Valeree Catangay (she/her/hers) is a 3rd year undergrad studying Environmental Science with a minor in Environmental Systems and Society. She loves to use visual art to communicate topics she finds most pressing: women empowerment, sustainability, and environmental justice. As a Carbon Neutrality Fellow, she collaborates with other UC campuses and engages students in the UC system-wide Carbon Neutrality Initiative of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. She one day hopes to take on a role that implements sustainable practices and projects within a corporate or governmental organization. In her free time, she enjoys drawing, skateboarding, playing with her Aussie beagle, and discovering hidden food spots.
Emma Finn
Emma Finn (she/her/hers) is a fourth-year Geography/Environmental Studies major and Public Affairs minor at UCLA. She identifies as a social justice warrior, and considers sustainability a lifestyle. As a student engagement fellow for the UC-wide Carbon Neutrality Initiative, she wanted to use her resources to re-center and reframe the conversation around sustainability within UCLA’s campus community and create a platform that amplifies the environmental narratives of BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) identities. After various conversations with like-minded students, she brought together the Environmentalists of Color Collective at UCLA to make her vision a reality. Emma is also an avid foodie, backpacker, and curly-haired womxn who loves to cook. Her favorite food group is ice cream.
Liliana Jeanine Epps
Liliana Jeanine Epps (she/her/hers) is a second-year Gender Studies Major and Geography/Environmental Studies Minor at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a queer multi-racial womxn who was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Liliana’s role in UCLA’s Environmentalists of Color Collective includes interviewing students for their Climate Justice video project along with helping plan their 2018 Climate Justice Forum happening May 8th. When Liliana is not studying, planning on-campus events or working to dismantle the patriarchy, you can find her making music, writing poetry, dancing, or cuddling with her two cats.
Jason S. Sexton, PhD
Jason S. Sexton studies internal structural commitments of communities and their members and how these relate to assumed cultural and theological norms that show up in social and ethical action. His research focuses closely on California and its culture, the prison and its governance structures, contemporary religion/theology, and on convergent points where these subjects intersect.
His scholarly work has been published in academic journals like Theology, International Journal of Public Theology, Religions, Ecclesial Practices, Journal of Theological Studies, and in journals of missiology and criminology. Contributions in religious studies led to his elected role as the current President of the largest, most diverse regional body of the American Academy of Religion, the Western Region. And his contributions to California studies led to his appointment as the recent Editor of the UC Press-published journal, Boom California. His academic writing has been published by presses like Routledge and Bloomsbury, while his popular writing has appeared in the LA Times, Zocalo Public Square, Los Angeles Review of Books, HarperCollins, among others.
Prior to joining the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA, he was the Interim State University Associate Dean of Academic Programs and a Visiting Fellow at the UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion.
Robert Cudd
Robert Cudd is a research analyst whose work focuses on energy policy, urban planning, and the de-carbonization of thermal energy. His previous projects include a study of how partisan control of state and local governments influences sea level rise adaptation efforts, and measuring the extent to which climate change has reversed the progress made by vehicle use and emissions policy in Mexico City. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and a Masters of Public Policy.
Robert is currently conducting a study of community-scale solar water heating in Los Angeles County, the purpose of which is to estimate the technology’s potential to reduce gas consumption and the carbon-intensity of residential water heating. He is also involved with UCLA Library’s efforts to make high-resolution aerial imagery and LiDAR data collected by the Los Angeles Regional Imagery Acquisition Consortium (LARIAC) available to campus users and researchers.
Kristina Larsen
Kristina Larsen(she/her) is a lawyer, activist, and advocate for those facing discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or other challenges within academia and the workplace. With more than 20 years of experience in higher education, human resources, and employment law, her unique perspective allows her to successfully assist individuals as they identify the root causes of conflict, understand applicable laws and policies, determine risk tolerance and goals, and create and implement appropriate solutions using forward-thinking strategies that avert or minimize harm. She served as the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Personnel at UC San Diego. She is a formally trained mediator and a skilled presenter and instructor. She has led numerous trainings and appeared as a speaker at workshops both within the university setting and for external organizations. Kristi has represented and advised individuals at numerous universities and other academic institutions.