RESEARCH

Critical Ecology

Graduate Research Assistant | Critical Ecology Lab

Advisor: Dr. Suzanne Pierre

In collaboration with the Critical Ecology Lab and the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (NSF LTER), this study examined how structural inequality has shaped the origins of acid rain by analyzing whether historical segregation and present-day social vulnerability influence the spatial distribution of NOₓ and SO₂-emitting facilities in states that contribute disproportionately to acid deposition. Geospatial analysis assessed whether these facilities were disproportionately located in formerly redlined neighborhoods, as designated by the U.S. Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), and whether current emissions were concentrated in areas with elevated vulnerability, based on the CDC Social Vulnerability Index. Emissions data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Markets Division (CAMD) and National Emissions Inventory (NEI) were used to calculate average annual NOₓ and SO₂ emissions per facility across HOLC grades. Lower-graded (C and D) neighborhoods not only hosted the highest number of facilities but also exhibited the highest average emissions per facility, indicating a disproportionate pollution burden in historically segregated and socially vulnerable communities. These findings illustrate how land-use legacies and exclusionary planning practices continue to shape the geography of environmental harm. The results also elucidate that addressing inequality is not only a matter of justice but a necessary intervention in the very places where pollution is most concentrated; in other words, redressing social and spatial inequities can simultaneously challenge the structural conditions that produce both social and environmental harm. Consequently, by linking spatial emissions data to indicators of inequality, this project contributes to broader efforts to understand how long-term ecological change is shaped by political and economic power.

Policy-Driven Scientific Inquiry

My work at the science-policy interface focuses on translating environmental research into actionable insights, particularly in service of communities disproportionately burdened by environmental harm. Across federal agencies, private environmental firms, and interdisciplinary research programs, I have contributed to applied research that informs environmental regulation, restoration, and ecosystem-based management. As an environmental technician with Eco-Alpha Environmental Services, I conducted field-based water quality monitoring across municipal and industrial sites in California, sampling for nutrients, heavy metals, and microbial contaminants in compliance with the Clean Water Act. I also produced technical reports and contributed to regulatory planning documents used by the California State Water Resources Control Board, including materials aligned with CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) guidelines. As an intern at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, I contributed to a Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) for the Passaic River Superfund site by conducting histopathological analyses of white perch (Morone americana) to quantify ecological injury from industrial pollutants. These efforts assisted in supporting a legal case against over 70 corporate polluters and informed remediation strategies grounded in environmental and community health outcomes. As a fellow in the NSF Sustainable Oceans: From Policy to Science to Decisions Research Traineeship, I engaged in a program that integrates policy relevance into the earliest stages of scientific inquiry. Through interdisciplinary coursework, stakeholder workshops, and guided discussions spanning academic, governmental, and private sectors, scholars were trained to design "use-informed" projects in active dialogue with coastal communities, resource managers, and policymakers - centering the co-production of knowledge to bridge marine science with the social, ecological, and political realities of environmental decision-making.