From Climate Justice Hub

Research Teams

Overview

Each of the five participating NYC-EJA member organizations is paired with a research team chosen from a selection process coordinated by the Hub made up of NYC-EJA member organization staff, CUNY faculty and students, and a Hub Advocate.

The teams conduct research and provide technical assistance for their assigned partner organization’s campaign goals and priorities. Additional Research Teams support NYC-EJA and its city and statewide campaigns. 

2024 Research Teams Orientation

El Puente

El Puente is studying the detrimental impacts of active truck routes and heavy automobile traffic reliant on the Williamsburg Bridge and Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) on the Southside Williamsburg community of Los Sures.

The research will result in a comprehensive report outlining proposed changes to street designs and modal networks that could be developed for implementation by NYCDOT and would improve safety, livability, and quality of life for the Los Sures community. The key emphasis of this report will focus on mitigation measures and alternatives to existing truck routes, addressing daily traffic congestion within Los Sures and along the relevant portion of the BQE. 

An extension of this project, concerned with mitigation of the dense transportation infrastructure within Los Sures, is the BQGreen project. An average of 110,000 cars travel through the Southside via the BQE daily, emitting approximately 20,000 pounds of pollutants per day.

As a result, Southside has amongst the highest asthma rates in the city. The BQGreen initiative would reduce air and water pollution, and reduce the instances of asthma and other health-related issues caused by air pollution from the massive volume of commercial and noncommercial vehicles that pass through the community.

BQGreen is the community-driven initiative to deck the open portion of the BQE that dips into the community with park space. BQGreen will create a “park out of thin air” by integrating Marcy Green and Rodney Park, two existing parks which currently are adjacent to the expressway. The completion of the traffic study will help inform the beginnings of other research looking into how the decking and closure of certain truck routes would alter traffic behavior in the surrounding community.

Adán Guzman is the NYC Climate Justice Hub Advocate at El Puente. He is a first-generation Caribbean Hispanic graduate of CUNY Brooklyn College, holding a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Sustainability with a minor in Earth and Environmental Science. Before becoming the Hub Advocate for El Puente, Adán served as the Field Research & Partnerships Coordinator at Riverside Park Conservancy, where he co-developed a master environmental sustainability plan to enhance the ecological and cultural sustainability of the 416 acres of waterfront parkland under the Conservancy’s management. He is particularly passionate about stewardship of the city’s natural areas, community gardens, connecting people to land, and incorporating a socio-ecological urbanism to how we plan cities and neighborhoods.  

Sherry Ryan is the Dean of the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College. Her research focuses on transportation policy, urban planning, and land usage. She has served as an expert advisor to government agencies, nonprofits, and advocates for public transportation and alternatives, such as bike and pedestrian infrastructure. 

Alison Conway is the Herbert G. Kaiser Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the City College of New York, where she conducts research primarily in the areas of urban freight and city logistics and multi-modal interactions in the urban environment. She is the Deputy Director of the Center for Social and Economic Mobility for People and Communities through Transportation (SEMPACT), the US DOT Regional University Transportation Center for Region 2 housed at City College. She is also an Associate Director of the Center for Understanding Future Travel Behavior and Demand (TBD), a USDOT National UTC.

Dwayne Baker is an Assistant Professor at Queens College. His research and teaching focuses on overcoming the paradox that often arises with large-scale transit projects: while expected to enhance urban accessibility, they may also negatively affect vulnerable populations needing the improvements the most. He also serves as the advisor for Queens College’s Urban Planning minor.

Gastón Fernandez earned his B.S in Architecture and Urbanism at the National University of the Northwest, Argentina in 2022. After winning the Fulbright Scholarship in 2022, he moved in 2023 to NYC to complete his Master`s in Urban Design at CUNY. Currently he is willing to expand his experience in urban design and planning and is very interested in giving active solutions to social inequities related to urbanism.

