Sustainability Initiative Special Talks
You are invited to a series of special talks and discussions featuring sustainability scholars from a variety of fields. Please join us to meet these exceptional guests and join the conversation as the Sustainability Initiative plans for future programming.
Thursday, June 2
Ann Scheerer
About Ann Scheerer
Dr. Ann Scheerer was born and raised on the shores of Lake Michigan in western Michigan. She has spent nearly twenty years exploring sustainability through sustainable community development work in the public, non-profit and academic sectors. Ann has worked with local governments and nonprofits on the ‘human’ side of urban sustainable infrastructure planning in the Puget Sound region. She has developed sustainability programs in higher education including University of Colorado Denver’s Center for Sustainable Infrastructure Systems, University of Oregon’s Leadership in Sustainability Graduate Certificate, and Oregon State University’s Sustainability Double Degree Program.
Ann recently completed a PhD, Design and Planning at the University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning as a National Science Foundation IGERT sustainable urban infrastructure research fellow. Her research has focused on local climate action planning. Her teaching has focused on sustainable communities, leadership for sustainability, and sustainability assessment. Ann has also obtained a MPA from University of Washington; MSc, Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from Blekinge Institute (Sweden); BS, Mechanical Engineering from University of Michigan; and a BA (Physics) from Kalamazoo College.
Friday, June 3
Adonia Lugo
About Adonia Lugo
Dr. Adonia Lugo is an anthropologist who studies our mobility experiences and expectations and an activist working toward inclusive and equitable sustainability. She has worked on bike equity, diversity, and inclusion at the national level and currently teaches in Chicana/o Studies at Cal State LA. Dr. Lugo serves on the advisory board for Multicultural Communities for Mobility and is a co-editor of the forthcoming collection Bicycle Justice and Urban Transformation: Biking for All? (Routledge 2016). She manages the Bike Equity Network email list and the Bicicultures academic network.
Monday, June 6
Jessica Debats
About Jessica Debats
Dr. Jessica Debats is a UCI alumnus and an experienced researcher, instructor, and environmental analyst with a Ph.D. in urban planning from MIT. Her research examines the relationship between environmental justice, climate adaptation, and public space, with a focus on urban forestry and urban heat island mitigation in Los Angeles and New York City.
Dr. Debats currently serves as Instructor and Associate to the MIT Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies, the U.S.’s oldest mid-career education program for planners from developing countries. She teaches seminars on climate adaptation, environmental justice, and American culture, politics, history, and urban planning. In addition, she is a member of the MIT Resilient Cities Housing Initiative, which explores how settlements can be designed to respond to the environmental and security challenges of an urbanizing world. Dr. Debats also has experience working for the MIT Office of Sustainability, where she produced data analysis and documentation for campus certification by the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, and developed a suite of metrics to track the campus’ consumption of resources, assess vulnerability to flooding and heat under climate change, and guide campus adaptation efforts.
Before coming to MIT, Dr. Debats worked as an environmental analyst and GIS specialist for local governments and environmental consulting firms in Southern California. She holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from UCI, a Master of Arts in U.S. History from UCLA, and a Bachelor of Arts in History (summa cum laude) from UCI.
About Krystal Tribbett
Dr. Krystal Tribbett has a B.A. in geology and Earth science from Vassar College and a M.A. as well as a Ph.D. in the History of Science – Science Studies from the University of California, San Diego, where she specialized in the history of emissions trading, environmental justice, and policy. Krystal has served as a research assistant on a variety of projects focused on climate change, renewable energy technologies, and aerosol policy history. She also served as a lecturer and teaching assistant for a variety of courses at UCSD including a seminar on western environmental history and classes on the history of science, and the intersection of culture, art and technology. Before joining UCI as the UCI Libraries’ 50th Anniversary Project Historian, Krystal was a corporate researcher at a nonprofit organization where she studied the impact of animal agriculture on climate change.