Category: Environment

Environment

Emma Robbins

by NPR Source of the Week

Emma Robbins is the director of the Navajo Water Project, which provides infrastructure for Navajo families to access running water in New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. The project is a part of the water nonprofit DigDeep.

Native American households face barriers to accessing running water. About 30% of families on the Navajo reservation don’t have running water, according to the project. Robbins joined the project after growing up in an area with a high concentration of water poverty. She is a Diné artist, and uses her work to raise awareness about the need for clean water across all Native American nations. She is also an Aspen Institute Health Communities Fellow. 

Robbins has been interviewed by the magazine Marie Claire about how Navajo women have been on the frontlines fighting COVID-19 and AZCentral on how the nation’s water shortage may exacerbate the virus’ spread.

Emma Robbins headshot

Location: Los Angeles, Calif. 

Expertise: Activism, environmentalism, water access 

Contact info:

Email: press@digdeep.org

Last updated: May 17,2020

Environment, Law

Shalanda Baker

by NPR Source of the Week

Shalanda Baker is a Professor of Law, Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. She is an expert on energy and environmental policy.

Baker also found the Energy Justice Program at the William S. Richardson School of Law of the University of Hawai’i. She is also a Fulbright scholar and completed a William H. Hastie Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Prior to teaching, she worked as a corporate and project finance associate for the law firm Bingham McCutchen.

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Areas of Expertise: Energy Policy, Environmental Policy, Sustainable Development 

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Contact Info:

Email: s.baker@northeastern.edu

Phone: (617) 373-4070

She can be heard here:

Environment

Kiho Kim

by NPR Source of the Week

Kiho Kim is a professor of Environmental Science at American University. His work focuses on how environmental drivers, such as climate change and nutrient pollution, impact coastal ecosystem health. 

At the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Kim has examined the origins and spreading of diseases. He has worked with the British Council in promoting international networking for young scientists, and was an advisor to the Coral Disease Working Group of the World Bank.

Kim is a member of the Environmental Literacy Committee of the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, Washington D.C.

He completed two terms as a member of the Ocean Studies Board of the National Academies (USA) and as an officer of the International Society for Reef Studies.

Kiho

Areas of Expertise: Environmental Science, Biology, Marine Conservation

Location: Washington D.C.

Contact:

Email: kiho@american.edu

Phone number: (202) 885-2181

He can be heard here: 

Environment, Health

Regina Shih

by NPR Source of the Week

Regina Shih is a Senior Policy Researcher at the RAND Corporation where she leads the Climate Change and Health Group. She conducts research in three primary areas: environmental health, aging, and mental health.

Shih has led environmental health projects to develop a toolkit to improve older adults’ resilience to climate change, to identify chemical exposures following climate change-related storms and flooding, and to estimate the health effects of lead exposure and ambient air pollution. She has been cited in outlets such as NPR, CNN, and US News and World Report.

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Senior Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation

Areas of Expertise: Environmental Health, Climate Change, Dementia, Long-Term Care, Substance Use, Neighborhoods and Health

Location: Washington, DC

Contact Information:
Email: media@rand.org

As Heard On Public Radio East: “Sleep Problems Prevalent Among Military”

Environment, Politics

Christopher Smith

by NPR Source of the Week

Christopher Smith is the Baker Institute Advisory Board Fellow in Energy Studies at Rice University and previously served as the assistant secretary for fossil energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. During his time at the DOE, Chris oversaw the department’s fossil energy research and development program (coal, oil and natural gas), the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and the natural gas regulatory process.

He writes about carbon markets and energy transitions and how policy can address concerns of local communities adversely affected by shifts in energy-use patterns.

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Baker Institute Advisory Board Fellow in Energy Studies, Rice University
Managing Partner, Paladin Equity, LLC.

Areas of Expertise: Energy Studies, Fossil Energy, Coal, Natural Gas, Energy Use, Energy Policy

Location: Washington, DC

Contact Information:
Email: chris.smith0226@gmail.com
Phone: (202) 320-6659

Heard on: The Aaron Harber Show

Environment, Health

Anita Chandra

by NPR Source of the Week

Anita Chandra is the director of the Justice, Infrastructure, and Environment program at the RAND Corporation. Her research focuses on long-term disaster recovery, community resilience, and urban planning. Chandra’s recent publications have focused on the private sector’s role in emergency preparedness and disaster response.

