About the 2024 Program:

The inaugural Science Justice Summer School (SJSS) brought together climate scientists, Indigenous leaders, community organizers, urban planners, and policy researchers for two weeks of immersive learning in Seattle and the broader Pacific Northwest. Held July 10–24, 2024, the program guided participants through the deep connections between climate justice, Indigenous sovereignty, and community power.

We brought together climate scientists, Indigenous leaders, community organizers, urban planners, and policy researchers to explore the intersections of climate justice, Indigenous sovereignty, and community power. Sessions moved from foundational topics like intersectionality, systems of power, settler colonialism, and decolonization — into applied themes like the political ecology of energy transitions, alternative economics and degrowth, coastal adaptation, Indigenizing design, mutual aid, co-governance, and community-led research.

Learning extended beyond the classroom through field experiences, including a critical geographies walking tour of Seattle, a visit to the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and a garden tour with Black Star Farmers, a coalition dedicated to land reclamation and food sovereignty. Each day featured communal meals and space for dialogue between academic researchers, tribal leaders, organizers, and participants, grounding climate science in justice, sovereignty, and community self-determination.

Schedule at a glance:

• Thursday Jul 11 Foundations of climate and justice
• Friday Jul 12 Waterlines Project / Indigenous plant walk
• Monday Jul 15 Co-production and transdisciplinary research / Health & climate
• Tuesday Jul 16 Capitalism / Climate adaptation
• Wednesday Jul 17 Swinomish visit – traditional foods, cultural sovereignty, community engagement, clam garden, climate adaptation
• Thursday Jul 18 Regenerative & circular economies
• Friday Jul 19 Community and Indigenous Science
• Sunday Jul 21 Backyard buoys program field trip
• Monday Jul 22 Policy and governance models
• Tuesday Jul 23 Designing climate resilient futures and community engagement
• Wednesday Jul 24 Field trip to Community Garden

2024 Cohort:

Anna Malesis (she/her)
Anna is a Ph.D. student in the Urban Ecology Research Lab at the University of Washington College of Built Environments. She has a BS in Environmental Science and a Master of Urban Planning. Her research interests include scenario planning, urban complexity, landscape ecology, climate adaptation, urban eco-evolutionary dynamics, and planning for both people and nature. She is also pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Climate Science. She enjoys spending time outdoors.

Rachel Gates (she/her)
Rachel works as a Development Associate at FSC Investments & Partnership. Her prior work experience spans the environmental sector from serving as an AmeriCorps Communications and Operations Fellow at an environmental nonprofit, teaching fifth grade earth science at a Bronx, NY charter school, and interning at the City of Palo Alto’s Zero Waste department. She also has a strong mixed-methods research background, having studied salt-stress in plants at Stanford, Indigenous tourism in Panama, the deep chlorophyll maximum in river plumes at Barnard College of Columbia University (B.A. Environmental Science, 2020), and best practices for community engagement during tidal and wave energy at the University of Washington (Master’s in Marine Affairs, 2024). For fun, she cooks vegan meals, plays with her toy poodle Maple, and reads prolifically.

Katie Webb (she/her)
I have a BA in Anthropology from Stanford and a MPH from UC Berkeley. I am currently a PhD student in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at UW. Before returning to school for a PhD, I worked in healthcare. My research focuses on sustainable agriculture and the impacts of climate change on food security and nutrition. My hobbies include playing the piano, hanging out with my family, and exploring new places around Seattle and beyond. We enjoy art, food, and a variety of outdoor activities.

Katherine Misfud (she/they/them)
I am entering my third year as a graduate student in Atmospheric Science. My research focuses on cloud-aerosol interactions and geoengineering, but I am especially passionate about climate justice and am excited to learn how I can intersect this with my research. I am also co-chair of the Women in Atmospheric Science group on campus and regularly work with the Atmos. department in public, academic outreach for nearby school districts to teach children about climate change! Outside of academia, I am a competitive aerial dancer.

Yveline Saint Louis (pronounced eve-lean) (she/her)
I am a 3rd year Anthropology PhD student born and raised in the DMV area but moved here to Seattle from Florida. In my grad program, I am interested in Afrofuturism as a creative methodology to approach my research situated at the intersections of Black Agroecologies, food sovereignty, and climate justice. When I’m not reading, studying astrology & tarot, or listening to podcasts, you can catch me gardening or chilling with my cutie patootie Black cat Piper.

