Jade will serve as the science liaison between the San Diego State University Hoh Lab and the Tribal Beneficial Uses Working Group of the San Diego Region. She will develop educational materials to engage tribal community members in setting new water quality objectives for San Diego waters to close data gaps and set standards to ensure the region’s waters are safe for subsistence fishing and other traditional activities.
Hosted by the Mystic River Watershed Association, Meghna will create a set of place-based and experiential learning curriculum for environmental science students, with a focus on highlighting local environmental justice issues in a heavily urbanized watershed. This curriculum aims to root environmental courses in community impacts and local connections to better support the learning needs of college students from diverse backgrounds and help them feel welcome in the environmental field.
Itzel Vasquez-Rodriguez was a contributing expert on the 2025 Southern California Community Water Systems Atlas, identifying a “complex network of 663 drinking water systems across six counties… Together these utilities serve 40 percent of...
What happens to floodplain buyout sites after demolition of structures? Does ecological restoration or reconciliation of the floodplain occur? By what criteria should we assess what is on the site? Under what conditions do government programs promote more ecologically dynamic land management?
Nargis Mirzaie studies the impacts of climate extremes—particularly droughts and floods—on communities and water systems. Her research focuses on understanding hydrological changes, improving drought assessment tools, and promoting equity in climate adaptation and water resource planning.
Sarah Sarfaty Epstein is interested in landscape-scale climate resilience decision making in California’s agricultural sector, particularly at the agriculture-energy-water nexus. Her current research uses geospatial analysis to create decision support tools at the groundwater basin level. Born and raised in the East Bay, she is proud to call California home.
Daniel explains his recent research into unusually rapid and/or high magnitude swings between unusual weather conditions, including causes, expected trends and links to southern California’s devastating wildfires.
Every year, more than one million Californians face unsafe drinking water from taps in their homes, schools, churches, parks, and community centers. Research by Switzer Fellows Carolina Balazs and Rachel Morello-Frosch has found that water...
Itzel Vasquez-Rodriguez has begun working as Small Utilities Project Manager at the Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC), working to support the human right to water in California. As stated on their website, RCAC is a 501(c)(3)...
“Those birds and all the living things up there haven’t heard running water in over 100 years — it’s a completely different landscape. The ecosystem is healing itself,” Keith says in The New York Times story With Dams Removed, Salmon Will Have the Run of a Western River.
