2020 Kundell Environmental Management Internship/Fellowship Recipients

The Kundell Environmental Management Internship/Fellowship Program was established by the ACCG Civic Affairs Foundation to honor the work of Dr. Jim Kundell. Dr. Kundell was a distinguished professor and highly awarded member of the University of Georgia faculty. During his lifetime, he made significant contributions to environmental law and served as an advisor to many local, state, and national organizations on environmental matters.

For the 2020 program year, Oconee and Henry counties were selected to receive Kundell grants. Directly as a result of this program, several counties applied for environmental related internship projects. In addition to the Kundell internships, the ACCG Civic Affairs Foundation also funded three additional environmental projects for the 2020 internship cycle.

Morgan Pace, an environmental management major at Kennesaw State University, researched green infrastructure requirements and create the first green infrastructure standard operating procedures for the county. A copy of the Henry County Green Infrastructure Handbook is available here. Pace’s favorite part of the internship was working and collaborating with county staff. Throughout her internship, she gained new research skills which should help her on her journey to becoming an environmental lawyer.


Matthew Detweiler, an agricultural engineering student at the University of Georgia,  worked with the civil engineering department on water resource projects which required using engineering software, collecting, and preparing data, and assisting in project coordination from inception through final plan preparation.

Detweiler’s most significant work involved the mapping he developed for the Upper Oconee Watershed Network. Over the course of his internship, he gained significant mapping skills in GIS, ESRI, and AutoCAD-all of which are important to know for a future engineer.