Dr. Jonathan Levy
Dr. Jonathan Levy
Jonathan Levy is the Director of the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability (IES) and an Associate Professor in the Department of Geology and Environmental Earth Science at Miami University. He specializes in groundwater hydrology with over 30 publications in such areas as groundwater/surface-water interaction and the transport and fate of groundwater contaminants including pesticides, pharmaceuticals, metals and bacteria. Levy is dedicated to international education. He served a two-year teaching assignment in Luxembourg (2002-2004) and was a Fulbright scholar in South Africa (2009-2010) teaching and conducting research at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town. He has led Miami workshops through Europe (2002), Kenya (2007) and Zambia (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2019) and his students are co-authors on papers regarding his research projects in Zambia, Malawi, Kenya and Nepal. His current work in Zambia with faculty and students from the University of Zambia involves an examination of drinking water quality and access in low-income, peri-urban communities and building water resources resilience to climate change in Western Zambia.
In 2011, Levy became involved with the Myaamia Center when he and fellow geologist, Dr. Jason Rech were asked to investigate environmental conditions on Geboe allotment owned by the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma that was planned to be used for a summer camp. Rech and Levy took groups of Miami students out to Oklahoma in 2011 and 2012 in classes that focused not only on the investigations, but on environmental justice issues in general as they apply to tribal lands and indigenous people. Levy became Director of IES and a Myaamia Center affiliate in 2015, and given the unique and wonderful relationship between the Miami Tribe and Miami University, Levy has been especially grateful for the opportunity to tie together an environmental justice focus in IES while highlighting the efforts of the Myaamia Center. Levy has regularly brought in Myaamia Center staff to guest teach in his classes, enriching his students’ experience and broadening their awareness of tribal history and issues. He has also brought in outside speakers to address environmental tribal justice. Levy is proud to be a Myaamia Center affiliate and to help both the Center and the Tribe with any environmental initiatives they might have.