Our Team
Dr. Meghann Jarchow
Department of Sustainability & Environment
Chair and Associate Professor
Dr. Jarchow is interested in sustainability as a framework through which to make the world a better place. Her specific focus within the field of sustainability is on creating more multifunctional landscapes within the former tallgrass prairie region and in sustainability education. Her research takes an interdisciplinary approach to evaluating opportunities to enhancing the multifunctionality of this region.
LinkedIn | Research Gate | Curriculum Vitae
Contact Information
Office Location
Akeley-Lawrence Science Center 201E
414 E. Clark St.
Vermillion, SD 57069
Office Phone
(605) 677-6122
Amin Rastandeh
Postdoctoral Researcher
Amin Rastandeh, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Sustainability and Environment at the University of South Dakota. Amin received his PhD in Landscape Architecture from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has served as a researcher in projects specializing in urban and regional ecology, biodiversity conservation, land-use land-cover assessment, and ecosystem services analysis. In the WAFERx project, Amin examines the spatial distribution of social values (SVs) associated with landscapes of the Upper Missouri River Basin (UMRB). Applying spatially explicit models, he depicts how SVs linked to landscapes of the UMRB interact with anthropogenic and biophysical factors.
E-mail Amin.Rastandeh@usd.edu
Jacinda Maassen
PhD Student
Jacinda Maassen is a Sustainability Ph.D. student in the Department of Sustainability and Environment at the University of South Dakota. Jacinda received her masters’ degrees in Sustainable Development and Environmental Science from Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, respectively. For her Ph.D. research project, Jacinda is researching the regional food system of Sioux Falls, South Dakota specializing in dietary sustainability from a systems perspective.
E-mail Jacinda.Maassen@coyotes.usd.edu
Rina Thapa
Graduate Student
Rina Thapa, is a graduate student in the Department of Sustainability and Environment at the University of South Dakota. Rina received her undergraduate degree in Architecture from Kathmandu Engineering College of Katmandu, Nepal. Rina worked as an Architect for a year in Nepal. Currently, she is researching on projects specializing in biodiversity conservation for sustainability of town in Vermillion, South Dakota.
E-mail: Rina.Thapa@coyotes.usd.edu
Jade Muller-Smit
Undergraduate Student
Jade Muller-Smit is an undergraduate student who will soon graduate with a double major in Political Science and Biology specializing in Conservation and Biodiversity from USD. Her research involved a literary analysis of the environmental and health impacts of animal agriculture. Building upon this background and branching off of the WAFERx project, Jade started working on finding a way in which humans could drastically increase land availability in the Upper Missouri River region. Reducing meat and dairy consumption would drastically increase the availability of land for other uses. In order to determine if this is a possibility, Jade worked on creating a survey to analyze food consumption trends, willingness to consume alternative meat products, aspects of carnism, and understanding of the environmental and health impacts of animal agriculture.
E-mail: Jade.MullerSmit@coyotes.usd.edu
Lab Alumni
Alice Millikin
M.S. Completed 2014
Current PhD student at West Virginia University in the Wildlife and Fisheries Resources Program.
Abby Davis
M.S. Completed 2015
Elena Tsakakis
B.S. Biology (Sustainability Minor) Completed 2016
Honors Thesis
Emily Roberson
B.A. Sustainability and Anthropology Completed 2016
U. Discover Scholar & Honors Thesis
Shelby Huber
B.A. Media and Journalism (Entrepreneurial Studies Minor) Completed 2016
Sustainability Program Technology Fellow
Maggie Squyer
B.S. Biology and Sustainability (Political Science Minor) Completed 2018
U. Discover Scholar
Alexa Kruse
B.S. Biology and Sustainability Completed 2018
U. Discover Scholar & Honors Thesis
Erin Wetzstein
B.S. Sustainability (Biology and Chemistry Minors) Completed 2018
Undergraduate Research
Eva Soluk
M.S. Biology Completed 2018
B.S. Biology (Sustainability Minor)
Daniel Whirlwind Soldier
Sustainable RIVER REU May 2019
Lilly Sencenbaugh
May 2019
Undergraduate Research
Lindsay Wright
M.S. Sustainability Completed 2019
Morgan Carnes
M.S. Sustainability Completed 2019
B.S. Sustainability Completed 2015
Tanner Hall
B.S. Sustainability Completed 2019
Andy Sechrist
M.S. Sustainability Completed 2020