Erin Witt is originally from Middle Village, Queens, Erin holds a BA in Environmental Planning and is currently pursuing an MS in Geoinformatics at Hunter ColErin Witt lege. Her previous research experience concerned environmental policy and its impact on the natural disaster vulnerability of coastal communities.

The Point

The Point is embarking on two core projects to improve air quality, health outcomes, and cooperative infrastructure in Hunts Point, South Bronx. The first project explores community energy infrastructure (community owned solar, microgrid, and battery storage) with a focus on lowering energy costs for Hunts Point residents and funding for future infrastructure.

This connects to The Point’s broader resilience initiatives such as the Hunts Point Community Network (HPCN) which provides free wifi for residents and local businesses, allowing for  greater accessibility to the internet and connectivity within the community before, during and after extreme weather events and other disasters. The project will analyzes how membership and subscribership to community solar works, particularly how The Point as a non-profit would be able to build out a community governance structure to oversee these operations.

The second project aims to implement a process for identifying underutilized land to use for multi-site community solar in Hunts Point. This will expand on The Point’s solar work as the community partner for The Bronx is Breathing, an initiative that includes building an electric charging station, solar canopies, and establishing an electric truck cooperative located on a former brownfield in the food distribution center.

Nevin Cohen is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Public Health and the Director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute. His research explores the policies, governance systems, practices, and infrastructure to support socially just, healthy, ecologically resilient, and economically viable urban and regional food systems. 

Mohammed M Elsayed received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, Egypt in 2011 and 2015, respectively. He was an assistant lecturer in the Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University.  He is a PhD student at the SGIL, Grove School of Engineering, City College of New York, CUNY. His research interests include electric vehicles, renewable energy systems and distributed energy resources, microgrids, and smart grids.

Ahmed Mohamed is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at City College and the Director of the CUNY Smart Grid Interdependencies Laboratory. His research focuses on critical infrastructure interdependencies, smart grid resilience, microgrids, and transportation electrification. 

Maria Reyes serves as the NYC Climate Justice Hub Advocate at The Point CDC. She draws from her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies with a minor in Growth and Structure of Cities from Haverford College. Prior to joining the Hub team, Maria worked as an intern at an engineering consulting firm focusing on building decarbonization. In this role, she gained familiarity with local climate policy and screening multi-family buildings for renewable energy and retrofit opportunities.

UPROSE

UPROSE’s key research priorities are related to The GRID 2.0 report. The Green Resilient Industrial District (GRID) 2.0 is a transformative economic development strategy designed for Sunset Park, offering a comprehensive plan for the next twelve years. Encompassing 28 updated objectives, this plan aims to facilitate a just transition within Sunset Park by 2035. The GRID 2.0 envisions revisiting and updating strategies by 2035, aligning with NYC’s goal of achieving total carbon neutrality by 2050. To implement the GRID 2.0, UPROSE has strategically selected two initial action items that move the 28 objectives forward.

Firstly, this partnership will conduct a meticulous real estate mapping initiative analyzing purchases along the Sunset Park waterfront, aiming to optimize land use and infrastructure for sustainable development. This action item aims to answer, “What can we discover about recent trends in real estate sales and related activities that will help inform potential future actions?” In order to answer this question, the research team is creating a dynamic web map with real-time data profiling Sunset Park properties.

Secondly, this partnership will continue research on food sovereignty in the neighborhood by analyzing possible connections to upstate farmers with a local food hub in Sunset Park. This action item aims to answer 1) How can we identify sites in Sunset Park to cultivate food sovereignty? 2) What opportunities and barriers exist to siting a food distribution hub in the industrial waterfront? 3) How can food sovereignty work in Sunset Park help diversify food resources and improve food security in the city?

Nebraska Hernandez is a Puerto Rican geographer and political ecologist. Holding both a B.S. and M.S. in Geography from the Pennsylvania State University, he is dedicated to addressing environmental issues across spatiotemporal scales. As part of his work, Nebraska leverages GIS and critical cartographic methods to create maps that analyze the disproportionate impacts of environmental harms on environmental justice communities.

