Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Showing 1-50 of 74 Results
-
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.
-
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. -
Jeffrey Ball
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsEfficacy of global clean-energy investment, focusing on China, the main player.
-
Alexander Basaraba
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2024
BioAlex Basaraba (he/him) is an interdisciplinary researcher, 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 working to bridge the gap between research and practice to create more just outcomes to a changing climate. His experience includes supporting communities domestically and internationally, as well as organizations and governments at all levels (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 focuses on transforming climate adaptation and resilience policy, research, and practice towards more just outcomes using community-engaged social science research methods. Beyond publishing dozens of white papers, policy reports, government plans, academic journal articles, and popular media articles, Basaraba is a contributing author on the forthcoming 6th National Climate Assessment.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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. She examines how narrative structures, legal categorization, and language shape relationships with nature and 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 supports 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.
-
Randall Holmes
Lecturer
BioAfter completing service in the U.S. Army, Dr. Holmes earned his BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering, MS in Earth System Science, and PhD from Stanford's Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) focused on sustainable groundwater management in California. As an E-IPER MS Lecturer, Dr. Holmes co-designs and delivers curriculum that bridges theory with practical applications exemplified by the E-IPER MS Capstone Seminar. He creates collaborative learning environments where students develop critical systems-thinking skills through hands-on engagement with complex sustainability challenges. Dr. Holmes' teaching philosophy emphasizes an inclusive, problem-posing education with pedagogical approaches that prepare diverse student populations for both academic success and real-world problem-solving. His interdisciplinary background enables him to connect students with cross-cutting perspectives essential for addressing today's most pressing environmental and resource sustainability issues.
-
Dan Iancu
Associate Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at the Graduate School of Business
BioDan Iancu is an Associate Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His research and teaching interests are in responsible analytics and AI and data-driven optimization, with applications in supply chain management, FinTech, and healthcare. His work is aimed both at improving existing methodological tools (e.g., by making them more robust, fair, or transparent) and at applying these to design more effective, more equitable, and more sustainable solutions for complex operational problems. An area of particular focus in his recent research has been the design of better procurement, payment, and financing solutions in global supply chains, where material and financial flows carry both immediate and long-term impact on the lives of millions of people and on the environment.
-
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).
-
Emma Krasovich Southworth
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2022
BioEmma is interested in exploring how we can promote the health of people and the environment in a changing world. Her research aims to measure, value, and predict the impacts of global environmental change on our ecosystems, environmental quality, and human health. She leverages different types and scales of data, including field collected ecological data to remotely sensed data to epidemiological data on human health outcomes, and she relates these datasets together by drawing on methods and tools from various disciplines, such as machine learning, causal inference, and exposure assessment. Her current research focuses on how changes to air quality, land use, and water quality, which are three resources that are critical to the functioning of healthy ecosystems have consequences for both the environment and human health. Emma is co-advised by Erin Mordecai and Marshall Burke, and she is a NSF Graduate Research Fellow, a Stanford EDGE Fellow, and a Stanford Data Science Scholar.
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 nonpoint 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 isn’t at her desk, you can find her outside - most likely running or hiking up a mountain. She also co-founded a trivia company and loves to host 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.
-
Anna Lee
Lecturer
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAnna's research interests are how people learn about and make decisions related to food and waste.
-
David Millman
Masters Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Spring 2025
Juris Doctor Student, LawBioDavid Millman is a Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford Law School. He aspires to use law, advocacy, and public policy to help communities and the people in them, particularly by addressing inequalities, climate change, and our nation’s housing crisis. David has a wide range of legal, academic, political, and nonprofit experience ranging from being a zoning district author, a state sexual violence prevention nonprofit director, a student body president, and a candidate for local office. He aims to be a housing, community development, and civil rights attorney. His work has been featured in USA Today, AP News, Yahoo News, The Week, and many regional and local publications for advocacy around housing affordability, sexual violence prevention, local government, climate change, and food insecurity.
When he was 19 years old, David for local office in Hanover, NH to solve community issues around COVID-19 and the region's housing crisis. This effort turned into a multi-year campaign around reforming zoning laws and restoring civic participation. The exposure to local government, in combination with a long-standing fight against sexual violence, has led to a law degree at Stanford University.
He has presented work in front of town councils, state legislatures, and even the UK Parliament. While at Dartmouth College, he was the first-ever male recipient of Hannah T. Croasdale Award, which is “awarded each year to the member of the Senior Class who has made the most significant contribution to the quality of life for women at Dartmouth,” due to his longstanding commitment and work against sexual violence on campus. As Student Body President, he helped lead the campaign for the implementation of free teletherapy services on campus, establish a now-institutionalized campus food pantry, and design new campus bus routes for students to get home safely — all initiatives which continue to this day. Alongside his law degree, David is also completing an MS in Environment and Resources at the Doerr School of Sustainability. Most recently, he completed a Master’s degree at the London School of Economics (LSE) in Local Economic Development, writing a dissertation on effective strategies around empowering the homelessness in Central London. -
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.
-
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.
