Isabela (Isa) Rios Amador ’21 measures coral during her time as an Eckerd student.
One of them turned a patch of land in suburban St. Louis, Missouri, into an outdoor classroom where people of all ages are taught where their food comes from and how to grow it themselves.
Another is at Stanford University attending graduate school to learn how to reduce climate change impacts on the world’s oceans. Another is using his solar-powered home to help his Asheville, North Carolina, neighbors who are still recovering from Hurricane Helene. And still another is leading a unique effort to provide affordable, green housing to underserved communities in Baltimore, Maryland.
These four people have at least two things in common. They are Eckerd College graduates, and they share the same passion for environmental stewardship that thousands of other Eckerd alumni have. As Earth Month comes to a close, we highlight their efforts—a snapshot of the community that is Eckerd College.
Isabela (Isa) Rios Amador ’21
Ph.D. candidate, Jaramillo & Nielander Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University
Originally from Mexico City, Mexico, Isa moved to the U.S. to study marine chemistry at Eckerd College. She did more than study.
“During my time at Eckerd,” she explains, “I co-founded a non-profit organization called Coralisma, which aims to restore and conserve the Mesoamerican reefs. Together with Eckerd students we got this project started my freshman year, and by the time I had graduated, we had restored over a thousand corals back to the reef and established Coralisma as a non-profit.”
After graduating with high honors from Eckerd, Isa began her work toward a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Stanford University, which she is currently pursuing. “I study ways to reduce climate change impacts on the ocean,” she says, “specifically a technology that captures carbon and helps reduce ocean acidification.”
Isa has loved the ocean for as long as she can remember. “But stepping onto Eckerd’s campus felt like coming home to that passion,” she says. “From the first day, I was mesmerized. My dorm, Zeta, was just steps away from the water. Eckerd didn’t start my love for nature, but it ignited something more powerful: a drive to protect, restore, and fight for its future.”
And it was the people at Eckerd whom she met along the way that made her journey special.
“They were the kind of people who would show up for any cause, not just because they had to, but because they wanted to,” she says. “What unites the Eckerd community, despite our diverse interests and backgrounds, is a shared drive to tackle problems in unique, personal ways.”
Isa also names Chemistry professors Lisa Bonner and Chris Schnabel and math professors Eduardo Fernandez and Erin Griesenauer as influences.
“Each of them, and so many others, helped shape who I am today — not just as a scientist, but as an activist and a human being. They didn’t just teach us what to think. They showed us how to think — with heart, creativity, and resilience.”
Rob Denton ’74
Retired natural foods broker
The following is Rob’s account of the night of Friday, September, 27, 2024, and the weeks that followed, when the remnants of Hurricane Helene struck the mountainous area in and around Asheville, North Carolina, where Rob and his wife, Holly Berry, live. “In the aftermath,” he would write later, “we would conclude that “remnants” was a vastly understated term.
Isabela Rios Amador ’21
Rob Denton ’74
Molly Rockamann Korte ’03
Brendan McCluskey ’02
“We always believed that this situation—a disaster with a utility grid-wide blackout—could last for days, even weeks. So we were not unprepared, and not surprised, either. In 2021, when we designed our new passive solar home that includes other earthship features, we decided to include a rooftop solar array capable of providing all of our modern electricity needs – including heat, A/C, hot tub, water well, two refrigerators, and electric vehicle.”
“In the 11-day utility blackout we were the only neighborhood family with electricity without the noisy, and polluting, generators we constantly heard in the distance. Our battery ran our water well, our cooling/heat pump, our clothes washer and all of our lights and chargers.”
They provided their neighbors with hot showers, refrigeration for medicine, and hosted group meals every day.
“That the disaster brought us, as a community, closer together, is an understatement,” he says.
Rob’s connection with Eckerd College began with a photo in a 1969 Florida Presbyterian College catalogue; he was a senior in high school at the time. “The photo was of an FPC student washing oil off a seabird that had been coated by a spill in the Gulf,” he explains. “That really struck me as a place I wanted to be.
After graduating with a degree in Community Studies and a minor in religion, Rob joined an intentional spiritual community in Tennessee and lived off the grid for seven years. From there he got a sales job in the natural foods industry and helped create the first non-dairy ice cream product in the country—a frozen dessert made from soybean milk called Ice Bean, later renamed TofuLite. He lived in New England and worked as a natural foods broker for many years before moving to Asheville, where he and his wife designed their home, which they call The Sunhouse. The couple camped on the land while the house was being built.
