Sarah Chambliss is an environmental engineer specializing in urban air quality with a focus on the drivers of neighborhood-scale pollution gradients and their implications for exposure and environmental justice. Her recent work has investigated connections between within-city air pollution patterns and local disparity in asthma morbidity.

Bio/ Info

coming soon

Natasha (Quynh Nhu) Bui La Frinere-Sandoval is finishing her Ph.D. program at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Her research focuses on increasing access to general health care, enhancing the effectiveness of care, and reducing health disparities across ethnic minority populations. She utilizes contextual analysis to explore the complex interaction of socioeconomic conditions, race, and place in explaining health disparities to inform policy and practice. Natasha is currently working with Dr. Catherine Cubbin on research projects that examine how neighborhood environments and individual factors such as education, income, race/ethnicity, and acculturation simultaneously contribute to inequalities in minority women’s preventive, maternal, and cardiovascular health.

Stephen Zigmund: Stephen received his Doctor of Philosophy in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Austin. His scholarship explores the ways that inequality and injustice are produced through urban planning, especially via the application of science and technology to social contexts. Currently, his research focuses on the relationship between zoning and land use planning policies, the generation of air pollution, and racial and ethnic minority asthma disparities in the Austin region.

Leah Cox loves using dance to discover new ideas, orient in the world and connect to others. Cox is a dancer/collaborator in Liz Lerman’s latest piece, Wicked Bodies, and a frequent adjudicator for the American College Dance Association. She is the creator of the Failure Collective, an interdisciplinary, intergenerational workshop that explores the creative possibilities that arise when we embrace failure and work in unfamiliar contexts. Her current creative projects include Group Therapy, an evening-length solo made in collaboration with George Staib, artistic director of staibdance. Cox was Dean of the American Dance Festival from 2015-2022 and served on the New York Dance and Performance “Bessie" Award Committee from 2015-2018. She worked with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company for 14 years, first as a company dancer and subsequently as the Company’s first education director. Her teaching was featured in the documentary about Bill T. Jones, entitled A Good Man, which aired on PBS nationwide. Dance Teacher Magazine celebrated Cox with a feature story in May 2016.

Adam Rabinowitz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Classics, at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the Acting Director of the Institute of Classical Archaeology, and a founding member and former Faculty Chair (2021-22) of the Theme Organizing Committee of the Planet Texas 2050 Grand Challenge. He is an active field archaeologist with a current project at the Greek and Roman site of Histria in Romania, with interests including ancient colonization and the archaeology of food and drink. With colleagues in Geosciences, Geography, and Integrative Biology, he is one of the leaders of the Stories of Ancient Resilience flagship.

Starla Simmons, LCSW-S is a Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of the Earl Maxwell Scholar Program at the UT Steve Hicks School of Social Work. She is strongly rooted in racial justice and liberation, with a passion for supporting the vitality, resilience, and collectivism of Black, Indigenous, and communities of color. Starla has over a decade of experience as a school social worker, providing a range of direct care services to students, families, and staff. She worked as the liaison and coordinator for Austin ISD’s School Mental Health Centers, providing consultation and operational support for school-based therapy services at 19 middle and high schools. Starla is a skilled and experienced facilitator around racial equity, social justice and holistic practices such as mindfulness and eco-therapy. Previously, she served as Interim Executive Director for Black Mamas ATX, and Board Chair for Mama Sana Vibrant Woman. In 2016, Starla served as Austin leader for the national non-profit Outdoor Afro, which celebrates and inspires Black leadership in nature. At home, Starla is mama Bear to her two children Maya and Langston and spirited partner to her husband, Thomas. She loves exploring natural swimming holes, sitting under trees, camping and creative expression.

