DURHAM, N.C. – Six Nicholas School students have been named Doris Duke Conservation Fellows for 2007-08. 

The fellowships are awarded to graduate students who show outstanding promise as future leaders in nonprofit or government conservation in the United States.

Created in 1996 by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, based in New York City, the fellowship program seeks to improve the quality of people’s lives by preserving natural environments, nurturing the arts, seeking cures for disease and helping to protect children from abuse and neglect.  The fellowship program is now administered by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

To date, Doris Duke Conservation Fellowships have been awarded to approximately 70 Nicholas School students who are pursuing Master of Environmental Management or Master of Forestry 91ÉçÇø¸£Àûs. Selected by the school, fellows receive up to $32,000 to support tuition, a public-sector conservation internship and career development activities.

In addition, mini-grants of up to $2,500 per campus are available to foster educational activities such as skills training or lecture series featuring conservation practitioners. These activities are initiated and directed by the Doris Duke Conservation Fellows but need not be for their exclusive benefit; other students can benefit as well.

The 2007-08 Doris Duke Conservation Fellows, along with their program of study at the Nicholas School and their internship organization, are:

Amanda Gillingham of Salinas, Calif.; conservation science and policy; California State Department of Parks and Recreation;

Amanda Hartford of Rochester, Minn.; ecosystem science and management; U.S. Forest Service, Green Mountain National Forest, Vermont;

Elia Herman of Honolulu, Hawaii; coastal environmental management; Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, Virginia Beach, Va.;

Daniella Hirschfeld of New York City; global environmental change; Group on Earth Observation, Geneva, Switzerland;

Jesse Emerson Leddick of Greenwich, Conn.; conservation science and policy, and forest resource management; 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû Landscape Ecology Laboratory in collaboration with North Carolina State University, the N.C. Natural Heritage Program and the State of North Carolina;

Kate Taylor of Ipswich, Mass; conservation science and policy; Environmental Defense, Raleigh, N.C.