Environmental Equity and Justice

Recognizing the ways that less-privileged communities, frontline communities and communities-of-color have been disproportionately harmed by environmental pollution and granted limited access to environmental goods and services, our projects direct attention to the need for more equitable and just solutions.

  • CECE Announces Inaugural Faculty Research Incubator Grants

    This fall, the Center for Environment, Community, and Equity commenced the CECE Faculty Research Incubator Program: a new funding program designed to launch exciting, interdisciplinary work on the environment conducted by faculty teams from programs across campus. By the end of the academic year, teams are expected to have built out their projects, piloted the […]
  • Carbon Removal Justice Fellows Program

    This past July, eleven fellows in the Carbon Removal Justice Fellows Program convened for two weeks of intensive discussions, launching a year of continued engagement on the equity and justice dimensions of carbon removal policy. Their aim? To challenge this emerging industry to break away from the patterns of environmental injustice that have characterized emissions-generating […]
  • The Climate Story Gaps Project: Locating Untold Climate Intersections in Washington, D.C. 

    The first project of the inaugural Faculty Research Incubator Program is entitled “The Climate Story Gaps Project: Locating Untold Climate Intersections in Washington, D.C.”. The research team is made up of professors from both the School of Communication and the School of International Service. Dr. Rosalind Donald (School of Communication), Dr. Malini Ranganathan (SIS), Dr. […]
  • Remote Sensing and Knowledge Co-Production in Northern Haiti 

    The second research project from the Faculty Research Incubator Program comes from a collaboration across the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of International Service. Entitled “Remote Sensing and Knowledge Co-Production in Northern Haiti,” this project by Dr. Michael Alonzo (CAS) and Dr. Scott Freeman (SIS) focuses on co-producing knowledge about land and environment […]
  • CECE Hosted Historic Farm Bill Summit and Briefing 

    From April 30 - May 2, 2023 the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (FSC/LAF), Berkeley Food Institute (BFI), American University’s Center for Environment, Community, and Equity (CECE) and Antiracist Research Policy Center (ARPC) hosted Pointing the Farm Bill Toward Racial Justice, a Farm Bill Summit & Briefing. The summit was a historic convening of farmers, advocates, policy-makers, scholars, students, and the general […]
  • CECE Director discusses findings from the March to End Fossil Fuels

    During Climate Week 2023 in New York City, CECE Director, Dana R. Fisher, spoke with Environmental Educator & Creator of QueerBrownVegan, Isaias Hernandez about her work around climate activism.  The conversation took place at the We Don’t Have Time-coordinated Climate Hub and included the findings from her survey of participants at the March to End Fossil […]
  • CECE Director talks US Open climate protest with TMZ Live

    In the build up to the UN Secretary General’s Climate Ambition Summit in NYC in September, climate activists worked to raise awareness of the climate crisis through numerous non-violent acts of civil disobedience.  Particularly memorable actions took place on Thursday, September 7th, when three activists delayed a game at the US Open in NYC with […]
  • Vox’s Today Explained Podcast with CECE Director, Dana R. Fisher

    CECE Director, Dana R. Fisher, spoke with Noelle King from Vox about how the radical flank is growing in the climate movement in the US.  The interview appeared on the Today Explained Podcast on September 26th. It was also written up into this piece: How radical should you be when you’re trying to save the […]
  • Addressing Climate Change Through Our Nation’s Service Corps

    Traditional Trades Advancement Program Year 1 As part of its work assessing how federal service corps programs are expanding their efforts to care for the environment and diversify their workforces, CECE is studying the Traditional Trades Advancement Program (TTAP), a youth service project funded by the National Parks Service. This research aims to analyze TTAP through survey data […]
  • Multiscale RECIPES for Sustainable Food Systems Year 2 Report

    RECIPES: Resilient, Equitable, and Circular Innovations with Partnership and Education Synergies Multiscale RECIPES (‘RECIPES’) is an interdisciplinary research network of 50 faculty and staff researchers co-creating solutions to wasted food. Through our research process, we partner with non-profits, industry leaders, frontline workers, community members, and policymakers to transform wasteful systems to promote sustainability, equity, and […]
  • Article: Accounting for Non-Economic Loss: Climate Displacement and the Meaningful Omission of the [...]