Nancy Carlson is a PhD student in Organizational Communication and Technology at The Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research primarily focuses on disaster communication and preparedness, specifically, the difficulties and challenges faced by vulnerable and marginalized communities during natural disasters. Nancy has co-authored textbook chapters on disaster rescue communication and qualitative research, specifically negotiating access. She has also co-authored articles on disaster preparedness barriers and risk information seeking. Nancy is a part of two research groups, Optic Lab (Organizing Practices through Technology, Information, and Communication) and TIPI (Technology and Information Policy Institute). She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and a Master's in disaster studies, both from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Jovana Andelkovic, M.A., is currently a doctoral student at The University of Texas in Austin studying Organizational Communication and Technology. With an interest in disaster preparedness, risk, and health communication, Jovana actively engages in diverse projects focused on flood awareness. Her commitment extends to involving communities in decision-making processes. Her research delves into the impact of natural disasters on health, examining the role of communication in raising awareness. Her work explores how effective messaging can contribute to heightened awareness and preparedness in the face of crises. Jovana takes pride in contributing to projects that transcend academia, aiming to create tangible change in communities. Her commitment to making a difference underscores her passion for bridging the gap between research and practical solutions.

Jiayu Sun, MA, is a doctoral candidate and instructor of Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research explores how individuals and communities use social media in the workplace and crisis situations. Her recent research projects examine how disaster-impacted communities organize through communicative practices to make reliable decisions for emergency response.

Matt is a PhD Candidate at the University of Texas at Austin in the Environmental and Water Resources Engineering program. Matt received both a master’s in engineering and master’s in public affairs from UT Austin where he has been researching the social dimensions of natural hazards using variety of modeling approaches. Matt’s work has received funding from the NSF and NASA, and continuously developing open-source tools to support equity and environmental justice research efforts.

Hyunje Yang is born in 1994 in Daejeon, South Korea. He completed his undergraduate and master's degrees at Seoul National University and worked for five years at the National Institute of Forest Science. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD at the University of Texas at Austin. His research is focusing on hydrology and coastal engineering. He is studying storm surges and developing predictive models for storm surges, which have a significant impact on coastal areas, by integrating AI technology.

Dr. Matt Bartos is an Assistant Professor in the Environmental and Water Resources group in the Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. His background combines domain expertise in hydraulics and hydrology with a cross-disciplinary focus in embedded systems, signal processing, and control theory. His research investigates real-time sensing, modeling, and control of water infrastructure with applications to urban flood mitigation, water quality remediation, and management of coupled critical infrastructure systems. Current research projects include development of digital twin models for urban stormwater infrastructure; low-power wireless sensor networks for online monitoring of urban drainage systems; real-time control strategies for reduction of nonpoint-source pollutants in stormwater networks; new techniques for contaminant source identification; and real-time control of building water heater systems for improved demand response and carbon offsets.

Paola Passalacqua is a Professor of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering in the Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Passalacqua graduated summa cum laude from the University of Genoa, Italy, with a BS (2002) in Environmental Engineering, and received a MS (2005) and a PhD (2009) in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on transport processes along river and delta networks, with particular focus on flooding, river-floodplain connectivity, and coastal resilience. Dr. Passalacqua is the lead PI of SETx-UIFL, a DOE funded Urban Integrated Field Laboratory that focuses on the compounding effects of flooding and air pollution on Southeast Texas communities. Additionally, she is the Chair of Planet Texas 2050, a Bridging Barrier mission at the University of Texas to advance interdisciplinary research on resilience and to co-design adaptative strategies with stakeholders and frontline communities in Texas. Dr. Passalacqua has been honored with several awards including the Bagnold Medal of the European Geosciences Union (2022), a National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2014) and the University of Texas Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award (2017).

Katie Coyne is an award-winning queer ecologist, designer, and urban planner. The first woman to serve as Environmental Officer for the City of Austin, she is responsible for guiding all environmental vision and policy for the rapidly growing metropolis. Prior to joining the City, she founded an urban ecological design practice with nationally recognized work. She co-led the City’s first racial equity focused climate plan; facilitated sustainable design-focused discussions for Austin’s first MLS stadium; was the architect of the City Council resolution that initiated the establishment of Austin’s first Resilience Office and Chief Resilience Officer; and, has been recognized as Central Texas Planner of the Year, Austin Under 40 award winner, Austin Business Journal’s Women of Influence finalist, Austin Young Women’s Alliance “Lead” award winner, and one of Austin Woman Magazine’s 2024 Changemakers. Katie is a longtime LGBTQ+ activist, and has been featured by Equality Texas and the Human Rights Campaign for her public testimony at the Texas Legislature fighting against the trans sports ban. She has taught Urban Ecology at the UT School of Architecture and regularly speaks passionately about the role of love in climate and environmental work, and about what queer and non-binary thinking can teach us about magnifying our global impact.