Stella Heflin (she/her)
I am a PhD student in the Atmospheric Sciences program at UW working on understanding the impacts of climate change on precipitation and the water cycle, with a focus on large storm systems. I am interested in the implications of my work for water resource management and am also passionate about science communication and the intersection of science and policy. I enjoy trail running, reading (every genre but especially sci-fi, non-fiction and poetry), hiking, cooking, and gardening.

Kayla Morton (she/her)
I am a PhD student in Political Science studying international environmental governance and just transition climate policy. My current research examines the role of UNFCCC COP Presidents in agenda-setting and their position in the international community, and deep-sea mining as a contributor or detriment to just transition. In my undergraduate, I majored in environmental science and political science with a minor in ecology. At UW, I served on the Graduate Steering Committee of the Program on Climate Change last year, and will be a Clean Energy Institute Fellow this coming year. In my spare time, I’m usually hiking in the mountains (newfound Washington interest) or reading on the beach (carry-over from growing up in Florida).

Mark Nepf (he/him)
Mark is a Ph.D. student in the Evans School at the University of Washington. His research interests center around environmental justice and marine policy. Prior to joining the doctoral program, Mark worked for the Environmental Protection Agency (assessing equity within the Brownfields program), the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (evaluating the influence of coastal water quality impairments on tourism rates), and Resources For The Future (calculating preventable deaths resulting from gaps in air quality monitoring, determined by comparing ground and satellite data). His master’s thesis explored the impact that coastal algal blooms have had on Long Island, NY home values.

Matt Grosser (He/Him/His)
Current Interdisciplinary PhD Student – University of Washington: College of Built Environments
M.L.A. (Master of Landscape Architecture), University of Washington: College of Built Environments (2020)
B.S. Sustainable Urban Environments, New York University: Tandon School of Engineering (2015)
Matt’s research focuses on how ecosystem-based infrastructural adaptation strategies can serve as a mechanism for combating the impacts of climate change, with a specific interest in the role that critical ecologies and keystone species can play in resilience/adaptation design and planning. His work investigates how traditional and emerging ecosystem-based infrastructural techniques could be improved and more broadly applied, as well as how the resultant socio-ecological bonds formed by the implementation of these strategies may elevate the role of ecological systems thinking for design and planning practices within the built environment.

Amber Khan (she/her)
I am a PhD candidate in the department of environmental and occupational health sciences (DEOHS) at the School of public health. My research interests are around climate displacement and migration, as well as disaster risk management around low-income housing and unhoused communities. In my research, I utilize mixed methods but am most excited about qualitative and community-based participatory research. I received a MPH from UC Berkeley in environmental epidemiology and am from the SF Bay Area. In my free time, I love rock and ice climbing, trail running with my husky, and cooking.

Nick Hadjimichael (he/him)
Nick is a Ph.D. student at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. He is an applied geographer who uses spatial science techniques and analysis to support his research agenda focused on environmental justice, health geography, and collaborative governance. Prior to joining Evans, he received a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the Price School at the University of Southern California and a B.A. in economics and in public policy studies from the University of Chicago. His current research agenda is on three related topics: U.S. state and federal environmental justice screening and mapping tools; the incoherence of environmental justice policy in the U.S.; and supporting community power building and advocacy efforts by communities impacted by fossil fuel and ‘green’ alternatives development. In his free time, Nick enjoys spending time with loved ones, listening to and making music, and reading.

Estefania Kendall (she/her)
I am passionate about sustainable development, focusing on economic prosperity, social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and good governance. I am pursuing a Master of Public Administration at Seattle University, where I also work as a Senior Administrative Assistant at the Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture. My academic journey includes a Bachelor of Business Administration with an emphasis on Entrepreneurship from the Universidad de los Llanos in Colombia, my home country. I have lived in Mexico and Venezuela and have now lived in Seattle for five years with my husband and our dog, Tazer. I enjoy camping, kayaking, biking, and exploring the PNW.

