In this issue:
- Joint and Dual MS Winter Capstone Symposium
- Dissertation Defense: Nicole Buckley Biggs and Kelley McKanna
- PhD and MS Collaboration Grants
- E-IPER MS Research Assistantships
- Project Management Workshop
- Alumni Spotlight: Joel Minor
- E-IPER Connections: E-IPER Tea, Boba Tea Social, Pizza and Puzzle, Finals Week De-Stress, and Book Club
- Student and Alumni News, including Awards & Honors, Publications & Presentations
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Joint and Dual MS Winter Capstone Symposium |
During Winter 2022, ten MS-MBA and two MS-JD students coupled their knowledge in environment and resources research with their professional school skills to explore, understand, and interpret a variety of urgent and significant issues surrounding our environmental crisis. In the culminating experience of their Joint and Dual MS program, the students presented in their capstone projects that explored topics such as decarbonization and grid resilience, innovations for sustainability, and finance and investment in sustainability. The projects offered innovative and refreshing perspectives that serve as the foundation for new "green" businesses, regulations, and policy.
The Winter Capstone Symposium was led by a fabulous team: Nik Sawe, John Weyant and KC McKanna. The Symposium is available for online viewing at the E-IPER website.
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PhD Dissertation Defense:
Nicole Buckley Biggs and Kelley McKanna
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On March 3, Nicole (Nic) Buckley Biggs successfully defended her dissertation, "Engaging Agricultural Landowners in Climate and Conservation: California Case Studies."
In her dissertation, Nic investigated croplands and rangelands, examining how these landscapes may be used as new solutions to target carbon sequestration, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and habitat conservation. Nic combines social-behavioral approach with policy analysis to identify the challenges of using managed grazing to sequester soil carbon, the opportunities and risks around payments for ecosystem services, and the role of landscape values and water availability in land use decisions.
Her research highlights the importance of distinguishing between rangelands and croplands—and between the types of landowners who manage them—to better understand the feasibility of upscaling solutions. The empirical findings and recommendations summarized in Nic's dissertation contribute to improved design of environmental policies and corporate sustainability programs targeting farmers and ranchers.
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Professors Eric Lambin (Earth Systems Science), Lynn Huntsinger (UC Berkeley, Rangeland Management), Bruce Cain (Political Science), Gabrielle Wong-Parodi (Earth Systems Science), and James Leape (Woods Institute) served on Nic’s University Oral Examination Committee. |
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On March 8, Kelley Courtney (KC) McKanna successfully defended her dissertation, "The Impact of Identity, Situation, and Action Framing on Environmental Behavior.”
KC’s dissertation explored how shifting perceptions of identity, situation, and actions can change behaviors in the realm of environmental politics and policy. Her dissertation demonstrated that both messaging and price-based interventions can change how individuals make sense of their actions affecting environmentally meaningful political and consumer behavior.
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Professors Gabrielle Wong-Parodi (Earth Systems Science), Dale Miller (Graduate School of Business), J.R. DeShazo (UT Austin, Public Affairs), Bruce Cain (Political Science), and James Leape (Woods Institute) served on KC's University Oral Examination Committee. |
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Collaboration Grant
Shining the Light on Blackouts: An Equity Analysis of Climate-Driven Power Outages
By: Ranjitha Shivaram and Ada Statler
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Over 80% of power outages in the United States are caused by extreme weather, and the number, magnitude and duration of extreme weather-driven power outages is only expected to increase with climate change. We (Ada Statler and Ranjitha Shivaram) wanted to know, How are different households able to weather the storm, and How might the ability to cope with power outages and their rippling effects be increased for the most vulnerable households?
To study these questions, we picked two case studies from the past year: Winter Storm Uri in Texas and Hurricane Ida in Louisiana. The two case studies allowed us to gain insights into the different conditions we will see with climate change, extreme cold and heat respectively, and the way the power system interacts with other key infrastructure in each scenario. We designed a comprehensive survey to understand people’s experiences before, during, and after the storm.