Nefertitti Jackmon is a Cultural Strategist serving as Austin’s first Community Displacement Prevention Officer. Jackmon leads the Housing Department’s Displacement Prevention Office where she is instrumental in developing and leading programming and outreach, including the $300 million anti-displacement investments for Project Connect. In this role, Jackmon, works with community members, consultants, and City staff to co-create an Equity Tool to inform investment priorities for anti-displacement funds related to Project Connect. She is also the former executive director of Six Square, a nonprofit that seeks to preserve the cultural legacy of Austin’s Black Cultural District. In January 2022 she was listed as one of Texas’ Top 100 Influential leaders impacting the Texas economy in Austin Business Journal. Her passion and work to support households in need comes from her more than 25 years of service in the nonprofit sector. Her desire is to see economic mobility opportunities as a foundation to address displacement pressures. She holds a Master of Arts in African-American Studies from the University of Albany, SUNY.

Carmen Llanes is the executive director of Go Austin/Vamos Austin. Carmen is a native of Austin, TX and second-generation community organizer working with neighborhoods and organizations in Austin’s Eastern Crescent for the last 15 years. After receiving an interdisciplinary B.A. at the University of Chicago in Environmental Studies with a focus on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its impact on Mexican communities and international food systems, she returned to Austin to work at home as an environmental justice researcher and organizer for People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER) in East Austin. Carmen cares deeply about community relationships and intergenerational organizing, and participates in public health, anti-racist and anti-displacement networks in Central Texas and across the country. She chaired the City of Austin’s Hispanic/Latino Quality of Life Commission until July 2019 when she joined the City’s Planning Commission during a once-in-a-generation Land Development Code rewrite, and is an inaugural member of Austin’s first Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission which created single-member city council districts in 2014. She was also a 2019-20 Fulcrum Fellow with the Center for Community Investment at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Dr. Elizabeth Mueller is Professor of Community and Regional Planning and Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. Her work focuses on the ways that patterns of economic and racial segregation and inequality were established and continue to be produced in growing cities. She has examined how contemporary local planning initiatives, aimed at increasing density and reducing driving, affect patterns of racial and economic segregation and exposure to environmental hazards and poor housing conditions. Her work is currently funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She is co-editor of The Affordable Housing Reader (second edition, Routledge, June 2022) and co-author of Uprooted: Gentrification in Austin’s Residential Neighborhoods and What Can Be Done About It (2018), a report commissioned by the Austin City Council.

Dr. Dev Niyogi is Professor in both the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at UT-Austin. He also has affiliations with the Oden Institute and Center for Space Research. Dr. Niyogi has coauthored over 200 peer-reviewed papers for international journals, 18 book chapters, and over 150 conference proceedings or abstracts for professional conferences such as the AMS and AGU annual meetings. His work has been highlighted in various media outlets including in the popular press such as Yahoo!, MSNBC, Wired, CNN, LiveScience, National Geographic, Tedx Talk, NASA press releases. Dr. Niyogi's research has been funded through the National Science Foundation, NASA, NOAA, the Department of Energy among others. Before arriving at UT, he was at Purdue University and served as the state meteorologist for the state of Indiana. At University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Niyogi is also part of the Theme Organizing Committee of the Planet Texas 2050, and part of the Good Systems Smart City initiative. 

Dr. Katherine Brown is a Senior Research Scientist for the Oden Institute and the Department of Molecular Biosciences at University of Texas at Austin, as well as the Department of Physics at Cambridge University. She is an expert in tropical infectious diseases and her current work focuses on the spread of Melioidosis and Chagas disease into new environments, such as southern Texas, due to warming temperatures. She serves as a faculty leader for Planet Texas 2050 and as co-lead for the AI-enabled Model Integration for Complex Decision Making flagship.

