Mary Bracho (BA, 2016)

Mary Bracho, a 2016 graduate of the Ecosystems and Human Impact track of Sustainability Studies, is now a Senior GIS Analyst at Blue Raster. She also received an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Geospatial Science (2018) from the Sustainability Studies Program.

During her undergraduate studies, Bracho was a Teaching Assistant for two semesters (SUS 201: Systems and Models) and participated in Dr. Pochron’s Sustainability Studies Earthworm Ecotoxicology Lab. During her advanced graduate program, Bracho was a research assistant on NASA-ROSES LCLUC research project “Climate and Socioeconomic Drivers of Land-Cover and Land-Use Change in Tropical Andean Alpine Wetlands” (Dr. Yager et al.). She led the GIS and in-field mapping to assess the physical condition, health, and extent of the wetlands within Sajama National Park, Oruro, Bolivia. Bracho has contributed to key publications from this research, including the development of wetland maps for a book published by The Nature Conservancy, ArcStory Map "Land Cover Change in Sajama National Park", and is a contributing author in recently published journal article “Socio-ecological dimensions of Andean pastoral landscape change: Bridging traditional ecological knowledge and satellite image analysis in Sajama National Park, Bolivia." in Regional Environmental Change.

Mary joined the 2024 Sustainability Studies Alumni Panel at Earthstock to talk about her career and the opportunities she had at Stony Brook University. You can view the complete video on YouTube.