    Dr. Robert Albro, Research Associate Professor in the American University Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, recently published a new article in the International Journal of Cultural Policy on the necessity of incorporating into loss-and-damage policy the intangible, non-economic loss of cultural heritage incurred as a result of climate displacement. Titled “Accounting for non-economic […]
  • Article: Towards Abolitionist Agrarian Geographies of Kentucky

    In her new paper “Towards Abolitionist Agrarian Geographies of Kentucky,” American University School of International Service Provost Associate Professor Dr. Garrett Graddy-Lovelace invites readers on a journey through space and time in a state with echoes of an oppressive, racially stratified agricultural past and a present of both agrarian exploitation and resistance. “This state names […]

Environmental Equity and Justice Experts

Abeer Y Al-Eryani

Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Environment, Community, & Equity

Robert Albro

Research Associate Professor, Center for Latin American and Latino Studies

Michael Alonzo

Assistant Professor, Environmental Science

Valentina Aquila

Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Science

David Bartlett

Senior Professorial Lecturer, Department of Management

Kristine Beran

Professorial Lecturer, Department of Environmental Science

Robin Broad

Research Professor, Department of Environment, Development, and Health
Jennifer Brown

Jenn Brown

Program Manager, Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy

Lauren Carruth

Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Environment, Development & Health

Ernesto Castañeda

Director, Center for Latin American and Latino Studies

C. Anne Claus

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology

Ken Conca

Professor, Department of Environment, Development, and Health

Nicole Darnall

Arlene R. and Robert P. Kogod Eminent Scholar Chair in Sustainability

Rosalind Donald

Assistant Professor, Public Communication

Todd Eisenstadt

Research Director, Center for Environmental Policy

Larry Engel

Associate Director Center for Environmental Filmmaking

Dana R. Fisher

Director, Center for Environment, Community, & Equity

Scott Freeman

Senior Lecturer, Department of Environment, Development, and Health

Julie A. Gonzalez

Environmental Justice Postdoctoral Fellow, CECE

Garrett Graddy-Lovelace

Provost Associate Professor, Department of Environment, Development, and Health

Edward Guetti

Professorial Lecturer, Department of Philosophy and Religion

David Hunter

Professor of Law, WCL Program on Environmental and Energy Law

Sarah Iverson

Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Kyra Jones

Kyra Jones

Operations Manager

Victoria Kiechel

Senior Professorial Lecturer, Department of Environment, Development, and Health

Chelsea Koch

Assistant Professor, Arctic Ecogeochemistry Lab/Department of Environmental Science Assistant Professor, Arctic Ecogeochemistry Lab/Department of Environmental Science

Maya Livio

Assistant Professor, Climate, Environmental Justice, Media and Communication
Marquise McGraw

Marquise McGraw

Professorial Lecturer, Department of Public Administration and Policy

Magnolia Mead

CECE Fellow & Research Assistant

Simon Nicholson

Co-Director of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy

Jennifer Oetzel

Research Professor, Department of Management

Marcos A. Orellana

Director, Global Toxics and Human Rights Project

Angela Pashayan

Professorial Lecturer, Department of Environment, Development, and Health

Claudia Persico

Associate Professor, Public Administration and Policy

Natalia Piland

CECE Collaborating Researcher, Interdisciplinary Scientist
Malini Ranganathan

Malini Ranganathan

Associate Professor, Department of Environment, Development, and Health

Jesse Ribot

Professor, Department of Environment, Development, and Health

Ezra Rosser

Professor of Law, WCL Program on Environmental and Energy Law

Thurka Sangaramoorthy

Professor, Department of Anthropology

William John Snape, III

Professor and Director, WCL Program on Environmental and Energy Law

Maggie B. Stogner

Executive Director, Center For Environmental Filmmaking

David J. Vázquez

Associate Professor, Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies

Paul Yoo

Assistant Professor, Finance