Nataliya Plesha-Tereshchenko. (Photo courtesy of naturally.uconn.edu)
University of Connecticut Ph.D. student Nataliya Plesha-Tereshchenko died Thursday, July 21, 2016 from a brief and sudden illness. Both a student and an instructor of the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department, she was to defend her dissertation this summer.
Plesha-Tereshchenko also worked as a Visiting Faculty Professor of Economics at Eastern Connecticut State University. She was to teach at the Southern Connecticut School of Business and Finance starting this fall.
Plesha-Tereshchenko, originally from Ukraine, graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Lviv Institue of Forestry and Wood Technology. She went on to gain her PhD from Ukraine State University. A Fulbright scholar at Fairfield University in 2000, she went on to earn a Masters in Environmental Management from Yale University, a Masters of Statistics and a Masters of Forest Products from the University of Idaho, and a Masters in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UConn.
She leaves behind her husband and son.
UConn’s Counseling and Mental Health Services (CMHS) is available for walk-ins and also by appointment from 8:30 – 4:30 Monday through Friday for those affected by Plesha-Tereshchenko’s passing. Students and faculty plan to hold a memorial service for her during the fall semester. Those interested in helping to plan the campus memorial are asked to contact Professor Rigoberto Lopez at rigoberto.lopez@uconn.edu.
Sarah McNeal is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at sarah.mcneal@uconn.edu.