They continue to contribute to the newfound sense community in an area that is still struggling.
“My wife and I volunteer at a relief kitchen in Swannanoa near where my son’s house was destroyed,” he adds. “And we’re still serving more than 200 dinners per day.”
Plaque erected near Rob’s house commemorating the work he and his wife did during and after Hurricane Helene
Isa working in the lab at at Stanford University, where she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in chemical engineering.
Molly Rockamann Korte ’03
Founder and CEO of EarthDance Organic Teaching Farm
After working with mushroom producers in Ghana, organic rice farmers in Thailand, veggie farmers in Florida and California, and sugar cane farmers in Fiji, in 2008 Molly founded EarthDance Organic Teaching Farm in Ferguson, Missouri, about 12 miles north of St. Louis. The 14-acre farm provides a model of sustainable food production while offering a Spring Training for Gardeners program and a Farm to School program, along with apprenticeships, workshops and volunteer opportunities.
The farm also operates a Pay What You Can Farm Stand that offers organically grown fruits, herbs and vegetables to everyone, regardless of income.
“Our big mission is to advance food justice, and a lot of that is being responsive to our community and figuring out the food needs, farming needs, and how we can help,” Molly explains. “I’m hopeful for the educational piece of what we do. It’s exciting to imagine how many young people will be motivated to farm, garden, eat healthy, discover new vegetables and fruits, and how we can potentially change the health trajectory of young people.”
Molly working on the EarthDance farm.
A St. Louis native, Molly remembers seeing the conch shell on the Eckerd College banner when she was in high school, and how that led to an on-campus visit, and then to an Eckerd degree.
“I also liked the flexibility of an environmental studies major. You weren’t pigeon-holed into one thing. During the Winter Term of my first year, I took a course called Leadership and Self Discovery Practicum that really helped me. I also volunteered at the Sweetwater Organic Community Farm in Tampa, and I took a Reflective Service Learning trip to Immokalee and worked with the citrus and tomato pickers.”
Molly also took part in Eckerd’s Semester Abroad program, spending the fall semester of her junior year at the University of Ghana. After graduating from Eckerd with a degree in environmental studies, Molly earned a Certificate in Ecological Horticulture from UC-Santa Cruz and a Postgraduate Diploma in Development Studies from the University of the South Pacific.
“I feel like all of these things that happened at Eckerd played a role in founding and running a working organic farm. I wanted it to be a school for people of multi generations and different backgrounds, and the time I spent at Eckerd is helping me get there.”
Brendan McCluskey ’02
Founder and owner of Trident Builders, green building expert
Brendan has a knack for starting things. In 1997, he brought eight rugby balls to campus and founded the Eckerd College Rugby Union, a coed club team. Nearly 30 male and female students showed up for the first workout.
In 2015 he founded Trident Builders, a Baltimore, Maryland,-based construction and contracting firm with clients such as The Ritz Carlton and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. He has delivered more than 1,000 apartments and condos, a skyscraper, a half dozen garages, several luxury hotel branded properties, improvements at public and private schools, new construction and repairs at both Ivy League and public universities, museums, high-end restaurants, and energy generation infrastructure projects.
His most recent project is detailed in a white paper he published last August titled BMore Build Forward – Revitalizing Baltimore with Attainable Housing. In it, Brendan describes the effort as “an integrated strategic plan to redevelop blighted communities with new highly energy efficient, affordable housing using modular construction. It is resolutely focused on improving the health, wealth, and mobility prospects for these communities that have long been ignored.”
Brendan adds that, “These problems aren’t going to solve themselves. I fundamentally believe these are issues that undermine us as a country. Not black or white. These are red, white and blue problems. We need to start thinking creatively.”
It took just one visit to Eckerd’s campus to convince him to enroll. Brendan always assumed that after Eckerd he would join the Marine Corps as a pilot. “But I found out I’m partially color blind, so all of a sudden I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. I changed my major like seven times. I ended up getting an internship outside of Washington, D.C., and that’s when I fell in love with construction.”
Brendan with classmates during his time at Eckerd.
“The biggest thing I gained from my time at Eckerd,” he adds, “is that they taught me how to think critically and to learn just about anything, which highlights the importance of liberal arts.”
After graduating from Eckerd with a degree in management, Brendan earned an MBA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has completed master’s-level study in Real Estate Development at Georgetown University, and is a LEED Accredited Professional – a designation awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. He also is a Certified Passive House Builder.
And yes, he says, Trident Builders is a nod to his alma mater.
