Yale University

Class News

1964 Class Council meets with five students from YSE

February 19, 2022


Colleen Murphy Dunning

In recent years, the 1964 Class Council has met with Yale students from different backgrounds and/or special interest groups to understand current campus issues. This year the Council met with five students from the Yale School of the Environment, a panel arranged by Colleen Murphy Dunning, Program Director, Hixon Center for Urban Ecology and Urban Resources.

Here is the 51-minute video of the student panel, including Q&A with the Class Council. The biographies of the panelists are listed below the video.


  • Kate Meyer ’22 is a joint-degree student at Yale and designed her own specialization within YSE called “Leadership in Marine Ecosystem Management”. Kate is from Burlington, Vermont and worked as the director of an ocean research NGO in Honduras before coming back to school. She holds a previous master’s degree from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in marine biodiversity and conservation will graduate in May 2022 from Yale with an MEM degree from Yale School of the Environment and an MBA from Yale School of Management.


    • Kroon Hall
    Yale School of the Environment
  • Liana Smale is a first-year Master of Environmental Science student from Los Angeles, CA. She is working with Dr. Dorceta Taylor on research addressing environmental justice in urban green spaces and food systems.

  • Kyle Lemle (he/him) is a Masters in Forestry candidate at Yale School of Environment. Originally from the Bay Area, Kyle works to harness the power of forests to mitigate climate change, solve the biodiversity crisis and secure indigenous land tenure. He is a Wyss Scholar for Conservation in the American West, and a Kerry Fellow, serving Special Envoy on Climate Change John Kerry.

  • Nenha Young (she/her/hers) is originally from Englewood, NJ. She is a Master of Environmental Management candidate specializing in energy and the environment.

  • Kieren Rudge (they/them) is a Master of Environmental Science ’22 student researching climate change adaptation, participatory planning processes, and environmental justice. I grew up in Larchmont, NY and prior to coming to Yale I worked for the NYC Parks Department as a Park Ranger.

After the event, two of the YSE students expressed their appreciation for being invited:

  • Kyle Lemle: “Thanks so much Tony! It was fun. A wonderful intergenerational experience.”

  • Kate Meyer: “Thank you so much for the opportunity! It was a pleasure to be there. It would be lovely to see you or any of the Class Council in New Haven sometime this spring, let us know if the opportunity arises.”

Colleen Murphy-Dunning, who helped us recruit the panel, added: “I'm glad that the student panelists were engaging, and Tony Leiserowitz was super compelling.”