Welcome New Global Change Center Faculty Affiliates in Spring 2023

Dr. Shannon Bell

Professor, Department of Sociology

Dr. Shannon Bell is an environmental sociologist whose research focuses on environmental and climate justice, the socio-ecological impacts of fossil fuel extraction on rural communities, just energy transitions, and the Appalachian forest commons. Dr. Bell is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Virginia Tech and a faculty affiliate of the Appalachian Studies Program, the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, the Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought (ASPECT), the Center for Coastal Studies, and the Climate Action Living Laboratory.

Dr. Jeremy Draghi

Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences

Jeremy Draghi is an Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech. He is an evolutionary biologist working primarily on developing and testing the body of theory we use to predict rapid adaptation. His work focuses on three main areas: the evolution of behavioral responses to signals, expansions and contractions of niche breadth in response to environmental change, and the potential of populations to persist via evolutionary rescue. 

Dr. Tina Dura

Assistant Professor, Department of Geosciences

Dr. Tina Dura leads the Coastal Hazards Lab at Virginia Tech (2019-present). Dura’s research program in coastal hazards employs subduction zone paleogeodesy, which combines the methods of coastal stratigraphy, sedimentology, micropaleontology, paleoseismology, geophysical and sediment transport modeling, and sea-level research to reconstruct long-term histories of coseismic vertical deformation and tsunami inundation along subduction zone coastlines. At Virginia Tech, Dura teaches undergraduate courses in Geologic Field Observations and Coastal Hazards, and at the graduate level Advanced Coastal Hazards.