Meagan Carmack (she/her/hers)
Meagan is a sub-national environmental politics scholar particularly interested in policy-driven maladaptation, non-human policy governance and policy-based redressal to environmental justice issues. Her doctoral fields of study include comparative politics, international relations, and political methodology. Meagan is currently working on four manuscripts: a systematic review of maladaptation literatures, policy evaluations of biodiversity conservation regimes, an overview for mechanisms which produce conditional maladaptation in biodiversity policy, and how systems of inequality induce maladaptation. Other recent projects include a look into the electoral payoffs for the Green New Deal for House Democrat incumbents in the 2020 national elections, which indicate that climate credentials do matter, but that these signals must be highly publicized to gain traction in partner with Aseem Prakash and Nives Dolsak, titled Electoral appeal of climate policies: The Green New Deal and the 2020 U.S. House of Representatives Elections

Mabel Santos (she/her/hers)
Maria Santos is a PhD student in Forestry at the University of Washington, studies post-fire regeneration in the Amazon Rainforest. Her engineering background, with a Master’s in Environmental Engineering following her Civil Engineering studies in Brazil, informs her research that connects regeneration and remote sensing. When not working, Maria enjoys reading, baking, and working out.

Manpreet Karla (she/her)
Manpreet Kaur Kalra (she/her) is a Business and Human Rights scholar. Her research weaves together corporate accountability, impact communication, storytelling for social movements and their intersection with sustainable development policy. As the founder of Art of Citizenry, she works with global social enterprises to co-create community-led solutions that prioritize economic, social, and climate justice within their supply chains. Manpreet’s work focuses on impact strategy, measurement, and reporting. Her activism has focused on land-rights, particularly the rights of small farmers in post-partition Punjab. Holding a Master of Jurisprudence in Sustainable International Development from the University of Washington School of Law, Manpreet’s academic and professional pursuits are centered on bridging the gap between human rights and legal mechanisms to enhance corporate due diligence. She currently serves as a Human Rights Law Fellow with Global Rights Advocacy, a Sustainable Business Law Fellow at the University of Washington School of Law, and is a member of the Fair Trade Federation’s Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. You can find her often walking her 15-year-old dog, Bobo, who knows all the best places to get treats in Capitol Hill.

About the 2025 Program:

In 2025, CERSI hosted fellows from various Washington state fellowship programs, including fellows from the new Washington Sea Grant Coastal Resilience Fellowship program. This program was a week-long workshop hosted at the UW Olympic Natural Resources Center campus in Forks, Washington. Field trips included visits to the Elwha River, Rialto Beach, and the Hoh Tribe. The 2025 focus leaned strongly into Indigenous environmental ethics, coastal resilience, and climate adaptation theory and practice through classroom and field-based learning. Emerging professionals were exposed to holistic views of climate resilience and created community along the way. 

Schedule at a glance:

• Monday Sep 15 Elwha Dam Removal Site Visit / Introduction sessions
• Tuesday Sep 16 Washington Sea Grant Orientation / Indigenous Environmental Ethics
• Wednesday Sep 17 Ho Tribe visit – garden & relocation sites
• Thursday Sep 18 Carceral system & climate change / Coastal resilience (Rialto Beach field trip)
• Friday Sep 19 Climate and farming practices (Finn River site visit) 

Read more about the 2025 program here.

2025 Cohort:

Elyse Kelsey
As a WSG Coastal Resilience Fellow, Elyse works with the Quinault Indian Nation’s Emergency Management Department to increase capacity for community resilience in the face of coastal hazards and the effects of climate change.

Nadia Hare
Nadia is a NOAA Coastal Resilience fellow at the Washington Department of Ecology working on developing participatory engagement strategies, assisting with HEAL Act compliance and facilitating community-based workshops.

Anabel Baker
Anabel Baker is a Washington Sea Grant Coastal Resilience Fellow co-hosted by Chinook Indian Nation and Columbia Land Trust.

Danielle Mantz
Danielle is currently working for a state agency that focuses on restoration in the Puget Sound both ecologically and with regard to human dimensions. Climate resilience is a crucial aspect of future restoration efforts in our region.

Gabe Diephuis
Gabe conducts research on Salish Sea biogeochemical cycling in marine sediments.

Robyn Norman
As a NOAA Coastal Management Fellow with the Washington Department of Ecology, Robyn is interested in how coastal hazards intersect with the longevity and equitable use of shoreline public access locations in Washington including collaborative resiliency efforts and planning in these spaces.

Emma Van Orsow
Emma is a NOAA Coastal Resilience Fellow at King County, serving the Puget Sound Preparedness Collaborative’s Small Communities Cohort Program. Through this program, she helps small jurisdictions and Tribes initiate climate preparedness efforts in their communities.

Adriana Apintiloaiei
Adriana is a NOAA Coastal Resilience Fellow working with King County to build small communities’ resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Ruby DiCarlo
Ruby is a NOAA Coastal Resilience Fellow working on engaging storytelling projects that celebrate and uplift community-centered coastal resilience projects around the state.