Ashley Hawes is a disaster epidemiologist for the City of Austin. She collaborates across departments to develop and implement public health preparedness exercises on infection disease, flooding, and severe weather, among other topics. She has a Master’s in Public Health from Tulane University and B.S. in Animal Biology/Zoology from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

Maggie Hansen is an assistant professor at the School of Architecture at UT-Austin. She is a landscape designer and artist who brings multidisciplinary training to the design of public spaces. Professor Hansen’s research explores landscape architecture as the choreography of care practices that maintain cultural and ecological relationships. Her work draws influence from social impact design, gardening, theater and performance, participatory art, and activist methods. Prior to UT, she was director of Tulane’s Small Center for Collaborative Design where she led community-based design projects in support of a more equitable New Orleans. She earned a BA from the University of Chicago and worked in contemporary art and theater before turning to design. She holds a Master of Architecture and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia.

Kenneth is passionate about serving his community. He is the former president of the Board of Trustees for the Pflugerville Independent School District, where he was the first African American elected to political office in the Pflugerville community. Kenneth was also the vice president of the Texas Caucus of Black School Board Members and vice chair for the Austin Disproportionality and Disparity Advisory Committee, addressing disproportionality within the welfare system. In addition, he served as the director of the East Austin Youth Foundation, which provides sports activities for economically disadvantaged youth while promoting high academic achievement.

Additionally, he was the chairman of the Board of Directors for The Overton Group, which focuses on multilingual education in Head Start. In addition, he serves as board chair for Building Promise USA, focusing on retrying formerly incarcerated men and women into society. Lastly, he served as a board member for Solar Austin, whose mission is to provide pathways for women and students of color to the clean energy industry. He is a Steering Committee member of “Our Future 35”.

He is the former chair of Austin's African American Quality of Life Resource Advisory Commission. Mr. Thompson is a graduate of Texas State University Applied Arts and Sciences, with an emphasis on “Peace and Conflict. "

Rosemary Candelario writes about and makes dances engaged with Asian and Asian American dance, butoh, ecology and site-related performance. She was awarded the 2018 Oscar G. Brockett Book Prize for Dance Research for her book Flowers Cracking Concrete: Eiko & Koma's Asian/American Choreographies (Wesleyan University Press 2016) and received the 2022 Mid-Career Award from the Dance Studies Association. Candelario is the co-editor with Bruce Baird of The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance (2018) and with Matthew Henley of Dance Research Methodologies: Ethics, Orientations, Practices (Routledge 2023). Recent choreographic premieres include aqueous (site version, 2021), aqueous (stage version 2019) and 100 Ways to Kiss the Trees (2018). Candelario is the Dance Studies Association Vice President for Publications and Research. Candelario is Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance and holds a Ph.D. in Culture and Performance from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Marc Coudert is the Climate Resilience and Adaptation Manager in the City of Austin Office of Resilience. Marc works with city departments to embed climate adaptation strategies into long term operation and asset management planning. In this role, he also supports community organizers to increase climate adaptation in the Eastern Crescent. Marc received a Certificate in Climate Change and Health from the Yale School of Public Health, a Master of Science in Sustainable Design from the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science in Urban Planning from Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

Katherine Freer a lecturer in the Department of Theater and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a multimedia artist, filmmaker, organizer and educator. Her artistic practice lives at the intersection of story, technology and civic engagement and is rooted in joy, curiosity, mutual learning and the pursuit of justice for all living beings. She is a core collaborator in All My Relations Collective, a proud member of Wingspace Theatrical Design and United Scenic Artists Local 829.

Laurel Mei-Singh serves as an Assistant Professor of Geography and Asian American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include environmental justice, militarization, the relationship of race and indigeneity to histories of war, fences and self-determination, carceral geographies and abolition, racial capitalism, and the Pacific. Her current book project develops a genealogy of military fences and grassroots struggles for land and livelihood in Wai‘anae, a rural and heavily militarized region of the island of O'ahu in Hawai'i. A devoted public scholar, she has participated in community organizing efforts in New York City and Hawai‘i.

