Welcome Incoming CAST Fellows

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The Climate and Sustainability Teaching (CAST) Fellows Program helps foster interdisciplinary engagement with climate and sustainability across Duke University’s academic landscape. By supporting instructors in redesigning their courses to incorporate climate and sustainability concepts, the program aims to enrich the Duke educational experience and equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to address the global challenges of our time.

The CAST Fellows program is a direct response to Duke’s Climate Commitment and complements the vision of the Climate Commitment Advisory Council’s (CCAC) Education Subcommittee, which aims for every student—regardless of major or school—to graduate with climate and sustainability fluency. 

This year’s “Experiential Learning” theme invites faculty to creatively use Duke’s campus as a living learning laboratory, designing transformative student experiences that inspire intentional action toward sustainability and climate challenges that are relevant to everyday campus and community life.

The program is facilitated by the Office of Climate and Sustainability, including experts from the Duke Forest, Duke Gardens, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, and Duke Campus Farm.

Welcome to the incoming cohort of CAST Fellows, representing a wide array of departments and units across Duke and Duke Kunshan:

Meet the 2026-2027 CAST Fellows

Ayo Bankole | Assistant Professor in Pre-Licensure Programs | School of Nursing | NURSING 519 Gerontological Nursing: Caring for an Aging Population

Initial Course Ideas: Ayo is interested in translating emerging climate health science into innovative nursing education with evolving health priorities for aging populations. She hopes to prepare students for the complexities of caring for an aging population through case-studies and systems thinking.   

Areas of Interest: The overarching goal of Ayo's research program is to generate evidence that improves care delivery and promotes aging in place for older adults and their families.

CAST Engagement: "I would like to contribute my experience in aging research and care delivery for older adults. I also aim to develop the skills to teach pre-licensure nursing students how climate change affects the health and care of older adults."

Laura Bilanceri | Lecturing Fellow in Romance Studies Department | Trinity College of Arts & Sciences | ITALIAN 203 Intermediate Italian  

Initial Course Ideas: Laura seeks to revise her course such that students will participate in a semester-long, ongoing campus-based project and engage with eco-art and visual storytelling mini projects through exhibit design for Nasher Museum of Art. The course may include site visits to Duke Farm, Duke Forest, Duke Gardens, or the Greenhouse, and will be book-free with all open-source materials.  

Areas of Interest: Laura is interested in Second Language Acquisition, Playful Pedagogy, Multilingualism and Sustainability. 

CAST Engagement: "I hope to contribute to creating original activities that help students develop new skills and reflect on their experiences. I hope to gain new perspectives and learn how to introduce sustainability themes in my language classes."

Nicki Cagle | Senior Lecturer in Ecology & Environmental Education in Environmental Sciences Division | Nicholas School of the Environment | ENVIRON 632 Environmental Education & Interpretation  

Initial Course Ideas: Nicki aims to use climate and sustainability as a throughline for her course and ensure her students have the skills needed to be strong scientific communicators. She hopes to redesign modules to include Duke-specific experiential learning opportunities, such as a client project and site visits to Duke Gardens, Duke Farm, Duke Forest, and campus stormwater and energy systems.   

Areas of Interest: Nicki is an ecologist and environmental educator whose work explores how natural history knowledge and human-nature relationships can foster both ecological understanding and human flourishing.

CAST Engagement: "I hope to contribute a perspective grounded in ecology, interpretation, and experiential teaching, especially around how we help students translate complex sustainability challenges into meaningful learning and action. Through the CAST Fellowship, I hope to gain a strong community of thoughtful educators, along with practical ideas and structure for designing an even more impactful, student-centered course."

Tom Carpino | Postdoctoral Scholar in Global Health Institute | School of Medicine; Trinity College of Arts & Sciences | GLHLTH 180FS Infectious Disease Dynamics 

Initial Course Ideas: Tom aims to incorporate intentional climate learning into his course to strengthen students’ understandings of interconnected ecological and social systems. He is interested in strengthening his pedagogy toolkit and incorporating place-based learning to help students explore the links between biodiversity, ecosystem disruption, and zoonotic disease emergence through places such as the Duke Lemur Center.  

