Environmental & Social Justice

Fellow Story

Vaquero receives Equal Justice Works Fellowship

Idalmis Vaquero will defend the environmental and housing rights of Black and Latinx families impacted by industrial lead contamination in East and Southeast Los Angeles.
May 26, 2021
Fellow Story

New Deal for National Security

Kartikeya Singh reflects that the Biden administration's first 100 days in office indicate "it has every intention to reestablish a social contract between the people and their government. If implemented well, this renewed social contract, with an emphasis on climate action and environmental justice, would be the best guarantor of U.S. national security."
May 10, 2021
Fellow Story

Richter co-edits special issue of Environmental Sociology: Race and the Environment

Switzer fellow Lauren Richter co-edited a special issue of Environmental Sociology on "Race and the Environment" with Raoul Lievanos, Elisabeth Wilder, Jennifer Carrera, and Michael Mascarenhas.
April 29, 2021
Fellow Story

Policy options to address climate induced displacement from the Northern Triangle

Camila Bustos is part of an expert group from Harvard, Yale, and the University Network for Human Rights calling on Biden administration to revise immigration and climate policy to afford protections to those fleeing devastating climate change impacts in Central America.
April 29, 2021
Fellow Story

McClure co-directs Indigenous Nations & Climate Change Summit April 21-23, 2021

The Indigenous Nations & Climate Change Summit ​(INCCS) ​will convene distinguished experts, leaders, practitioners, and ​Indigenous ​nations ​to discuss critical climate change topics from April 21-23, 2021. The Summit is co-directed by Switzer Fellow Kelly McClure.
April 20, 2021
Fellow Story

April 19-23, 2021 is Black in Environment Week

Black In Environment is hosting #BlackInEnvironWeek on April 19th - 23rd with a series of events to highlight and build community among Black environmentalists globally. Dr. Regan Patterson, 2018 Switzer Fellow, is the co-founder and co-organizer of Black In Environment, a member organization of Black in X.
April 19, 2021
Fellow Story

Bayshore Breathing Space for All

Jessica Davenport's opinion article in the San Francisco Estuary News highlights the importance of equitable access to nature and community engagement in conservation in the Bay Area.
April 13, 2021
Fellow Story

Howe quoted in Peak Grantmaking's Weekly Insights on Tracking Grantee Demographics

Lauren Howe shared her insights on collecting and leveraging grantee demographic data in a recent article by Peak Grantmaking: CONNECTing on Tracking Grantee Demographics. Lauren is the Program Administrator for Healthy Food for Denver's Kids and a 2018 Switzer Fellow.
April 12, 2021
Fellow Story

Wheeler co-authors study on unequal burden of rising temperatures in Southwestern cities

Acres of asphalt parking lots, unshaded roads, dense apartment complexes and neighborhoods with few parks have taken their toll on the poor. As climate change accelerates, low-income districts in the Southwestern United States are 4 to 7 degrees hotter in Fahrenheit — on average — than wealthy neighborhoods in the same metro regions, University of California, Davis, researchers have found in a new analysis.
April 12, 2021
Fellow Story

Lerman co-leads first urban long-term ecosystem research site in Midwest

Switzer Fellow Susannah Lerman, Research Ecologist with the USDA Forest Service, is a co-lead of a partnership with the University of Minnesota that will establish the first urban long-term ecosystem research (LTER) site in the Midwest. Funded by a $7.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the Minneapolis-Saint Paul (MSP) Long-Term Ecological Research Program will focus on the dynamics of urban nature and the urban social system in the face of rapid environmental and social change.
March 31, 2021