Robert Anderson
Rob is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography. His research examines the practices of biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration as cultural and political processes, exploring the formation and reproduction of values and norms about wildlife and the “natural” world. His dissertation research uses ethnographic methods to examine the controversy and conflict over the return of wolves to the Pacific Northwest. Rob holds a B.A. in political science from Vassar College and an M.A. in geography from the University of Washington, and has professional experience planning and supervising ecological restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest.
Geography
Email: anderrm AT uw.edu
Candela Arias Perez
Candela is Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science, focusing on international relations, comparative politics and public law. Her research interests fall at the intersection of migration, human security, and climate. She is also interested in gender politics and feminist theory. She holds an BA in Political Science and International Studies from the University of Kentucky and an MA in Political Science from the University of South Florida.
Political Science
Email: cariasp AT uw.edu
Hassan Aziz
Political Science
Email: mirzahassanaziz AT gmail.com
Katie Breen
Katie Breen is a graduate student researching Wildlife Ecology in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Her focus is on how climate change affects wildlife in northern climates, collaborating with researchers in Norway. She intends to use her conclusions to facilitate conservation planning for wildlife. Before joining the program, she worked on conservation policy at The Wilderness Society and energy efficiency policy on contract to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She is a member of the Clean Energy Leadership Institute and the Seattle chapter for the grassroots group, 500 Women Scientists, which works to connect and mobilize women scientists around the globe to create action on policy. She holds a BA in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University.
School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
Email: cbreen AT uw.edu
Meagan Carmack
Meagan is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science, with a focus on Latin American environmental politics. Her main research area is focused in environmental mandate enforcement, specifically endangered species mandate enforcement in Latin America, with strong interests in the ways state policies reflect environmental protective compliance, mixed methods, and comparative state policy in the Latin American region. Her current research focuses in on the mechanisms behind legal enforcement of endangered species mandates in Costa Rica post-2000 and the scholarly generation of policy recommendations adapted from Latin America to the United States.
Political Science
Email: mcarmack AT uw.edu
Chin-Wei Chen
Urban Design and Planning
Email: cchen83 AT uw.edu
Nikol Damato
Nikol Damato is a PhD student in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. As an interdisciplinary social scientist, Nikol is interested in the human dimensions of marine conservation and policy. Her research examines governance of marine systems and decision-making throughout the policy process for protected species and marine mammal conservation. Prior to attending UW, Nikol completed an M.A. in Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island, where she studied compliance with vessel regulations to reduce disturbances to killer whales. She holds a B.A. and B.S. from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.
School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
Email: ndamato AT uw.edu
Dennis Duffin
Dennis Duffin is a graduate student at the Evans School focusing on Environmental Policy. He is interested in energy policy related to decarbonization, sustainability, and conservation. He holds a BA in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University, and has previously conducted research on caribbean invasive species interactions.
Evans School of Public Policy and Governance
Email: dduffin AT uw.edu
Elizabeth Echavarria
Elizabeth is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science, interested in International Relations, Comparative Politics and Environmental Politics. Her research seeks to explore non-state actor’s involvement in decision-making processes from the domestic to the global level, and the mechanisms behind the success or failure of voluntary sustainability certifications across commodities in those spheres. Prior to her doctoral studies, Elizabeth worked as a program and project manager at various NGOs. She holds a BA in Political Science from Universidad Nacional de Colombia and a MSc. In Public Policy from University College London, which she completed thanks to a Chevening Award.
Political Science
Email: eet1 AT uw.edu
Bengally Fatty
Jackson School of International Studies
Email: phattyb AT uw.edu
Jana Foxe
Political Science
Email: jfoxe AT uw.edu
MacKenzie Gaddy
MacKenzie is a second year MPA candidate at the UW Evans school. She is interested in the intersection of sustainability and international development as well as alternative economic models such as circular economies, de-growth and the Green New Deal. Before coming to UW, she earned a MSc from Uppsala University in Sweden and a BA in Humanities from Seattle University. MacKenzie also serves as the co-president of GreenEvans.
