Impact Report 2019-2024
The First Five Years of Training Emerging Environmental and Climate Justice Leaders
The world’s environmental and social problems are spreading like wildfires, and systemically marginalized communities are most impacted. Cultivating more diverse, equitable, and inclusive leadership in environmental and climate sciences will improve our ability to address complex problems through enhanced innovation, increased creativity and integration of the expertise and perspectives from the lived experience of impacted communities.
A Fellowship
to increase leadership, science communication and public engagement skills among early career scientists from systemically marginalized backgrounds
Public-facing Multi-media Platform
to broadly disseminate the voices, stories, and research contributions of emerging environmental justice leaders in our program
Amplifying
senior fellows’ ideas and research along their journey into leadership positions in academia, government, non-profit and the private sector
Our institutional home
The program is administered through the Environmental Health Sciences department at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Our MEDIA Partner
The program is in partnership with Environmental Health News, a publication of Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to driving science into public discussion and policy on environmental health issues.
“There is no other opportunity like this that brings together like-minded scholars and focuses on communication and environmental justice.”
– Fellow
Fellows by the Numbers
Fellowship program
30 U.S. cities
“I feel more confident than ever in my work, ideas, and ability to express myself. This program was transformative.”
– Fellow
Our Diversity
Our Fellows are significantly more racially diverse compared to science and engineering doctoral students overall in the U.S.- at least 78% are people of color.
U.S. doctoral students data from National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Survey of Graduate Studentsand Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering, 2021.
Multiracial/Other” category for AoC-EJ Fellows includes multiracial only; for U.S. doctoral students, the term includes“Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander and more than one race.”
Where Our Fellows Hail From
Fellows were predominantly doctoral students (61%) and postdocs (23%), with our program attracting top early career scientists from public and private schools, government and NGOs across the U.S.
Fellows' Areas of Expertise
Fellows undertake research that covers a breadth of topics in environmental and climate justice.
“Being in a carefully curated space with other scholars of color who are committed to advancing environmental justice and health equity has facilitated conversations and amplified perspectives that I rarely encounter in the spaces that I occupy on a regular basis.”
– Fellow
Our Impact
Environmental Health News publishes our fellows’ ideas in narrative essays and a podcast that dive into the career paths, research, and big ideas from past and present fellows and other leaders in the field of environmental justice.
80k+ listeners
&
1.8M views
Fellow spotlights
“When I became a Fellow, I already had quite a bit of community engagement experience- but the Fellowship fostered even greater connections with communities that other Fellows work with and come from, who are all affected by environmental issues. The Fellows are passionate about and dedicated to their work, and over the Fellowship time that allowed me to build a deeper understanding of environmental justice across communities, a perspective I am bringing to the communities I continue to work with. Coming from an Indigenous community, it’s very difficult to trust people, so it is valuable to be able to send someone to another Fellow knowing they will be in good hands. My cohort of Fellows still has a really strong bond.”
Valerisa Joe-Gaddy, PhD: Justice and community connections community conservation director at Watershed Management Group.
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“When I became a Fellow, I already had quite a bit of community engagement experience- but the Fellowship fostered even greater connections with communities that other Fellows work with and come from, who are all affected by environmental issues. The Fellows are passionate about and dedicated to their work, and over the Fellowship time that allowed me to build a deeper understanding of environmental justice across communities, a perspective I am bringing to the communities I continue to work with. Coming from an Indigenous community, it’s very difficult to trust people, so it is valuable to be able to send someone to another Fellow knowing they will be in good hands. My cohort of Fellows still has a really strong bond.”
Valerisa Joe-Gaddy, PhD: Justice and community connections
community conservation director at Watershed Management Group.
Fellow spotlight
“As a public health scientist, I am doing this work to make change. Before the Fellowship, I didn’t have an example of how to do strong research and communication together in a way that would be accessible and motivating to a wider audience. Translating science for policy makers requires a deep understanding of how to explain technical issues very clearly. Working on the essay, podcast and with other Fellows helped me sharpen writing and messaging skills that I am applying to policy translation. The Fellowship helped me gain confidence in bringing my whole self to the work, which includes my lived experience combined with my scientific training. This leads to the most impact for change- in science, in advocacy, and supporting the most affected communities.”
Lariah Edwards, PhD: Science communication for change
Dr. Edwards is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Assistant Director of AoC-EJ.
our funders
Beautycounter | Forsythia Foundation | Rachel’s Network | Broad Reach | Marisla Foundation | Passport Foundation | The JPB Foundation | Natural Resources Defense Council (in kind support) | Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion (Mailman School of Public Health) | Center for Environmental Health and Justice in Northern Manhattan (NIEHS ES009089) | SuLan Ling Foundation |
