People

Alisha Szozda (she/her) completed the concurrent education program at Queen’s University obtained a HBSc in Chemistry in 2018 and BEd in 2019. Due to her passion for education and research, she completed a PhD in chemistry specializing in chemistry education research at the University of Ottawa with Dr. Alison Flynn. Her research focused on investigating systems thinking in chemistry education: educators’ and students’ perspectives and experiences and was funded through a SSHRC Canadian Doctoral Scholarship. During this time, Alisha joined the IUPAC Systems Thinking in Chemistry for Sustainability: Toward 2030 and beyond project where she has co-created open educational resources on a website for people to learn about systems thinking and how to implement it in chemistry education. She passionate about teaching and currently embeds green chemistry and suitability principles and systems thinking into a Chemistry for Engineers course at Carleton University. As of March 2025, she has started a new Postdoctoral Fellowship role at Carleton focusing on EDI transformation in STEM and has joined Beyond Benign as the Chief Moderator for the GCTLC! She will bring her strong passion for green chemistry education and abilities to lead and develop community engagement and activities within educational communities to this role at Beyond Benign. Alisha currently lives in Ottawa, Ontario, where outside of work they enjoy hot yoga and fitness classes, long dog walks, kayaking Georgian Bay, skiing the Gatineau Hills, and exploring different places to eat!

Feel free to reach out and chat with Alisha!

Dr. Sarah Kennedy earned her B.S. in Chemistry in 2002 at Westminster College, PA, and her PhD in Chemistry in 2009 from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research areas include biomolecular structure, green chemistry pedagogy, chemical education, and inclusive pedagogy. As an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Radford University, Dr. Kennedy teaches biochemistry, general chemistry, and green chemistry. Additionally, she manages the university-wide RISE (Realizing Inclusive Student Excellence) program that focuses on faculty professional development as well as building academic belonging for students. Dr. Kennedy also works as a consultant with the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute, specifically with their green chemistry module development project.

Esther Hines earned her undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Lima, Peru, and her MSc. in Chemistry at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH. After a brief career as a college instructor, she joined the faculty at Billerica Memorial High School, Billerica MA in 2006, where she taught Honors and College Preparatory Chemistry with Green Chemistry focus, Advanced Placement Chemistry and introductory Organic Chemistry. Mrs. Hines retired from high school teaching In June 2024.   Mrs. Hines has been actively involved with the American Chemical Society as a high school mentor for the United States Chemistry Olympiad Team from 2020 until 2023,  she currently assists high school chemical educators through the ACS coaches program and she is a part time adjunct chemistry faculty at a small liberal arts school in Franklin, MA.

Michelle Ernst Modera received her M.Ed in Community Engagement from Merrimack College Winston School of Education. She worked with Beyond Benign as a development fellow through Merrimack College’s education and social policy program. She has a NYS teaching certification in elementary and special education and a background in sociology. Michelle also has experience working for the National Center for Race Amity, an organization focused on racial justice, education, and community building. She currently serves as the K-12 Community Engagement Manager at Beyond Benign.

Cloë Di Flumeri is a graduate from Widener University, where she received her BA in political science, international relations, and English in Spring 2023. At Widener, Cloë became increasingly aware of environmental justice issues through her involvement in Amnesty International. In the summer of 2023, she worked as an intern at Spec Matters— an organization dedicated to promoting healthier and more sustainable building practices and materials selection. There she learned the deep connections between chemistry, health, and equity. These experiences drove them toward a career and life dedicated to the study and conservation of climate and public health.

Cloë is incredibly excited to be working with Beyond Benign as communications and events coordinator. Outside of work, Cloë is a poet— serving as founding co-editor and creative director at a digital literary magazine. As an undergraduate student researcher, Cloë contributed to faculty-advised scholarly research on topics ranging from gender and conflict studies to Victorian British literature. She is an avid fitness lover, and can most frequently be found at the gym, watering her plants, or writing in her free time.

Monica Hensley (She/her) earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Michigan Technological University in 2023. She holds a Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Bachelor’s in Pharmacy (BPharm) from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.

Throughout her doctoral studies, Monica demonstrated her commitment to chemistry education research. Collaborating with teaching faculty, she played a pivotal role in integrating risk-based safety instruction into the undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory curriculum, enhancing the preparedness of students for safe laboratory practices. Her dedication to safety also led to her active involvement with the student-led Lab Safety Team (LST), a grassroots movement dedicated to promoting safety awareness.

With her interest in Green Chemistry and sustainability, Monica also participated in the American Chemical Society (ACS) Green Chemistry & Sustainable Energy Summer School. Moreover, she co-developed a GreenChem Catalyst workshop, which was successfully piloted at the 2023 NOBCChE Conference. This workshop aimed to empower chemistry students by imparting knowledge on environmental justice, fostering sustainable careers, and contributing to resilient communities.

As a devoted chemistry educator, Monica Soma Hensley is dedicated to shaping the next generation of environmentally conscious and responsible chemists.

Juliana Vidal (she/her) earned her Ph.D. in the Green Chemistry and Catalysis Group at Memorial University of Newfoundland (St. John’s, NL, Canada), supervised by Prof. Francesca Kerton (Memorial University of Newfoundland) and co-supervised by Prof. Stephanie MacQuarrie (Cape Breton University). During her Ph.D., Juliana investigated new applications for a sustainable material obtained from wood waste called biochar. As a Postdoctoral Researcher supervised by Prof. Audrey Moores at McGill University, she worked on developing greener methods for the implementation of a biorefinery using crustacean shell waste.

