We are happy to share our newest cohort of Switzer Fellows with you. Please enjoy this video highlighting each 2021 fellow, and dig deeper into their expertise, studies and motivations in the following excerpts from their profiles.
Visit our website to find out about all our fellows and the foundation’s latest news.
Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara
Gabriela’s research focuses on two distinct yet interconnected areas: how politics affect climate change adaptation processes, and how violence against environmental activists impacts environmental outcomes.
J.D., UC Berkeley
Alicia’s experiences organizing with community drive her to pursue a legal career in planning and environmental justice to contribute to the creation of new, healthier and more autonomous realities for Black communities around the U.S.
Ph.D., Antioch New England
Clara’s yearlong study on diversity in the climate movement will engage over 1000 climate activists from all walks of life and create a roadmap for improving diversity and equity.
M.S., UC Santa Cruz
Diana’s experiences as an environmental educator and community science coordinator confirmed her commitment to ensuring the self-determination of disadvantaged, front-line communities and their rights to clean air, clean water and green space.
Ph.D., MIT
Aja finds joy in building reciprocal relationships between people and land. She works with multiethnic, Indigenous-led farm and garden communities who practice community stewardship over the lands they drink, eat and live on.
M. Architecture, Yale University
Josh's belief in designing for social impact led him to a design group in Rwanda, where he and his teammates designed and built an agricultural university with a mission of training the next generation of leaders in conservation agriculture.
Ph.D., Dartmouth College
Trained as an environmental anthropologist, Grant believes that the stories we tell – and how we tell them – are intimately important to how we do the work of environmental justice.
M.S., University of Maine
Through campaigning with Greenpeace and sailing extensively in the Atlantic Ocean, Paloma was inspired to understand more deeply the roots of environmental crises and how they intertwine with issues of equity and justice.
M.D., Brown University
Sarah's research focuses on healthcare sustainability, and as part of her master's thesis, she conducted and published the first ever waste audit of a U.S. Emergency Department.
J.D., Yale University
A.J. spent five years teaching and helped to found a public high school in one of the most disenfranchised, polluted and over policed neighborhoods in New York City, inspiring his passion for building an environmental movement rooted in lived experience and civil rights.
MBA/MPP, MIT and Harvard
Ángel's work focuses on expanding clean energy and ensuring low-income and communities of color are part of and benefit from the clean energy transition.
Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara
Timnit researches the sources, fates and pathways of microplastics in urban soils and proximal coastal sediments. As a city kid herself, she believes the urban environment deserves to be healthy and pollution-free for communities like her own and beyond.
M.S., University of New Hampshire
Natalie has devoted her career to assisting coastal communities with the sustainable management of their marine resources, leveraging her understanding of social-ecological systems as a commercial salmon fisher and Aquatic Reserve Coordinator.
Ph.D., UMass Amherst
Meghna researches how fish respond to climate change in order to support conservation and food efforts and engage more diverse stakeholders in climate change research to ensure research goals support those most impacted.
Ph.D., UC Davis
Deniss informs settler and Tribal governments on strategies for solving the climate crisis in a way that uplifts Tribal sovereignty, justice for communities of color, and decision-making based on values of reciprocity, responsibility and seven generation thinking.
MPH, UC Berkeley
Originally from the island of Saipan, Aaron and his family moved to southern California where his lived experiences led to a commitment to reduce health inequities in overlooked communities through community-based action.
M.S., San Diego State University
Thomas’s research interests in water quality, conservation and native plants have led him to monitor the fate and behavior of emerging chemicals such as personal care products, pesticides, herbicides and pharmaceuticals in treated wastewater.
Ph.D., Cal Tech
Eshaan is committed to providing access to clean and affordable energy to underserved communities via the deployment of cutting-edge renewable energy technology. His research aims to develop batteries for renewable energy storage at scale.
Ph.D., UC Davis
Natalia specializes in agroecology as a way to reduce on-farm and global climate risk. Her research focuses on how California farmers are preparing for, responding to and recovering from wildfires.
Ph.D., UCLA
Tanner uses environmental DNA metabarcoding to assess the impact of coastal restoration and conservation efforts in collaborative research partnerships with local NGOs.