Areas of Interest: Tom's research explores contemporary health challenges, including emerging infectious diseases and climate change, and the systems that shape their distribution, interaction, and impact.

CAST Engagement: "I hope to contribute my energy, systems-thinking perspective, and experience designing applied learning around global health challenges. I hope to gain new strategies for integrating climate into teaching and to build lasting collaborations with faculty committed to climate-responsive pedagogy."

Chuanhui Gu | Associate Professor of Environmental Science | Natural and Applied Science Department | Duke Kunshan University | ENVIR 102 Dynamic Earth & Oceans: Physical & Biological Sciences for the Environment 

Initial Course Ideas: Joining the CAST cohort from Duke Kunshan University, Chuanhui is interested in strengthening his students’ connection between Earth system processes, societal decision-making, and sustainability challenges. He hopes to utilize DKU infrastructure as a Living Lab, envisioning a final project where students serve as consultants for Campus Operations and the Sustainability Office. 

Areas of Interest: As an environmental scientist, Chuanhui studies how water moves between rivers and groundwater, how pollutants and nutrients travel in these systems, and how natural processes along riverbanks affect water quality.

CAST Engagement: "I hope to contribute a field-based Earth system science perspective and a concrete "Campus Earth System Audit" model that uses the campus as a living lab. Through the CAST Fellowship, I hope to gain new pedagogical ideas, place-based course-design strategies, and cross-disciplinary feedback from the peer community."

Katie Hyde | Director of Certificate in Documentary Studies in Program of Education | Trinity College of Arts & Sciences | DOCST 224S Children’s Self-Expression – Literacy Through Photography  

Initial Course Ideas: Katie seeks to redesign her existing curriculum to focus on self and the natural world in the Durham context. She hopes to build relationships with additional partnerships with organizations such as Duke Gardens, SEEDS, School House of Wonder, and the Durham Public School Hub Farm.  

Areas of Interest: Katie's work is framed around Literacy Through Photography, an arts-based participatory methodology that integrates documentary studies, sociology and education.

CAST Engagement: "I hope to share ideas for integrating visual and creative approaches into traditional disciplines. I am looking forward to the intensive workshop that kicks off the CAST Fellowship, and more generally, learning new ideas for experiential learning related to climate issues."

Jamie Lord | Assistant Professor of MSN Program – Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program | School of Nursing | NURSING 759 Introduction to Advanced Practice Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing 

Initial Course Ideas: Jamie is interested in teaching her students that climate change is not only an environmental issue and has the potential to disrupt medical and mental health care access.  Jamie aims to incorporate climate change as a stressor throughout course modules and properly equip students with the knowledge necessary to address the complexity of climate in mental health care.  

Areas of Interest: Jamie's focus is working with American Indigenous/American Indian (AI/AN) populations in Montana and other states to promote resiliency via children's camps in collaboration with the healthcare leaders of the tribes.

CAST Engagement: "I hope to share the land-based concept of the AI/AN population that is very valuable and important to all societies. I hope to learn ways to protect the Earth and promote care of our environment."

Joan Munné | Senior Lecturer in Romance Studies Department | Trinity College of Arts & Sciences | SPANISH 303 Introduction to Cultural Studies 

Initial Course Ideas: Joan’s course engages students on topics of food systems and social justice and explores cultural knowledge. He aims to deepen his pedagogical understanding of climate and sustainability to better revise his 4 course modules to convey the importance and urgency of the climate crisis and illustrate its connection with food, culture, and language.   

Areas of Interest: Joan is curious about Second Language Acquisition. His work sits at the intersection of how people learn languages, how teachers teach them, and how technology or student career goals are reshaping both. 

