The city’s 42nd mayor is deeply committed to creating a sustainable future for Los Angeles. In 2015 Mayor Garcetti introduced his Sustainable City pLAn aiming to guide L.A. toward an environmentally healthy, economically prosperous, and equitable future for a city expected to grow by 500,000 residents over the next 20 years. The pLAn has ambitious short and long term targets in 14 categories related to the environment, economy, and equity — including water conservation, clean energy, waste, green jobs, transportation, and livability.

Mayor Garcetti also co-founded the Mayors’ National Climate Action Agenda (MNCAA) in 2014, it now has 75 members representing 41 million urban Americans. He also serves as Vice Chair of the international C40 Network, which connects 80 of the world’s megacities —representing 600 million urban dwellers and a quarter of the global economy — in sustainability efforts.

Prior to becoming the mayor, Garcetti was elected four times by his peers to serve as President of the Los Angeles City Council from 2006 to 2012. From 2001 until taking office as Mayor, he served as the council member representing the 13th District which includes Hollywood, Echo Park, Silver Lake, and Atwater Village –all of which were dramatically revitalized under Garcetti’s leadership.

Garcetti was raised in the San Fernando Valley and earned his B.A. and M.A. from Columbia University. He studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and the London School of Economics, and taught at Occidental College and USC. A fourth generation Angeleno, he and his wife, Amy Elaine Wakeland, have a young daughter. He is a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy reserve and is an avid jazz pianist and photographer.

Susana De Anda is co-executive director and co-founder of Community Water Center (CWC), an organization that develops community-driven water solutions through organizing, education and advocacy in California. Every year, particularly in low-income communities, more than a million Californians are exposed to unsafe drinking water. Under Susana’s leadership, CWC campaigns outside the realm of charity by demonstrating how helping communities with the least access to safe drinking water improves California’s water system for everyone. She was recognized by President Barack Obama as one of ten “White House Champions of Change for Climate Equality.” 

Hung-I, Lee is a third year Ph. D. student in Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. He studies climate dynamics. He currently works on the response of monsoonal precipitation over North America and East Asia to changes in climate forcing. Hung-I is exploring how the hydrological cycle changes in extreme climate states in order to help constrain climate model simulations for future global warming. 

Blanca Alvarez is graduating with a Ph.D. in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department at UCLA. Blanca examines different mechanisms behind calcifying organisms’ resiliency to ocean acidification, from rapid genetic adaptation to regulation of internal carbonate chemistry. With her research she hopes to better understand why different species exhibit varying responses to ocean acidification.

Bisrat Zerehaimanot majored in Earth and Environmental Science at UCLA where he took classes in Earth’s Energy: Diminishing Fossil Resources and Prospects for a Sustainable Future, Health and Global Environment, Tropical Climatology, Oceanography, Chemistry and Organic Chemistry Lab, Physics, Life Science Calculus Series, Principles of Venture Initiation & Business Plan Development, Economics, and Statistics. He has technical skills in ArcGIS and Excel, and research experience in mass spectrometry. Bisrat was an independent lab researcher in the Tripati Lab at UCLA. 

Ben grew up in Alaska. He received his BS and MS in Theoretical Chemistry from Utah State University. He obtained his PhD in experimental Physical Chemistry/Chemical Physics from Yale University where he studied mass spectrometry, infrared laser spectroscopy, and photoelectron spectroscopy. He worked as a research scientist at UCLA in ultra-fast laser spectroscopy. He then worked on the high-resolution vibrational spectroscopy of the isotopologues of carbon dioxide at NASA/JPL as a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow. He now works as a researcher and lab manager in the Tripati Lab at UCLA.

Ilian is a PhD student in Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences; he graduated from the Geology Department at Macalester College in 2015 with a focus on paleoclimatology and stable isotope geochemistry. He was also a visiting undergraduate researcher at UCLA.

He is interested in biogeochemical studies of shallow marine invertebrates, particularly corals, to understand how they respond to ocean acidification and to develop and understand proxies for shallow marine ocean conditions. Ilian also enjoys playing Ultimate Frisbee, traveling, cooking and eating.

Randy Flores graduated from UCLA in 2018 with a B.S. in Geology. He is working on a collaborative research project to develop a clumped isotope calibration for foraminifera on new instrumentation based at UCLA. Randy transferred to UCLA in 2016 from Pasadena City College. In addition to climate research, he is passionate about anything related to fossils and ancient life, as well as making music and collecting all forms of Star Wars memorabilia.

Lauren is a graduate student at UCLA who is in her second of study in geochemistry.  Her research is focused on the paleohydrology of the southwestern US following the Last Glacial Maximum.  Lauren majored in geosciences at Princeton University, where she also competed as a varsity pole vaulter on the track team. In her free time, Lauren likes to run and stay active. She is currently involved in Environmental Justice and First Nations through CDLS, and looks forward to partnering with Navajo Technical University for future collaboration opportunities.