Sustainability Faculty Fellowships
The Sustainability Faculty Fellows support us with academics and research programs including the mentorship and leadership of sustainability faculty and student programs.
Dr. Teresa Paty Feria
Professor of Biology and Associate Dean for Faculty Success, Diversity and Inclusion
A native of Mexico City, Dr. Feria joined the UTRGV (former UTPA) Biology Department as an Assistant Professor in 2008. She earned both her B.S. in Biology with honors (1997) and an M.S. in Animal Biology (2001) from The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She then went on to complete a doctoral degree in Biology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (2007) and subsequently finished two post-doctoral appointments (Missouri Botanical Garden-Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development and UNAM, Mexico) before coming to UTPA. Dr. Feria´s research focuses on understanding present and future (under climate change scenarios) distribution of living organisms using Geographical Information System (GIS) technologies and Species Distribution Models. Her lines of research are related to endangered, invasive, and vector borne disease species.
Dr. Marla Perez Lugo
Professor, Department of Sociology
Dr. Marla Perez-Lugo joined UTRGV as a professor in Environmental Sociology in 2021 after teaching at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez and working through the reconstruction post-hurricane Maria. She received her Ph.D. in environmental sociology, with a special focus on vulnerability to natural hazards and risk/disaster communications, from Rutgers, and has over twenty years of experience in applied research and practice in the areas of energy transitions, environmental justice, stakeholder engagement and vulnerability to natural hazards. In 2015, in collaboration with Dr. Cecilio Ortiz Garcia and Dr. Lionel Orama Exclusa, she co-founded the National Institute for Energy and Island Sustainability, a collaborative platform that identifies and interconnects the resources of the UPR in energy and resilience and insert those resources in the local energy policy arena and in community-based sustainable energy projects. Additionally, she co-developed RISE-PR, Resilience through Innovation in Sustainable Energy for Puerto Rico, an inter-university collaborative platform with colleagues at Arizona State University and the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Maysam Pournik
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Maysam Pournik is an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Previously he was an assistant professor at OU in the Petroleum Engineering department. He holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering with Petroleum Engineering MS and Ph.D. degrees from UT Austin and Texas A&M University, respectively. He has 13 peer-reviewed journal publications and 20 conference proceedings papers. His area of research is related to reactive flow in porous media and fractures in addition to fluid development. He recently filed an invention disclosure on a nanoparticle-based gel system that generates a viscous solution based on the change in pH, which is being developed for a field trial in order to divert acid from high permeability zones to lower permeability areas.
Dr. Sergio Garcia
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Finance
Dr. Sergio Garcia is a lecturer in the Department of Information Systems. He holds a MBA and PhD in Business Administration from UTPA. He is a long time Texan and father of two young boys. Dr. Garcia left Texas following 9 / 11 to serve at the U.S. Dept. of State and returned to pursue academic and community interests in the Rio Grande Valley. Dr. Garcia's areas of academic expertise include investments, International Finance, Real Estate, Bubble Detection, Recursive Models, and International Equity Markets. He is also interested in local nonprofit groups.
Dr. Jongmin Kim
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering
Dr. Jongmin Kim contributes greatly to incorporating sustainability approaches into UTRGV´s civil engineering major. His areas of expertise include wastewater treatment, solid waste management, environmental biotechnology, and environmental análisis. He received his B.S at Yonsei University in South Korea, and both his M.S and PhD. in Environmental Engineering at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. In addition to being a professor, he has experience working with engineering companies, including a wáter technology company championing innovation for deriving solutions. His latest research explores the electromagnetic process to remove hardness from the extremely hard water of the Lower Rio Grande Valley to address the need for high-quality and safe water in the área.
Dr. Sylvia Robles
Assistant Professor of Practice
Dr. Sylvia Robles is a visionary entrepreneur, educator, researcher, and advocate of Humane-Innovation-Sustainable-based Entrepreneurship and Community Engagement by empowering her students and RGV entrepreneurs through her Adopt a Startup at UTRGV Program to develop sustainable businesses. Dr. Robles has experience working with engineering students as an Instructor and Mentor for I-Corps teams. She was the 2021-2022 sustainability faculty excellency awardee.
Dr. Amy Hay
Associate Professor, Department of History
Dr. Hay teaches about public health, disasters, and American environmental history. She also leads faculty development workshops designed to integrate sustainability principles across the curriculum and oversees the Environmental Studies Program which holds an annual symposium; publishes an online journal, Eco Rio; and includes the minor degree program. She was the 2017-2018 sustainability faculty excellency awardee.
Dr. Christopher Gabler
Associate Professor, School of Earth, Environment, and Marine Sciences
Dr. Gabler serves as program director for the Bachelor of Science major in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Past research projects that provide students with sustainability learning experiences include growing 100,000 seedlings native to Tamaulipan thornscrub, which will be planted in the fall in areas like La Sal Del Rey National Wildlife Refuge in central Hidalgo County, and building a series of structures that will alter the environment in small areas to test physical and biological reactions to changes in rainfall to get a look at what could happen to plant life along the Gulf Coast 20-40 years from now. He was the 2019-2020 sustainability faculty excellency awardee.
