Nicole Chochrek holds an MFA from the University at Buffalo and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Environmental Science from the University of North Texas. As an interdisciplinary artist, she has exhibited nationally and internationally, from Al Shaheed Park in Kuwait (2016) to El Museo Gallery in Buffalo, New York (2022). She created Broken Plastics, an arts and education initiative that has launched Microplastic Recycling Art Bins across New York state and beyond. Photo by Pat Cray.

Heather Davis is associate professor of Culture and Media at Eugene Lang College, The New School. As an interdisciplinary scholar working in environmental humanities, media studies, and visual culture, she is interested in how fossil fuels have shaped contemporary culture. Her most recent book, Plastic Matter (Duke University Press, 2022), explores the transformation of geology, media, and bodies in light of plastic’s saturation. Davis is an active member of the Synthetic Collective, an interdisciplinary team of scientists, humanities scholars, and artists, who investigate and make visible plastic pollution in the Great Lakes.

Ileya Du Boulay served as the 2025 Water Justice Lab youth mentor. A 2025 graduate of RPI with a Bachelors of Science in Biology and Arts Minor in Video, Performance, and Social Practice, Ileya is a passionate researcher, ecologist, artist, and multidisciplinary creator. She centers her work in using healing as a modality within scientific discovery. They are a proponent in advancing scientific discovery while maintaining awareness of developing alternative methods that slow down or stop our planet’s degradation. 

Alexis Goldsmith is the National Organizing Director for Beyond Plastics, a nonprofit focused on ending plastic pollution. An energetic grassroots organizer, she previously worked at the Sanctuary, coordinating the permaculture campus and the Hudson Mohawk Magazine radio program. She has produced hundreds of interviews, largely on petrochemicals and environmental activism. She co-founded the Hudson Mohawk Environmental Action Network, a grassroots consortium fighting for environmental justice and Indigenous rights along the Hudson River. 

Dr. Sarah Cadieux is an Earth and Environmental Sciences professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding biogeochemical cycling within freshwater systems by combining limnology, aquatic chemistry, isotope biogeochemistry, sedimentology and geomicrobiology. She is researching microplastics contamination in local surface water and drinking water, including through her Microplastics Watch project at NATURE Lab.