Our Team
Board of Directors
Evelyn Valdez-Ward (she/ella) - Executive Director
Evelyn (she/ella) is a sixth year, formerly undocumented, PhD candidate, Ford Foundation Predoctoral and Switzer Foundation Fellow studying the effects of drought on plants and soil microbes. Her final dissertation chapters aim to study marginalized scientists and their use of science communication and policy for social justice. She was named one of 2020's Grist 50 Fixers and a 2018 UCS Science Defender, voted best of Story Collider 2018 in LA, awarded UCI's Dynamic Womxn's Award for Outstanding Social Justice Activist and the Svetlana Bershadsky Graduate Community Award for her advocacy for undocumented scientists. She co-founded ReclaimingSTEM; the first workshop to address the need for science communication and policy training spaces for marginalized groups. She was a 2020 AAAS Mass Media Fellow and awarded the Ecological Society of America Science Communication in Practice Award.
Rob ulrich (they/he) - Associate director
Rob Ulrich (they/he) is a Biogeochemistry Ph.D. student at UCLA who researches how living things make their hard parts. More specifically, they are interested in developing and using novel geochemical tracers (e.g., trace elements, “clumped” isotopes) to interrogate the strategies used by organisms to make their biominerals. Beyond graduate school, Rob is also the Associate Director of the Reclaiming STEM Institute, Co-Founder of Queer & Trans in STEM (fka Queers in STEM), a writing consultant, and a writer. Their book (The Hard Parts of Life) about biominerals and their applications is currently up for pre-sale and is going to be published in the Spring. In 2019, Rob received the UCLA Curtis Shepard LGBT Leadership award for their leadership and outreach to the LGBTQ+ community at UCLA and abroad, and under their leadership, Queer & Trans in STEM won the UCLA Organization of the Year award. For their research and advocacy, Rob currently holds fellowships with the National Science Foundation and the Center for Diverse Leadership in Science, and they have been invited to speak on the popular podcasts, including Ologies, Talk Nerdy, ExoLore, and at meetings for the American Geophysical Union, the Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society, the Geologic Society of America, the California Academy of Sciences, and the New York Academy of Sciences. To avoid answering the question “What do you want to do after your Ph.D.?”, they hide in their apartment and cook and bake, or outside by hiking and going to the beach.
Sarah E. Myhre (she/they) - Board President
Dr. Myhre is a climate and environmental scientist with expertise in public scholarship, scientific advocacy, and climate justice. Her scientific publications focus on complex interactions between climate, earth systems, ecosystems, people, and environmental data. Dr. Myhre is an advocate for just, equitable, and inclusive practices in public scholarship, to counter structural oppression and make space for new leaders in STEM and society. She is a fifth-generation Washingtonian and a proud parent and partner. In her spare time, she enjoys making art, exploring natural history, and washing dishes in her partner's restaurant.
Priya Shukla (she/her)
Priya is a PhD candidate in Ecology at UC Davis. Her research explores the effects of climate change on shellfish aquaculture in California. She is working with the Hog Island, Bodega Bay, and Tomales Bay Oyster Companies to explore whether stress hardening the commercially farmed Pacific Oyster through 'heat shock' reduces the species’ susceptibility to disease outbreaks. Priya is an active science communicator and deeply invested in improving the accessibility of marine science. She has participated in many JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) endeavors and has written about its integration in science in many venues, including her online Ocean & Climate Science column with Forbes. Prior to beginning her PhD, Priya received her Master’s in Ecology from San Diego State University and her Bachelor’s from UC Davis in Environmental Science and Management. She has also worked as an environmental consultant, a high school teacher, a policy specialist, a public educator, and a lab manager. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @priyology, read her writing at blogs.forbes.com/priyashukla, follow her weather reports for the San Francisco Bay Area via Currently and keep up to date with her research at priyashukla.com.
SYRIS VALENTINE (he/him)
Syris Valentine (he/him) is currently an undergraduate student in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle. He has conducted a variety of research in the fields of planetary science and space technology ranging from understanding the surface dynamics of asteroids to investigating methods of extracting water from extraterrestrial bodies. Syris has given speeches at the 2017 Seattle March for Science, 2017 Seattle March for Truth, and 2018 TEDxUofW Conference. Beyond his speaking engagements, Syris is the co-founder of a student-led STEM educational outreach organization at UW; he is an executive Board member of the Black Student Union at the UW, and he serves as the Dean’s Office Liason for the Student Advisory Council of the UW College of the Environment. While he is in love with his research, Syris’s true passions are best encapsulated by the African Philosophy of Ubuntu and the African proverb “Ubuntu ngumtu ngabanye abantu” (“A person is a person through other people”).