So far, our results have raised serious alarms about the severity and rippling effects of the power outages, and emphasized the need for equity considerations in climate adaptation and resiliency planning. In both Texas and Louisiana, we have found that people of color and lower-income households were more likely to experience service outages and that those outages lasted longer. Moreover, we found similar racial and income disparities in terms of financial impacts from the storm, ability to access food and other resources, preparedness indicators such as possession of generators, and the receipt of disaster relief funds.
We presented these preliminary results at an E-IPER lunch, as well as for Ada’s capstone presentation. The next steps in our project will be conducting tests for statistical significance, and writing up our results for different audiences. In addition to adding to the academic literature, we hope to present our findings to policy advocates in Texas and Louisiana and make our findings more accessible for general audiences.
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Improving California’s biogenic emissions accounting
By: Leehi Yona and Catherine Rocchi
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Our Collaboration Grant project focuses on strengthening the connections between climate science and policy for more effective climate action. In particular, we were interested in how California measures its greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) when developing the state’s signature climate policy.
In 2016, California enacted SB-32, an ambitious climate plan mandating GHG emissions reductions of 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. Accurate GHG emissions accounting is essential to SB-32’s success as the state needs to know what its emissions are to determine if we are meeting these reduction goals. In our Collaboration Grant project, we examined GHG emissions from an overlooked but important sector, namely biofuels. In 2016—the same year that Governor Jerry Brown signed SB-32 into law—the California Air Resources Board (ARB) discontinued its practice of including lifecycle transportation biofuel emissions in its statewide GHG inventory. In other words, the state counts zero emissions from biofuels in the transportation sector, despite the fact that scientific literature clearly shows that biofuels are not carbon neutral energy sources.
We wanted to understand what drove this policy change at ARB, as well any insights that can be drawn from this example for better climate policy. Through legal document analysis and stakeholder interviews, we assessed hypotheses that explain CARB’s decision-making, identifying several likely reasons for the 2016 methodology change. This project aims to both strengthen science-based policies in California and provide guidance around biofuel emissions accounting that could be applied in subnational contexts globally.
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E-IPER MS Research Assistantships
Spring quarter welcomes the second year of our E-IPER MS research assistantships. Joint and Dual MS students can apply to work on faculty-mentored, individualized environment, energy, and sustainability research. Based in a faculty member’s research area, this initiative is intended to leverage the practice-oriented lens of the E-IPER MS students and augment their course-based learning with research experiences. This year three students received RAships: Daniel Gajardo (MS-MBA) (International Policy), Ben Maines (MS-MD) (School of Medicine) and Alana Reynolds (MS-JD) (Law School). Their faculty projects on which they will be working include examining factors contributing to water quality violations with Prof. Daniel Ho and investigating the effectiveness of affordable interventions in reducing exposure to climate change-related hazards among low-income households with Prof. Gabrielle Wong-Parodi.
Please reach out to Mele Wheaton for more information about these exciting opportunities!
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Project Management Workshop |
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Gemma Smith (PhD 4th) our E-IPER PhD alumni relations student leader, and her partner Josh, a certified project management professional in finance and biotech, created a workshop for E-IPER PhD and Masters students focused on core project management strategies tailored to common student research challenges. Students explored "Agile" project management tools and practiced planning an example research project. It was a great learning opportunity to mitigate the ups and downs sometimes described by students (as exemplified in the PhD comic below)!
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Alumni Spotlight:
Joel Minor
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Joel Minor (MS-JD '14) is the Manager of the Environmental Justice Program in the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). He oversees a growing team of ten professionals working to advance environmental justice in partnership with all four of CDPHE’s environmental divisions (air, water, waste, and sustainability) as well as the Office of Health Equity. At present, Joel and his colleagues are implementing the Colorado Environmental Justice Act (HB21-1266), a new law passed in 2021 that creates an Environmental Justice Advisory Board, Environmental Justice Action Task Force, and Environmental Justice Ombudsperson, among other activities. A new interactive environmental justice mapping tool, Colorado EnviroScreen, is also being developed to identify communities of color and low-income communities that are disproportionately impacted by environmental health burdens.
The core goal of CDPHE’s Environmental Justice Program is to develop and implement strategies to reduce environmental health disparities for communities of color and low-income communities across Colorado.