Evans School of Public Policy and Governance
Email: gaddym AT uw.edu
Angie Gonzalez
School of Environmental and Forest Science
Email: agonza29 AT uw.edu
Matt Grosser
Matt’s doctoral research is centered around how ecologically based infrastructural adaptation strategies can serve as a mechanism for combating the impacts of climate change. He’s specifically interested in the role that critical ecosystems and keystone species can play in resilience/adaptation design and planning. His work investigates how traditional and emerging ecologically based infrastructural techniques could be improved and more broadly applied, as well as how the resultant socio-ecological bonds formed by the implementation of these strategies could elevate the role of ecological systems thinking for design and planning practices within the built environment. Additionally, Matt is interested in all matters of resilience/adaptation at the water’s edge—managed retreat, hazard mitigation, coastal/ecological modeling, parametric design for ecology, social-ecological entanglements and the value of visible ecologies.
College of Built Environments
Email: grosser AT uw.edu
Jeffrey Grove
Jeffrey studies American Politics and Political Theory, using a historical institutionalist framework to examine legal and political development. His research centers on issues of territorial expansion and western settlement, with a particular focus on how courts utilized available institutional mechanisms to enhance federal state control of Native nations. Jeffrey takes a strong interest in the intersections between indigenous sovereignty and environmental activism as well as the development of American jurisprudence on environmental law. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Moravian College and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington.
Political Science
Email: jgrove91 AT uw.edu
Zhaowen Guo
Zhaowen Guo is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of Washington. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science at Fudan University (China) and a master’s degree in political science at Columbia University with Chinese Government Scholarship. Her research focuses primarily on the politics of information, with an emphasis on how technology and digital tools affect public discourses, social behavior, and government accountability in combating air pollution.
Political Science
Email: zwguo AT uw.edu
Nick Hadjimichael
Nick Hadjimichael is a Ph.D. student at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. Prior to joining the program, he earned a MPP from the Price School at the University of Southern California and a BA in Public Policy Studies and in Economics from the University of Chicago. Previous work includes researching community power building and the just transition away from fossil fuels for the USC Equity Research Institute (formerly PERE) and evaluating the health co-benefits of the GEF’s Chemicals & Waste Portfolio for its Independent Evaluation Office. Nick’s research agenda is focused on environmental justice, climate change, and health geography. Current work centers on residential proximity to oil and natural gas production and on the cumulative health burden of environmental stressors and climate hazards.
Evans School of Public Policy and Governance
Email: nickhadj AT uw.edu
Farrah Hasan
Farrah Hasan is a Master’s student at the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry and Creative Writing from Vanderbilt University. She has a research interest in climate migration and pursues projects related to policy and communication.
School of Marine and Environmental Affairs
Email: farrah.hasan AT vanderbilt.edu
Stella Mae Heflin
Atmospheric Sciences
Email: smheflin AT uw.edu
Shelby House
Shelby House is a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology. Her current research revolves around climate change in contemporary South Asia, with a particular focus on the life of heat as a social, political, and ecological actor in Karachi, Pakistan. She holds an M.A. in South Asia Studies from the UW Jackson School of International Studies and a B.A. in Political Science and South Asian Studies from Vanderbilt University. She has completed multiple Urdu language fellowships at the American Institute of Indian Studies in Lucknow and the American Institute of Pakistan Studies program in Lahore. Previously, she served as the Researcher-Editor for India Policy, a new initiative of the Carter Center Human Rights Program, and she has extensive experience working with racial and social justice non-profits in the United States. She currently works as an Urdu Scenario Writer for the Regional Flagship Languages Initiative (RFLI) Culture Initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her writing has been published in Anthropological Quarterly and South Asia: The Journal of South Asian Studies.
Anthropology
Email: jshouse AT uw.edu
Erin Keoppen
I am a PhD Candidate in the Communication department here at UW. My work focuses on the local climate politics of wildfires in rural Oregon and how public officials and scientists communicate with various publics.
Communications
Email: keoppen AT uw.edu
Griffin Lerner
Griffin is an MPA student with interests in Environmental Policy and Local Government Management. As an undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he developed a burgeoning interest in humans’ ever changing relationship to the natural world, taking relevant coursework in anthropology, sociology, and history. He also recently served as a Teaching Assistant for Nathan Roberts’ History of the Environment course. Currently, he is studying how to best leverage behavioral science in effectively communicating climate change to diverse audiences, as well as doing a policy analysis on shoreline management approaches in small coastal towns.
Evans School of Public Policy and Governance
Email: glerner AT uw.edu
Anna Lewis
School of Marine and Environmental Affairs
Email: alewis37AT uw.edu
Nino Migineishvili
Computer Science
Email: ninom AT cs.washington.edu
Kayla Morton
Kayla is a Ph.D student in the Department of Political Science, focusing on international environmental governance. Her research examines implementation of marine policy and the influence of various institutions on marine ecosystem management. Before coming to the University of Washington, Kayla worked with nonprofit organizations to strengthen infrastucture and analyzed nonprofit trends. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Policy and Political Science from Duke University.
