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CEREO Fellows

The Fellows Program

At its heart, CEREO is a grassroots organization that provides a platform for affiliates to meaningfully engage in scholarship that leverages interdisciplinary collaborations to address complex, socio-environmental challenges. The CEREO Fellow Program was created to support motivated individuals who are exploring and advancing this frontier to the betterment of our WSU community and researchers worldwide.

2024-2025 CEREO Fellow

Headshot of a woman
Dr. Sonia Hall was the 2024-2025 CEREO Fellow.

Our 2024-2025 CEREO Fellow is Dr. Sonia Hall. Sonia is the Agricultural Climate Resilience Specialist in the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources (CSANR) and has been working at the interface of science and decision-making to better inform natural resource management decisions at all levels. Sonia has worked in conservation science in rangelands, fire-prone forests and agricultural production systems in her native Argentina, Colorado and eastern Washington, where she specializes in bridging the interests and needs of researchers and managers to find tractable solutions to environmental challenges.  Sonia used this CEREO Fellowship experience to leverage her existing expertise to support CEREO’s role in promoting community-engaged scholarship. During her tenure as a CEREO Fellow, she:

  • Connected with CEREO-affiliated faculty and students interested in community-engaged scholarship to learn more about WSU-specific opportunities and challenges;
  • Helped advance the state of knowledge and practical application of community-engaged research (CER) at WSU; including mentoring students completing their Community Engaged Research Certificate program (is that it’s name?) in developing their community engagement plans, and in providing guidance on how to implement those plans.
  • Developed and elevated recommendations to CEREO Co-Directors and WSU leadership on how successes in fostering and supporting CER at WSU could be continued.
A series of pictures showing people attending a presentation, having a small group conversation, and sitting on a discussion panel.
The Engaged! workshop was held in March 2025 on the Pullman campus.

As part of this program, she led the Spring 2025 Engaged! A Conversation on Enabling Community Engaged Research at Washington State University that convened WSU faculty, staff, and graduate students to discuss challenges, opportunities, and University resources, initiatives, and programs that support community engaged research at WSU and develop recommendations for further institutionalizing and enhancing support for CER across WSU. This event attracted attendees representing 9 WSU departments spanning CAS, CAHNRS, and VCEA and 10 different centers or offices across the WSU system. 

A summary and report of this event outcomes can be found here.