Joel and his colleagues also work to ensure meaningful involvement for communities of color and low-income communities in CDPHE decision making processes. For example, they have worked with the Water Quality Control Commission to create a requirement for local public water suppliers to engage in enhanced outreach using plain language fact sheets and multiple public meetings, in both English and Spanish, prior to implementing a direct potable reuse program (a program to directly reuse wastewater for drinking water rather than discharging it into a stream).
Joel uses his interdisciplinary training every day in his job at CDPHE. He says that, “some days I feel more like a lawyer, reviewing and editing regulations or policy guidance documents. Other days, I feel more like an engineer, reviewing technical comments on air quality permits or monitoring plans for facilities in Disproportionately Impacted (DI) Communities. And every day, I spend some time being a bridge between technically-minded engineers, policy-minded lawyers, and residents of DI communities who need to have complex legal and technical concepts distilled into plain language.” Joel says that he is so grateful for E-IPER training him in interdisciplinary ways of thinking so that he can move seamlessly among different types of experts within a large, complex agency like CDPHE.
The work Joel has done in his career has very much been a continuation of the work that he started while at Stanford and in E-IPER. His master’s capstone project for E-IPER was a comparative analysis of top-down and bottom-up methods of estimating emissions from the oil and gas sector. He has spent the subsequent years constantly working, at least in some capacity, to reduce oil and gas sector emissions, so the background research acquired at Stanford has continuously proven useful. While in E-IPER, he also spent a lot of time in the Environmental Law Clinic, where he represented the Pit River Tribe working to protect a sacred site from geothermal development, and explored a project to represent members of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (“MHA”) Nation in North Dakota on oil and gas matters. He later represented the same individuals, who formed an organization called Ft. Berthold Protectors of Water and Earth Rights, while he was at Earthjustice in litigation to defend the BLM Methane Rule. That experience proved foundational in regard to his interest in environmental justice and gave him a great deal of insight into how the law could be used as a tool to advance the interests of low-income communities, communities of color, and sovereign tribal nations.
When not working, Joel loves to read and write sci-fi and fantasy, play board games, and obsessively watches RuPaul’s Drag Race and its many international franchises. Joel lives with his partner Matt and their dog Ori in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, and enjoys being close to his nearby family.
Joel's advice to E-IPER students:
‟I would recommend that current E-IPER students focus on pursuing the subject matter that interests you the most. Although it sometimes felt like my very narrow interest in reducing oil and gas emissions in Colorado, and especially doing so in a way that advanced environmental justice might have been too narrow to find a job, I’ve managed to turn my interest into a career. It sometimes felt like my classmates at the law school were wise to be exploring lots of options and working through a long range of interests, and I think that worked for a lot of people. But for me, having a narrow focus on a topic that I felt personally connected to ended up being the perfect pathway to a rewarding career getting to work on issues that I care deeply about.”
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With the exciting full return to campus this Winter, the E-IPER Student Leadership Team continue to host a variety of fun events focused on community-building. Below we highlight a few of the many festivities offered by our students and staff.
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The tradition continues! E-IPER students gather each Wednesday for coffee, tea and collaborative conversation. This quarter's Tea showcased new talents, as our students' and staff shared their delicious baking skills as well as celebrating January and February birthdays. |
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E-IPER students enjoyed a walk from the E-IPER suite to Town and Country to share a Boba Tea and catch up (along with E-IPER pets) under a beautiful sunset. |
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Students gathered in the E-IPER patio for an end of quarter de-stress to relax and take their mind off of work with their E-IPER buddies, jigsaw puzzles, and great pizza!
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Finals week included a de-stress get together with wine and soothing spa face masks—rejuvenating indeed!
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“The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, bestselling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale—from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar.
Funny, complex, and rich with detail, the reviews chart the contradictions of contemporary humanity. As a species, we are both far too powerful and not nearly powerful enough, a paradox that came into sharp focus as we faced a global pandemic that both separated us and bound us together.
John Green’s gift for storytelling shines throughout this masterful collection. ‟The Anthropocene Reviewed” is an open-hearted exploration of the paths we forge and an unironic celebration of falling in love with the world.”
