Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Showing 1-50 of 72 Results
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Anela Arifi
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2020
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAnela researches the nexus between engineering, socio-economic, policy, and environmental components of energy systems. She currently focuses on the characterization of the scale and pace of integrating different energy systems with natural climate solutions.
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Oluwafunmibi Asunmonu
Masters Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Spring 2025
Master of Arts Student in International Policy, admitted Autumn 2024BioOluwafunmibi Asunmonu is a driving force behind rural food security and resilience and has spent 3.5 years securing sustainable, catalytic financing for the climate adaptation of over 1M of the most vulnerable rural households in Africa while contributing to the development of scalable agricultural risk management solutions.
She advocates designing adaptable climate financing models for further vulnerable groups (women and youth). She has made significant contributions as a two-time speaker at the annual AGRF Summit and the AYuTe Africa Summit, a delegate at the World Bank Youth Summit and the UN ECOSOC Youth Forum, and a participant in the Nigeria National Economic Council meeting on Food Security held in the Presidential Villa. Additionally, she has contributed to technical agri-financing reports published by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Shell Foundation.
Funded by the Swiss Re Foundation, she graduated with a BA(Hons) in International Business and Trade as the Best Graduating Student from the African Leadership University, where she co-founded an Initiative that won the Queen’s Young Leader Award and interned with KPMG, Andersen, and GTB. At Stanford, she plans to leverage the innovation and exposure it offers to design improved climate-adaptation investment models.
Oluwafunmibi enjoys hiking and playing sudoku. -
Alexander Basaraba
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2024
BioAlex Basaraba (he/him) is an interdisciplinary social scientist, practitioner, educator, and science-informed visual storyteller working at the interstice between people, the environment, and the climate. Building on an academic foundation in the social and natural sciences, he has more than 10 years of domestic and international experience in the climate adaptation field. His experience includes supporting communities domestically and internationally, as well as organizations and governments at different scales (federal, state, Tribal, city, and county) in preparing for and responding to the impacts of climate change, including: the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Shoshone-Paiute Tribes, the District of Columbia, among others. Basaraba is currently a PhD student at Stanford University in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) at the Doerr School of Sustainability. His current research is focused on transformative climate adaptation using community-engaged research methods. Beyond publishing dozens of white papers, policy reports, government plans, academic journal articles, and popular media articles, Basaraba has served as a contributing author, chapter graphic design lead, and review editor on the National Climate Assessments.
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Samantha Bents
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2024
BioSamantha Bents (she/her/hers) is an E-IPER PhD student interested in studying the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases across changing temporal and spatial scales. She plans to investigate how these dynamics can be leveraged to design public health interventions targeting inequities in both the built and natural environment. Prior to beginning her PhD, she was a researcher at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Fogarty International Center (FIC) NIH where her work focused on predictive disease modeling. She holds a B.A. from Princeton University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a concentration in Global Health and Health Policy.
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Hilary Brumberg
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2024
BioHilary Brumberg (she/her) is a PhD student in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) at Stanford. She is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist, conservation practitioner, and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow (NSF GRFP) with extensive experience researching and implementing Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) across the tropics. She studies socioeconomic, financial, political, and ecological dimensions of NCS implementation. Hilary spent four years managing community-based restoration projects while living at a research station deep in the Costa Rican rainforest, originally as a Princeton in Latin America Fellow. She has consulted for diverse international conservation organizations, including The Nature Conservancy (TNC), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and the Governors' Forest and Climate Task Force. Her work has been featured in National Geographic, Living on Earth on NPR, Mongabay Latam, and NASA DEVELOP. Hilary holds an M.S. in Environmental Studies with a Data Science Statistics Certificate from the University of Colorado Boulder as a USDA NNF Fellow, as well as a B.A. in Earth Science and Spanish from Wesleyan University.
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Eeshan Chaturvedi
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2022
BioEeshan is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Climate Governance, and its correlations with policy, law, and earth systems. He holds an LLM in Environmental Law and Policy from Stanford Law School and has since worked with various domestic and international organizations on legal and management issues. In academia, he has held positions of Assistant Dean and Professor of Environmental Governance and continues to engage with the various stakeholders in the space.
He enjoys discussions on neuroscience, astrophysics, and geo-politics in his free time. -
Safari Fang
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2020
BioSafari Fang is a Ph.D. candidate in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER). She is an interdisciplinary scientist and ocean conservation leader with proven experience and passion for connecting people from diverse backgrounds to facilitate deep, meaningful collaborations aimed at solving environmental challenges. Growing up next to a polluted Yangtze River in China, Safari aspired from an early age to work in environmental conservation, and she connects deeply with communities that live the real consequences of pollution and habitat destruction. Her current research focuses on aquaculture and fisheries, food security, and community-based marine conservation. Through her research and action, Safari is engaging diverse stakeholders in the global seafood system and fostering collaborations among sectors for the sustainable use of ocean resources.
