There’s nothing more exciting to me than talking about sustainability and building better cities. I enjoy working with others to find solutions rooted in the needs of the communities I work in.
The city bug really took off while I was studying for an MSc at University College London. I took courses on sustainable development and geopolitics. I learned about complex political theories and placemaking in public and private spaces. I worked for a social enterprise promoting agroforestry out of the Borough Market. To wrap up my degree, I spent three months in Houston interviewing residents and political officials about the decision-making process during disasters like Hurricane Harvey.
In January 2020, I completed a year of service as an Americorps VISTA with the County of Hawaii’s Department of Research and Development. My main focus was on finding housing solutions in the wake of the 2018 Kilauea eruption. I helped carry out a robust community engagement strategy for Kilauea Recovery and aided in building capacity for the team. In this role, I was constantly learning best practices in local government, planning, disaster management, and community-based participatory processes.
Since then, I’ve found my niche: community engagement and the environment. Intersectional approaches to solving global issues are, in my opinion, the only way forward. In order to continue to broaden my knowledge and experiences in the space of green policy and renewable energy, I started working with Austin Energy in August 2020 as a Conservation Program Associate. This position allowed me to bridge community engagement and programmatic support in energy efficiency.
To continue learning and growing my skills in the field, I started a Ph.D. in 2021 at the University of Minnesota in the Natural Resource Science and Management program. I work as a research assistant in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Long Term Ecological Research Study with Dr. Forrest Fleischman and Dr. Kristen Nelson on urban environmental governance. My area of focus is on flooding, affordable housing, and environmental justice.I have three years of experience in working on renewable energy projects, climate change, and disasters. I have worked on residential solar projects at Austin Energy. I assisted in community-based research after the 2018 Kilauea eruption and subsequent disaster recovery reporting. I have written for publication and presented research findings to audiences of 100+ individuals. I am currently working to understand the impacts of climate change on flood risk in the Twin Cities.
