PLAN Alumni Community

The PLAN Alumni Community, or PLumni, is a space for folks who have been involved with PLAN at any level, as a student or recent grad, to support and connect with each other. There are nearly 200 members already (as of Spring 2020) on the list!

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Meet the Leadership Council

Jessica Hanson

Chair | she/her Jessica studied Environmental Science and Chemistry at Valparaiso University, although a semester abroad in Australia really sparked her passion for plastic pollution and its impact on the environment. During her time at Valpo, she was the first student intern of her University’s sustainability department and worked to promote better recycling by organizing a recycling competition between residence halls. Jessica currently works with the Brown County Resource Recovery department in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where she helps to operate a public drop-off for hazardous waste and residential recycling. In addition to her passion for the environment, Jessica loves family card fames, ballroom dancing, playing sports like tennis or golf, and going bird-watching.

Rachael Hood

She/They Rachael is a Masters of Geography student at West Virginia University. She is a research assistant documenting the economic, social, and environmental consequences of pipelines and fracking in the Ohio River Valley. She is also pursuing a graduate certificate in Geographic Information Systems and hopes to work in energy policy and transformative justice work post-graduation. Rachael graduated from Oberlin College in 2020 with a Bachelors of Arts in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Environmental Justice. While working on her undergraduate degree she did fieldwork documenting farmers’ experiences of climate change in the Zanzibar archipelago. Feel free to email her at rlh00023@mix.wvu.edu

Vanessa Meng

She/Her Vanessa is a philosophy major and has worked with the issue of waste for the last 8 years. She grew up in Hong Kong and Beijing and witnessed massive urban development and how modern waste affects ways of life. She started a waste education program in rural China Lijiang in 2012. At Swarthmore she launched the Zero Waste mission for the college as a President’s Sustainability Research Fellow in 2016. She started her own student group Sync Up for Zero Waste last year and now hosts parties and does projects that promote Zero Waste values that her group created. This includes: clothes swaps, starting a butterfly garden, getting rid of styrofoam, making a petition against plastic etc. She was an intern with PLAN two years ago and believes EVERY issue is connected to waste, wasting and the wasted.

Emily Moore

She/Her Emily is an Experience Strategist at Booz Allen Hamilton in Washington, D.C,. She works at the nexus of design, research, technology, and strategy to bridge the gap between the customers who will use a product/service and those who are designing them. She leverages human-centered design methods and works closely with clients and interdisciplinary teams to provide empathetic, innovative, efficient, and user-centric solutions to complex government and private sector challenges. Emily graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2016 and holds a Masters degree from both American University and the University for Peace. While working on her graduate degrees in International Affairs and Sustainable Development she lived abroad in Costa Rica for a year. Feel free to message her on LinkedIn.

Alex Gordon

She/Her Alex is a current Sophomore at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg Florida studying Political Science and Environmental Studies. She is most passionate about grassroots organizing around environmental justice! Right now she is safe with her family in Houston, Texas. In her free time, she loves to read dystopian novels, walk her dog, and spend time at any beach.