BS degree.

Christina was part of the CINTRAFOR lab under the advisement of Dr. Indroneil Ganguly, where she wrote her thesis, Assessing the Carbon Balance for Mass Timbers Beyond the First Life. Christina will be spending the summer in Italy hiking and drinking wine. We look forward to the fall when she returns to SEFS to begin the PhD program.

Katherine intends to pursue a career in education and community partnership for climate change action and wildlife conservation.

Our graduates and their guests shared a lovely breakfast reception in Anderson Courtyard following the graduation ceremony. Enjoying coffee and breakfast bites, the grads got to relax under the shade of trees while chatting with SEFS faculty.

SEFS would like to thank Liz Collier, Manager of the SEFS Office of Student and Academic Services, along with the many student and staff helpers who contributed to a smooth ceremony. And thanks to Professors Brian Harvey, Heidi Gough, Clare Ryan, and Kent Wheiler for reading names.

Graduates: Contact sefscomm@uw.edu to request any pictures we might have snapped of you during the ceremony. Please subscribe to the SEFS Newsletter to keep up on our activities and alum adventures! Photos © Teresa Bresee/SEFS.