Barbara Clabots (she/her)
Barbara Clabots (she/her) is an independent consultant with a special focus on the intersection of gender and the environment. She received a Foreign Language Areas Studies Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education to complete her Masters of Marine Affairs from the University of Washington. Her graduate research was the first to document the impact of women's involvement in marine protected areas. She developed worldwide datasets and published white papers for the IUCN's Global Gender Office analyzing gender equity within environmental agencies. She was awarded as a 2015 “Young Green Leader” by Washington Conservation Voters. She has published pieces on a feminist approach to climate equity in the Seattle Globalist, Yes! Magazine, The Establishment, Ms. Magazine, and Scientific American. Her first documentary, Women Talk Climate, was released in 2019 with the support of Washington Women for Climate Action Now.
URPI RUIZ ANGELES (SHE/HER)
Born in Cusco, Peru Urpi migrated to the United States in 2008. She grew up enjoying art before discovering her love of science, after enrolling in an environmental science class at Garfield High School. This propelled her curiosity in topics about climate change and environmental justice. After graduating in 2016, Urpi attended Seattle Central College, enrolling in the MESA program, and becoming a MESA student ambassador. She also joined the Seattle Central SACNAS chapter (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science). Urpi graduated from the University of Washington College of the Environment in 2021 with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science. She is the new program coordinator at the MESA program (Math, Engineering, Science Achievement) at UW. She hopes to merge science and art together.
Sarra Tekola (they/them)
Sarra Tekola (they/them) is a PhD candidate in the School of Sustainability. Their dissertation research focuses on creating the cultural change needed to successfully implement climate solutions, through organizing and decoloniality. Their undergraduate research was on the physical elements of climate change, where they interned and researched for EPA, NOAA and the Washington State Department of Ecology. They also has worked as a legislative aide in the Seattle city council working on sustainability and justice policy. Tekola is both an academic and decolonial climate activist & Black Lives Matter organizer. They are a co-founder, co-director and minister of activism for Black Lives Matter Phoenix Metro. They were a lead organizer in Divest University of Washington, where after a 3-year struggle they divested from coal. They helped to start a “Block the Bunker” campaign in Seattle that blocked another police station from being built in a community of color. They started a campaign at Arizona State University that won a multicultural center. Their activism has been featured in Democracy Now, CNN, Rolling Stone and was named by Outside Magazine as one of the “30 under 30” in 2016.
DR. JUNIPER SIMONIS (they/them)
Dr. Juniper L. Simonis (they/them) is a Data Analyst in the Weecology Lab at the University of Florida; Founder, Owner, and Lead Scientist of DAPPER Stats, a data science consulting firm focused on conservation biology and management; and an adjunct scientist in the Conservation & Science Department at the Lincoln Park Zoo. They received their PhD in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University and their BS in Integrative Biology from the University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Simonis’ research focuses on combining dynamic mathematical models, computational techniques, and long-term data to study organismal populations and forecast species’ responses to environmental change.
In addition to their science, Dr. Simonis is a public educator, an advocate and mentor for young scientists and entrepreneurs, and an activist for inclusive, safe, and supportive work environments. They are presently a member of the 500 Women Scientists Leadership Team and have served on leadership committees for an LGBTQ alumni organization, multiple athletic associations, research ethics bodies, and an employee inclusion task force. Dr. Simonis is also a lifelong athlete of many sports and is a current (and three-time) world champion roller derby (WFTDA) skater with the Rose City Rollers.
Advisors
DR. SALEEMUL HUQ (HE/HIM)
Dr. Saleemul Huq (he/him) is the Director of the International Centre for Climate Change & Development (ICCCAD) since 2009. Dr. Huq is also a Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Environment & Development (IIED), where he is involved in building negotiating capacity and supporting the engagement of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in UNFCCC including negotiator training workshops for LDCs, policy briefings and support for the Adaptation Fund Board, as well as research into vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in the least developed countries. Dr. Huq has published numerous articles in scientific and popular journals, was a lead author of the chapter on Adaptation and Sustainable Development in the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and was one of the coordinating lead authors of ‘Inter-relationships between adaptation and mitigation’ in the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report (2007).
DR. FARHANA SULTANA (she/her)
Dr. Farhana Sultana (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Geography at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University, where she is also the Research Director for Environmental Collaboration and Conflicts at the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflicts and Collaboration (PARCC). Dr. Sultana is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary scholar of political ecology, water governance, post‐colonial development, social and environmental justice, climate change, and gender. Her research and scholar-activism draw from her experiences of having lived and worked on three continents as well as from her backgrounds in the natural sciences, social sciences, and policy experience. Prior to joining Syracuse, she taught at King’s College London and worked at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Author of several dozen publications, her recent books are The Right to Water: Politics, Governance and Social Struggles and Eating, Drinking: Surviving. Dr. Sultana graduated Cum Laude from Princeton University (in Geosciences and Environmental Studies), and obtained her Masters and PhD (in Geography) from University of Minnesota, where she was a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow.