December 3, 2025 

Launched in Spring 2025, Notre Dame’s Just Transformations to Sustainability (JTS) Initiative is a university-wide effort to build a sustainable future where people and nature flourish together. In pursuit of this vision, the JTS Initiative is advancing a distinctive model of sustainability research and education grounded in the best available science and the principles of integral ecology and integral human development. By bringing together interdisciplinary scholars, dedicated students, and action partners from across sectors, we aim to create the knowledge, tools, and networks that can catalyze transformative change for a more just and sustainable world.

If you are interested in the work of the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative, contact Kevin Fink, JTS Managing Director, or visit the website for more information. 

The JTS Initiative's Sustainability in Action Fellowship Program aims to cultivate and support a growing network of Notre Dame students dedicated to building a more just and sustainable world both during their time at Notre Dame and through their future careers. To advance this goal, JTS invites applications from undergraduate students across all disciplines who plan to engage in sustainability-focused research, service, or a professional internship during Summer 2026. 

In addition to receiving financial support for their summer activities, Sustainability in Action Fellows will form a multidisciplinary community of sustainability-minded students who benefit from structured mentorship, networking, and peer-to-peer learning. In Fall 2026, the JTS Initiative’s inaugural Sustainability in Action Fall Symposium will provide a platform for Fellows to showcase their summer work to the Notre Dame community and build connections with students, faculty, and alumni.

Applications are encouraged from undergraduates from all majors, colleges, and schools.

Interested applicants should submit this online application by Tuesday, March 17, 2026.

2026 Spring Semester Internships

The Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative is seeking driven, detail-oriented students passionate about translating sustainability research and education into transformative global action.

Student interns will join a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-paced team to help coordinate campus activities and grow key programs. Student intern responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Supporting campus events
• Supporting workshops and convenings 
• Building organizational systems and resources
• Identifying, organizing, and synthesizing information on emerging priority topics 

Interested applicants should submit this online application. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis starting on January 5, 2026 and will continue until the positions are filled.

Please direct all student opportunity inquiries to Brian Wanbaugh at bwanbaug@nd.edu.

The Notre Dame Seminars on Sustainability Series is a signature lecture series organized by the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative that brings global sustainability leaders and world-class scholars to campus for knowledge sharing and engagement with the Notre Dame community. Here is a look at the final speaker for the Fall 2025 semester.

Stay tuned for the announcement in January of the exciting lineup of Spring semester speakers!

December 12th, 2025

11:00am to 12:00pm

215 DeBartolo Hall

Professor Elizabeth Borer, a Regents Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota, will discuss how human activities that alter climate, nutrient cycles, and biodiversity are threatening Earth’s grassland ecosystems on which 1-1.5 billion people directly rely. She will also link regional environmental impacts on grasslands to a sustainable future, using Nutrient Network (NutNet) results to analyze how climate, herbivores, and nutrients control grassland biodiversity and function.

As part of a larger international effort, the JTS Initiative is partnering with the University of Michigan's Institute for Global Change Biology (IGCB) to support interdisciplinary teams focused on synthesizing knowledge linking the biodiversity and climate change crises. Two teams, each with a faculty lead from the University of Notre Dame, received funding this fall to launch this important work.

Status, Impacts, and Potential of Community Conservation in Land and Marine Systems

Principal Investigators: Daniel Miller (University of Notre Dame), Pamela Jagger (University of Michigan), and Johan Oldekop (University of Manchester)

Indigenous Peoples and other land-connected communities are critical to conserving land and marine systems worldwide. Yet comprehensive global analysis of the extent of community conservation, how it varies, and its impact on biodiversity, climate, and human development remains lacking. As a result, communities, policymakers, and practitioners alike are hampered in their efforts to achieve these sustainability goals in an era of rapid change. 

This project marshals the expertise and experience of a diverse interdisciplinary team, including researchers with natural and social science expertise as well as practitioners representing community and conservation organizations, to address these knowledge gaps.

Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Environmental Justice: A Synthesis of Ecological and Socioeconomic Risks

Principal Investigators: Jason Rohr (University of Notre Dame) & Thiago Gonçalves-Souza (University of Michigan)

Climate change is transforming the natural world in ways that ripple across societies. Rising temperatures are reshaping where species live, how they interact, and how ecosystems function. These shifts can fuel biodiversity loss, spread invasive species, and increase risks from crop pests and disease, all of which disproportionately affect vulnerable communities.This project brings together an international team of scientists from ecology, climate science, public health, and social science to better forecast these risks. Using one of the most comprehensive global datasets on how species respond to temperature, the team will develop models that help predict which species are most vulnerable, which invaders may spread, and where disease threats may intensify. Importantly, the research integrates ecological data with socioeconomic information to identify not just biological risks, but also who is most likely to bear them. 

To learn more about the working groups, visit the JTS website.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Community Conservation Global Synthesis

The University of Notre Dame and the University of Michigan are partnering to invite applications for an outstanding Postdoctoral Research Fellow with deep expertise in quantitative analyses of socio-ecological systems. Areas of expertise could include geospatial analysis, integration and causal analysis of environmental and social data, and/or evidence syntheses and meta-analyses. 

Sophia Rockwell

Sophia Rockwell joined the JTS Initiative in September as a Research Associate. In this role, she leads various components of the Initiative’s curriculum innovation efforts and helps coordinate the Initiative’s research portfolio. She graduated from Notre Dame in 2025 with a B.S. in Environmental Science and Global Affairs. 

Brian Wanbaugh

Brian Wanbaugh joined the JTS Initiative in September as a Program Associate. In this role, he oversees event management and student engagement. He also supports the Initiative with internal and external communications, amongst other administrative and operational duties. Brian is also the Program Manager for the Forests and Livelihoods: Assessment, Research and Engagement (FLARE) Network. Brian holds a Master of Environmental Sustainability from Indiana University, Bloomington and is the 2025 South Bend Metro C-flight Golf Tournament Champion.

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Just Transformation to Sustainability Initiative

jts@nd.edu | Notre Dame, IN 46556