Safari is an alumna of the Blue Pioneers Program, a leadership development program for ocean conservationists from Asia. She sits on the board of directors of Demos Education Hub, an environmental education and community development NGO in Hainan, China. Safari has lived and worked in several countries, including China, the U.S., Iceland, Germany, and France. She speaks fluent Chinese and English and enjoys reading, swimming, kayaking, hiking, whale watching, yoga, meditation, and creative writing. -
Sarah Fendrich
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2022
BioSarah is interested in the design and evaluation of decision support systems for local and regional-scale climate adaptation. Her research aims to explore the social and cognitive processes through which decision support systems — both digital decision support tools and the activities of regional climate resilience networks — shape adaptation planning and implementation, organizational learning, and environmental outcomes. She is specifically interested in supporting more adaptive and integrated water resources management. Sarah’s current work focuses on better understanding the collaborative landscape of federal decision support activities using social network analysis, as well as the decision-making and planning processes of local stormwater managers in coastal communities across the U.S. using a mixed-methods approach, including surveys, interviews, and document analysis.
Sarah holds a BA in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to coming to Stanford, she worked on health care innovation and equity research at the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit and the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics. -
Rwaida Gharib
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2023
Research Asst-Graduate-Hourly, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability - Dean's OfficeBioRwaida is a PhD student in Environment and Resources at Stanford’s School of Sustainability. Her research focuses on the international policy frameworks shaping climate adaptation and mobility, with an emphasis on environmental justice for displaced communities, rural populations, and women and girls. She examines how global institutions respond to climate vulnerability—and how they can better support frontline communities.
Her current work spans climate displacement and adaptation efforts in the Global South, grounded in field research across East Africa and Central America, but also here at home in California where she researches the social impacts of wildfire recovery. She examines how narrative structures, legal categorization, and financial allocations can influence how climate risks and resilience are interpreted within policy and institutional settings.
She brings over 15 years of experience in international development and humanitarian policy, including advisory roles with the World Bank Group, USAID, and UNDP, and an appointment in the Obama Administration, where she helped design the White House’ clean energy initiative, Power Africa. Currently, she is the Climate and Environmental Fellow for the Center for Just Environmental Futures, a King Center Global Development Scholar, and has supported adaptation finance research at Stanford's Sustainable Finance Institute as well as the Graduate School of Business’s Ecopreneurship Program. -
Rachel Herring
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2024
BioRachel Herring (Choctaw Nation) is investigating pathways towards a Just Transition as an E-IPER PhD student. Previously, she has recommended policy alternatives for domestic mining with the Department of Energy’s Indian Energy Program, and has explored impacts of critical mineral extraction on Native land as a Kathryn Wasserman Davis Conflict Transformation Fellow. Additionally, as a Fulbright Fellow and National Geographic Explorer, Rachel continues to investigate the intersection between the clean energy transition and the depopulation crisis in rural Japan. She was named a Next Generation Photographer by the 2024 Japan Photo Award in Kyoto, and her work has appeared in the New York Times. She holds an MA in International Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute, and a BA from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
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Ayako Kawano
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2022
BioAyako Kawano is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University. Her research interests include the impact analysis of air pollution on population health and climate change in low- and middle-income countries using remote sensing data and machine learning methods. Before coming to Stanford, she worked as a Data Scientist at UN Global Pulse and as a Program Manager at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
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Emma Krasovich Southworth
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2022
BioResearch Interests:
planetary health | climate extremes | global change | environmental pollution and toxic exposures | disease ecology | environmental data science | causal inference
Emma is a PhD candidate in Environment and Resources at Stanford University’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER). She is co-advised by Marshall Burke (Global Environmental Policy) and Erin Mordecai (Biology) and is a Research Fellow in the Global Policy Lab (led by Solomon Hsiang). She is a Stanford Data Science Scholar, NSF Graduate Research Fellow, and Stanford Edge Fellow.
Emma's dissertation research is united by the question: how can we protect human health in the face of intensifying and extreme environmental change? We live in an era where humans are impacting and are impacted by their environment at an unprecedented scale. Natural disasters such as wildfires are growing in size and severity, while tropical cyclones are intensifying and leading to lasting damage. Her research aims to contribute to a body of evidence that measures how extreme climate events lead to environmental degradation, harmful exposures, and disease outcomes as a way to better prepare for and prevent future impacts.
Prior to starting her PhD, Emma worked as a Research Analyst at the Global Policy Lab at UC Berkeley (now at Stanford). During her time at GPL, she was part of a project that aimed to identify land-based sources of non-point source water pollution in national-scale river systems in New Zealand and the US Mississippi River Basin. Emma completed her MPH in global and environmental health science and global health at Columbia University and received a BA in behavioral neuroscience from Colgate University.
