Graduate Programs in Environmental Sciences

We are pleased to highlight the 2025 graduates from the MS in ENVS program.

Yaneth Vazquez Jacinto is a Master’s student and researcher at Emory University’s Environmental Science Department. Her research consists of replicating a ten-year study examining tree community and structure in the cloud forests of Ecuador. This work will allow to examine how cloud forests change over time, crucial for informing conservation efforts. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Biology at Clayton State University, where she conducted an independent study of inventorying the flora of Reynold’s Nature Preserve. Her passion for botany and ecology grew even further working with the Atlanta Botanical Garden where she helped to create a genetic library of the Conservation and Research Department’s Sarracenia collection. Her duties consisted of collecting tissue, pollen, seed, and specimen samples of all Sarracenia individuals. She also performed DNA isolation and seed viability procedures.

As part of Yaneth's Master’s thesis, she is leading groundbreaking research in the Siempre Verde Preserve, which is nestled in the foothills of Ecuador's Cotacachi volcano. This preserve, started by the local Ruiz Family and The Lovett School of Atlanta in 1990, is home to stunning montane cloud forests!

This research is a continuation of a study conducted in 2014 aimed at understanding how elevation and time have shaped the trees in this cloud forest. The fieldwork involved measuring trees in harsh weather conditions, but it will provide crucial insights into the fight to protect cloud forests from the effects of climate change.

Yaneth is grateful for the support of an incredible field team- Dr. Emily Coffey, Dr. Sylvia Seger, Joe Stockert, and Kelly Coles, with support from students and staff from The Lovett School- who worked together to tag, identify, and measure trees, as well as support and the kind hospitality of the Ruiz Family. Specimens are being analyzed at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE) by local expert Dr. Álvaro Javier Pérez Castañeda. This research will help bring us closer to demystifying cloud forests and protecting our planet’s future.