Elybeth Sofia Alcantar is affiliated to the Indigenous Mixteco municipality of Yucu Nduchi in Oaxaca, Mexico. She is a third year PhD student in the Department of Geography and the Environment. Elybeth's research interrogates questions of forced displacement, social movements for land and life, and strategies of community-based development from Indigenous communities of Oaxaca.

Roxanne Schroeder-Arce is Associate Dean of UTeach Fine Arts and Associate Professor of Theatre Education at The University of Texas at Austin. In addition, Schroeder-Arce is an artist, scholar and arts advocate. She has published several plays with Dramatic Publishing and articles in journals such as Youth Theatre Journal and Theatre Topics.

Dr. Samanta Varela received her Ph.D. from the Center for Economics Research and Teaching (CIDE) in Mexico City. Her background in Public Administration and Public Policy helps her specialize in disaster, crisis, and technology policy. Samanta is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Technology & Information Policy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, a position she started after visiting the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at The Hague Campus of Leiden University as a Ph.D. candidate. Dr. Varela has published articles using perishable data and contributing to theory on the impact of COVID-19 on organizations and public officials in Mexico. Her current work seeks to understand techniques to increase flood awareness in underserved communities in the United States.

Dr. Li-Chen Lin, PhD., RN, CNRN is a Clinical Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing. Her research interests include nurse’s work environments, resilience, role transitions, quality and safety in healthcare, and health outcomes among the vulnerable populations. Her current research aims to assess the effectiveness of a person-centered medication teaching program to promote people’s understanding of their medications and perceived adherence among those with limited English proficiency and limited health literacy. She has been serving as the director of the Medical Reserve Corps at UT since 2015. She is actively involved in partnering with organizations in the Travis County and Austin to provide health related community outreach, including vaccine distribution and disaster preparedness training, especially for the underserved populations.  

Whitney Mosery is a theatremaker and art activist. As a director, her work has been presented in theaters and site-specific spaces across the US, UK and Greece. She has also been a dramaturg for Cirque du Soleil, and an Associate Director on Broadway and in the West End. Education: BA in Classics from Princeton University, MA in Theatre Directing from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Currently, Whitney is pursuing a PhD at UT Austin, where she is researching the intersection of performance, politics, and protest within the sphere of climate activism.

Cathryn Ploehn (she/her) is Assistant Professor of Practice in the School of Design and Creative Technologies at UT-Austin. She is an interaction designer interested in embodied, feminist, and ecological modes of creating – and (re)enchanting – data visualizations. She holds an MDes from Carnegie Mellon University.

Lara Dossett is an Assistant Professor of Instruction for the Department of Theater and Dance at UT-Austin and the Drama for Schools Coordinator. Her creative and scholarly activities are driven by her pursuit to make the arts accessible for every young person (Pre K-16). In an effort to expand her practice and deepen her scholarship, she now focuses on practice-based research largely related to pre-service and in-service teacher professional development in drama-based pedagogy (DBP). Through DBP and Drama for Schools, Dossett is committed to building intentional communities of practice and systems that support creative teaching and learning. Currently, she is researching how drama-based pedagogy can be used within an innovative pedagogical model from South Australia called the Student Learning Community. She is interested in what happens when we incorporate students into professional learning communities. Dossett is currently writing about this work in a co-written book with Katie Dawson and Stephanie Cawthon titled Drama for Schools: A Systems Change Approach to Transforming Education Through the Arts to be published by Intellect.

Miriam Solis, Ph.D., MCP, is an Assistant Professor of Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research draws on environmental justice theory and research to examine the role of environmental education and workforce development in the planning, design, and operation of urban infrastructure. She is a community-based participatory researcher who frequently collaborates with nonprofit organizations and government agencies. Dr. Solis served on the leadership team of Planet Texas 2050, UT’s campus-wide grand challenge research initiative from 2020-2023. Raised in California’s Central Valley, Dr. Solis is a first-generation college graduate and the proud daughter of working-class Mexican immigrants. She received her doctorate in City and Regional Planning, as well as undergraduate degrees in Ethnic Studies and Geography, from the University of California, Berkeley. She also holds a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to her faculty appointment, Dr. Solis was a Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation Environmental Fellow, and worked for the cities of San Francisco, New York, and Richmond, CA.

