This event has taken place. A recording is available to watch on our YouTube channel.
Join moderator Sayd Randle and presenters Khalil Shahyd and Sonal Jessel for “Climate Change and Environmental Justice,” a virtual presentation and live Q&A.
Moving beyond questions about the reality of climate change, this conversation will share perspectives on how to address its impact, from strategies to reduce the unequal distribution of environmental damage to consideration of the risks of experimenting with more aggressive technological interventions.
This event has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this event do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Sayd Randle, Ph.D., is an ethnographer, political ecologist, and Texas Water Resources Institute research scientist with the Urban Water Innovation and Sustainability Hub at the Texas A&M AgriLife Center in Dallas. She previously held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Southern California, and received her doctorate from Yale University’s combined degree program in environmental studies and anthropology. Dr. Randle’s critical social science research program uses urban water and energy systems as a terrain to explore the spatial and cultural politics of urban climate adaptation. Her multi-scalar research highlights both the intimate and systemic effects of these shifts, with an emphasis on their environmental justice impacts. Dr. Randle’s work has been published in a wide range of outlets, including American Anthropologist, City & Society, Critique of Anthropology, Environment and Planning E, GeoHumanities, WIREs Water, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Khalil Shahyd is Managing Director, Environmental and Equity Strategies at the Environment, Equity & Justice Center at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C., where he focuses on federal policy and national strategies that create just solutions for environmental and climate crises—specifically by integrating clean energy and energy efficiency with affordable housing and community development. Shahyd has more than twenty years of experience in community and economic justice organizing, planning, and policy advocacy. He has worked on just and sustainable development in urban and rural settings domestically and abroad in Mexico, India, and Brazil. Shahyd holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Tulane University, a master’s degree in sustainable international development from Brandeis University, and a is a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) in energy and environmental policy with a specialization in urban political ecology at the University of Delaware.
Sonal Jessel is the Director of Policy at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. She is responsible for advancing the organization’s policy agenda at the local, state, and national levels, in addition to leading their New York City policy initiatives and the Northern Manhattan Climate Action (NMCA) Plan. Prior to joining WE ACT, she conducted research in energy insecurity, housing, and public health at Columbia University, and coordinated clinical trials at Weill Cornell Medicine. With roots in California and Connecticut, Sonal has an M.P.H. in Population and Family Health with a concentration in Climate and Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and a B.A. in Organismal Biology from Pitzer College in California. Her interest is focused on the intersection of environmental and social justice, health, and policy.
This event in particular is supported by Patricia G. Foschi for the Stuart Hall Charitable Fund.
