Environmental and Climate Justice Solutions

I’m fortunate to have interned in both the private sector and with EPA during my college years as it gave me valuable perspective that has served me well ever since. I believe I found the best of both worlds at ERG as we work to support EPA’s mission, and I’m grateful to do work that makes a real difference in solving environmental issues.

As an immigrant, issues of race, equity, and inclusion have always been central to my lived experience and values. As an environmental engineer and policy analyst, I feel grateful to align my convictions with my experience and to lead ERG’s environmental and climate justice solutions practice.

I am passionate about community-building for equity and long-term sustainability. There is nothing more important right now than empowering communities most impacted by natural hazards with the tools they need to grow and thrive. Deep listening, strong support, and a diversity of voices can lead to skillfully facilitated decision-making processes that result in real, tangible changes to equity and inclusion.

I have dedicated my career to reducing the energy and emission footprint of vehicle travel, a major source of air pollution worldwide. Thanks to inspiration from great mentors and clients, I had the opportunity to build and manage what has become a world-class team of mobile sources experts who relish the challenge of tackling complex problems. Disadvantaged communities experience a disproportional impact from vehicle-related air pollution, and I am gratified beyond measure that our work has helped improve air quality, not only across the United States but also in other countries around the world, where we have facilitated development of customized solutions based on local conditions.

The most rewarding part of my work is being able to help our clients and communities from behind the scenes, reflect on their impact, and find ways to become more effective and accessible in improving community conditions for all.

My favorite problems are the difficult ones—those sticky, multi-jurisdictional, multi-sector problems that require us to find new partners, develop new frameworks for working together, and be brave, humble, and kind. I love building frameworks that enable the person with the least amount of power and the person with the most amount of power to share their perspectives and contribute to solutions. Whatever the issue, my goals are to develop transparent, equitable, and effective solutions and to have fun along the way!

As a kid, I loved baseball, especially the statistics and data behind it. I would go through box scores in the paper the next day to keep track of my favorite team and players, logging the information into my Commodore 64. I enjoyed exploring the data and looking for trends. Working at ERG on a variety of emission inventory, ambient monitoring, and air quality modeling projects has allowed me to continue my passion for analyzing big data sets. And now I get to tell the story behind the data too.

Improving global health demands innovative solutions and evolving perspectives. I thrive on developing cutting-edge methodologies and promoting novel insights made possible by advances in data quality, quantity, and availability.

Designing equitable solutions for sustainable environmental conservation and management efforts is a constantly challenging, rewarding endeavor. I love collaborating closely with our clients to develop strategies that promote environmental and climate resilience and justice—including evaluating environmental program effectiveness and identifying innovative best practices for coastal and ocean planning.

Climate change is both a challenge and an opportunity. As a climate change economist, I’m passionate about developing and leveraging evidence to contribute nuanced understanding of the issues and inform restorative environmental and social policies that enable an equitable, resilient, adaptive, and decarbonized future.

I love figuring how to take what is often a firehose flow of complex environmental data and make it simpler and easy to understand. And that’s a pretty good metaphor for our team: we are technologically sophisticated, creative, and easy to work with.

The most rewarding aspect of my career at ERG has been the opportunity to work each day with colleagues and clients who share a commitment to a clean energy future.

Clean air, safe workplaces, a stable climate for generations to follow—these are just some of the ideals that motivate my daily work. I strive to bring the best available science to our nation’s current and emerging environmental health and occupational safety issues.