Carolina Balazs (2009)

Fellowship Year: 2009
Academic Background: UC Berkeley - Ph.D. 2012- (Energy and Resources Group)
Current Position: Research Scientist and Science Advisor , Community Water Center
Currently Working On: Obtaining access to clean water in rural and low-income areas of California's San Joaquin Valley--including the role of community capacity and regional consolidation etc; Cumulative impacts and drinking water quality; Exposure to water contaminants
Carolina completed her doctoral dissertation at the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at UC Berkeley. Her training and primary fields of interest are in environmental health, water policy and environmental justice. She is passionate about working with local communities to address and solve these problems using participatory research methods. Her doctoral research examined drinking water quality problems in California’s Central Valley and the environmental justice implications. In particular, Carolina’s research focused on burdens faced by communities of color and low income communities in accessing safe water, and how historical, regulatory and financial factors exacerbate these burdens. Carolina has worked on natural resource management, water policy and environmental justice issues in the San Francisco Bay Area and Latin America—this work has formed the foundation for her current work and future aspirations. As community outreach coordinator at the Natural Heritage Institute, she worked on environmental justice-oriented watershed management and restoration in the Bay Area. She also worked with non profits and government officials in southern Africa on a transboundary water management project. As a Fulbright scholar in Bolivia, she used participatory research methods to assess land use sustainability in indigenous communities. Both her undergraduate and masters theses were conducted in Brazil and focused on the intersection of natural resource use and degradation, equity, and sustainability in marginalized communities. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from Brown University and both an M.S. and a PhD from the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley.
Expertise: Environmental & Public Health, Water Resources, Environmental Justice