Juliana Maantay is a Professor Emerita of Urban Environmental Geography in the Earth, Environmental, and Geospatial Sciences (EEGS) Department at Lehman College and the founder and Director of the Geographic Information Science (GISc) Program. Her research focuses on spatial analysis of environmental health justice; land use and health impacts; urban hazards and risk assessment; and community-based participatory planning.

Daniel Shtob is an Assistant Professor in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at the Graduate Center. His research focuses on environmental change with a focus on climate change, disaster & environmental justice. 

Enrique Valencia is enrolled in the Earth and Environmental Sciences PhD program at the Graduate Center. Prior to his enrollment, Enrique worked as a grassroots organizer where he facilitated community power building for economic, immigrant, and education justice. From 2018-2020, he directed Orange County Environmental Justice (OCEJ) in Orange County, CA, where he developed the organization’s capacity to fight for soil lead remediation and to conduct water pollution monitoring. 

Angie Winner earned her B.S. in Environmental Science as well as her M.S. in Hydrology at the Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg, Germany in 2009. She received an M.A. in Geography from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2014, and is currently finishing her dissertation titled “Black Food Geographies and the Politics of Resistance.” Angie has held several notable fellowships during her time at the Graduate Center and has co-authored a book chapter on the spatial analysis of urban health in Geospatial Technology for Human Well-Being and Health.

Jada Macharie earned her B.S. in Environmental Earth Systems Science at The City College of New York in 2021. She is an M.A. student at Hunter college pursing a Geography degree with an advance GIS certificate. Jada is currently working her thesis that focuses on building a machine learning model that is able to predict PM 2.5 concentrations. While working on her thesis, Jada has held various internships. One being a Research Intern for the Department of Transportation.

Nos Quedamos

We Stay/Nos Quedamos is creating a popular education curriculum that bridges environmental justice and housing issues. Over 30 years ago, We Stay/Nos Quedamos (NQ) was born out of a community organizing effort to resist forced displacement and propose an alternative urban renewal plan in Melrose Commons. Today, we recognize that our work is far from finished. Our goal with this project is to create an environmental justice and housing justice organizing curriculum rooted in the history of the South Bronx that bridges environmental justice and housing justice, equipping the We Stay/Nos Quedamos Environmental Justice Youth Team with the tools to learn, educate, empower, and organize with and for their communities.

This curriculum includes scheduled organizing trainings and place-based, bilingual, and intergenerational workshops on understanding and mapping environmental justice and housing issues facing Melrose and the South Bronx. Module topics include the following: We Stay/Nos Quedamos in the History of the South Bronx; Intro to Climate Justice and Environmental Justice; Intro to Housing Justice and Anti-Displacement Organizing; Air Quality, Asthma, and Transportation Justice; Heat Burden and Green Space/Waterfront Access; Food Justice, Urban Food Sovereignty, and Community Gardens; Energy Justice, Renewable Energy Sources, and the “Just Transition”; Sanitation and Waste Equity Campaigns, Recycling and Compost; Flooding and Stormwater Management in New York City; and The Importance of Storytelling, Organizing, and Advocacy for the Future of the Bronx. 

Basil Alsubee is a Syrian teacher, writer, and documentary filmmaker currently serving as the Project Manager and NYC Climate Justice Hub Advocate at We Stay/Nos Quedamos. He draws from his background in community organizing, urban historiography, and environmental justice work between Southeast Michigan and New York City to address the intersection of environmental justice and housing justice in the South Bronx. 

John Krinsky is a political science professor at City College and a founding board member of the New York City Community Land Initiative. His research specializes in urban politics, the politics of social movements, and the politics of work, welfare and labor.

Elia Machado is an associate professor of Geography and Geospatial Sciences in the department of Earth, Environmental, and Geospatial Sciences (EEGS) at Lehman College and the director of Geography and Geographic Information Science (GISc) programs. Her research focuses on assessing and addressing the socio-ecological impacts of environmental and climate change, and the generation of vulnerability indices in the context of natural hazards and health stressors.