Carmen R. Valdez, Ph.D., is an associate professor, chief of the Division of Community Engagement and Health Equity and faculty director of Community-Driven Initiatives in the Department of Population Health. She is also an associate professor in The University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Valdez is a community-based participatory researcher with a special interest in mental health promotion and intervention with Latinx immigrant families. She aims to address health equity through partnerships, community-grounded research and mentoring of health equity scholars. She has collaborated with local residents, community organizations, binational organizations and city offices to improve health equity. Prior to 2018, she was associate professor in the Department of Counseling Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At a national level, Valdez has actively contributed to the American Psychological Association. She chaired the APA’s Committee on Children, Youth and Families in 2015 and in 2017 was a member of the APA Working Group on Child and Adolescent Mental Health. She served as associate editor of the journal Family Process between 2017 and 2020.

Tasha Banks is the assistant director of community engagement and health equity in the Department of Population Health. As a result of her experience of working with children with HIV/AIDS while she was in high school, Banks knew public health and working with communities struggling with many health disparities would be a part of her life’s work. She went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis and her master’s degree in global health and medical anthropology from the University of Edinburgh. Prior to working in population health, Banks worked as a yoga instructor and as a program manager for multiple nonprofit organizations with a focus on social emotional learning skills, trauma-informed care and healing and wellness for youth mainly in the East Austin area.

Adrian Montoya is a master’s student in the Community & Regional Planning Program at UT Austin. He is a Graduate Research Assistant for the Frontline Community Partnerships for Climate Justice Flagship project as part of Planet Texas 2050.

Multifaceted- an artist, designer, and researcher- Madison Russ specializes in composing measured, 3D visualizations of hurricane impact on coastal communities. She holds a Master of Architecture from Rhode Island School of Design focusing on sustainability and energy efficiency. During her time at RISD, she supported ongoing hurricane inundation research at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography constructing 3D models of the New England coast. Madison joined the FloDisMod team at the University of Texas at Austin in October 2023. Her current work focuses on constructing 3D landscape assets of the Texas Coast using a combination of LiDAR, aerial imagery, and architectural rendering techniques. These assets are then connected flood and disease modeling frameworks, visualizing vulnerabilities of coastal communities.

Maryam Zoweil is a senior at Anderson High School in Austin, Texas, and a member of Austin’s Youth Climate Equity Council (AYCEC). She is most passionate about utilizing social entrepreneurship and data science to empower youth and promote social change in our society. Outside of school, Maryam has contributed to several equity-centered design and intercultural understanding initiatives, including her roles as a Council Member in AYCEC, Youth Advisor in Headstream's Co-Creator club, Director of Education Data Analytics at the Institute for Youth in Policy, and Scholar in the 2023 AFS Global STEM Academies. After graduation, Maryam plans to major in Business and Data Science at university to further her passion for social impact and pursue a career in consulting.

Alexia Leclercq is a grassroots environmental justice organizer and scholar. She has led dozens of campaigns from pushing for an equitable fossil fuel phase out at the UN to passing climate legislation, fighting for clean water, relocating toxic tank farms, organizing mutual aid, and more. Alexia is the policy director at PODER, co-founder of the Colorado River Conservancy, and social-environmental justice education non-profit named Start:Empowerment. Her curriculum has reached over 120,000 students across the U.S, and featured on Forbes, Washington Post, the Guardian. She was awarded the prestigious Brower Youth Award, 2022 WWF Conservation Award, and is the youngest recipient of the Harvard AOCC Award. She served as the 2022 UN Assembly Ambassador and has been a guest lecturer at Harvard, University of Texas Austin, University of Connecticut, and Princeton. Alexia graduated Summa Cum Laude from New York University and Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Grace Castelino is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin where she majors in chemistry and minors in both business and leadership in sustainability. She became interested in sustainability after taking a class on global sustainability during a study abroad in Singapore and have had many experiences in the field since then. She completed two consulting projects with the Longhorn Impact Fellowship of Texas. One of these was with DLA Piper, where she helped write a handbook for companies in the industrial sectors who wanted to develop their ESG strategy. The other was for Goodwill Central Texas, where she focused on strategies that could help them reduce their textile waste and investigated the feasibility of textile recycling. She returned to DLA Piper this summer as an ESG Data Analyst, where she collaborated on a variety of projects ranging from tracking commonly used ESG reporting frameworks to researching human capital management practices in the energy sector. She currently works with the Global Sustainability Leadership Institute as a teaching assistant for a “Current Issues in Sustainability” seminar class and helps with their events.