Besides being the Higher Education Senior Program Manager at Beyond Benign, Juliana is also involved with the Global Conversation on Sustainability (GCS) project created by the International Younger Chemists Network (IYCN) and IUPAC, and the Chemicals and Waste Platform of the UNEP Major Group for Children and Youth. Juliana was also in the Executive Board of the Network of Early-Career Sustainable Scientists and Engineers (NESSE), in the Governance Task Force of the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC), and has been selected as a Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Future Leader in 2020.

Jonathon (he/him) is a passionate scientific researcher and professional with a keen interest in chemistry education and advancing sustainability and green chemistry across all levels of pedagogy and learning. He received his B.Sc.H. from Queen’s University in 2010 and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 2016 in Inorganic Chemistry with a focus on Nanomaterials and Electrochemistry.

During his doctoral studies, Jonathon was a founding member of the Green Chemistry Initiative (GCI), a group of graduate students dedicated to promoting green chemistry principles and practices within the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto. In addition to co-leading the GCI’s regular green chemistry seminar series and its 2015 annual symposium, Jonathon redeveloped a third-year undergraduate organic chemistry lab in collaboration with Professor Andy Dicks to include more concepts related to green chemistry, and later attended the ACS Green Chemistry Summer School in 2016. Following graduate school, Jonathon transitioned to the not-for-profit sector, where he has helped manage and support the development of international, interdisciplinary research programs, scientific projects, workshops and symposia as well as a national scholarship program in Canada for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows pursuing research in Canada’s Arctic and northern regions.

Jonathon is excited to be working together with Beyond Benign and the ACS GCI in the overall management, development and growth of the newly-launched Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community (GCTLC). Jonathon currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and enjoys sports of all kinds including swimming, skiing, rowing, cycling, volleyball, curling and weightlifting.

Nimrat Kaur Obhi (they/them) is from Ottawa, Canada and obtained their HBSc in Biomedical Sciences (Medicinal Chemistry) at the University of Ottawa in 2014. They completed their PhD in chemistry at the University of Toronto in 2020, where their research focused on the synthesis and investigation of carbon-based semiconducting polymers with complex architectures for electronic applications. During this time, Nimrat also completed a Chemistry Teaching Fellowship Award to design and implement a green chemistry course module into an upper-year chemistry course at the University of Toronto. They are committed to justice, equity, and diversity and have worked on advocacy and policy initiatives since 2014 with local and national Canadian teams (WICTO, CWIC Network, CSC WIDE) in addition to current work with Beyond Benign. Nimrat joined Beyond Benign as a Program Manager in early 2021 where they bring their combined passion for green chemistry advocacy, social justice, open-access science, and sustainability to their work. They currently live in Ottawa, Ontario, where outside of work they are an avid skier, cook, outdoor sports enthusiast, swimmer, stationery lover, and bookbinder.

Feel free to reach out and chat with Nim! At Beyond Benign, they work on:

– the Minority-Serving Institution Initiative within the Green Chemistry Commitment Program;
– Diversity, Equity, Belonging, and Respect for Beyond Benign and the GCTLC online platform; and
– the Toxicology for Chemists curriculum (past work).

Natalie earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University at Albany in 2017 after graduating with her Bachelor’s degree in Forensic Chemistry from Western New England University.

During her graduate studies, she felt that the topics of sustainability, toxicology, and environmental hazards were missing from the traditional graduate chemistry curriculum. Therefore, she pursued a one-year certification in Green Chemistry and Chemical Stewardship, attended the American Chemical Society (ACS) Green Chemistry & Sustainable Energy Summer School, and became actively involved in the Network of Early-Career Sustainable Scientists and Engineers (NESSE) a global movement of young professionals working on or interested in solutions to today’s most pressing sustainability challenges. She served at Utica College as both an adjunct and Assistant Professor of Chemistry from 2015-2019, introducing green chemistry to both major and non-major courses. She is passionate about teaching and empowering the next generation of scientists to use sustainable approaches through green chemistry.

With over 15 years of experience in finance and operations, Amanda specializes in optimizing organizational processes, ensuring regulatory compliance, and managing financial and data systems to improve efficiency and drive growth. In her previous roles across healthcare, nonprofit, and technology sectors, she has led budgeting and financial planning efforts, streamlined accounting workflows, and implemented controls to meet GAAP and industry-specific regulations. Amanda has also worked closely with small businesses to develop customized financial and operational strategies, such as cash flow management, cost reduction initiatives, and process automation, aligning with their long-term objectives and ensuring sustainable growth. Outside of work, Amanda enjoys spending quality time with her family.

Omar Villanueva is originally from the Southwest region of Mexico and grew up in Georgia. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and a Bachelor of Education in Science Education from the University of Georgia in Athens (UGA). Omar later completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Emory University, where he discovered his passion for green chemistry through research focused on developing earth-abundant metal catalysts for organic transformations.

With more than a decade of experience as a chemistry faculty member, Omar has mentored undergraduate students in sustainable catalysis research and collaborated with colleagues to integrate green chemistry principles into academic curricula. His work spans diverse projects, including developing alternative grading practices, designing new ACS-approved undergraduate courses, advancing social justice initiatives in chemistry, enhancing organic chemistry education, and conducting chemical education research. In addition, he has been actively involved in higher education leadership initiatives and expanding opportunities for underrepresented groups in science.

Before joining Beyond Benign, Omar was the Chemistry Department Chair in the School of Science and Technology at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC). In addition to leading a large, diverse, interdisciplinary department, he led initiatives to grow new academic programs, increase institutional capacity for the meaningful evaluation of effective and inclusive teaching, and increase diversity among STEM faculty.

Omar is deeply committed to advancing green chemistry education and empowering educators, programs, and institutions to adopt transformative, sustainable practices. At Beyond Benign, he oversees the programmatic aspects of the organization’s green chemistry education initiatives, supporting efforts from K-12 through higher education.