CAST Engagement: "I hope to contribute a model for weaving traditional Latinx foodways into climate literacy within language education, while gaining the interdisciplinary frameworks to move my students from cultural appreciation toward genuine civic action on sustainability."

Jim Parise | Associate Professor of the Practice of Chemistry in Chemistry Department | Trinity College of Arts & Sciences | CHEM 135CC Is Chemistry Real? 

Initial Course Ideas: Jim grounds his course in the generation, evaluation, and communication of science and the importance of trust in science. He is eager to use the SCALe Program’s campus needs list, run tests on campus water supply, and incorporate creative communication projects and case studies into his course.   

Areas of Interest: Jim's primary focus is helping students to succeed in organic chemistry courses. He also teaches courses in the chemistry of cooking, fermentation, and distillation.

CAST Engagement: "I'm hoping to contribute helpful discussion from the perspective of a chemistry educator, and hope to gain ideas for implementation of my ideas into the course that I'm teaching."

Raquel Salvatella de Prada | Professor of the Practice of Art, Art History & Visual Studies in Art, Art History & Visual Studies Department | Trinity College of Arts & Sciences | ARTSVIS 390S-03 Special Topics in Visual Arts: Making Art in the Anthropocene

Initial Course Ideas: Raquel is interested in weaving sustainability and climate themes throughout her course and connecting arts-based projects to Duke-specific places, such as Duke Farm, Duke Forest, and the Greenhouse. She hopes to highlight the role of arts in science communication and understanding climate change, as well as connect her students to their own communities through place-based learning.   

Areas of Interest: Raquel is a visual artist who combines experimental video and animation with different traditional art forms, often by collaborating with artists of diverse artistic backgrounds. Her recent works focus on social and environmental issues.

CAST Engagement: "I hope to contribute a perspective from the arts on how visual storytelling and collaboration can communicate complex topics like climate change by fostering curiosity and engaging people through experience, not only through data, while also exploring how creative practices can be more sustainable. I hope to exchange ideas with researchers from other disciplines and learn new ways that artistic practice can connect with scientific research and environmental questions."

Crystal Simone Smith | Instructor in Thompson Writing Program | Trinity College of Arts & Sciences | WRITING 120 Academic Writing: Haiku, Zen, and Our Planet 

Initial Course Ideas: Crystal is interested in augmenting existing themes of nature in her course through activities such as forest bathing in the Duke Gardens and eco-conscious campus exhibits. She hopes to highlight the humanitarian aspect of the climate crisis and help her students to connect to nature when the world is demanding our attention elsewhere. 

Areas of Interest: Among other poetic forms, Crystal is a nature poet with a central focus on haiku and Zen with research that involves seasonal patterns in haiku along with human-nature relationships.

CAST Engagement: "As climate change is a humanitarian crisis, I will focus on an appreciation for the natural world through haiku and Zen concepts. In Zen, nature is not separate from humanity. I also hope to enrich my scientific understanding on climate and sustainability."

Xin Zhang | Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Intercultural Communication | Language and Culture Center | Duke Kunshan University | CHIN 401A&B Advanced Chinese: Issues in Modern China  

Initial Course Ideas: Joining the CAST cohort from Duke Kunshan University, Xin is excited to help foster global citizenship and language proficiency among her students through the incorporation of climate and sustainability principles into her course. She aims to bring a localized focus to her course through projects on local initiatives as well as field trips to organic farms in the Kunshan and Jiangnan regions. 

Areas of Interest: Xin's research lies at the intersection of applied linguistics, Chinese language learning and teaching, and intercultural communication especially in multilingual/multicultural environments.

CAST Engagement: "I hope to contribute a global and multilingual/multicultural perspective, e.g., on how environmental concerns are interpreted and perceived by different audiences in China. I look forward to gaining practical ideas for developing curriculum and pedagogical materials on incorporating CAST themes in language classes, especially in team-teaching format."