Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future Announces 2025-2026 CLF-Lerner Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Recipients

Sep 24, 2025

The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) is delighted to announce the awarding of two pre-doctoral fellowships for the 2025-2026 academic year, bringing the number of current CLF-Lerner Fellows to eight. 

The Center for a Livable Future-Lerner Fellowship program was established in 2003 and named in honor of public health advocates, Helaine and Sid Lerner. This fellowship supports doctoral students in their exploration of innovative and impactful solutions to address today’s most pressing public health and food systems challenges. So far,  

CLF-Lerner fellowships have been awarded to 92 scholars. 

Each CLF-Lerner Fellow receives four years of financial support for tuition, stipend, and research. Throughout their time as a doctoral student, fellows are also afforded ongoing enrichment opportunities such as meetings with field leaders in food systems and public health, networking with current and former fellows, participation in CLF program activities, and attendance at CLF-hosted lectures and seminars. 

The 2025-2026 awardees of CLF-Lerner Fellowships are: 

• Matthew A. Aubourg, MSPH, a PhD student in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Environmental Health and Engineering and the inaugural recipient of the Steve Wing track within the CLF-Lerner Fellowship. Mathew’s academic adviser is Dr. Ana Rule and his research adviser is Dr. Chris Heaney.
• Andrew Vargas, BS, a PhD student in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. Andrew’s adviser is Dr. Keeve Nachman.  

“CLF is excited to welcome Matty and Andrew to the CLF-Lerner Fellowship program, and our CLF family” said CLF Director, Shawn McKenzie. “We are already enjoying getting to know them and are looking forward to collaborating in the application of science and systems thinking to help build healthy, just, equitable, and sustainable food systems.”   

The Steve Wing fellowship track was established to honor the pioneering epidemiologist and professor Steve Wing (1952–2016). Steve was a cherished friend and colleague of CLF, whose research focused on partnering with communities to gather evidence of the impacts of industrial livestock production on rural residents and livestock workers. CLF-Lerner fellows in this track are specifically dedicated to partnering with communities of rural fenceline residents and workers to co-design research that addresses their concerns with industrial livestock production. They receive training as part of the Center’s Community Science & Innovation for Environmental Justice Initiative led by Dr. Heaney. More information about the CLF-Lerner Fellowship can be found on the Center’s website.