Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
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Erika Veidis
Staff, Human and Planetary Health
Strategic Initiatives Advisor, Human and Planetary HealthBioErika Veidis is the Strategic Initiatives Advisor for the Stanford Center for Human and Planetary Health, where she supports a range of efforts focused on community engagement, outreach, education, and impact. Prior to this role, Erika directed the forestry program at the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, where she led funding and capacity-building initiatives focused on forest restoration and wildfire resilience, and served as program manager for the Stanford Center for Human and Planetary Health and Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health, where she led policy influence and strategic communications initiatives, coordinated research and outreach programs, and designed and implemented curricula for undergraduate and graduate students in planetary health and environmental systems thinking. Erika also previously built and managed a global network of 200+ universities, NGOs, research institutes, and government entities investigating the linkages between global environmental change and public health through the Planetary Health Alliance.
Erika has published on the health and social dimensions of climate change and other environmental challenges, ranging from wildfires to plastic pollution to heat stress. She graduated from Harvard University in 2015 with a BA in Government and Mind/Brain/Behavior, where she studied the sociological determinants of community resilience and adaptation responses, particularly in response to economic and political stress, and obtained an MBA from the California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo in 2016, where she focused on environmental economics, nonprofit and philanthropic strategy, and corporate sustainability. -
Edgar Virgüez
Research Engineer, Energy Science & Engineering
BioEdgar Virgüez is a Research Engineer in the Department of Energy Science & Engineering at Stanford University, where his work advances reliable, low-carbon energy systems. His findings have resulted in more than 40 scholarly outputs that have garnered over 900 citations in leading journals, including Energy & Environmental Science, Environmental Science & Technology, Nature Cities, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, and Science. Dr. Virgüez serves on the Editorial Board of Environmental Research: Energy and was honored with IOP Publishing’s Editorial Excellence Award – Environment and Energy, recognizing his leadership and peer review excellence in advancing climate and energy research. In addition to his formal editorial role, he contributes to peer review across more than 15 leading journals, including Nature Communications and Nature Sustainability.
Complementing his scholarship, Dr. Virgüez serves as Managing Director of the $23 million U.S. Department of Energy-funded EARNEST Consortium, led by Stanford University. This initiative brings together 18 universities, three national laboratories, and two research organizations to advance solutions for the future of the U.S. electricity system. Beyond EARNEST, he has collaborated with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, contributing expertise in life cycle assessment, cost-benefit analysis, and decarbonization strategies for governments and utilities across the Americas.
Globally, Dr. Virgüez contributes to major energy and climate initiatives. Since 2024, he has served as an Expert Advisor to the Earthshot Prize, founded by Prince William, reviewing nominations in the Fix Our Climate category and assessing their potential for innovation, impact, and scalability toward a $1.25 million annual award. He also serves in advisory roles for institutions such as Schmidt Sciences, evaluating research programs advancing scalable decarbonization and energy systems solutions, and provides expert review on energy-related reports for organizations including the International Energy Agency.
For his contributions, Dr. Virgüez has received more than 20 awards totaling $34,365. Among his notable honors, he was recognized by the American Geophysical Union with the Science for Solutions Award (2025) and received the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award (2020) from the Association of American Colleges and Universities, recognizing rising scholars with strong promise as higher education leaders. As an educator, Dr. Virgüez has taught 17 courses to ~600 students, with consistently outstanding evaluations. This achievement was recognized with the Graduate School Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2021) from Duke University.
In 2022, he was elected as a Young Trustee to the Board of Trustees of Duke University, the institution’s highest governing body. During his term, he served on committees for Graduate and Professional Education and Research, External Engagement, Honorary Degrees, and chaired the Young Trustee Nominating Committee. He currently sits on the Climate Commitment Campaign Advocates Board, advising on the university’s philanthropic climate initiative.
Dr. Virgüez holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences and Policy with a Certificate in College Teaching (2022) and an M.A. in Environment with a Geospatial Analysis Certificate (2018) from Duke University, along with an M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering (2010) and a dual B.Sc. in Chemical and Environmental Engineering (2009) from Universidad de los Andes. He has completed professional certificates in Australia, the United States, and Colombia, and has received more than $795,000 in competitive scholarships and fellowships sponsored by institutions including the Sloan Foundation.
