Farewell to Co-Director Jan Boll, welcome new Co-Director Sasha McLarty!

CEREO Affiliates are encouraged to join me in thanking Dr. Jan Boll for his six years of directing the activities and vision of our Center and in welcoming Dr. Sasha McLarty to CEREO leadership!

CEREO Co-Directors Boll and Padowski in Ecuador as part of a project aimed at building an international research network to understand climate change impacts to headwater dependent systems (2024).

Jan Boll has played an integral role in helping CEREO flourish these past years. For those of you who have had the privilege to work as closely with Jan as we have, you know that he brings boundless energy, deep insights, and tireless commitment to all his work. Therefore, it’s no surprise that Jan’s enthusiasm for interdisciplinary science and ability to understand and articulate complex environmental issues has played a large part in the Center’s success. During his tenure, CEREO has proudly supported research proposals that have brought together faculty and staff from VCEA, CAHNRS, CAS, Native American Programs, and International Programs and have led to more than $12M in federal funding awarded to WSU. These CEREO supported grants cover everything from local issues to building international scientific networks, and are now advancing our understanding across topics related to regenerative agriculture, wildfire impacts, water management, and forest and wildlife resilience in the face of climate change.

Jan’s other major contribution to CEREO over the years is tied to his passion for community engaged scholarship. His commitment to sharing science beyond academia has helped our WSU researchers build and grow strong relationships with tribal, agricultural, and municipal communities who are interested in working with WSU to address challenging environmental issues. Through his leadership, CEREO was awarded a prestigious NSF Research Traineeship grant (https://nrt-rwc.wsu.edu/) that offers a unique, community-engaged scholarship model for guiding graduate students, faculty mentors, and community partners in tackling water quality issues around the Columbia River Basin, and a graduate certificate program to open to all WSU students interested in doing community-engaged research. The program currently supports 18 graduate students across two campuses and seven departments.

Boll stepped down from the Co-Director position in August 2024 and is enjoying a well-earned sabbatical. However, as you can probably surmise, we have most thoroughly enjoyed working with Jan these past years and aspire to maintain the level of enthusiasm and commitment he has brought to the Center well into the future!

While we will certainly miss Jan’s direct involvement in CEREO leadership, we are now most pleased to welcome Dr. Sasha McLarty to CEREO as the new Co-Director. Sasha is faculty in Civil and Environmental Engineering and brings a wealth of interdisciplinary research and science communication expertise to CEREO. Since joining WSU, she has helped lead multiple large, environmental research efforts and looks forward to supporting and facilitating applied research with CEREO. If you have not yet had the chance to get to know Sasha, you can learn more about her on our website (https://cereo.wsu.edu/director-bios/) or meet her during any of our exciting events and activities we have planned for this semester.