Meet the 2024 SCIP Fellows

Dr. Joe F. Bozeman III

Dr. Bozeman is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, with a courtesy appointment in the School of Public Policy, at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research focuses on developing equitable circularity, urban carbon management, and food-energy-water strategies.  He has over a decade of private and public sector experience, and his award-winning work has been featured in major media outlets such as Popular Science, the Geographical Magazine, and NPR.

Dr. Paula Buchanan

Dr. Paula R. Buchanan is a disaster scientist and
emergency management researcher at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Her work lies at the intersection of public health, education, risk communication, and outreach messaging. Paula has professional experience in communications, university-level instruction, business continuity, and project management.

A central question of Paula’s research is the extent to which socio-technical systems function as a communication channel to provide populations with accurate information to mitigate public health impacts associated with, or exacerbated by, disasters. She is also passionate about using social media, information technology, and data visualization tools to effectively communicate with targeted audiences.

Dr. Alonso Favela

Dr. Alonso Favela is an Assistant Professor of Plant-Microbe Interactions within the School of Plant Sciences at the University of Arizona. His research delves into the intricate relationships between plants and diverse microbial communities, elucidating their profound impact on ecosystem functionalities within the context of the Anthropocene—the epoch defined by significant human influence on the planet.

With a primary aim to harness our understanding of the microbial world, Dr. Favela is dedicated to advancing human sustainability and mitigating ecocide. His interdisciplinary approach spans a spectrum, from scrutinizing the influence of industrial agricultural methods on microbial water, nitrogen, and carbon cycling in soils to investigating the sociopolitical factors shaping the efficacy of climate change education in public schools.

Dr. Favela firmly advocates that unraveling the mechanistic interplay among plants, microbiomes, ecosystems, and society is pivotal in propelling sustainable food and fiber
production and addressing the challenges posed by climate change. As the son of Mexican immigrants, he firmly believes that the inclusion of the most marginalized members of society is pivotal in crafting effective climate change solutions.

He holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of Arizona and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, specializing in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology under the mentorship of Professor Angela Kent. Subsequently, he pursued Postdoctoral Training with Steven Allison at the University of California, Irvine.
Dr. Favela has been recognized through esteemed honors, including the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute IGERT Genomics Fellowship, and NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology.

Dr. Bethany Gordon

Bethany Gordon is an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington, where she leads the Equitable Design for Engineering & Policy (EDEP) Research Group. She is a transdisciplinary researcher – applying methods from the social sciences to help engineers and frontline designers better collaborate for just climate adaptation. Her work is process-focused and developed for application in water, transportation, and energy infrastructure. She earned her PhD (2022) and her BS (2017) in Civil Engineering from the University of Virginia, where she was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow (NSF) and a  Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Fellow (NASEM).

Dr. Shenyue Jia

Dr. Shenyue Jia is an Assistant Professor at Miami University, and studies how satellite data and crowdsourced data can be applied to track the cascading effects of climate change in semi-arid and arid ecosystems and how they affect people who live in these areas. She is also interested in reimagining Geographic Information Science (GIS) education and equipping students with abilities to get their questions related to space answered by captivating maps and geospatial analytical methods beyond using traditional GIS software. She completed her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Los Angeles. She also holds an M.S. in Cartography and Geographic Information Science from Nanjing University, China and a B.S. in Geographic Information Systems from Nanjing Normal University, China.

Dr. Ambarish Karmalkar

Dr. Ambarish Karmalkar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Rhode Island. He is a climate scientist studying regional climate change and its impacts on human and natural resources. Two broad themes—physical science and climate science translation—encapsulate his research interests and activities. As a physical climate scientist, he uses observations and numerical model simulations to investigate atmosphere and ocean processes that shape our climate at local scales. As a climate science translator, he collaborates with scientists, state officials, and managers to produce actionableclimate science.

Prior to joining URI, he worked as a research scientist at the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center at UMass Amherst where he focused on examining physical processes underpinning climate change in the northeastern U.S. and its impacts on natural resources. His prior experience also includes climate modeling research at the University of Oxford and the UK Met Office. 

Dr. Qualla Jo Ketchum

Qualla Jo Ketchum (she/her/ᎾᏍᎩᎠᎨᏴ) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering at Cal Poly Humboldt. She is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and her Indigeneity impacts all she does from her technical research in water resources to her pedagogical practices and educational research around identity, Indigenizing engineering practice and teaching, and the structural issues impacting Indigenous engineers. Dr. Qualla earned her PhD in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. She received her Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science in Biosystems Engineering at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. She  serves as the program coordinator for the new Engineering & Community Practice graduate engineering program, among the first Indigenous-centered engineering programs in the United States. She and her family currently live and work on the present and ancestral Homeland and unceded territory of the Wiyot Tribe in Humboldt County, California, whom she works with closely through the Engineering & Community Practice program as well as her own research. 

Dr. Kyungsun Lee

Dr. Kyungsun Lee is an assistant professor of Geography in the Department of History at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

As an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist, Dr. Lee’s research focuses on investigating the governance of socio-technical systems for urban water sustainability transitions. She is particularly interested in the social-political aspects of unconventional freshwater resources, including desalination, wastewater reuse, and stormwater management systems. Her recent research examines how desalination technology is developed, diffused, and implemented in specific locations, and the role of key stakeholders and their networks in each of these processes.

Dr. Lee earned her Ph.D. in Environmental and Natural Resources Policy from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and completed her postdoctoral training at Texas A&M University. She holds a master’s degree in the History of Science and a bachelor’s degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering, both from Seoul National University.

