Blanche joined IoES in August 2025. A seasoned administrative professional, she brings nearly 20 years of experience helping organizations operate more efficiently, effectively, and people-centrically. Her background spans healthcare, education, and telecommunications, where she’s worn many hats (often color-coded!) and mastered everything from budgeting and research reporting to hiring plans and HR policies. She specializes in organizational development, recruitment, and program management, with a knack for turning big-picture goals into practical, people-centered solutions. If there’s a system to improve, a process to streamline, or a team to support—she’s your person.

She joined UCLA in 2016. Prior to her role at IoES, she managed a department with multimillion-dollar research portfolios, supported both clinical and academic programs, and built the kind of behind-the-scenes systems that make everything look effortless (even when it’s not). She’s a go-to advisor for faculty and leadership alike, known for turning chaos into clarity and big ideas into action plans.

Blanche holds a Master’s degree in Development Communication and a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Research, both from the University of the Philippines. Her favorite things include road trips, ice cream, and quality time with family and friends.

Garret May is a rising fourth-year Ph.D. student in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research focuses on nano-catalyst synthesis, liquid organic hydrogen carriers, and the ways materials science intersects with environmental justice. He’s passionate about building community within academia and using that collective strength to drive broader change in science and engineering.

Born in Los Angeles and raised in Twin Falls, Idaho, Garret has always been drawn to both the arts and sciences—he was a theater kid and dancer who also competed in robotics. He still looks for ways to bring those parts of himself together, blending the analytical side of science with the creative heart of the arts.

Garret is a strong advocate for disability protections and accessibility in STEM, drawing from his own experiences navigating academia with ADHD. He believes that “it’s important for everyone to see themselves represented in a wide variety of careers so they can pursue their passions. Diversity is a positive feedback loop, and STEM spaces need to be accessible to everyone.” For him, more diversity means stronger communities and more interdisciplinary connections—critical elements for solving complex problems.

Looking ahead, Garret hopes to become a professor of Materials Engineering and to design engineering ethics curricula that center environmental justice and connect technical innovations to their broader social and political impacts.

Outside of his research, Garret enjoys baking, reading, running, and playing board and video games.

Audrey Choi is chair of the Generation Foundation and a pioneer in the fields of corporate sustainability and sustainable finance. Her career has spanned the highest levels of finance, government and journalism as an officer at Morgan Stanley, as chief of staff of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors and as bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal.

Choi was the first ever chief sustainability officer on Wall Street. She also served as chief marketing officer (CMO) and was a member of Morgan Stanley’s Global Management Committee. During her tenure as CMO, she is credited with stewarding the favorability of the venerable financial services brand to all-time highs across all global markets.

An early advocate for sustainable investing, she proposed and founded the institution’s Global Sustainable Finance Group and the Institute for Sustainable Investing. She also founded and led its Community Development Finance Group, investing more than $20 billion to strengthen low-income communities.

Choi graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Business School. She was a White House Fellow, Fulbright Scholar and David Rockefeller Fellow. A first-generation Korean American, she is fluent in French and German.

Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris is Interim Dean of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, a former Associate Dean, a Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning, and a core faculty member of the UCLA Urban Humanities Initiative.

Professor Loukaitou-Sideris’ research focuses on the public environment of the city, its physical representation, aesthetics, social meaning and impact on the urban resident. Her work seeks to integrate social and physical issues in urban planning and architecture. An underlying theme of her work is its “user focus”; that is, she seeks to analyze and understand the built environment from the perspective of those who live and work there. Dr. Loukaitou-Sideris’ research includes documentation and analysis of the social and physical changes that have occurred in the public realm; cultural determinants of design and planning and their implications for public policy; quality-of-life issues for inner city residents; transit security, urban design, land use, and transportation issues.

Recent and ongoing projects, funded in part by the U.S. and California Departments of Transportation, The California Department of Recreation and Parks, the Mellon Foundation, the Haynes Foundation, the Gilbert Foundation, and the Mineta Transportation Institute, include: documentation of varying patterns of use of neighborhood parks among different ethnic groups; proposals for the physical and economic retrofit of inner city commercial corridors, examination of gentrification and displacement in transit station neighborhoods, sexual harassment in transit environments, studies of transit security, and planning for parklets.

She has served as a consultant to the Transportation Research Board, Federal Highway Administration, Los Angeles Metro, Southern California Association of Governments, South Bay Cities Council of Government, Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative, Project for Public Spaces, the Greek Government, and many municipal governments on issues of urban design, open space development, land use and transportation, and she has been commissioned to author research papers by the National Academies and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Dr. Loukaitou-Sideris is the author of numerous articles, the co-author of the books Urban Design Downtown: Poetics and Politics of Form (University of California Press, 1998), Sidewalks: Conflict and Negotiation over Public Space (MIT Press, 2009), Transit-Oriented Displacement or Community Divided? (MIT Press, 2019), and Urban Humanities: New Practices for Reimagining the City (MIT Press 2020); and the co-editor of the books Jobs and Economic Development in Minority Communities (Temple University Press, 2006), Companion to Urban Design (Routledge, 2011), The Informal American City: Beyond Taco Trucks and Day Labor (MIT Press, 2014),  New Companion to Urban Design (Routledge, 2019), and Transit Crime and Sexual Violence in Cities: International Evidence and Prevention .

