Timnit Kefela is an Eritrean American environmental scientist and educator who seeks to better understand (micro)plastic pathways, fates and impacts in effort to inform and design liberatory and community-driven infrastructural solutions for pollution and waste management. She holds a BSc and MSc in Biology from Rutgers University-Camden and was the first Black woman to receive her PhD in Environmental Science and Management from the Bren School at UC Santa Barbara. Timnit views science as a vehicle of agency and is passionate about building inclusive environmental futures. She is a co-organizer for Black in Environment and works with different organizations advocating against plastic pollution and its impact on frontline communities. She is the Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering and School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment.
