By: Sara Santiago ’19 MF
Forestry students of the Class of 2026 entered the program from different places across the country and world with unique interests and goals within forestry. What have the Class of 2026 foresters been up to in the months following Commencement? Here are updates from some members of the class.
Nat Burr ’26 MF
Nat Burr ’26 MF and Gabriela D’Orazio ’26 MFS both spent the summer surrounded by trees and forests and are continuing their educations. Burr has been conducting agroforestry research, implementation, and technical assistance for forest farming systems at the Smokey House Center in Vermont and through the ADAPT project — a collaboration across researchers at YSE, the University of New Hampshire, and Dartmouth College — in New Hampshire and Maine. Additionally, Burr continued his role at the Northeast Forest Farmers Coalition, managing projects and conducting genetic research on American ginseng. While part of the Class of 2026, Burr will finish his MF degree this fall.
Professor Craig Brodersen, Gabriela D’Orazio ’26 MFS, and Lecturer Joseph Orefice
D’Orazio spent the summer working as a tree census associate with NYC Parks through the Berkley Conservation Scholars fund. In this position, she used the skills she built during her master’s degree and focused them on individual tree processes within a broader landscape. She is on her way to starting her PhD in bio-geotechnical engineering at the University of Southampton with a focus on how tree and plant root systems stabilize slopes and forested landscapes as climate change alters drought and rainfall patterns and severity.
Shivansh Chaturvedi ’26 MF/MEM, Toby Bokum-Fauth ’26 MF, and Louis Cimmino ’26 MF are working to conserve forest landscapes. Chaturvedi is the carbon project manager on the restoration fund at BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group. His work is focused on restoring degraded pastureland across Latin America, working alongside many alums. “I love the work — it’s a chance to build a better model for forestry, blending nature-based solutions and ecological restoration with commercial scalability,” says Chaturvedi.
Toby Bokum-Fauth ’26 MF
Bokum-Fauth is a conservation project manager for Green Diamond Company in Seattle, WA, where he is working to permanently conserve working forests through conservation easements that balance long-term forest stewardship with sustainable timber management.
Louis Cimmino ’26 MF
Cimmino spent the summer on the Hill, working as an intern for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources Democrats. His focus has been on federal forest management and wildfire mitigation policy and on advocating for legislators to promote science-informed, climate-adaptive conservation on public lands.
Cat De Lima Marcal ’26 MF
Cat De Lima Marcal ’26 MF and Christopher Gunderson ’26 MF have been celebrating the accomplishment of their degrees while looking for new opportunities. De Lima Marcal spent the summer traveling throughout the U.S. and visiting family. She is looking for opportunities in forestry, environmental sciences, and conservation in the U.K. Gunderson published his research “Understory plant responses to varying intervals of prescribed fire in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, USA” in Forest Ecology and Management. He is looking for opportunities in forest management and silviculture.
Forest Crew 2026
And for a classic summer experience, De-Graft Acquah ‘26 MF, Emelia Commey ‘26 MF, Asnakech Jabo ‘26 MF, Angelina Serwaa ‘26 MEM, and Marina McGonigle ‘26 MF joined Forest Crew at Yale-Myers Forest. The crew revisited the Turkey Hill Division, last marked and cut in 2019, where they marked a crown thinning and an irregular shelterwood. McGonigle is continuing on at Yale Forests as a research assistant.
Congratulations to the Class of 2026 and the indelible marks these foresters will surely make on forested landscapes throughout the world.
