Our Community

Helia Bidad is a 3L at Yale Law School. Her research interests include law and policy related to environmental justice, food systems, and federal Indian law. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.S. in Society & Environment and a minor in Geospatial Information Science and Technology. She is a Wyss Scholar and Kerry Fellow and co-founded the Environmental Justice Project and the Race & Environment reading group at Yale Law School.

Zander De Jesus (he/him) recently graduated as a Master’s of Environmental Management student at the Yale School of the Environment. He grew up in the Boston metro area, and living on the coast made him highly fascinated in marine ecology, and the impact of industrialized pollution on local environments and communities. He graduated from Yale College with a B.S. in Environmental Studies and American Studies. Through this double major, Zander synthesized Environmental Health, Political Ecology, and the History of Decolonization Movements to form a multidisciplinary Environmental Justice lens.

Kajol Gupta is a Master of Environmental Management student focusing on the intersection of freshwater science, coastal resilience, & environmental justice. Kajol grew up in Los Angeles, having lived all throughout California before making the move to Connecticut. Before coming to Yale, she worked as a public engagement specialist to assist in safe drinking water solutions for underserved & underrepresented communities. More recently, she worked in water rights compliance and drought resiliency for the State of California.

Daniel Krupa is a joint degree student between Yale School of the Environment and Pace Law School. His work lies at the intersection of environmental law, urban planning, and environmental justice to understand how to transform urban areas to become more environmentally and socially resilient. At YCEJ, he is drafting a case study on actions that have impacted Bridgeport residents to outline the complex regulatory processes that impact the community.

Aqsa is a Master of Environmental Management candidate at Yale School of the Environment specializing in People & Equity, and Climate Change Science & Solutions. Her focus areas include grassroots climate adaptation and resilience practices in South Asia, and international policy on climate reparations. Prior to joining YSE, she worked on climate adaptation and water policy at the federal Ministry of Climate Change in Pakistan and at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in the United States.

Victoria Ramirez is a Master of Environmental Management candidate at YSE focusing on ecosystem management and conservation. She is interested in the nexus of environmental justice and conservation and increasing stewardship opportunities on public lands. Prior to Yale, Victoria worked with the National Park Service, where she coordinated volunteer projects focused on conservation and restoration efforts. She enjoyed working with volunteers and building connections with folks by stewarding the land together.

From Miami, Florida, Gabriela Rodriguez (she/her/ella) is a first-year Master of Environmental Management candidate at the Yale School of The Environment specializing in People, Equity, and the Environment. She is interested in how communities can best center social equity and advance procedural justice in their approaches to climate change, mainly through strategies for equitable engagement and participation in decision-making and development processes. As a Community Resource Lab Fellow at YCEJ, Gabriela is working with the City of New Haven’s City Plan Department to support their community engagement efforts by creating a comprehensive inventory of community-based organizations across New Haven that would inform City Plan’s strategic outreach for environmental and climate-related planning processes. As a Communications and Events Associate, she is also helping with the center’s many communications efforts and event planning and promotion. 

Julia Simon is a second year Environmental Engineering PhD student at Yale University in the Winter Lab originally from New Orleans, LA. Before coming to Yale, Julia completed her B.S.H. in Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. Julia’s research involves designing processes and technologies to degrade and refine environmental contaminants to enable a circular economy of chemical resources. As the YCEJ Education & Research Fellow, she is excited to support community building and resource sharing through conference and program development.

He:yung! My name is Nicota Stevenson and I’m a Seattle native/Los Angeles transplant. I’m a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, located in northern California, and am a third-year student at Yale Law School. During law school, I’ve been involved in the Native American Law Students Association, the Yale Journal on Regulation, and the First Generation Professionals student group. I’m interested in both corporate law and federal Indian law—and have taken just about every course available at the law school on the latter.

Max Teirstein (he/him) is a Yale College senior studying environmental studies and political science. Max has spent much of the past two years exploring geospatial technologies as tools for guiding state and federal climate policy that serves communities hardest-hit by the climate crisis and environmental apartheid. His work has supported ongoing initiatives at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the New York State Attorney General’s Office, the EPA, and the Maryland Department of the Environment. At YCEJ, Max is working to retool environmental justice mapping to become a resource for community leaders to leverage in their advocacy and for community members to build power. 

Harley is pursuing a Master of Public Health at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), with a focus on Health Policy. Her primary interests are in health equity advocacy and anti-racist policy making. Before coming to YSPH, Harley worked as the Policy and Communications Specialist at a statewide non-profit organization in Connecticut. There she heavily researched and proposed policies and practices to improve access to care, eliminate disparities in maternal health outcomes, and engage community in policy making.

Weixi is a 3rd-year Master of Public Health candidate from the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in Yale School of Public Health and Master of Environmental Science candidate in Yale School of Environment. She is in the Global Health concentration in YSPH and a student in Michelle Bell’s lab in YSE. She is interested in the effects of climate change, environmental pollution on human health, especially among vulnerable populations. She worked as Global North Fellow with Dejusticia on climate change litigation in the past summer.

Madeleine is a senior at Yale College majoring in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Environmental Justice. Her work focuses on climate and energy justice, ‘critical mineral’ supply chains, and human rights. She additionally works with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, serves as Executive Chair for the Yale Student Environmental Coalition, and organizes with the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition.