Our team

The Human-Environment Systems, Interactions, Impacts, and Intelligence (HESI) Lab is made up of PhD, Master’s, and undergraduate students interested in working on complex socio-environmental issues. Our research focuses on applying spatial modeling, simulation, and scenario analysis to investigate how land use practices, governance structures, and environmental change influence water quality and social-ecological resilience, with the goal of supporting adaptive management strategies. While we specialize in quantitative approaches, we also recognize the pressing socio-environmental issues of our time cannot be fully addressed by a single methodology or even discipline. Accordingly, our work employs a range of methods to answer policy-relevant research questions.

Current students

Sinthia Silvi is a PhD student in Geography at Kent State University. Her research uses GeoAI, remote sensing, geostatistics, and machine learning to study environmental and hazard-related problems. Her current work focuses on detecting animal feeding operations (AFOs) in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and understanding manure-related risks to water quality. Before joining Kent State, Sinthia earned her MS in Geography from Ohio University, where she worked on spatial modeling of PM2.5. She holds a BSc in Geography and Environment from Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh, where her undergraduate research used remote sensing to study drought.

Domenica Robles is a master's student in the Department of Geography at Kent State University. Her research is part of the HABRI-funded project Aligning People, Policy, and Water: Social-Ecological Dimensions of Wetland Restoration in the Great Black Swamp Region, where she is conducting interviews and focus groups with farmers, SWCD staff, and conservation organizations across the Western Lake Erie Basin. Trained as an agronomist, Domenica previously worked hands-on with agricultural producers in Costa Rica, an experience that moved her interest from the technical side of conservation toward the social processes that determine whether it happens at all.

Anna Penkalski is a master’s student in the Department of Geography at Kent State University and a researcher in the HESI Lab. Her research contributes to the HABRI-funded project on the social-ecological dimensions of wetland restoration in Ohio’s Western Lake Erie Basin. She is interested in water resources and the relationships between human communities and natural systems, integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches to examine these interactions. Anna earned her B.A. degrees in Geography and Environmental Studies, with a minor in Biology for Environmental Conservation and Management from Kent State University.