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This past January, Nic Buckley Biggs (PhD 4th) and Ranjitha Shivaram (PhD 4th) shared their research findings into utility-scale solar energy development on working lands with the California Energy Commission. They presented their study to the Energy Resources and Infrastructure Planning Office and discussed the implications of landowner perceptions on land availability for solar energy. The results of their research are currently under peer review for inclusion in a special issue of Environmental Research Communications.
John Foye (MS-MBA '22) would like to share that Working Trees -- a carbon development startup led by John and Aakash Ahamed (PhD Geophysics) -- has officially launched their pilot as of February 2022, a first step towards unlocking the gigaton-scale potential drawdown of productive trees on agricultural land! To their knowledge, this represents the first agroforestry carbon project in the US. More details (and photos of the milestone oak and pine seedlings) are here. Any and all EIPERs interested in chatting more, please feel free to reach out.
Karli Moore (PhD 1st) was appointed by the USDA to serve on the Farm Service Agency State Committee in California which ensures the effective and efficient delivery of FSA's federal farm programs to the state’s agricultural producers.
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Jason Funk (PhD '09) started a new position as Director of REDD+ Strategy at Conservation International. A big decision, after successfully running his own consulting shop, the Land Use and Climate Knowledge Initiative (LUCKI), for a few years. Jason will surely miss being his own boss, but is excited about the impact he can have in the REDD+ space by working at CI. He is very pleased to join CI's Center for Natural Climate Solutions and work alongside a team of world-class experts. Colleagues can now reach Jason at jfunk@conservation.org.
Adrian LeCesne (MS-JD '13) is an attorney in Mansfield Massachusetts, and adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts teaching Environmental Law.
Frances Moore (PhD '15) has been awarded tenure at UC Davis and will be promoted to Associate Professor.
Kimi Narita (MS-JD '11) started a new job in October 2021 as Associate Director, Global Climate Strategies at Climate Leadership Initiative. Kimi supports philanthropists who are brand new to climate change enter this complex field at speed and scale.
Aiga Stockenberga (PhD '16) has a been promoted to Senior Economist in the World Bank's Transport Global Practice.
Sami Tellatin (MS-MBA '20) co-founder of FarmRaise was recognized in Forbes "30 under 30" for the start-up, which automates the process for farmers to secure financing to purchase new agricultural technology.
Since the beginning of 2022, Jen Wang (PhD '18) has been serving as VP of Product for thredUP's core marketplace. She'll be giving a talk at the Women in Product 2022 Conference in May focused on the effective application of interdisciplinary methods for product development (thank you E-IPER!) Jen will be guest speaking in classes this spring and summer at several universities including Yale and National University of Singapore.
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David Gonzalez (PhD '21) has been recognized with a few awards:
Received the University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship. A program that encourages outstanding women and minority Ph.D. recipients to pursue academic careers at the University of California.
Awarded the Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. The awards are presented to individuals who have demonstrated superior academic achievement, are committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level, show promise of future achievement as scholars and teachers, and are well prepared to use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.
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Josheena Naggea (PhD 5th) has been selected as an IPBES fellow for the transformative change assessment. The key objective of the assessment is to inform decision-makers on options to implement transformative change in order to achieve the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity, while taking into consideration the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals, including visions of indigenous peoples and local communities.
Sergio Sanchez Lopez (PhD 1st) was accepted into the 2022 cohort of the Rising Environmental Leaders Program (RELP) of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Each year a group of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars learn to develop the leadership and communication skills they need to optimize the impact of their research.
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Photo Contest Semi-finalists |
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Andrew Hume (PhD 5th) caught this image of a Brood X cicada that emerged on the East Coast in 2021.
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Josheena Naggea (PhD 5th) took this shot of her community mobilizing to assist clean-up operations following the Wakashio oil spill in Mauritius in August 2020. |
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Publications & Presentations |
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Check out Hilary Boudet's (PhD '10) latest book and publications! |
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Hilary Boudet and colleague published " Public Responses to Fossil Fuel Export: Exporting Energy and Emissions in a Time of Transition" in Elsevier. |
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Publications:
" Using structural topic modeling to explore the role of framing in shaping the debate on liquefied natural gas terminals in Oregon" in American Behavioral Scientist.
