Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Student Research Program
Field of Specialization:	Environmental Studies
Name:	Ms. Kelly Sky
Official Address:	University of Oregon, Oregon
Indian Host Institution:	Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bengaluru, Karnataka
Duration of Grant & Start Date :	Duration: 9 months August 2011

Brief Bio:

Ms. Kelly Sky is currently a Master's student in the Environmental Studies program at the University of Oregon. She has an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies with a focus in biology and plant ecology. She has worked in nature centers and natural history museums teaching environmental education curriculums to local school children and to adults. She also worked with the U.S. Forest Service doing goshawk, spotted owl and salamander surveys which resulted in the discovery of a new species, the Scott Bar Salamander. She recently published a paper in the "American Journal of Botany" about her research on the mycorrhizal fungal symbionts of oak and mountain mahogany trees. She also has worked with the Bureau of Land Management doing a large scale landscape ecology project on the biodiverse flora of the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument. She is passionate about hands-on environmental education, community-based restoration/conservation, and sustainable agriculture/local food. She also has interest in ethnobotany, sustainable forest resource use, and nature reserve design and management As a Fulbright-Nehru scholar, Ms. Sky will be working with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), an organization that works to balance the conservation of natural resources with livelihood needs in rural India. Her research is titled as "Women's Cooperatives and Sustainable Natural Resource Use in Rural India." With ATREE she will document the impacts of women's cooperatives that work to increase food security through saving seeds, home garden biodiversity, the sustainable use of non-timber forest products, and the cultivation of medicinal plants. She will also do an in-depth case study on a cooperative located in the Western Ghats as well as research the challenges and successes of women's cooperatives in rural India at a larger scale.