Kate Hughes is a 3rd-year student at the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in Sustainability Studies and minoring in Government. She is currently an Engagement Specialist for the UT Climate Leaders Program, where she partners with a Data Analyst to create effective and achievable greenhouse gas emissions reduction strategies for the UT College of Fine Arts. In this role, she has developed outreach efforts in order to attract organizations, students, staff, and faculty to participate in community feedback and collaboration on the project. She conducts focus groups and interviews in order to discover community values, culture, and perspectives on sustainability and reduction strategies.

Walker Zupan (he/they) is an educator, dramaturg and devised theatre-maker pursuing a M.F.A. in Theatre with a specialization in drama and theatre for youth and communities at The University of Texas at Austin. He’s spent the past four years working as a teaching artist in New York City public schools developing arts-integrated curriculum and devising original theatre in collaboration with youth and their families. Their research centers on intergenerational queer communities as well as devised theatre as a form of climate justice and liberatory world-building. He has a B.A. from Northwestern University.

Daniela Willett has taught at Volma Overton Elementary for 16 years. She is a third grade bilingual teacher and is passionate about creating a classroom culture that values every child. She sets high standards for all students and supports them along the way by creating PBL projects, STEM challenges, literacy-based activities and coding. She enjoys learning from her students and seeks to create meaningful experiences where they can solidify understanding while having fun!

Bio coming soon.

Marial Quezada is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Cultural Studies in Education program at the University of Texas at Austin. She also serves as the Youth Programs Director for the Indigenous Cultures Institute. Her academic interests include pedagogies of Latinidades and Indigeneity and the role it plays in identity formation and civic action.

Irais Monserrat Dayries is an assistant professor at Tecnológico de Monterrey who specializes in Inclusive Education . With a Ph.D. in Educational Innovation, her research interests are driven by advancing the quality of education and learning. She has experience coordinating international research initiatives spanning inclusive education, sustainable development, action learning, microlearning, and distance learning. Additionally, she actively contributes to research in the Department of Sociocultural Studies and in the Research and Innovation in Education Group, both within the Tecnológico de Monterrey institution. She is also a member of the National System of Researchers in Mexico.

Dr. Raj Sankaranarayanan is a Postdoctoral Fellow for Strategic Academic Initiatives at UT Austin. He completed his PhD in Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University Bloomington. His applied research interests focus on Higher Education Strategic Planning, Institutional Effectiveness, Automated Assessment practices, Technology adoption for Student Success, and Instructional Design in Diverse Contexts.

Katie Dawson uses the arts to increase equity and access in educational contexts. She is an associate professor at The University of Texas in Austin where she co-heads the M.F.A. in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities / UTeach Theatre program. Dawson received the Distinguished Book Award (for The Reflexive Teaching Artist: Collective Wisdom from the Drama/Theatre Field), the Creative Drama Award and the Winifred Ward Scholar Award from the American Alliance of Theatre and Education. Her second book Drama-Based Pedagogy: Activating Learning Across the Curriculum was published in 2018. Dawson is a Provost’s Teaching Fellow at UT where she received the 2015 College of Fine Arts Distinguished Teaching Award, the 2018 College of Fine Arts Distinguished Research Award and the 2013 Regents Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award. Dawson is an internationally recognized consultant in creative learning and teaching artist practice. She publishes, speaks and facilitates workshops locally and globally, including ongoing partnerships in Australia, Asia and Eastern Europe with university and government partners. Dawson recently completed a two-year fractional appointment at the University of South Australia in pedagogical innovation.

Prior to academia, Dawson worked as teacher, museum theatre educator, youth theatre director and actor.