Nicole Kennard’s passion for sustainability and food justice took root as a Georgia Tech undergraduate in materials science and engineering. It then blossomed across the Atlantic in the U.K., where she studied sustainable food systems as a Fulbright Scholar and later as a doctoral student.

Today, she’s back at Georgia Tech as assistant director for Community-Engaged Research in the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS). Kennard supports faculty in building meaningful and co-creative research partnerships with local communities to address pressing sustainability and societal challenges.

“I find food very interesting because it’s interdisciplinary by necessity. Food is the great connector,” says Kennard.

She calls her journey back to Georgia Tech “a full-circle moment,” particularly since, as an undergrad, she worked on a community-engaged sustainability project for the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain, now the Center for Sustainable Communities Research and Education (SCoRE).

While a Tech student, Kennard served for three years as president of the student chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World, which started her interest in urban agriculture. She recalled a day when a nonprofit contacted her with a strange donation offer: hydroponic equipment they had received from the set of The Hunger Games. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil.

“I googled it and thought, why not?” recalls Kennard, who started a campus hydroponics project. “We were just a group of students across different disciplines who took over the greenhouse on top of the biology building that hadn’t been used for a long time,” she said. “We got good at experimenting — we were growing food for the Atlanta Community Food Bank.”

The students’ expertise led them to build systems for other nonprofits and classrooms in the Atlanta area. From there, Kennard met Atlantans working in food justice and sustainable agriculture. It sparked a thirst for furthering her education, and Kennard was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to pursue a master’s in sustainable agriculture and food security at Newcastle University in the U.K. She stayed through the Covid pandemic, earning her Ph.D. in chemistry and biosciences from the University of Sheffield in 2023.

Now, she’s excited to be home and connecting faculty with community partners. She hopes to build co-creative research partnerships that are “meaningful, sustainable, and long-lasting.”  Her vision is to make Tech’s research more locally beneficial by working directly with surrounding communities.

“Sustainability is so broad that I feel it can touch anyone. At Georgia Tech, we have so much expertise that is perfect for this field.”

Kennard is also passionate about training and connecting graduate students doing community-engaged research. She recently received a seed grant to build a cross-university network with Georgia State University, Emory University, and Spelman College.

Kennard’s research projects include mapping Atlanta's local food system and addressing challenges for local urban growers. She notes that accessing food can be an issue for many in Atlanta, complicated by financial and transportation barriers. At the same time, Atlanta is one of the leading U.S. cities in urban agriculture and has a rich agricultural history and food culture. The city has a wealth of urban farms, community gardens, and local nonprofits working together to increase access to fresh, healthy foods and build community through food.

An outdoor enthusiast, the Acworth, Georgia, native enjoys hiking, camping, traveling, foraging, and gardening in her free time.

— written by Anne Wainscott-Sargent