When she is not at her desk, you can find her outside - most likely running or hiking up a mountain. She also co-founded a trivia company called aeroTRIV and loves to host bespoke trivia nights to bring communities together. -
Chirag Kumar
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2025
BioChirag Kumar combines next-generation modeling tools with on-the-ground field research to provide actionable strategies that improve human health amidst environmental and migratory uncertainty. He is interested in causally unraveling the environmental factors driving infectious diseases to inform targeted interventions that mitigate those threats and how those insights can be directly shared with the public to empower individual-level change. To unravel complex human-environment-health systems, he has conducted on-the-ground field work and mechanistic biological analyses to provide key inputs into his models. His findings have been used to advocate for new World Health Organization vaccine recommendations against antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. Chirag previously served as a Biden-Harris US Digital Corps Data Fellow at the US CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics and on the Biden administration’s White House AI Forum. He graduated from Princeton University as a Smith-Newton Environmental Research Scholar where he concentrated in chemistry with minors in applied math, global health, and quantitative biology. He is supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
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Kyle Lottinville
MBA, expected graduation 2026
Masters Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Spring 2026BioI'm a Stanford MBA focused on advancing climate solutions, with a passion for scaling renewables, sustainable infrastructure, and energy storage.
Before Stanford, I led large-scale energy and manufacturing projects around the world. At ExxonMobil, I managed a $400M drilling program in Russia, delivering some of the world’s longest wells and driving technical innovations that broke multiple drilling performance records. After ExxonMobil, I joined Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin, where I led a 25-person team scaling infrastructure to deliver first-of-its-kind, high-volume 4680 battery production.
I consider myself a diplomatic leader who has effectively built relationships and worked alongside individuals from all around the world.
International experiences to include work, study abroad, and travel across 35+ countries and 6 continents.
In my spare time, I enjoy hiking, travel, smoking briskets, and golfing. I'm also working on my private pilot's license. -
Karli Moore
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2021
BioKarli Moore, a member of the Lumbee Tribe, is from Prospect, North Carolina, and is pursuing a PhD in environment and resources at Stanford School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences. She earned bachelor's degrees in chemistry and agricultural business management from NC State University, master's degrees in agricultural economics (University of Arkansas) and rural development (Ghent University), and a graduate certificate in food policy from Arizona State University. Karli aspires to advance food sovereignty and economic development for indigenous communities through climate-smart agriculture that centers traditional ecological knowledge. She was a biodiversity coordinator at BASF, an economic fellow at the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, and a program officer at the Native American Agriculture Fund. Her work has helped guide the investment of more than $40 million for Native food systems over the past two years. She is a Udall Scholar, Park Scholar, and Mathews Medal recipient.
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Leona Neftaliem
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2022
BioLeona is pursuing a PhD in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) at Stanford University. Her current research focuses on improving tree detection methods, understanding human migration patterns in response to environmental and socioeconomic pressures, and assessing drivers of urban air quality. She approaches these topics by integrating remote sensing, quantitative surveys, and innovative environmental engineering techniques at different scales and in different cities.
Before Stanford, Leona worked as a research technician at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, where she designed technologically innovative climate change experiments. She is a Knight-Hennessy Scholar, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and a Stanford School of Sustainability Dean’s Graduate Scholar. -
Fridah Nyakundi
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2021
BioI am a Ph.D. candidate in Environment and Resources at Stanford University’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER). My research sits at the intersection of environmental and natural resource economics and land system science, applying remote sensing and economic methods to understand how natural resource use shapes livelihoods and ecosystems in low- and middle-income countries. Currently, my doctoral work focuses on the risks and decision-making strategies in aquaculture systems, with a case study on Nile Tilapia cage farming in Lake Victoria. While aquaculture is the subject of my current research, my broader interests span natural resource management (NRM) economics, agriculture and environmental economics, land system science, and food systems resilience. Before graduate school, I spent five years at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), supporting the design and execution of large-scale impact assessments and leading the setup of data systems for the Africa research team. I have been a fellow at Environment for Development (EfD) Kenya since 2017, contributing to applied water and resource economics research.
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Maggie Poulos
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2023
HIA Mentor, Stanford Arts InstituteBioMaggie is a PhD student in Stanford University's E-IPER Program interested in intersectional equity and blue justice through the lens of marine resource management in Kenya and Tanzania. In exploring resource access and collective action through local governance mechanisms, she studies the motivations behind and challenges to diverse participation in local marine governance, as well as opportunities for encouraging gendered inclusion. Through a co-production of knowledge framework and related field research tools, Maggie aims to co-create applied research that makes marine policy a more diverse and equitable space for local and Indigenous communities. Before her time at Stanford, Maggie earned a Master of Public Policy from Duke University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Studies from Macalester College.