Dr. Aide Macias-Muñoz

Dr. Aide Macias-Muñoz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on understanding the molecular underpinnings of complex trait evolution. Her lab uses comparative approaches in marine invertebrates to investigate which cells and genes are used for sensory system development, regeneration, and evolution. Dr. Macias-Muñoz is a first-generation college student passionate about increasing diversity and equity in STEM. Her overarching goal is to use her research and career position to positively influence human health and society.

She holds a BA in Integrative Biology with a minor in Chicana/o Studies from the University of California, Berkeley and a PhD from the University of California, Irvine. Her research has been funded by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, BEACON, the Ford Foundation, the George E Hewitt Foundation for Medical Research, the American Philosophical Society, and the UCSB Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Dr. Mallika Nocco

Mallika Nocco is an incoming Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin—Madison and current Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension in the Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources at the University of California, Davis. Her areas of expertise are in agrohydrology, irrigation, soil-plant-water conservation, crop water use physiology, soil hydrologic health, and thermal/multispectral aerial imagery for crop water stress evaluation. Mallika is a 2014 EPA STAR Fellow and 2017 David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow who is passionate about policy-relevant science and communication. She works with growers, policymakers, and water districts to develop
irrigation management strategies that balance farm livelihoods, soil health, and water conservation. She is the co-host of the Water Talk Podcast (https://www.watertalkpodcast.com) and director of the Conservation Irrigation Lab (https://www.irrigationlab.com). Contact:
Mallika Nocco, manocco@ucdavis.edu, @mallika_nocco on Twitter.

Dr. Khalid K. Osman

Dr. Khalid K. Osman is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University and a Center Fellow by courtesy at the Woods Institute for the Environment. Khalid also holds faculty affiliations at the King Center for Global Development and the Center for the Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. He earned his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Fellowship and a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. His research focuses on the operationalization of equity and justice in the provision of infrastructure services. Specifically, employing qualitative and quantitative methods to develop novel frameworks at the intersection of the natural, built, and social environment. Currently, he is concentrated on water sector infrastructure, working to develop consistent and measurable definitions of water equity, frameworks for equity in the adoption of new water technologies, and exploring socio-technical solutions to sanitation justice challenges in rural communities. He leads Osman Lab to develop new approaches to equitable and just infrastructure in a world where climate change challenges vulnerable communities every day.

Dr. Julio Postigo

Julio C. Postigo has a PhD in geography from the University of Texas-Austin and
was a Postdoc at SESYNC at the University of Maryland. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Indiana University. Postigo’s over twenty years of experience encompasses research on human-environment interactions of pastoralists and small farmer communities, elaboration of policy recommendations, and methodological expertise synthesizing quantitative and qualitative methods to connect the socio-cultural and natural sciences. His most recent work has focused on the process of producing local knowledge among Andean farmers in Bolivia and Peru; impacts of climate change and economic development on the Artic social-ecological systems; responses of alpine vegetation to glacier retreat. He is a lead author of the 6th IPCC report on climate change. He is the co-editor of Naturaleza y sociedad: Perspectivas socio-ecológicas sobre cambios globales en América Latina, and has recently published, among others, Agroecology as a Transformative Approach to Tackle Climatic, Food, and Ecosystemic crises; The Sociocultural Construction of Soil Among Communities of the Bolivian Altiplano: Potential for Supporting Transitions to Sustainability; Navigating capitalist expansion and climate change in pastoral social-ecological systems: impacts, vulnerability and decision-making; The Role of Social Institutions in Indigenous Andean Pastoralists’ Adaptation to Climate-Related Water Hazards.

Dr. Joe Reustle

Dr. Joe Reustle (pronounced “Rice-Lee”) serves as an Assistant Professor of Marine and
Environmental Science at Hampton University in Southeastern Virginia. Joe is a marine
community ecologist and the PI of the recently established Reustle Estuarine Ecology Field
(REEF) lab. Joe (Oglala Lakota and white) grew up as a grass dancer and drummer in the Bay
Area of California (Vallejo & Napa) where he earned his BS from UC Davis before heading to the Gulf of Mexico to earn his Ph.D. at Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi. After earning his Ph.D., Joe joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Institute of Marine Science as a SPIRE Postdoctoral Scholar to further develop as a researcher and educator. Joe’s research investigates species-interactions and how they alter the way communities form and function. Currently, the REEF lab is investigating the influence of top-down community regulation and the prevalence of microplastic pollution on urbanized oyster reefs. Joe is also
engaged in initiatives examining STEM persistence at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and improving climate resilience through oyster reef restoration. Joe places great importance on local, community-driven efforts to protect water and habitat. Notably, he was recently appointed as a member of the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) where he will contribute to the Living Resources Cohort’s Sustainable Fisheries Goal Implementation Team.

Dr. Sanjib Sharma

Dr. Sanjib Sharma is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Howard University. He received his PhD from Pennsylvania State University, master’s degree from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and bachelor’s degree from Tribhuvan University Nepal in Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research focuses on advancing a fundamental understanding of the interactions and nonlinear feedbacks between water and other systems (such as climate, energy, urban, and infrastructure) to inform risk analysis and decision-making. His research addresses two interconnected questions: (i) How can we enhance our predictive understanding of multiscale, multisector impacts, responses, and feedbacks related to hydroclimatic extremes? (ii) How can we utilize this improved understanding of risk to inform hazard management, water resources planning, and the design of critical infrastructure? Dr. Sharma analyzes these questions through interdisciplinary research at the intersection of engineering, Earth science, and data science.