Political Science
Email: kem95 AT uw.edu
Mark Nepf
I’m a PhD student in the Evans School. My research there centers on environmental justice from a public policy perspective.
Evans School of Public Policy and Governance
Email: mnepf AT uw.edu
Christianna Parr
Christianna is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science and a steering committee member of the Equality Initiative in Political Science. Her main area of research is international relations and comparative politics, focusing on the region of South East Asia. She has a strong interest in the relationships civil society has with states and international organizations. Additional interests include the political strategies employed by environmental NGOs, ecofeminism, and human rights in Malaysia and Singapore. Her research focuses on the ascension efforts of NGOs in international organizations, and the types of NGOs that are given ascension status. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington and previously attended Taylor’s University in Malaysia.
Political Science
Email: parr182 AT uw.edu
Kaisa Pietilä
Evans School of Public Policy and Governance
Email: kaisa.j.pietila AT tuni.fi
Michael Quinlan
Michael Quinlan is a graduate student studying communication in digital media. His areas of focus include habit formation, motivational interviewing, and the science of storytelling for environmental change. As part of his studies, he produces mission driven videos for nonprofits and government organizations addressing environmental issues, including the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association and Seattle Public Utilities. Michael holds a B.A in political science from the University of Vermont.
Communications
Email: quinlanm AT uw.edu
Ahana Raina
Ahana Raina (MPA ’25) is passionate about pursuing a career in research using data and analytics, to inform gender, energy and economic policy. She received a B.A. in economics along with a minor in sociology from Smith College in 2020. This included her junior year of college at London School of Economics. Prior to joining EPAR, Ahana was a Research Associate at the JSW school of Public Policy at Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), working on intra-household dynamics and examining impact of policy through a gender lens.
Evans School of Public Policy & Governance
Email: ahana.raina AT gmail.com
Satveer Sandhu
Satveer is a first year M.S. candidate in UW’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences. His primary research focuses on the evolution of orographically driven wind patterns along the West Coast of the United States and the implications of their evolution on wildfires and heatwaves; his secondary research focuses on how global circulation models reconcile and predict heat anomalies. He is also interested in environmental justice, pedagogy within atmospheric sciences, rhetoric within environmental sciences, and bringing the effects of climate change on marginalized communities into the discussion within the environmental science bubble. He holds a B.S. in Physics from the University of Washington’s satellite campus in Bothell, Washington, and his previous research focuses on the long term evolution of heatwave thresholds in the greater Seattle area and the long-term viability of dairy farming in the Whidbey Basin.
Atmospheric Sciences
Email: ssand98 AT uw.edu
Andres Sheikh
Andres is pursuing a specialization in Environmental Policy. He has over two years experience in the nonprofit sector campaign organizing and researching issues to protect public lands. As an undergrad at UC Berkeley he majored in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations and has taken coursework with an emphasis on Conservation and Resource Studies. His research interests are evaluating climate change and international environmental policy impacts to political institutions and international relations.
Evans School of Public Policy & Governance
Email: amsheikh AT uw.edu
Chad Small
Chad Small is a graduate student in the department of Atmospheric Sciences. He primarily explores how extreme precipitation, and the consequent flood risk, might change under a
changing climate. In particular, Chad investigates how the frequency, duration, and intensity of heavily precipitating systems might be evolving. Prior to coming to UW, Chad worked as an environmental and civil engineer, and a journalist. His work has been featured in Grist, Next City, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Chad holds a M.S. in Earth and Atmospheric Science from the City College of New York, and B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Yale University.
Atmospheric Sciences
Email: csmall3 AT uw.edu
Michael Taylor
Michael is a full-time MBA student at the Foster School of Business focusing on Sustainability and Finance. His passions include nature, climate technology, and community outreach, and he’s attending Foster to pivot towards a career at their intersection. Before the growing global effects of climate destabilization motivated him to return to school, he worked as a commodity derivatives market maker and founded an algorithmic trading business. He holds a B.A. in Mathematical Economic Analysis from Rice University.
Foster School of Business
Email: taylor01 AT uw.edu
Siyu Yin
Political Science
Email: syyin AT uw.edu