Katherine Jia is a second year Master of Public Policy student at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Her MPP studies focus on international economic policy issues, and she is taking elective courses from UCLA Anderson to prepare for her work in the private industry. She’s very eager to start working in the consulting field, finding policy and business solutions for international as well as local businesses under today’s political climate.
Prior to UCLA, Katherine studied Psychological and Brain Sciences, Writing Seminars, and Applied Math at Johns Hopkins University, where she cultivated strong academic skills and critical thinking abilities, and developed a deep understanding of research and sciences. She enjoys exploring different fields of studies and bringing fresh insights and innovative yet practical solutions to the table.
Katherine loves to sing, write, and read. At UCLA, Katherine sings with the campus chorus, and serves as the VP Internal Affairs for UCLA International Graduate Students Association. She is also the TA for Communications Research Methods. Influenced by her studies in Public Policy, Katherine aims to become a positive change agent to make our world a better place.
Having lived in four different countries, Nikitha considers herself a truly international individual. She was born in Melbourne, Australia and lived there for twelve years before she moved to Bangalore, India. From there, she moved to Vancouver, Canada to study Sociology and Economics at the University of British Columbia. Each of these countries have become a part of her identity, but India will always be her favorite.
After Nikitha graduated with her B.A., she worked at a small accounting firm and then an insurance company, building work experience and universally-applicable knowledge and skillsets. Having done this, she began her Master of Public Policy at UCLA to re-focus her attention on her true career goals. Nikitha is passionate about international and economic development and is looking for opportunities to grow her network in this field. Ultimately, she hopes to work at one of the large international development agencies, or at a private firm that consults on development-related projects.
Over the Summer, she had the opportunity to work with the L.A. Mayor’s Office of International Affairs on the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the city of Los Angeles. She gained in-depth knowledge of the SDGs and the challenges countries face for their implementation, as well as a strong understanding of the potential of the private sector to contribute to them. Alongside her internship, Nikitha worked as a Graduate Student Researcher on the Blue Economy project, collecting and consolidating research on small island developing nations (SIDS), for student groups to use during the year for their applied policy projects. Consequently, her group was selected to work on the waste management project. The group will be conducting extensive literature analysis, visiting the islands, and interviewing stakeholders, in order to develop a framework for sustainable waste management practices on SIDS. Nikitha is also working at the Southern California HIV/AIDS Policy Research Center, and currently researching the effect of the proposed public charge rules on immigrants.
Nikitha is excited to work with her talented colleagues and the Waitt Foundation on the Blue Prosperity project. She hopes that their work will have a significant and real impact in addressing the environmental problems affecting SIDS.
Elias is a fourth-year Geography/Environmental Studies major with a minor in Public Affairs. He grew up just south of San Francisco and is still trying to find hiking in LA that rivals that of the Bay Area. Outside of SAR, Elias works for UCLA Housing & Hospitality Services as part of the Sustainability Team. Don’t be surprised if you see Elias sprawled out in the Sculpture Garden or on Janss lawn whenever the temperature climbs above 70 degrees! Elias was a member of the 2017 Graduate Housing Waste Diversion team and rejoined the team as a leader in 2018.
Shannon is a fourth-year Environmental Science major with a concentration in Environmental Engineering. She was born and raised in Seattle, WA, and sometimes she actually misses the rain! At UCLA, she works in an environmental engineering lab researching coastal water quality and its effect on public health. In her free time, you can find her hiking or enjoying a bowl of ramen. Shannon was a member of the Sustainable Buildings team in 2017 and led the Sustainable Purchasing team in 2018.
I am a recent graduate of the Environmental Health Sciences doctoral program from the University of California at Berkeley, and currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California at Los Angeles’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.My doctoral thesis was conducted in consultation with Professor Michael Jerrett and focused on characterizing air quality near oil and natural gas development and storage sites. In my research, I identified several hazardous air pollutants near oil and natural gas facilities during the upstream process and characterized the distance decay gradient to distinguish the human health impact zone in both rural and urban environments. I conducted field experiments around Weld County, Colorado near several active oil and gas wells using both passive and active samplers to characterize the distance at which several air pollutants decay to background levels and have conducted similar field experiments in Southern California near urban drilling sites. More recently, I measured air quality in the community of Porter Ranch, California during the active Aliso Canyon natural gas blowout.
Travis Longcore is the Senior Associate Director and an Adjunct Professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and Co-Chair of the Environmental Science and Engineering (D.Env.) Program. He a Certified Senior Ecologist (Ecological Society of America) and a GIS Professional (GISP) and serves as the Science Director of The Urban Wildlands Group.
Dr. Longcore conducts research on environmental health, focusing on the conservation of biodiversity in cities and beyond and the application of spatial tools to human health exposures. His research includes investigation of the effects of artificial night lighting on wildlife and human health; mapping, modeling, and management of species and habitats; reconstruction of historical landscapes to better understand current and future land management options; and use of big spatial data to assess impacts and evaluate mitigations for exposure to extreme heat. His landmark article “Ecological Light Pollution” (Longcore and Rich 2004) and 2006 co-edited book Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting(Island Press) have come to define a new and rapidly growing research area in ecology.