GOLES

GOLES is creating and deploying a survey to assess community perception and understanding of environmental justice, climate justice, and waterfront resiliency in the Lower East Side (LES) of Manhattan. The area has already seen the impacts of climate change, including increased temperatures and more frequent and severe storms. The combination of environmental and social factors in the area renders it especially susceptible to climate change due to several challenges, including the presence of housing built on former marshland, deteriorating infrastructure, and inconsistent utility services due to landlord neglect. The survey will gauge the community’s understanding of two major waterfront resiliency projects: the East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project and the Brooklyn Bridge Montgomery Coastal Resilience (BMCR) project. It will also ask residents how current development in the neighborhood affects their wellbeing and will assess the community’s awareness of the New York State (NYS) Green Amendment, which guarantees that every person in NYS “shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.”

The results of the survey will culminate into a Community Resiliency Plan and identify 10-12 climate/environmental justice campaigns to activate with LES residents. The final deliverable will be a policy report which will summarize the key findings of the survey, present the significance of the findings from a climate justice and environmental justice perspective, and present actionable steps that policymakers can take to address environmental justice issues in the Lower East Side.

Gina Bravo is a third-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at the City College of New York. As a bilingual Spanish and English speaker, Gina is passionate about developing safe and inclusive spaces for historically marginalized communities and increasing access to mental health support resources. Her research interests focus on exploring life stressors and long-term health outcomes to explore interventions. Gina is deeply committed to mentorship and community engagement and actively serves as a peer mentor to support fellows’ professional growth and development.

Brett Branco is an associate professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Brooklyn College and Director of the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay. His research interests include marine science, limnology, water quality, urban sustainability, and social-ecological system resilience, and his current work explores urban sustainability and the resilience of social-ecological systems in an era of climate change and increased urbanization. 

Yana Kucheva is an Associate Professor and the Interim Chair of the Sociology Department at The City College of New York. An expert in housing, residential segregation, and social policy, Dr. Kucheva’s ongoing research is at the intersection of U.S housing policy, environmental, climate, and immigrant justice.

Shaheeda Yasmeen Smith is a dynamic leader dedicated to public health, environmental justice, and community empowerment. At Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), Shaheeda serves as a NYC Climate Justice Hub Advocate, advocating for equitable solutions and fostering unity across diverse backgrounds. Her extensive experience spans grassroots organizations, municipal government agencies, and corporate environments.

Junlin (Wayne) Lu worked in corporate finance services in Hong Kong and is currently a graduate student at Baruch College, CUNY. He holds his B.Eng. in Software Engineering and M.S. in Financial Technology and has advised a Europe-based bank on integrating the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards into corporate sustainability assessment and credit risk management.

After a rigorous vetting and selection process, 12 CUNY professors met together for the first time on January 24, 2024, to kick off the 2024 Research Teams initiative.

During this Orientation, professors learned about the organizations they will be working with along with best practices and protocols for conducting research with grassroots organizations, and were introduced to systems developed by the Hub to help manage and plan out research deliverables.

A complementary Orientation was held for the Hub Advocates representing the NYC-EJA member organizations in the collaboration on February 1, 2024. The Orientation meetings were followed by several collective Onboarding meetings between the professors and the NYC-EJA member organizations’ staff to develop the project scope, establish community agreements, and set the research agenda.

After a rigorous vetting process, 12 CUNY professors were selected by NYC-EJA member organizations to spearhead the NYC Climate Justice Hub’s Research Teams initiative. Since kicking off on January 24, 2024, the Research Teams have made tremendous progress on their projects. On June 11, 2024, a Midyear Check-in event was held for the team members to share updates, successes, and challenges on the research projects thus far; welcome newly recruited faculty and graduate students to the teams; and discuss ways to support one another and their community partners through their collective expertise.