Sir Andrew Steer, PhD, is an economist and environmental leader promoting social and economic progress within planetary boundaries.

He served, most recently, as the inaugural President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund (2021-25), the world’s largest philanthropy for nature and climate, where he oversaw investments in systems change across nature protection, food and agriculture, industrial and energy decarbonization, financial reform, and the application of AI and big data.

He is now Distinguished Professor of Practice in Economics and Sustainability at Georgetown University and the London School of Economics.

He was President and CEO of the World Resources Institute (2012-2021), leading a team of 1600 professionals at an NGO consistently ranked as the top Think Tank/Do Tank on sustainable development.

Previously, he served as Special Envoy for Climate Change at the World Bank, Director General at the UK’s Department of International Development, and Director of the World Bank in East Asia.

In 2024 Andrew was knighted in recognition of “sustained contribution as one of the world’s best-known leaders in global sustainable development economics”; and was named by Forbes as one of the world’s 50 most impactful climate leaders, in its inaugural Sustainability Leaders awards.

He is a member of the UK Foreign Secretary’s External Foreign Policy Board, co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Innovative Finance; and a member of the boards of BRAC, the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, and the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development. Andrew was educated at St Andrews University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cambridge University, and has a PhD in Economics and Finance. He is married to Dr. Liesbet Steer. They have two children: Charlotte, an environmental professional, and Benjamin, an Indie Pop artist.

Chelsea Kirk works at the intersection of housing and climate policy in California. As the Director of Policy & Advocacy for Climate and the Built Environment at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, she has led and won campaigns to improve rental habitability standards, end renovictions and advance equitable building decarbonization.

Recognized statewide as an expert in equitable decarbonization, Chelsea brings tenant expertise into energy policy conversations. She has built lasting coalitions between environmental and housing movements, including the creation of the LA for Resilient and Healthy Homes coalition, believing that a climate-resilient, affordable future depends on their unification.

After the January 2025 LA wildfires destroyed thousands of homes, Chelsea founded Rent Brigade, a volunteer group that exposed widespread rent gouging through a crowd-sourced tracker. The effort received national media attention and led to concrete policy wins, including criminal investigations, stronger local protections and a state bill to better safeguard those impacted by disasters.

Her research and writing are widely cited. Her most recent report, A Renters’ Right to Cooling (July 2025), calls for urgent action to protect tenants from extreme heat. Her op-eds appear in the Los Angeles Times, CalMatters, Shelterforce and Capitol Weekly, and her work has been featured in NPR, LA Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, the San Francisco Chronicle and more.

Chelsea is a Switzer Fellow and holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA. She also serves on California’s Disadvantaged Communities Advisory Group, advising state agencies on equitable clean energy programs.

Deborah Gael is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Koolboks, a fast-growing cleantech startup making solar-powered refrigeration accessible to off-grid and weak-grid communities. Since launching in 2018, she has led the company’s operational strategy, scaling it to 25+ countries and forging partnerships with major players like Danone (Fan Milk) and Orange Energies.

Born on a small French island in the Caribbean, Deborah grew up witnessing the early effects of climate change, from rising sea levels to increasingly violent storms. These lived experiences, combined with her engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa, fueled her mission to bring clean, affordable cooling to underserved communities. Her leadership has helped position Koolboks as a key player in climate tech and energy access, earning global recognition such as the Food Tech Challengers Award (2024) and the Start Up Energy Transition Award (2025).

Deborah brings a strong foundation in HR and operations, having held leadership roles at BNP Paribas, American Express, and Fluor Corporation. She holds a Master’s in Human Resources & Labor Relations (ISGP Paris), a PGCE (University of Southampton), and studied Applied Foreign Languages at Université Paris Nanterre. In 2021, she was named one of VivaTech’s Top 10 Female Founders and now serves on the Board of La French Tech Lagos, promoting Franco-African innovation and advocating for women in tech.

Deborah is passionate about building purpose-driven companies that drive impact and resilience in a changing world.

To uncover, understand and protect Angola’s natural and cultural heritage has been Kerllen’s passion for the past 15 years. After earning degrees in Natural Resources Engineering in Angola and Environmental Sciences in South Africa, Kerllen joined the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project in one of their first river expeditions in Angola.

Traversing thousands of kilometres throughout the years in traditional canoes, bicycles, motorbikes and on foot, Kerllen led the way for dozens of world renown scientists to conduct ground-breaking scientific research in the most remote rivers and landscapes in Africa, whilst becoming the project’s director for Angola. Whilst doing so, Kerllen delved deep into the culture, tradition and indigenous ecological knowledge of the communities of Angola, which resulted into his push to advocate for people’s voices and the immense value of traditional knowledge in conservation.

Kerllen’s work with National Geographic and the Okavango Wilderness Project resulted in the production and narration of the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival Best Non-Fiction Podcast award, Guardians of the River, as well as the ground-breaking documentary Kwando. More recently, Kerllen had a dedicated episode on The Brookings Institute Podcast and contributed an article to their newly released Foresight Africa 2024 report. Since 2010, Kerllen has also spearheaded The Great Angolan Escarpment Project, which has resulted in the creation of two conservation areas in that country. When not immersed into the remote landscapes and communities of Angola, Kerllen is passionate about football and motorcycle overland exploration.