Sustainability Career Panel
Date: Wednesday, March 26th from 5 pm - 6:30 pm
Location: University Career Center - Resource Room (Located in Hornbake Library South)
*Open to students and alumni*
Join us for an engaging panel featuring UMD alumni working across diverse sustainability and environmental fields. Gain valuable insights into their career journeys, backgrounds, and current roles in areas such as policy, environmental planning, science, and consulting. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from their experiences and explore potential career paths!
The panel will feature four UMD Alumni including Harry Huntley who is the Agriculture Policy Lead at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center, Dr. Samara Nehemiah who is an Stock Assessment Scientist at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, Sushanth Gupta who is an Environmental Planner at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, and Omid Barr who is a Community Engagement Specialist at MDB, Inc., a public health and environmental consulting firm.
Light food and refreshments will be provided. This panel is brought to you by the Office of Sustainability, the University Career Center, and the Alumni Association.
Register for the event on Handshake using the button below.
Panelist Biographies
Harry Huntley is the Agriculture Policy Lead at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center where he develops easier, cheaper, faster ways for governments to pay farmers who improve natural resources. He holds degrees in economics and horticulture from the University of Maryland, College Park and has worked for a variety of environmental and agricultural organizations at the local and national level. In addition, Harry represents downtown Annapolis on the City Council, where he chairs the Finance Committee, overseeing a $250 million budget.
Dr. Samara Nehemiah is a Stock Assessment Scientist at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) in Arlington, VA. Prior to ASMFC, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the University of Alaska Fairbanks & the NOAA-Alaska Fisheries Science Center, researching new approaches to modeling larval dynamics for Alaska Sablefish. She earned her Ph.D. in Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Science from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in December 2024 where she developed new statistical methods to estimate the abundance of Chesapeake Bay fishes. She also holds an M.S. in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences from the University of Florida and a B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of Maryland. Samara has experience as a Park Ranger for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and as a Research Assistant with the Florida Program for Shark Research.
Sushanth Gupta is an Environmental Planner for the Department of Environmental Programs at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG). Sushanth previously worked for the Chesapeake Research Consortium where he provided staff support to the Chesapeake Bay Program's Water Quality Goal Implementation Team, and before that he was a Chesapeake Conservation Corps member with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Sushanth is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park where he studied Agricultural and Resource Economics, and of Virginia Tech where he recently completed a Masters in Natural Resources. Sushanth enjoys reading, volunteering, spending time outdoors, and hosting, when he isn't at work.
Omid Barr, MPH, is a community engagement specialist at MDB, Inc., a public health and environmental consulting firm based in Washington D.C.. Omid’s work includes applied research on water and wastewater infrastructure, facilitating stakeholder engagement, and coordinating projects for federal, state and local governments. He primarily works with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to provide technical assistance to vulnerable communities seeking to improve their environmental health and financial resilience. Omid believes that access to clean and affordable water, wastewater, and stormwater services is essential, and he enjoys assisting communities in increasing their capacity to provide those services to their customers. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Public Health Science in 2018, then went on to complete a Master’s in Public Health, specializing in Environmental Health Solutions at the University of North Carolina.