Carolina Prado

Carolina Prado is an advocate on issues of cross-border social environmental justice and governance at the U.S.-México border. As a Ph.D, candidate in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California Berkeley, her research focused on the Tijuana-San Diego region analyzing the collaboration between social movement actors/citizens and governmental agencies, and the coalition work between social movement actors across the U.S.-México border working toward environmental justice. The foci of her dissertation are hazardous waste sites, air pollution and environmental stewardship of binational rivers. She implemented the impacts of her research through strengthening community participation in border governance institutions. Carolina also earned a B.A. in Women's Studies and Sustainability and Environmental Studies from San Diego State University. As part of her praxis in community-academy coalition building, Carolina has been active in environmental justice advocacy and activism for six years with the Chilpancingo Collective for Environmental Justice in Tijuana, México. Outside of her environmental justice work, she participates with collectives in San Diego and Oakland on increasing access to healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods. Carolina also highly values her teaching and mentoring at the university as she sees education as a key strategy for creating more diverse participation in governance institutions and social movements. Through her research, teaching, and advocacy work, Carolina envisions transforming the cross-border environment to be more healthy and just for communities on both sides of the border.