Climate Action Fellows 2025 - 2026
Akani James
Undergraduate in Environmental Studies: Natural Resource Management and Conservation
Indigenous Crop Food System Design for the Gill Tract Community Farm
Akani will be creating a native food landscape design for a Community Farm in his hometown of Albany, California across the Bay. He will be planting and cultivating native crops and creating educational signage on how these plants are eaten. In this way he will re-introduce parts of the indigenous food system of the (Lisjan) Olone people of that area which are much more drought resistant and require less maintenance than other commonly grown crops and thus more sustainable. As part of this he’ll be working with and consulting with local community groups knowledgeable about these practices.
Ariel Cheng
Graduate student in Integrative Biology
Contextualizing the Microbiome of Pisaster ochraceus in Different Environments to Better Approach Sea Star Wasting Disease
The sea stars that Ariel is studying are a keystone species that is important for maintaining biodiversity in intertidal regions by regulating mussel and barnacle populations. These sea stars have been suQering from a wasting disease due to rising sea temperatures. Ariel is going to be collecting sea star samples from the wild, from aquariums, and from historical collections. She’ll be comparing the sea stars in these diQerent settings to better understand the ecology and evolution of the wasting disease. The ultimate goal of her project is to determine what steps can be taken to mitigate the disease to support conservation eQorts.
Cevacien Adee
Graduate student in Geographic Information Science
Exploring the relationship between fire risk, economic vulnerability, and prescribed burning in California
Cevacien will be exploring the relationship between fire risk and economic vulnerability in California. He hypothesizes that controlled burns, which mitigate wildfire risk, are not being used in areas where marginalized communities live--despite their vulnerability. He will create maps using a variety of databases to get to the bottom of this. Once he has identified areas that may be being neglected in this way he plans to interview fire personnel to understand what is driving choices they are making. He’ll also survey local residents regarding their experiences and perceptions of controlled burns.
Eugene King
Undergraduate double major in Design and Merchandising
Reinventing Style: Cost-Effective Redesign
Eugene is passionate about fashion and about sharing his with others, particularly fellow members of the deaf community, about how they can redesign old clothing and reduce waste while showcasing their creativity. He plans to run workshops in which participants will learn how to redesign existing garments and enhance their unique style while accommodating a variety of body types. In Eugene’s experience, deaf community members want very much to learn about climate change and make positive contributions but are often frustrated by being excluded from discussions about it. Eugene wants to change that and has a plan for how to do it by engaging people though their creative interests and personal fashion sense.
Marcello Garbo
Undergraduate in Chemistry
Advancing InAs-Based Luminescent Solar Concentrators for Sustainable Building-Integrated Photovoltaics
Marcello’s project focuses on a type of solar collector that that can be built into buildings so that they generate their own solar energy. This makes them particularly practical for urban environments with unreliable or limited access to power. These so-called “luminescent solar concentrators” use quantum dots—which are tiny nanomaterials that absorb and redirect sunlight. He will be creating examples of these solar collectors and exploring better/safer ways to make them. Part of his motivation is to create real examples of these devices is that he wants to inspire fellow chemistry students to pursue this and other technologies to create scalable, decentralized solar solutions for aQordable, renewable energy in urban centers and climate-vulnerable communities worldwide.