Chandra has been cited by a number of outlets, including NBC, PBS, and the Washington Post. Prior to her position as JIE director, she served as director of RAND’s Behavioral and Policy Sciences Department. She earned a Dr.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Director of the Justice, Infrastructure, and Environment program, RAND Corporation

Areas of Expertise: Community Resilience, Emergency Preparedness, Disaster Recovery, Urban Planning, Mental Health and Illness, Military Families, Childhood Development, Community-based Health Care

Location: Washington, DC

Contact Information:
Email: media@rand.org

Heard on NPR’s Tell Me More: Military Families Cope With The Stress Of War

 

Environment, Law

Maxine Burkett

by NPR Source of the Week

Maxine Burkett is a professor of law at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She is also the co-founder and senior advisor to the nonprofit Institute for Climate and Peace.

Burkett is an expert in the law and policy of climate change, with a specific focus on climate justice, climate litigation, climate-induced migration, and climate change, peace, and conflict.  At the Wilson Center, Burkett works with the Environmental Change and Security Program on climate impacts in frontline communities, including small island states, and climate change and foreign policy.

Her work has been cited in several news and policy outlets, including BBC Radio, the New York Times, the Washington Post and Nature Climate Change.

She serves on the boards of Blue Planet Foundation, The Climate Museum, ELAW, and Global Greengrants Fund. Burkett is also a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform, the Lancet Commission for Reparations and Redistributive Justice, and the American Law Institute.

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Areas of Expertise: Climate policy and law, climate-induced migration

Location: Honolulu, HI

Contact Information:
E-mail: burkettm@hawaii.edu
Phone: (808) 956-2865 (o) | (808) 478-2146 (c)

Last updated: April 10, 2020

Environment

Shuyi Chen

by NPR Source of the Week

Shuyi Chen is a professor of meteorology in the University of Washington’s School of Atmospheric Sciences. Her research interests involve observation of how the atmosphere and ocean interact with hurricanes and typhoons in tropical areas and use of mathematical models to predict weather patterns. During the 2005 hurricane season Chen monitored hurricanes Rita, Katrina and Wilma aboard Doppler-equipped aircraft to help create stronger hurricane prediction models.

Prior to joining the University of Washington, Chen was a professor of meteorology and physical oceanography in the University of Miami’s Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. While there she led a research group that developed a new wave-ocean model designed to research and predict hurricane patterns. Dr. Chen has served on a panel of experts for the congressional briefing on the National Hurricane Initiative in 2007. In 2006 she received NASA’s Group Award on Tropical Convection.

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Professor of Meteorology, University of Washington
Location: Seattle, WA

Areas of Expertise: Meteorology, tropical weather patterns, environmental changes, hurricanes and typhoons, hurricane prediction, atmospheric science, ocean systems

Contact Information
E-mail: shuyic@uw.edu
Phone: (305) 479-6551

Economics, Environment

Mustafa Santiago Ali

by NPR Source of the Week

Mustafa Santiago Ali is the senior vice president of Climate, Environmental Justice & Community Revitalization for the Hip Hop Caucus., a national non-profit and non-partisan organization that connects the Hip Hop community to the civic process to build power and create positive change.

He previously served for 24 years at high-levels within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and has worked with over 500 domestic and international communities to secure environmental, health and economic justice reforms. At the EPA, he served as the Assistant Associate Administrator for Environmental Justice and Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice and Community Revitalization. Ali has been a guest lecturer at Yale University and George Washington University, to name a few. He is also a former instructor at West Virginia University and Stanford University in Washington.

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Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy, Texas Southern University

Areas of Expertise: Climate, Environment, Community Revitalization, Environmental, Health, and Economic Justice

Location: Washington, DC

Contact Information:
Email press contact Mark Antoniewicz:
Email: Mark@HipHopCaucus.org

Environment

Robert D. Bullard

by NPR Source of the Week

Robert D. Bullard is the Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University, where he formerly served as dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland school of public affairs from 2011 to 2016. Prior to going to TSU he was founding director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. He has been described as the “father of environmental justice.”

Bullard is the author of eighteen books that address sustainable development, environmental racism, urban land use, community reinvestment, housing, transportation, climate justice, emergency response, and regional equity. He was featured in the July 2007 CNN People You Should Know and in 2008 Newsweek named him one of the 13 Environmental Leaders of the Century. His latest books include Environmental Health and Racial Equity in the United States: Strategies for Building Just, Sustainable and Livable Communities (2011) and Wrong Complexion for Protection: How the Government Response to Disaster Endangers African American Communities (2012).

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Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University

Areas of Expertise: Environmental Health, Environmental Justice, Environmental Policy, Environmental Racism, Sustainable Development, Urban Land Use

Location: Houston, Texas

Contact Info:

Email: bullardrd@tsu.edu
Cell: (832) 470-3434
Twitter: @DrBobBullard