The U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board have selected two faculty members from the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) as recipients of the highly competitive and prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award. 

Sharon Bywater-Reyes, Ph.D., an associate professor of Environmental Geoscience, and Karen Barton, Ph.D., a professor of Geography and GIS, will each spend four months next spring participating in the cross-cultural exchange program designed to provide unique opportunities for scholars to further their teaching and research abroad. 

This is the first Fulbright award for Bywater-Reyes, a geoscientist and hydrologist in UNC’s College of Natural and Health Sciences. Her interest in processes that reshape Earth’s surface has provided her with a broad level of expertise across the field of geology, from ancient “rock” geological history to modern river science, including several projects in northern Colorado that measure the success of river restoration and influences on water quality.  

As part of her Fulbright experience, Bywater-Reyes will spend four months in the Chilean Andes joining an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Manuel Prieto, Ph.D., from the University of Tarapacá in Arica, Chile. The group is studying the water management of bofedales, a type of wetland unique to the high altitudes of the Andes Mountains, thriving at elevations of more than 13,000 feet in Peru and Chile.  

On a scholarly level, Bywater-Reyes said the project is an opportunity to expand her skills in both community-engaged research and wetland hydrology. It also speaks to her personal goals of finding opportunities to apply her skills and knowledge to relevant societal issues while uplifting the voices of marginalized people.  

The bofedales have been managed by Andean pastoral communities for thousands of years and are critical to supporting local livelihoods as they serve as the primary source of food and water for llamas, alpacas and other livestock. Bywater-Reyes will be lending her geological and geomorphic expertise to the team to better understand the environmental and social justice impacts of managing water rights on the land, as well as providing a deeper understanding of how the wetlands work, what controls them and how climate change has or will impact the landscape. 

“I have become increasingly interested in expanding my geological skillset to include social science components that are vital to changing policies and practices to be equitable and just,” said Bywater-Reyes. “This particular project speaks to my passion for sustainable and equitable management of water resources.  I’m very excited because this opportunity checks the boxes of things I really care about.”  

Since her Fulbright includes a research and teaching component, Bywater-Reyes is also excited about the opportunity to expand her knowledge of teaching and interacting with other peoples, particularly within the Latine culture. It’s an experience she hopes will improve the inclusive teaching practices she already incorporates into her own classrooms to better serve UNC’s growing Hispanic/Latine student body.  

For Barton, a professor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, this most recent Fulbright Scholar award will be her 11thfrom the program. As a veteran “Fulbrighter,” she has traveled to five continents since 2007, spending most of her time focusing on research and teaching in the field of environmental sustainability. This newest award comes on the heels of a Fulbright Hays grant she completed earlier this summer in Colombia.  

On that trip she was one of 16 educators from various disciplines visiting cities and universities across the country to learn more about sustainability, alternative energy sources, public transportation, conservation and infrastructure planning. She’ll use the insight she gained in Colombia to inform a research grant and a new curriculum project for her International Sustainable Development class at UNC. 

“The more I read about Colombia, the more I realized it’s a hotspot for biodiversity. They have mangroves, deserts and subtropical forests,” said Barton. “It’s often voted one of the happiest countries and they have over 100 different indigenous groups and about 60 national parks. The diversity is similar to what we have here in the United States, and I think they will be a great partner for future projects.” 

For her Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award in the spring, Barton will be on one of the islands in Cape Verde, a volcanic archipelago off the west coast of Africa. She’ll be teaching courses on sustainable development at the Universidad Europea del Atlántico and doing research on renewable energy and the sustainable use of ocean resources.  

“My research will mostly be on renewable energy in Cabo Verde and the blue economy, so all of the things that Cabo Verde is doing toward creating sustainable fisheries,” said Barton. “This community has done a really good job of managing its marine resources, while also making sure that locals have jobs in the marine economy.” 

Barton has the honor of being the first Fulbright recipient to travel to the island community, although she already has strong ties in the region thanks to the network she created during a Fulbright trip to Senegal in 2016. Her long-term goal is to set up a partnership between UNC and West Africa.  

“I’ve always been interested in learning how so-called developing countries can be a great model for how we should behave and live and design,” said Barton. “Places like Colombia and countries in West Africa are a lot more complicated than we understand.” 

For Barton, the opportunity to travel the world and learn from other countries and cultures, and then use that knowledge in her teaching to dispel preconceived notions of them, is part of the allure of the Fulbright program.  

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“I feel like I’ve spent the first half of my career identifying problems and poking holes in concepts and processes. I’m trying to use the second half of my career to work with local communities toward consensus building and identifying solutions.  

I think it’s so much easier to critique than to create and it took me a long time to figure that out,” continued Barton. “But now I’m seeing ways that these communities across the world tackle problems in ways that we’ve just never thought of. They make it look so easy.” 

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Fulbright Scholar Awards are prestigious and competitive fellowships that provide unique opportunities for scholars to teach and conduct research abroad. Fulbright scholars also play a critical role in U.S. public diplomacy, establishing long-term relationships between people and nations. Alumni include 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows, and thousands of leaders and world-renowned experts in academia and many other fields across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. The program is primarily funded by Congress and is directed by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.