Maddie Rhodes

Undergraduate Fellow, Plant Disease Team

Maddie Rhodes is a naturally curious environmental biologist, but they are also eager to make a positive impact on the world through their work.  

“I want to study biology. I love it and it is fascinating. But I want to do something that directly helps people. I have found it hard to work social justice topics into my biological research, not that it can't be done. But the biological research that I find myself most interested in is more solely environmentally-focused. And while there are things that you can do with it to help people, it seems that a lot of the time the research is focused on building a knowledge base. It is not quite as direct, and it does not always feel like you are helping the environment or people with this paper you publish.  

I try to balance that by doing environmental justice advocacy outside of my lab work and educating myself through my course curriculum. I really try to look for all the ways that people can be considered in the research that I do and on a broader scale, and I think the best way I’ve found to do this is to get people engaged with the environment. That is part of the reason why I like our lab so much. We have so many city sites which makes it easier to engage with the public and get them involved in learning about the research that is happening in their communities! Urban ecology is fascinating and can be used to make people more connected to their surroundings.”