Environmental Policy & Law

Cindy Nguyen is a proud first-generation, Vietnamese-American dedicated to building a more healthy, just, and equitable world for all. Motivated by her experiences observing environmental-health burdens in Vietnamese nail salons, Cindy hopes to use legal tools to both confront the systems driving environmental-health inequities and empower historically overburdened communities to build their own versions of a just future.

Timothy Onuh researches innovative approaches to improve the removal efficiency of nanoparticles (an emerging contaminant) from wastewater systems and promote sustainable water treatment. He strives to integrate his research with policy advocacy, with the overarching goal of practically translating science and engineering principles into socially and environmentally responsible policies.

Malika Kounkourou serves as a managing editor of the Harvard Environmental Law Review and is a research assistant at the Harvard Environmental and Energy Law Program. Her interests lie at the intersection of alternative dispute resolution systems, corporate accountability, and climate justice, with a focus on extractive industry governance.

Emily studies community wealth building in immigrant & BIPOC communities through economic and climate justice, and is working with the City of Boston on community-based participatory action research and worker cooperative ecosystems.

Sanjana is an engineer, environmental justice researcher, and systems thinker working at the intersection of infrastructure, climate, and technology. She is a PhD student at MIT, where her research focuses on renewable energy, energy justice, and the electric grid. She is the co-founder of Rooted Futures Lab, a research and action collective advancing environmental justice in technology, and Earth Hacks, a nonprofit harnessing hackathons as a form of climate action. Her work has ranged from atmospheric science software engineering at NASA to passing decarbonization policy at the local level. She holds a BS in electrical engineering and physics, and a Master’s in City Planning from MIT.

Natasha (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe) is pursuing a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy with a focus on International Development and Environmental Policy, and International Legal Studies at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. She is interested in the intersection of federal Indian law, environmental law, and water law.

Ataya (Ute, Assiniboine, Lakota) examines the complex and contradictory relationships between oil and gas development, tribal sovereignty, and environmental justice on the northern Ute reservation.

Nicole explores the intersection of affordable housing and climate equity, including building energy retrofit strategies that can reduce energy burden, prevent displacement, and target climate investments to low-income communities of color.

Natalie explores policies related to natural climate solutions, adaptation, the Arctic, the politics of renewable energy siting, and the role that nonprofits play in the just energy transition.