Dr. Longcore’s research has been published in journals as diverse as American Journal of Epidemiology, Exotoxicology and Environmental Safety, Insect Conservation and Diversity, EcoHealth, Conservation Genetics, Cancer Epidemiology, Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Cities, Wetlands, Restoration Ecology, and Urban Geography. He has been funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, California Department of Transportation, Department of the Navy, John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, NOAA Sea Grant, National Park Service, Department of Defense, and NASA.
As an educator, Dr. Longcore developed the senior practicum in Environmental Science at UCLA, leading that program from 2008 to 2014, during which time he managed its growth and scope to include competitively selected off-campus clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to local nonprofits for which teams of undergraduates pursued original research projects. He also developed the practicum program for the first-ever undergraduate degree in geodesign, at the University of Southern California, where he was cross-appointed in Spatial Sciences, Landscape Architecture, and Biological Sciences from 2015 to 2019. He has published research papers with UCLA undergraduate co-authors arising from practicum projects on wildlife movement in the Santa Monica Mountains, tuning the color of light bulbs to reduce insect attraction, and the impacts of anticoagulant rodenticides in the southern California landscape.
Dr. Longcore attended the University of Delaware with the prestigious Eugene DuPont Memorial Scholarship, earning the first Honors B.A. degree awarded in Geography, and supplemented by studies in national security at the Arizona Honors Academy and in international economic development at the University of Oslo’s acclaimed International Summer School. He won the Taylor Award for the outstanding senior man, was a Rhodes Scholarship nominee from the state, and won a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, with which he obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Geography from UCLA.
Among his accomplishments in the nonprofit, educational, and consulting sectors, Dr. Longcore co-developed science-based habitat restoration program and native plant nursery for coastal dune habitats and transferred operation to nonprofit training at-risk youth and young adults and managed a captive breeding program for endangered California butterflies, which he continues to oversee.
Dr. Longcore’s research has been covered in National Geographic, Audubon, New York Times, Washington Post, Science, Nature, Wall Street Journal, Life, and Discover.
In recognition of his achievements, Dr. Longcore is an invited member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, and Pi Delta Phi, and has been commended by the White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation (as The Urban Wildlands Group), the California Department of Transportation Excellence in Transportation Award (Environment), and the International Dark-Sky Association.
Dr. Longcore serves the community as President of the Los Angeles Audubon Society and President of the Bel Air-Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council, which represents 27,000 residents near UCLA as one of the 99 official neighborhood councils organized under the charter of the City of Los Angeles.
Selected Video and Audio
Lighting’s Impact on the Natural World
Todo lo que Brillo no es Oro
Essential Elements for Geodesign for Undergraduate Education
Samuel is currently studying Public Policy at UCLA, in the Luskin School of Public Affairs. Samuel graduated from Wheaton College with a degree in History and, seeking to push himself and serve others, moved to Hong Kong to join a human services group working primarily to assist people struggling with drug addiction. After several years in Hong Kong, Samuel was sent to work in Dimapur, India. During his time working in India, he reached out to his neighbors, many of whom were impoverished. After building relationships, he worked to identify local needs and mobilized resources to try to meet them. A number of those he met needed help navigating the government bureaucracy and the hospital system.
Making friends, it surprised Samuel how many migrants from other states such as Bihar and Assam lived in and around Dimapur, an urban center but not more than a few hundred thousand people. After conducting his own research and discovering how this phenomenon is not unique to India, he decided to return to the United States to acquire more professional training, focusing on the policies impacting the populations he has worked with.
As he looks forward, Samuel seeks to help people like those he met in Nagaland overcome the challenges preventing them from flourishing, particularly those associated with urbanization. The United Nations Urbanization Prospects report clearly tracks the unprecedented urbanization on every continent. This will of course come with many challenges, particularly for those moving from rural environments. Samuel hopes to take on some of the challenges and policies which prevent people from thriving in these environments. He seeks to do so in a way which combines both policy work and on the ground interaction, learning from those he wishes to assist, patiently listening to their concerns, and helping them overcome their challenges.
Selcan is currently a senior expert in the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Industry and Technology, after having worked for 10 years on policy making tasks in Ministry of Development. To acknowledge her accomplishments and make a better use of her expertise, she has been provided financial support by Turkish government to pursue a Master of Public Policy degree at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Prior to studying for the Master of Public Policy, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Middle East Technical University in Turkey. She then went on to obtain a Master of Science degree in Economics at the same university.
Selcan prefers to work in the public sector as she believes that proper policies will stimulate social and economic advances and she can directly contribute to the society’s wellbeing in this way. She hopes to gain essential insights of policy making in her theoretical and practical studies at UCLA and have the opportunity to apply them to make the world more peaceful and livable for all.
Ayuko is studying the methodology of policy analysis and its applications at the Luskin School of Public Affairs, as part of the Government of Japan’s scholar program.
Before that, Ayuko spent more than seven years working at the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan. As an assistant of the Prime minister and their cabinet, she engaged in comprehensive policy coordination. This included leading revisions of regulations and instructions relating to reform of organization and inner conference, and organizing the deliberation process on the fundamental policy of a new cross-cutting law for persons with disabilities.
She received her bachelor’s degree of Law at Kyoto University, Japan.
Though the size of their economy is different from SIDS, her home country, Japan, is also an island nation with rich nature and faces similar challenges of how to best balance tourism promotion with the preservation of nature in light of increasing tourist numbers. Based on her past experiences and as a public policy student, she is excited to be working on sustainable tourism policies for SIDS as part of the Blue Prosperity Project.
