Meet Our Team
Niharika Bandaru
Executive Director / President
Niharika is a sustainability analyst and a Climate Reality Leader based in Windsor, Ontario. She has a BASc degree in environmental engineering from UWindsor and an MS in environmental science and policy from Johns Hopkins University. She moved to Windsor in 2009 and fell in love with the region's naturescape, its people, and its diversity. As a sustainability analyst, she leads the development of sustainability plans at municipalities in Ontario. When she became a Climate Reality Leader in 2017, she decided to use her knowledge of climate change and her passion for the environment to create Windsor of Change and help bring awareness to local climate change issues.
Stepan tuzlov
Business & Operations / Chair
Stepan is an electrical engineering specialist based out of Windsor, Ontario. From a very early age, Stepan enjoyed learning how things work. He marveled at society's technological growth; however, he has also seen the devastating price that unchecked industrialization can have on our environment. He enjoys the themes of sustainable growth, efficient building science, and resource utilization. With this passion, he completed his BASc in electrical engineering and a Master’s in engineering management from UWindsor. At Windsor of Change, he hopes to support environmental awareness and resource-use efficiency in his community and beyond.
anna karch
Managing Editor
Anna Karch is a student working towards her MA in Creative Writing at UWindsor. She completed her BA with a double major in English and French Literature in 2020, and obtained her MA in French Literature in 2021. Though conscious of climate change since a young age, it was much later in life when she learned how extensive the issue really is—a discovery largely facilitated by environmental literature. Aware of the power writing has in creating change, Anna wants to help others share their stories and their knowledge while also taking the opportunity to learn more about climate change, especially as it pertains to Windsor - Essex.
Kerim Aktas
Researcher
Kerim Aktas is an environmental studies graduate of UWindsor. He has always been interested in environmental conservation and education of issues like climate change and its effects on humans, animals, and plants. He wishes to inform people on the importance and urgency of why change must occur to protect the environment and on the prevention of misinformation from spreading so that, as a society, we can heal the injuries given to the environment and prevent more from occurring.
Alex Conroy
Trash Mob Coordinator
Alex Conroy is an Electrical engineer in the automotive sector, where he strives to reduce waste daily by improving the efficiency of his designs across multiple platforms. From a very early age, he has been invested in improving the environment around him, whether that be pulling roadside trash into a wagon, or cleaning up construction debris at his grade school during recess. Now, he’s supporting Windsor of Change in hosting local community clean-up events or Trash Mobs. He sees climate change as the great challenge of our time, made irresponsibly more difficult by the persuasiveness and ubiquity of misinformation in society.
Prabarna ganguly
Vice - Chair/Director
Prabarna Ganguly is a neuroscientist and science writer based in New York. She completed her doctorate in psychology (focusing on behavioral neuroscience) from Northeastern University in 2018. Being a part of Windsor of Change is Prabarna's chance to learn, understand and communicate the critical changes that the planet is undergoing. Prabarna currently works as the Chief Communications Officer for Nucleus, disseminating genomics for the public. Sufficiently armed with love for all science, she hopes to make small changes in how she, and maybe we, interact with Earth, one story at a time. Check out her Twitter @prabarna for more science-related fun!
cameron fioret
Director
Born and raised in Windsor, Cameron loves all things water! He is currently a Policy Analyst for Environment and Climate Change Canada and a Visiting Scholar in the University of Michigan's Water Center. He is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration studies (UNU-CRIS). He firmly believes in climate change education in Windsor-Essex County and wants to help strengthen ties in our community through offering equal access to information.
Kim Michele
Contributing Writer
Originally from South Africa, although now a citizen of the world, Kim is an environmental journalist and activist. While traveling the globe, she has borne witness to some of the more dramatic effects of climate change, deforestation and pollution on our environment. As a result, she has dedicated her 20 year professional career to fighting for the planet and protecting our wildlife. Kim started as an eco-travel journalist, which evolved into environmental journalism after joining Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project in early 2017, which has helped her shift her focus to include environmental awareness while seeking solutions through journalism, action and networking.