Caroline Gottschalk Druschke, M.A., M.S., Ph.D.
Professor, Department of English
University of Wisconsin-Madison
cdruschke@wisc.edu | Google Scholar here.
Dr. Gottschalk Druschke uses her training in rhetoric to consider the logics and practices of freshwater management. Gottschalk Druschke has presented internationally on her work, published widely across rhetorical studies and environmental sciences, and received fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, US Environmental Protection Agency, and AAUW and funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Park Service. Her interdisciplinary work began with a B.A. in Social Work at the University of Iowa (1999), and a concentration in Gender and Women’s Studies and a fellowship in the NSF-IGERT program in Landscape, Ecological and Anthropogenic Processes at the University of Illinois at Chicago (2011), and continued with a M.S. in stream ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2021).

Liz Kozik, M.F.A.  Twitter | Web
Ph.D. Candidate, Environment & Resources, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Liz Anna Kozik is a Ph.D. student in Environment & Resources at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. She utilizes comics to tell stories of the Midwestern tallgrass prairie through its ecology, history, and ecological restoration. Her work ties a background in the arts (BFA Rhode Island School of Design 2011, MFA UW-Madison 2017) to academic research in the science, history, and culture of prairie restoration. She currently operates The Image Lab at the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery, focusing on environmental education, science communication, and arts-as-research.

Sydney Widell
M.S. Student, Freshwater and Marine Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Sydney Widell is a masters student studying the interactions of stream restoration and flooding. She is helping the Headwaters Lab understand perspectives on stream restoration in the Driftless Area, and is also gathering oral histories from its residents about their experiences with flooding. She hopes the insights contained in these stories could help inform climate resilience decisions in the Driftless, and in communities beyond it too. Sydney is also enthusiastic about science communication, environmental journalism, and beautiful maps. Her favorite body of water is Lake Michigan.

Paige Stork, E.I.T., B.S.
M.S. Student, Freshwater and Marine Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Paige Stork is a master’s student studying the hydrologic and hydraulic dynamics of flooding and flood resilience in the Driftless Area. She is working to refine and adapt a set of complex models to be used to efficiently answer questions of mitigation that informs land use decisions at the stream and watershed level. Paige plans to work at the intersection of water resources engineering, policy, and management. 

Ben Sellers
M.S. Student, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and Agroecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ben Sellers is longtime researcher and incoming M.S. students with the Headwaters Lab. His interests in ecology and remote sensing are driven by the stories aerial perspectives can tell about a landscape. His focuses are on environmental spectroscopy and stream monitoring. Ben is fascinated by the spatial relationships at play in rural areas, and his goal is to help land managers better understand their water and woods through aerial perspectives and cartography. Ben has a Bachelors of Science in Forest Science from UW-Madison. His favorite fish are sturgeon.

Nina Delgadillo
Undergraduate Student, University of Wisconsin-Madison 
Nina Delgadillo is an undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor’s of science in environmental science and conservation biology with a certificate in sustainability. Her passion for freshwater developed from growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This proximity to Lake Michigan is where she developed a fascination for all its ecosystem processes and the extensive part it plays in people’s lives. She is interested in understanding the interconnectedness between people, land and water and the role that history plays in these relationships. Nina is also fascinated by the role sustainability plays in the environment and our interactions with others and is able to pursue this through her internship with the UW-Madison Office of Sustainability.

Lab alums

Amanda Rose Pratt / Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric (2023). University of Wisconsin-Madison / Dissertation: From Changing the World to Rhetorical Worldbuilding: Toward a Constitutive Theory of Transformative Psychedelic Rhetoric

Kassia Krzus Shaw / Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric (2023). University of Wisconsin-Madison / Dissertation: Ecological Restoration as Rhetorical Practice: Stories Landscapes & Multispecies Relations at the Former Badger Army Ammunition Plant

Jon Isaac / Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric (2022), University of Wisconsin-Madison / Dissertation: “The University Works Because We Do”: University Decision-Making and Rhetorics of Graduate Labor / Current: Communications Content Coordinator, SEIU Healthcare

Emma Lundberg / Ph.D. in Environment & Resources (2021), University of Wisconsin-Madison / Dissertation: Managing Freshwater Resources: A Critical, Interdisciplinary Reimagining / Current: Fish Biologist, United States Fish and Wildlife Service

John Koban / Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric (2021), University of Wisconsin-Madison / Dissertation: Productive Dissensus: Toward a New Theory of Deliberative Rhetoric for Political Change / Current: Operations and Policy, United States Forest Service

Kevin Jones / Undergraduate researcher / University of Wisconsin-Madison 2019 / Current: Trout Stream Intern, Utah Division of Wildlife

Jamie Remillard / Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition (2017), University of Rhode Island / Research Assistant, National Park Service / Dissertation: Teaching Writing with Play: A Study of Community-Based Science Education in a National Park / Current: Assistant Professor, Worcester State University

David Weinberg / Undergraduate Research Scholar / University of Wisconsin-Madison (2019) / Current: Public Relations at ICF Next

Jon C. Vander Werff / Master of Environmental Science Management (2018), University of Rhode Island / Research Assistant, The Future of Dams / Current: Fisheries Biologist, Save the Sound-Connecticut Fund for the Environment

Valerie Preler / Master of Environmental Science and Management (2018), University of Rhode Island / Research Assistant, The Future of Dams / Current: Program Director, Block Island Maritime Institute

Jenna Morton-Aiken / Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition (2017), University of Rhode Island / Research Assistant, SciWrite@URI / Metadata and Relational Architecture: Advancing Arrangement, Agency, and Access with New Methodology / Current: Senior Associate Director for Writing and English Language Support, The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, Brown University

Paul McDivitt / Research Assistant, National Park Service / Current: Communication Specialist, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, University of Minnesota

Kristen Hychka / Research Associate, National Park Service / Current: Postdoctoral Associate, New York State Water Resources Institute

Francesca Soluri / Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, NSF-EPSCoR (2016), University of Rhode Island

Hannah Dallas / Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, NSF-EPSCoR (2016), University of Rhode Island

Sara Randall / Research Assistant, The Future of Dams (2016)

Megan Skrip / Graduate Research Assistant, National Park Service (2015-2016) / Ph.D. 2016, Ecology and Ecosystem Sciences specialization / Current: Science Communicator, Center for Geospatial Analytics, NC State University

Alison Fisher / Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, NSF-EPSCoR (2015-2016), University of Rhode Island

Jay Peters / Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition (2015), University of Rhode Island / Current: Associate Professor, Department of English, Cal Poly

John Lee / Research Associate, National Park Service (2014-2015)

Lena Weiss / M.A. in Marine Affairs, Research Associate (2015)

Dylan Hogan / Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, NSF-EPSCoR (2015)