Paloma Doyle ’26 awarded prestigious Watson Fellowship to explore urban forestry across the globe

Paloma Doyle ’26, a botany major, art minor and scholar in the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment from Austin, Texas, has been awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to embark on a year of international exploration and discovery. Part of an exceptional group of 40 graduating seniors who make up the 58th class of Watson fellows, Doyle will receive $40,000 to spend a year exploring urban forestry in Mexico, South Africa, France, Australia and Japan. Doyle is Connecticut College’s 10th Watson Fellowship winner in five years.

“Trees offer a solution to many problems faced in an urban environment—they reduce heat, improve air quality and create a biodiverse habitat. They contribute to community well-being as recreational spaces, improving health and reducing stress. But these benefits don't happen on their own. Communities need to invest in urban forests for them to thrive,” Doyle says.

“I want to dive in deeper to explore what I have come to think of as the root of urban forestry: how people value trees. I want to know what motivates communities to engage in urban forestry, and how we get individuals to care about trees. I want to see how these investments come to life in urban forestry projects around the world and learn how communities value their trees and incorporate them into their urban environments.”

During her Watson year, Doyle will travel to Mexico City to explore indigenous land-sharing systems and one of the largest urban parks in Latin America; to Johannesburg to study environmental justice initiatives to redesign urban landscapes; to Paris, where efforts are underway to convert 50% of the city to public greenspace by 2030; to Sydney and Melbourne to see how the cities are working to mitigate the impacts of climate change with nature-based solutions; and to Tokyo to learn more about innovative approaches to urban forestry.

“I intend to explore how successful urban forestry is achieved in a diversity of cultural contexts and geographic locations. The countries I have selected represent an array of community values, including indigenous knowledge, environmental justice, climate resilience, ecological knowledge, community well-being and intrinsic beauty. Through cultural immersion, I aspire to explore the symbolic, spiritual and practical values that connect communities to their environment and influence the cultural landscape,” Doyle says. “What I discover about communities, urban forestry, and myself in the Watson year will have a profound effect on me, forever enriching my leadership as I help create the forests of tomorrow.”

At Conn, Doyle serves as a Sprout Garden farm manager, Arboretum landscape assistant and  tour guide, chair of the Botany Student Advisory Board, and as a trip leader for the Outdoor Adventures program. She is also very active in the community, serving as a board member for New London Trees, a grassroots organization working to increase New London’s tree population through community planting and care, education and advocacy, and as a volunteer at New London High School. Currently, she is completing an honors thesis in the Botany Department on how to create and sustain community partnerships between urban forestry nonprofits and academic institutions.

Doyle says she is grateful for the support of her Watson advisers, Associate Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies Research Julia Flagg and Instruction Librarian Andrew Lopez, and especially for the mentorship of Arboretum Director Maggie Redfern.

“After learning about my shared passion for urban forestry, Maggie brought me into her local urban forestry work with New London Trees and has supported and empowered me to become the leader I am today,” Doyle says.

Following her Watson fellowship, Doyle plans to pursue a graduate degree and ultimately hopes to become a college professor.

“I want to design a curriculum that both teaches botanical literacy and develops students’ leadership capacity through community engagement. I envision teaching urban forestry classes that involve tree plantings in my institutions’ host cities educating future generations of citizens to have an enhanced value of urban forests,” she says.