"Global changes in electricity consumption during COVID-19," in iScience.
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Marilyn Cornelius (PhD '13) has three new books!
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Marilyn's latest books, Purpose of Love, and Promise of Love, are a twin release of Alchemus Prime's 5th and 6th recipe books, co-authored with her mom, Dr. Margaret Cornelius. The former contains playful recipes designed to engage young people and encourage them to eat healthy food and build a relationship with food, while the latter links food to nature through the seasons, and self-love, which is a foundational practice for all seasons. Both books contain climate-friendly and cruelty-free recipes: plant-based and gluten-free.
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Sculpting Positivity II, much like its predecessor, contains 366 reflections designed for daily use. This book is brief and to the point, inviting the readers to reflect deeply as a small but potent part of each and every day. With this journaling companion, yone can find pathways for deeper mindfulness, reflection, self-love, and balance.
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Marilyn's 30th publication, Prevailing over Patriarchy, explores how to overcome the toxic patriarchy that still affects all of us. In the preface, Marilyn discusses how patriarchy is harmful, and then the book takes you on a journey of choosing love over fear in every step. Marilyn discusses that when we achieve the embodiment of love, we have the courage to speak our truth. Only then does the ego begin to relent, and we embrace divine feminine energy.
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Marilyn has begun producing Manadala journals that encourage strong mental health, covering topics such as calmness, lower stress, and positive mindsets. The first set of three journals contain quotes from Marilyn on empowerment, gratitude, and reflection.
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David Gonzalez (PhD 21') had a paper accepted for publication on "Historic redlining and siting of oil and gas wells in the United States" in Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology (in press).
Adrian LeCesne (MS-JD '13) gave a talk at a conference in Boston, MA on the United Nations Conference of the Parties 26 (UN COP26), organized by Coventry University.
Andrea Lund (PhD) recently published “Tracing the inclusion of health as a component of the food-energy-water nexus in dam management in the Senegal River Basin,” in Environmental Science and Policy. This article was a product of an interdisciplinary working group Andrea co-led at the National Center for Socio-Environmental Synthesis (SESYNC) from 2017-2019.
Rebecca Miller (PhD '21) has a few publications and presentations to share:
Publications:
"Impact of short school closures (1-5 days) on overall academic performance of schools in California" with Iris Hui in Scientific Reports.
Presentations:
"Firewise Communities in California" as part of the Stanford Wildland Fire Seminar Series.
"Factors Influencing Success and Failure of Wildfire-Related Bills in California" for the Western Political Science Association.
Frances Moore (PhD '15) has two recent papers to share:
“Determinants of emissions pathways in the coupled climate-social system” in Nature. Frances also wrote a Guest Post at Carbon Brief on the paper.
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Josheena Naggea (5th) was invited as a panelist for the Commonwealth Blue Charter event on the occasion of International Women's Day to share and celebrate experiences of ocean experts and champions, with the goal of raising the profile of women in ocean-related research. |
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Bianca Santos (PhD 3rd) published a paper with Gabrielle Wong-Parodi on "News coverage of ocean issues and its impacts on public perceptions and conservation information-seeking of sea turtles" in Conservation Science and Practice.
Bianca also co-chaired a session entitled “Climate Impacts on Marine Fish, Fisheries, and Protected Species” at the 2022 Ocean Sciences Meeting.
Lin Shi (PhD 21’) recently published "Functionality-based life cycle assessment framework: An information and communication technologies (ICT) product case study” in Journal of Industrial Ecology.
Nicola Ulibarri (PhD '15) would like to share a few recent publications:
Leehi Yona (PhD 4th) published a paper on " Factors influencing the development and implementation of national greenhouse gas inventory methodologies" in Routledge.
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Contributors to this issue include:
Gabriela Magana, Maile Kuida, Mele Wheaton, Ann Marie Pettigrew,
Ai Tran, Ada Statler, Leehi Yona, Gemma Smith
Edited by:
The E-IPER Staff
Thank you for continuing to support E-IPER!
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